A lot of board gamers consider Vlaada Chvátil as one of the best designers in the industry. Before he designed light party games like Codenames, he also had some heavier, more advanced one like Mage Knight.
For a while, it felt like Codenames was his final design which was very successful as he kept releasing different iterations of it. So, when they announce Severton, a lot of people are looking forward to it.
The story in Severton is based on a novel by Jaroslav Foglar which has become a cult classic Czech adventure literature. It’s about a group of 5 young friends exploring an area in Old Prague trying to locate the mysterious Caged Hedgehog.
Title: Severton
Year Released: 2025
Designer: Vlaada Chvátil
Publisher: Albi
Artist: Miguel Coimbra
Genre: Cooperative, Multi-use Cards, Thematic, Official Solo Mode, 1-5 players, Stealth, Scenario Based,
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Overview
In Severton, you always play as a group of 5 working together to accomplish some missions according to the chosen chapter. The quest can be as simple as moving to specific location in the city or finding hidden passage. Or it can be about freeing allies, finding out where they are captured and try to move them to a safe location.
While doing so, you have to avoid groups of Vonts patrol, moving around from one location to another. You have to investigate them from time to time to know where they are going and what you can do to overcome them. Maybe you can beat that one group together physically. Others may require some persuasion just from one of you. Sometimes, there is no other way but hide, each of you. Your character might get captured but return anyway but you have less time to accomplish your goals now.
You do all of that, mostly with a game of hand management combined with multi-use cards.
Each player with have a hand of cards, replenish each round that they can play. All of these cards have up to 3 uses. One is to move from one location to another through a path with matching color. Two is to deal with the Vonts during encounter which can be one of 3 ways. Or if it has the icon, to Investigate or Explore action.
Most locations in the city are connected to up to 3 other locations, one for each color. It can be red, blue or yellow and you need to play card with the matching color to lead the movement there. Other players with the same location can choose to follow the movement but they can choose any card. Only the one who leads has to play the matching color. Each character can move up to twice per round, whether they lead or follow.
There are wild cards that work for any color but they don’t have the other uses to deal with the Vonts. On the other hand, you can always use them to explore. And there is the 4th color, the Purple, which is just for secret passage. You can use purple for 2 other purposes if they have the symbol.
Explore icon can be used to either unlock a secret path or to investigate specific group of Vonts within 2 spaces away. This will reveal 2 things, their next movement, and how to beat them. Their next movements usually are just which color their move next. Maybe to red first and then yellow or maybe blue first and then yellow.
Sometimes, the Vont movement cards might say that they will target location with certain number of characters first. If there is none, they then move according to the color. You then can predict their movement and avoid. These movements for Vonts only work in one round, they will have different card and movement after that.
The other thing you can reveal is their characteristic and multiple ways you can deal with them. Maybe for one group you can beat them with the total strength value of 9 or so. For that same group, maybe you can also outwit them or convince them. While for other groups, hiding is your only way out. Either way, there is a minimum value you need to achieve. When your character is in the same location as the Vonts group, the encounter happens.
So, you can beat them by playing the cards with the matching symbols and the total value. However, each way to deal with Vonts works differently. The red one can be accomplished by multiple players working together, playing just enough cards.
While the blue or the 2nd one to outwit them, it has to be done using cards only from one player. If that player succeeds, the other players in the same location don’t have to do anything.
On the other hand, the 3rd one, or hiding option, it has to be done individually by each player. The player with no matching color and value on their cards will be captured. It’s the same as if you fail to accomplish the other 2 ways. Your characters will be removed from the game, temporarily. They will return in the next round but this advances the timer on the track.
Remember that, while you might use the cards to deal with Vonts, you probably can use those same cards to move away. Even if you beat Vonts, they will return shortly after. So, it’s best to make a long term plan and decide whether it’s better to just avoid and find another way or deal with them which may requires more cards.
Same as using the Explore icon to investigate the Vonts. They might get regroup, technically like being replaced by another group. So, that characteristic card you reveal no longer applies to the new group. Some of the missions might require the same way as you deal with the Vonts so you might want to save some cards.
That’s the general idea of Severton gameplay. You have finite number of rounds to accomplish as many missions as possible during a Scenario while utilizing those multi-use cards to do various actions.
As mentioned above, this is a cooperative game where you always have to control all 5 characters. Each character has their unique ability that they can use once per round. If you have less than 5 players, there is an option to combined two characters as if they always move together.
The game comes with 5 Scenarios, each contains multiple missions and may introduces new elements to the game. You can also play with higher difficulty setting and advanced variant for the same scenarios for more challenge.
Session Reports
August 2026 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram and Tumblr.
First time play and tried the first Scenario controlling all 5 characters, no combined characters. I completed the 2nd part of that scenario which was already considered a win according to the rulebook.
However, that scenario still has 3 other missions that I can try to complete but I already run out of time. And this was using like the lowest difficulty. That means, there is a room for improvement in how I play.
I admit that the first couple of rounds, not exactly know what to do best, I kind of wasted and waiting. Maybe spreading out the characters more and choose to play the cards instead of saving them is way to do more.
Now, I’m not sure whether to continue with the next scenario or stick with this one. Even the rulebook says that Scenario 2 is the complete game.
I do like the interaction that can happen between the characters. It really feels like it creates a story. Like one character can suddenly choose to separate themselves and move alone because they have the cards. But then the other character following is the best option while not having the required card to move. So, maybe the 3rd player can just pick that 2nd up and the 2nd can play any card to move.
Both moving as large or small groups have their own benefits. Being bigger means the bigger chance being target by the Vonts. While as smaller group or even alone, you only have your cards in hand to save you or to do more. Another option is to not move as a group but still nearby, especially if you have the Explore card. At least from 2 spaces away, you can tell what those Vonts are about to do and help the characters near them decide.
There is a bit of randomness with the card draw for sure. Maybe you need purple but don’t have one, even after discarding some and draw back up. And you are in the position who needs that specific color the most while the other characters end up getting them.
There is a rule that you can always use 3 cards of one color as a wild card which I probably haven’t tried yet. It felt like a waste but maybe it’s better than not doing anything, especially if in previous round, you didn’t do as much and have accumulated more cards than other players.
In a way, this is a stealth game. Most of the time, you want to avoid having an encounter with the enemy. So, you have to use some explore card or power to reveal their movement and characteristic first. From that, you can decide whether it is possible to hide, beat or just persuade them away.
Every character has one unique ability. From my one play, I think I only played the one that has one extra movement and the one that can explore using any card. I probably should have utilized that explore ability more. Maybe not just that but the other power as well.
Unfortunately, it can be a bit overwhelming if you have to run multiple characters, like me in this case controlling all 5. At least, the good thing is that you have to use all of those 5 in every session anyway so maybe with more play, you’ll eventually get used to it.
I think the bigger problem, that actually happened during my play is their card in hand. The cards, related to where the character is and the situation they need to face is more crucial than their power.
For example, I got one character at the corner. He could meet up with the other group in the next location stated by the mission to help them. The group didn’t have enough cards for the mission but had some cards to help that one character to meet them.
Unfortunately, it was still not enough. I only looked and see the card to complete the mission but not to reach that location. It was just 2 spaces away but needed yellow and purple. He got only red and blue. Even if he turns 3 of them into wild, it was not enough. In that case, I should have discarded some and see if I can draw a better set.
It’s like you have to decide what to do each round starting from the Refreshing Cards phase of previous round. In my mind I thought, just draw cards and figure out later. Definitely not a way to go. Evaluate what you think you can do next round and check how accessible each hand of cards. That means, while there is a tactical decision, but for the most part, you have to strategize to do well.
So, in a way, this is definitely better with more players. At least you can spread the load a bit. Otherwise, it’s going to take a bit long to play. It is doable to control all 5. But I can see how it can be overwhelming to play with less or even alone for some players.
The playing time of this first play took almost 2 hours. You only have like 7 rounds in this easiest difficulty. And you can try to complete all 5 missions. Not sure that I like playing with fixed number of rounds but at least you can just accomplish less. Instead of complete failure. With those 7 rounds, it really felt like you already do a lot, especially if you play solo.
Maybe I really should retry this one while getting used to the character’s ability. I still have a lot to explore in this game.
More unboxing pictures of Severton on my IG.