This design is best enjoyed by gamers who are fond of both strategy oriented role playing games and spreadsheet based resource managementThis design is best enjoyed by gamers who are fond of both strategy oriented role playing games and spreadsheet based resource management simulations. You view the world from the perspective of an adventuring party’s sponsor/manager. The focus is on signing up a team of six adventurers from an available pool with an eye towards optimizing your cost-benefit differential and maximizing profits. You select quests from an available menu that grades the encounters as to potential danger and potential profits.
The audio and visual elements are minimalist and your fun factor is almost entirely dependent on how much you enjoy resource management in a Tolkienesque world. For those who like to tweak, you can easily customize the character and creature pictures with your own appropriately sized jpeg files and do the same for the narratives via text files.
Managing your crew through years of adventuring, recruiting fresh blood when needed, proving training for your charges, negotiating contract extensions and selecting quests that best suit your party’s abilities are what this game is all about. Combat and encounters are extremely simple and the real Achilles heel of the design. A more elaborate and skill-based card game for the battles would go a long way towards extending the game’s longevity.
I had fun with the game for about twenty hours before finding myself looking elsewhere. Given the price, that’s a pretty good cost-benefit differential.… Expand
