In the industry of board game and card game, if the game is well accepted, they may get reprinted after a couple of years. Usually we can get a better production value for its components, with no change to the gameplay at all.
However, there are games where the designer can revisit and tweak some elements of the game which can change the experience. Usually that is based on the feedback from the fans or players.
Adventure of D is originally a 2010 game which got reprinted for its 10th year anniversary. Not only the designer change some of the art, but there is a tweak for the rules to make the game tighter, less downtime, removing some unnecessary rules.
So, what is this Adventure of D card game? How to play the game? Is there a solo mode?
Those are probably just a few questions that came to mind after hearing about the game. Well, in this article, I’m going to share with you my Adventure of D Card Game review based on my experience on playing the 2nd edition of the game and what I can find from the internet.
Hope this helps. Is Adventure of D (2nd Edition) going to be the best card game out there?
Click or tab on any sections from the table of contents to jump right to that part. Use the red arrow button on the bottom right corner of the screen to head back to the top.
Table of Contents
Overview
Game Title: Adventure of D (2nd Edition)
Genre: Card Game, Competitive, Cooperative, Solo Mode, Adventure – Fantasy Theme, Hand Management, Multi Purpose Card, Multi Use Card, Variable Player Powers, Modular Board, Diceless Power Card System, Racing Game, Player Elimination
Designer: Jack Darwid
Artist: Greendart
Publisher: Jack D. Games (jackdgames.com)
Number of Players: 1 – 3
Playtime: 25 minutes per player
Official Website: Adventure of D (2nd Edition)
Components:
1 Rulebook (2 Sheets)
3 Player Tokens
12 Upgrade Cards (63.5 x 63.5mm):
Strength Cards (3)
Intelligence Cards (3)
Agility Cards (3)
Magic Cards (3)
90 Standard Sized Cards (63.5 x 88mm):
Hero Cards (16)
Power Cards (60)
Location Cards (13)
Rules Summary Card (1)
Expansion / Accessories:
4 Environment Cards
3 Acrylic Hero Tokens
Deluxe Box
Release Year: 2020
Initial Price: $30
About Adventure of D (2nd Edition)
The first edition of Adventure of D was self published by Jack Darwid in 2010. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the game, the designer decided to launch the 2nd edition, with a few tweaks and new artwork.
The Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded but due to Covid-19 Pandemic, there were some issue with shipping cost. Luckily, the designer has been very transparent and upfront about this issue to the backers.
Some of the backers are willing to wait and even pay extra so the other backers can get their game. Read more about that here.
The designer was known to create a big game in a small box. Adventure of D is actually the designer’s first attempt to do so.
What it means is, the designer just want the game to be very compact, and use just a deck of cards, about or less than 110 cards. This way, the shipping cost can be reduced and make the game very affordable.
With that deck of cards, the designer manage to deliver a complete game with a lot of setup variables. YOU WILL NEVER PLAY THE SAME GAME TWICE is the tagline of the game.
Personally I love the story how Jack Darwid came up with Adventure of D. He started by designing free games with the same system called Island of D and Dungeon of D. Both of them are for 1 player only and some of the fans had been asking about the multiplayer version of these 2 games.
With the support of his friend and family, Jack Darwid came up with Adventure of D as the answer. It was meant to be a family game with some player interaction but not very confrontational.
We can read more about it from the Designer’s Note.
The Gameplay and Story
The story of this game takes place in an island cursed by Elzoof the Sorcerer. Nobody from inside the island can get out or from the outside to get in.
Players are adventurers who are trapped in this island, have to figure out how to defeat the Sorcerer to break the curse. The Sorcerer is very strong and stays in his Tower of Death.
Before the adventurers can enter the Tower, they need to train themselves, increasing their Strength, Agility and Intelligence before they are ready to face Elzoof. We have to do that before Elzoof takes over the Castle of Light and conquer the whole island.
To do that we need to move around the island, meet with some Masters and overcome obstacles from the area that can make us stronger. While doing so,, some events can occur randomly, where we have to fight more Monsters, save some villagers.
With the limited time we have, we need to carefully choose the battle we can win. That way we can get closer and closer to defeat Elzoof the final boss.
Player will start the game with choosing one of the 16 characters or heroes. Each of these characters will have a unique ability that can help the players throughout the game if they can play accordingly. We can also learn more abilities later in the game.
Aside from the ability, the character will also start with one upgraded status of either STRENGTH, AGILITY or INTELLIGENCE, which is determined randomly. Since this is a card game, player will also get 6 POWER CARDS as their starting hand.
The Power card is a multi use card, which can either represent the health or HP, but can be used to move around, defeat any challenge or obstacle by discarding them. So, Hand Management is the main mechanism of this game.
The goal is to defeat Elzoof in his Tower of Death. But to even enter the Tower, each character has to reach certain level of the 3 status. Depending on the setup, The Tower of Death can have some traps that players will need to overcome as well before facing the final boss.
So, this is the strategic gameplay element of the game. We need to make sure that we have enough resources before even entering the Tower of Death. However, there are also the tactical element of this game from the randomness of the card draw. Either the Power Card or Hero cards.
The Power card is also a multi purpose card. Aside from resources that we can spend, it can also become the event, the monster we have to defeat and some can become the Item.
So, there are a lot of things that happen in this game with just a deck of cards. Aside from the physical element of the game, I think one of the great feature is the player interaction. Depending on the mode, the interaction can be very intensive but not confrontational.
Below is the video by Rahdo from Rahdo Runs Through YouTube channel for the 1st edition of the game. Hopefully this can give a good idea of the gameplay. The gameplay is almost the same with just a couple of rule tweaks.
Here is the link about the changes between the first and second edition. Part 1 and Part 2.
The second video is introductory video by Two Gun Pixie YouTube channel for the second edition.
Components
The base game of Adventure of D 2nd Edition, like the first edition, comes in just a small paper box to hold mostly deck of cards. As mentioned before that one of the designer’s goal is to offer a very affordable game The solution is to reduce the weight of the game itself, so it will not surpass 250 gram or the shipping cost will go way higher.
The size of the box is 66 x 90 x 40 mm which can hold 102 cards, two sheets of rulebook and three paper player markers. They also offered UPGRADE PACK with thicker and bigger box so it can fit sleeved cards and some acrylic tokens. Check the EXPANSION and ACCESSORIES section below.
Obviously, if we want to sleeve the cards this base game box can only hold about 60 cards. That is based on me using the 60 microns sleeve.
I think, because they want to reduce the weight, the cards are probably not as thick as other game can have. Not that it is a low quality one.
These cards will get reshuffled a lot even in just a single game session. Using sleeve is probably recommended.
Most of the cards have 63.5 x 88 mm as the size. From 102, 12 of them have smaller size of 63.5 x 63.5 m. We can easily just use one sleeve size and trim for the smaller ones.
No need to sleeve all of the smaller cards if we don’t play with all of the player count.
Here are the details for each components of Adventure of D (2nd Edition) base game.
Rulebook
The rulebook that come with the copy of this game is made of 2 sheets, folded separately. In general, it is in English but I think they also provide the French translation if we ask the publisher directly.
The digital version for English rulebook can be accessed on their official website here. It is the same copy of the printed one (Sept. 2020).
Personally, I don’t really like the folded sheet like this because it will eventually get ruined, especially the folded part. Also, since they are two separate sheets, sometimes it can be confusing at first. It is like we have to keep both of them open.
I would rather they use a completely different color for each sheet. That way, it will be easier to figure out which sheet we need to unfold or not. I don’t know it this help other people, but the first sheet will have the game’s logo but that is if we fold it correctly.
Here is the table of contents of the rulebook.
Introduction (Page 1). This explains a brief story of the game.
Components (Page 1). This is the list of every components used in the base game.
Hero Cards and Upgrade Cards (1). This is the detail explanation for Hero Cards and Upgrade Cards components. It also displays some illustration for player’s tableau and some explanation for FAIRY DUST.
Power Cards (Page 2). This is the detail explanation for the POWER CARDS with some example of what the symbol or icon means.
Location Cards (Page 3). This explain further about each aspect of any Location Cards. Also, this part explain how the event from Power card works on the Location Card.
Keywords (Page 3). This part is the Glossary, explains every keyword that we can find from the game. We will be checking this part the most.
Setup (Page 4). This explains the step by step setup for the game from choosing which mode of the game. It also displays an illustrated example for 3 player mode setup.
Gameplay (Page 5 – 7). This explains all of the 5 phases that any player will do during their turn. Starts from Reveal a New Event phase twice, Main Phase, and Rest Phase. For Solo and Cooperative mode, there are two additional rules, one for the timer and the other for trading items between players.
Rest (Page 7). This explains the REST PHASE of each player’s turn.
HP = 0 (Page 7). This explains what happens if the character HP reach zero or run out of power cards in player’s hand. There is a way this can happen during other player’s turn.
Tower of Death Detail (Page 7 -8). This explains how player’s turn order for several number rooms in the Tower of Death. There is also additional rules for multiplayer cooperative mode before entering the Tower of Death.
Winning Condition (Page 8). This explains how we can win the game in any game mode. There is further explanations for the cooperative mode with different player count.
Heroic Mode (Page 8). This explains the variant to increase the difficulty level of the game for either solo or cooperative mode.
The game and rulebook use some icons. I think they need to point out the difference between SQUARE ICONS AND CIRCULAR ICONS more explicitly. The former one means cards and the latter means the character’s status.
For example, if we see SQUARE SHIELD icon it means the STRENGTH CARD that we have to discard, show, etc. While the SHIELD IN CIRCLE means The Strength power that the character must have or modify.
One part that I think is missing from the rulebook is the end of the turn phase itself. There is no specific section for this, but the rule summary card does have this. In fact, I think the section about discard pile from the Power Card section can be a bit contradicts with the rule summary card.
I understand that the printed rulebook has limited space but they should be able to add more in the digital file. Hopefully this article can help for that purpose.
Rule Summary Card
The game only comes with one Rule Summary Card, the one with yellow border. It is a two sided cards with the front side, with the game’s logo and explain the general turn order while the other side explain more about the Main Phase.
I guess that we should be passing this card alongside the Power Card deck to the next player at the end of our turn. Well, the information on the card is already crowded but it still misses something.
In my mind the card should have a lot of icons with less text. Maybe they need to come up with icon for MOVE. Also, I think the hand icon already means ACTION so they don’t need to say TAKE AN ACTION, followed by the hand symbol.
Maybe they should have added one more card for solo or cooperative mode. The extra rules can be tricky. The can also use one for keywords and Icons.
I think this card can use some improvement. Some of the information can be misleading. For example, the REST number 1, the card says we can discard any number of power cards but the rulebook says we need to always have 1 in our hand.
Player Tokens
The next components of Adventure of D (2nd Edition) is the player markers. We get three paper tokens to support the maximum number of player in a plastic zip lock bag. The size of each token if they are flat is 2.5 x 4 cm and each has different color, red, blue and yellow.
The depicted art of each token shows a hero riding a horse. But they are only in general. not really representing the Hero we can choose from the game.
In the game we will be placing this token folded so they will stand on the Location card and move from one card to another. I think we can also let it stay flat.
Again, the use of paper tokens are so the weight of the game doesn’t exceed 250 g or the shipping cost can be higher.
We can also use other means to replace the token like coin, button, or other game pieces like cube or meeple. Just make sure in multiplayer game, we use two pieces that we can tell the difference.
Also, try not to use something bigger than the card. It is possible that a location or a card can have 3 players at the same time. We probably want to make it easier when an event will be added to or removed from that location the players are currently in,
The stand in the next picture is not included in the game.
Hero Cards
The next components are the Hero Cards. There are 16 different Heroes we can start the game with.
Each of them has the job title at the top and the illustration for that job. It is a fantasy game so we can find very typical job like Knight, Thief, Elf, Ranger, etc.
At the left side of the illustration we can see three icons. These are the hero’s status for STRENGTH (Shield /pink), INTELLIGENCE (brain / yellow) and AGILITY (Foot / blue).
Regardless of the job, all of them starts with zero for any of those 3 status. We can increase each of them with the use of UPGRADE CARDS. More about this later.
At the bottom, we can find a unique ability or SKILL which is different from one Hero to another. So, even though the stats are the same but players will start the game differently and with multiple players, each player will still have different abilities.
Later in the game, we can learn more abilities from another heroes. It is by using the unused hero cards. For example, if we start as Knight, we can later learn the ability from a Thief.
In multiplayer mode, the set of abilities will still be unique as well. One player will take the additional card and the other will not have access to that card again.
When we do learn a new ability, we will draw the card and put the new hero card below our starting hero card, revealing only the ability at the bottom. This is similar to One Deck Dungeon game when we add Skills.
Notice that there is a hand or ACTION icon right beside the ability or skill’s name for several heroes but not the rest. Those with that icon are considered as separate action while the other will happen automatically.
This will matter if we are about to enter the Tower of Death or the final boss.
These hero cards are also multi purpose cards. In the game, the unused heroes can become item as well. The back of all cards has the same side that display the function as an ITEM, specifically just FAIRY DUST.
So, in this game, these card will create a stack facing down only revealing the same item. That means, the unused heroes or the specific ability that we can learn may not come out during the game because the card is being used as an item.
Learning the ability is done randomly. We should consider it like getting a bonus. If we do get them, then we can try to make new plan to use them.
I don’t know why but I think the designer can use the lower part of the back side to put the game’s logo horizontally. Instead, they only use the BATIK textile pattern, a cultural heritage from Indonesia.
Details for Each Heroes
Amazon (Secret Path)
Ability: you may move to The Great Chasm.
Bard (Song of Joy)
Ability: Right before you reveal a new event you may spend 1 Magic to draw 2 cards, show one to the next player as new event and discard the other.
Blue Wizard (Wizard Wand)
Ability: Discard 1 INT / STR / AGI card with the power of 5 and spend 1 Magic: Teleport to any Location. Considered as separate action.
Druid (Invoke)
Ability: SHOW 1 AGI card, and spend 3 Magic to get a Fairy Dust. Considered as separate action.
Dwarf (Weapon Master)
Ability: Right after you play a test card, for every 2 Magic you spend, your test card +1.
Elf (Friend of Nature)
Ability: When you MOVE using AGI card, you may choose not to meet any Shadow. No need to CHECK 1.
Fighter (Smash)
Ability: Right after you play a test card, SHOW STR card to increase the test card by 1.
Hobbit (Determination)
Ability: Right after you play a test card, for each INT card you discard, your test card +2.
Knight (Shining Armor)
Ability: Everytime you are about to LOSE X / SHOCK X, CHECK 1 first. If the result is equal or higher than 3, you don’t LOSE X / SHOCK X.
Merchant (Profit)
Ability: When you get Magic from defeating a Shadow, SHOW INT card to get 2 additional Magic.
Monk (Meditation)
Ability: When you LEARN SKILL, drawl 2 skills, choose 1, put the other at the bottom of the hero deck, then you get 3 Magic Points.
Ninja (Shuriken)
Ability: Right after CHECK 1 in a test, you may discard 1 AGI card to ignore the CHECK 1 result. Then CHECK 1 again and +1 to the result.
Priest (Blessing)
Ability: Spend 1 Magic to allow any player to CYCLE 1. Considered as separate action.
Ranger (Bullseye)
Ability: When you meet a shadow, you may discard 1 INT / STR/ AGI card to defeat the shadow. You get Magic Points equal to the Shadow’s Power.
Scholar (Concentrate)
Ability: Discard 1 INT / STR / AGI card to get 3 Magic. Considered as separate action.
Thief (Stealth)
Ability: RIght after you play a test card, for each power card you discard: your test card +1 and you get 1 Magic.
Item: Fairy Dust
The Item is the back side of each Hero cards. If we have this item in the game, we can use it to defeat the SHADOW and get Magic Points equal to the Shadow’s power. It is a one time only.
So, instead of spending cards to defeat the Shadow, we can spend this item. We still get the Magic points so instead of playing lower value cards to move, we can instead use the higher value ones.
However, it can be a waste if after we do checking, there is no Shadow attacking us. That means, the best time for this plan is when we move to a location with high danger level.
Another use of this item is in Room 2: Secret Door, Tower of Death, we can discard this item or we have to suffer SHOCK 1.
How do we get this item?
From the Location card, we can get it if we go to Woods of Mana and win the test. The test is also not that hard, either 4 or 3.
From the event we can only get it if we win against the Skeleton Warrior at the Old Village of Dew. But it is an optional reward. Either get the Fairy dust or increase our Intelligence. Most likely we will choose the latter.
From that location as well, one of the side allows us to Teleport to any location by spending a Fairy Dust.
We can also get the Fairy Dust if we start with Druid Hero or have her ability. All we need is to have an Agility card and 3 Magic points.
The card also says that we can only have one Fairy Dust at a time but we still can have multiple different items. The thing is, some of the elements of the game will kind of force us to discard some item in order to win the challenge.
If it is not to win, there are some losing condition where if we can’t discard any item we have to suffer in other way like losing more cards. There are about 6 events with this discarding item thing.
We need to have some items.
Timer Cards
There is one more purpose or use of these Hero Cards. In solo and cooperative mode, there will be timer where we need to finish the game within certain rounds.
The way it works is, we set aside a number of these Hero cards from the stack and they will become the timer cards. The number of cards are between 5 for an expert level to 8 cards for the beginner level.
Each end of the round, we put back the timer cards to the Hero cards stack. If we can’t do that and we haven’t defeated the final boss, we lose the game.
By doing this, it means some of the Hero cards are not accessible because they become a timer. It is not going to affect the gameplay significantly because we still have a lot of other Hero cards to learn the skill from.
Moreover, the cards are face down. So, we still don’t know which card stays in the stack or become the timer.
I think we can use other way to replace the timer. For example, we can also use one of the unused Upgrade Cards, just rotate and flip the card. But that is not possible in 3 player cooperative mode.
Upgrade Cards
The upgrade cards are the square cards. I think it is a bit confusing when the designer also use the term Upgrade for the expansion. We can consider this as improvement cards or Stats Cards maybe? I will just call them Stats or Hero’s Stats from now.
There are 12 of them that come with the game to support three players. Each time, a player will use 1 STRENGTH card, 1 Agility Card, 1 Intelligence Card and 1 Magic Card.
As mentioned before in the previous section about the Hero card, each hero will start with zero stats for all three, Strength, Intelligence and Agility. Using these upgrade cards is how we can modify the status. The Magic Card is a bit different.
STATS Cards (STR, INT, AGI)
The way we use the three cards is we slide the card below the hero card, revealing only the number at the left. This is also similar to One Deck Dungeon when we add more Items to the character.
Later, when we can increase the stats, we have to rotate the card so the corresponding stats number is revealed at the left side as well. This is where it is different than One Deck Dungeon game.
The front of this card has number 1 to 4 and when we can increase higher than 4, we can flip the card and each of them will have number 5 to 8. That would be the highest Stats of our hero.
Even though this is a clever system but later in the game when we do have multiple abilities and increased the three stats, they are rather difficult to adjust. Eventually we have to lift the top card, then rotate.
The good thing about this system is that even if we accidentally bump the cards, it is rather easy to remember the current stats we have. The HP cards system from Hero Realms game has this problem.
Why do we need to increase these?
One of them is to actually enter the Tower of Death. The first thing we need is to have a power of 5 or 6 in either our STR, AGI or INT stat depending on the setup. If we try to enter without meeting that requirement, we lose the game immediately.
Increasing any of these can also help us win any test or challenge. The higher our stats, the less number of cards we have to play or spend.
Depending on the setup as well, to defeat the final boss, the challenge requires either 12 or 13 points to win. However, we can only increase it up to 8 points for each. We have to substitute the rest with cards and our luck from the draw.
Magic Cards, Magic Points
The Magic card, however, is used slightly differently. We still rotate and flip the card so the right number will be at the top but we don’t put the card under the hero card.
Instead, the rule suggests put the Magic Card at the right side of the Hero Card alongside the Items should we get some later in the game. The item cards will then cover the other number of the Magic Card.
When we do have items, I tend to pick the item cards, rotate or flip the Magic card then put the item card back again. I think it will be easier just to keep them separately.
Somehow it got me thinking that we can actually put the Magic card at the top but under the hero card. Or, we can also just not slide all of the stats cards under the hero card.
We just need to remember that the number in the right position to the player is the current stats. It will be easier later to rotate these cards.
With that in mind, I think even the new hero cards that we take as new ability doesn’t really have to go under the starting hero cards. It really doesn’t matter which characters we are using after we have multiple abilities.
I understand that the designer is probably trying to reduce the amount of table space for each player. But if we do have enough rooms, I would suggest the alternative.
For the Hero cards and these Upgrade cards, using sleeve for them might add a problem as the thickness of all the cards can add up.
What is this Magic Point anyway? Why do we need them?
Magic point is like another resources that we can spend instead of using our cards. Since we can only have up to 6 cards, these Magic Points can be considered as additional cards that we can spend.
It is always a good thing to have some Magic Points throughout the game. We can only have up to 8, but there are a lot of ways to either spend them or gain them.
The first use of the Magic Points is for rejecting the new events. We can spend 2 magic points instead of 1 power card.
The second use is to defeat the Shadow after we move from one location to another. We need to spend the same amount of Magic points as the Shadow’s Power.
On the other hand, we can spend cards to defeat the Shadow, to turn the Shadow’s Power into our Magic Points.
One way to gain this is by doing REST. We will get Magic Points equal to the location’s danger level.
From the Locations, we can get more from the Plains of Sorrow. But the cost is very high just to earn 1 Magic Points. One side from Lake of Hope location can do this for free.
One of the room from Tower of Death, allow us to exchange 2 Magic Points to Heal 1. Other room will force us to spend 4 Magic or suffer SHOCK 1. Losing one card may not be a big deal but in Tower of Death, we already have limited number of cards and just a step away to win or lose the game.
Some of the Heroes’ ability allow us to get more Magic Points. Concentration (Scholar’s ability) allow us to gain 3 Magic Points by discarding one card either STR, INT or AGI card.
Bullseye from Ranger and Profit from Merchant allow us to get higher Magic Points from dealing against Shadow. Stealth ability from Thief will get us extra Magic Points from doing challenge.
On the other hand, if we have the ability, there are ways to spend this Magic Points. We can get a Fairy Dust (Druid), increase the test card (Dwarf), Teleport (Blue Wizard), do CYCLE (Priest) or reveal more event cards (Bard).
From the Events, there are several things that can happen related to spending or gaining Magic Points. It is understandable that if we win the challenge, we will get some Magic Points. There are 3 events for this.
On the other hand, some events will force us to spend Magic Points if we lose or suffer other form of consequences like losing cards. There are about 9 events for this losing condition.
However, there are also 4 event cards which switch those rules. We can gain more Magic Points if we lose and vice versa, not necessarily from the same event.
There are also 3 events where the result will change the amount of Magic Points that we have.
Location Cards
These are the horizontal cards with the white border. There are 13 of them, one card for each location except for the Tower of Death. We will use only one Tower of Death Location card for each session.
These cards will be the modular board of the game. As the general setup we will create a 4 x 3 grid using these cards, and we will place them randomly.
If we get the expansion, there is a card that will change the setup from 4 x 3 grid into 6 x 2.
That means, each game session we will get different setup. Also, each of these cards has two sides which one of them can be considered as the easier version. The easier or starting side is the one with underline on the name of the location.
We can flip some and keep the rest and that gives us a lot more setup variables. So, if they say that we will not play the same game twice, that could be true with just the setup for Location.
Aside from the name and the illustration, at the top left corner of each card, we will see a skull head and a number. This indicates the danger level of the location.
In the game, if we move from one location to another, we will have a chance to be attacked by Shadow. The danger level of the location will be one of the factor to determine whether we have to deal with Shadow or it is a safe journey.
The danger level can be between 0 to 4, with zero as the safest journey. Each location will have the same danger level for both sides.
Then, at the bottom part of the card, there is a description of the Action we can do if we are on the Location. The hand icon means Action which player can do during the Main Phase.
Most of the action that we can do are rather positive action, like increasing or modifying our hero’s stats, get item, teleport, etc. Only one with the win or lose condition and those are equally good actions.
The only exception for this is the Tower of Death. The action we can do on that location is to enter several rooms and eventually face against the final boss. It is the Final Stage of adventure game which will determine whether we win or lose immediately.
The actions we can do on each location are similar for both sides, just require more resources to pay. Or with better reward,
In thematic terms, these Locations are the cursed island that every character have to live in, trapped with Elzoof himself. Nobody can get in or get out from these 12 locations.
What it means is that the island wrap arounds, creating like its own globe. In general, the game only allows us to move one space adjacent orthogonally not diagonally.
However, because it wraps around, with the 4×3 grid, from the left most location we can immediately move to the right most as if they are adjacent to each other. The same goes with the top most to the bottom one.
It is not like there is an invisible wall and we have to travel the space in between just to get to the other side. With that in mind, where the location is placed really doesn’t matter.
However, the position between one Location to another does matter. That is because of the danger level which makes travelling or moving in this game becomes very expensive.
Depending on the randomness of the setup, the Tower of Death, which is like the final destination, can be surrounded by location with high danger level. That can add more difficulty level to the game.
If that happens, Teleport is probably the solution. Since we can see this from the start, players can then try to make a plan how to make sure they have access to teleporting.
That gives another layer of depth to the game.
Events
Another aspect of the game, related to location is the Events. Events can happen randomly on any of these Locations.
When it happens, the events will cover the location and we will not be able to do the action from the Location before we can get rid of the event. Event cards are Power Cards. More about this later.
The events themselves have their own reward just like the location. However, there is a chance we can fail to complete the event and the consequences can be very harsh.
Since moving or travelling in this game is very expensive, we can’t just move around the board just trying to find the easy event to beat. Moreover, the event may not stay there forever.
If we play competitively, this is a very interactive element. There is a way for other player to manipulate where and which event can occur or be removed from the board.
We can do the action from the location after beating the events without moving too much. Sometimes, we probably have to push our luck, dealing with the event.
Choosing the right spot where we just need to do minimum movements but have access to a lot of events is probably one of the best strategy to win the game.
Detail about Each Location
The Great Chasm
Danger Level: 1
Pool of Radiance (Action 1): Decrease any one type of the stat by 2 to increase one of the other type of stat by 1.
Colossal Cave (Action 2): Decrease any one type of the stat by 1 and discard two cards of the same type of any type, except for neutral to increase one of the other type of stat by 1.
Number of Events: 1
Test Difficulty: 0
The one event only allow us to steal item from another player or take one from the draw. Either way, this is a good location to convert the stat if we do have the requirement. We can enter this only by Teleporting or if we have the Amazon’s ability.
Castle of Light
Danger Level: 0
Hear ye! Hear ye! (Action 1): Discard a power card or spend 2 Magic to reveal a new event.
Village Portal (Action 2): Discard a power card or spend 2 Magic to discard an event on any Location.
Number of Events: 4
Test Difficulty: 6 – 10
The action 1 is the same as the first phase of every player’s turn except we have to pay something. The second one can be handy to get rid of some events with effects like if we want to teleport or heal.
From the possible events, we can increase any of the Hero’s stat equally or get an item.
Old Village of Dew
Danger Level: 1
Village Elder (Action 1): Discard 1 STR card and spend 1 Magic to TELEPORT to any Location.
Village Portal (Action 2): Spend 4 Magic or discard a Fairy Dust to TELEPORT to any location.
Number of Events: 4
Test Difficulty: 6 – 10
Goblin Magician (Swamp of Talis) can change the target Location for Teleporting. For the 4 possible events we can increase any of the stat evenly and get a lot of items.
Lake of Hope
Danger Level: 2
Tranquility (Action 1): CYCLE X. We can decide X. Only once per turn
Serenity Action 2): Choose one player and that player gets 1 Magic and do CYCLE 1. Only once per turn.
Number of Events: 5
Test Difficulty: 6 – 9
While the first action allow us to change any number of cards the second action allow us to choose other player. We can only do once per turn but if we rest on this location, we can do once before rest and one after.
From the 5 possible events, 3 are just to get Items, The other two is to increase either INT or AGI and no STR.
Forest of Gloom
Danger Level: 2
Master Childres (Action 1): Discard 2 AGI cards with total power equal or less than 4 to increase AGI by 1.
Bach, Master of Backpain (Action 2): SHOW 3 AGI cards to increase AGI by 1, then discard 2 AGI cards.
Number of Events: 5
Test Difficulty: 6 – 9
There are 2 events on this location to let us increase the AGI stat, one event for STR but no for INT. The other two are to get items.
Mountain of Mage
Danger Level: 2
Master Chvatil (Action 1): Discard 2 INT cards with total power equal or less than 4 to increase INT by 1.
Master Relvar (Action 2): SHOW 3 INT cards to increase INT by 1, then discard 2 INT cards.
Number of Events: 5
Test Difficulty: 6 – 10
From the possible events, we can increase all of the 3 stats and get item. For the most part this location is to increase the INT stat first, and STR as second choice.
Village of Dawn
Danger Level: 1
Workout (Action 1): Discard 1 STR card or 1 AGI card to LEARN SKILL. This can be done once per turn.
Study (Action 2): Discard 1 INT card or an item to LEARN SKILL. This can be done once per turn.
Number of Events: 6
Test Difficulty: 5 – 10
This is probably the best place to rest. That way, we can learn 1 skill before rest and learn another right after. There are a lot of events but 4 of them are only to get item. Only two will increase our STR or AGI and no INT.
Woods of Mana
Danger Level: 4
Catch a Fairy (Action 1): Test difficulty of 4 AGI. If we succeed, get a Fairy Dust, but if we lose, Teleport to Plain of Sorrow.
Royal Fairy (Action 2): Test difficulty of 3 INT. If we succeed, get a Fairy Dust, but if we lose, we have to spend 1 Magic or suffer LOSE 1.
Number of Events: 6
Test Difficulty: 6 – 11
There are 2 events that can increase our INT stat, 2 to get item, and the other 2 to increase either STR or AGI. The danger level is very high. Try not to rest here.
Swamp of Talis
Danger Level: 2
Master Harris (Action 1): Discard 2 STR cards with total power equal or less than 4 to increase STR by 1.
Master Tom Ham (Action 2): SHOW 3 INT cards to increase INT by 1, then discard 2 INT cards.
Number of Events: 6
Test Difficulty: 6 – 9
From 6 possible events on this Location, 2 of them can increase AGI stats, one of each STR and INT. The other two will get us some items.
Garden of Mushrooms
Danger Level: 3
Purple Mushroom (Action 1): If we have 1 or more for each stats, we can increase one of them by 1. EXHAUST after use.
Mushroom of D (Action 2): If we have 2 or more for each stats, reduce each of them by 1 and one of them becomes 5. EXHAUST after use.
Number of Events: 6
Test Difficulty: 6 – 11
The action is one time only per game, so for competitive mode, we might want to be the first. This action can be helpful if somehow we can’t focus just increasing one of the stat.
Once it become exhausted, one of the event allow us to Teleport to the Great Chasm but if we lose the test. That can be an alternative to trade between the stats.
From the 6 events, we can increase the INT from 2, STR from 2 and only 1 for the AGI. The Vampire event can increase the INT by 2 but with very high Test difficulty.
Plain of Sorrow
Danger Level: 2
The Gathering Magic (Action 1): Discard one STR card, one INT card, one AGI card and an item to increase one of those Stat by 1 and get 1 Magic Point.
The Altar of Magic (Action 2): Discard 1 STR card and 3 items to increase one of the 3 stats and get 1 Magic Point.
Number of Events: 6
Test Difficulty: 5 – 11
Two of the events on this location can increase the STR stat. Other event can increase the other 2 stats and grant us Skills as the reward.
The Location’s actions themselves are a bit too expensive to activate.
Tower of Death
Danger Level: 4
Action: Enter Tower of Death (Read Below)
Number of Events: 6
Test Difficulty: 7 – 10
From the 6 possible events, we can increase STR stat from 2, INT from 2 and AGI from 1, The last one is just making it harder to move or teleport to this location.
As a summary, here is the recommended Location to stick around for certain purposes. The order is based on how easy to get between locations from the easiest to the hardest.
STR: Swamp of Talis, Plain of Sorrow, Garden of Mushroom, Tower of Death
INT: Mountain of Mage, Garden of Mushroom, Woods of Mana, Tower of Death
AGI: Forest of Gloom, Swamp of Talis
Skills: Village of Dawn, Plain of Sorrow, Woods of Mana
Item: Village of Dawn, Lake of Hope
Detail for Tower of Death
The game comes with 2 Location cards for Tower of Death. We can consider that this Location is the Final Boss himself. Each card has 2 sides which we will only use one side of one card for a session.
That means, we can have like 4 different Final Bosses. The first thing we have to do in the game is probably check the requirement for the Final Boss. That would be the goal, and we can decide the plan based on that and the other Locations.
The danger level of Tower of Death is 4 so moving will cost a lot of cards. Teleport is a good way but we have to make sure there is no effect from event that can prevent us like the thunderstorm (Tower of Death), or the Goblin Magician.
The action we can do from the Location are a series of challenge. Once we decide to enter, we have to complete the challenge in order from Room 1 until the final boss. We are not allowed to turn back, stop or escape between each room.
That means we have to be very well prepared before entering. The series of rooms with challenge is considered as one single action. We are not allowed to do other action in between like using Item or abilities.
With that in mind, some abilities and items cannot be used after we enter. No Blessing (Priest) to CYCLE, or Concentrate (Scholar) to get Magic Points, or Invoke (Druid) to get Fairy Dust. Clearly we are not allowed to use Wizard Wand (Blue Wizard) to teleport.
In the cooperative mode, we also need to enter the Tower together. Before we enter the tower, the player on the location has to do HERO ASSEMBLE action. Other players that are not on it, have to pay 1 Power Card and move their token to the Tower.
At this point, in cooperative mode, we can still do TRADE ITEM action before we enter.
All players will have to complete the challenge of each room individually but they need to proceed together from one room to another. Also, in cooperative mode, there is a possibility for player elimination.
Players can still win if more than half of he players successfully beat Elzoof. If it is a solo mode, we immediately lose the game if our HP ever reach zero in the Tower or get teleported out.
Another different thing between the Tower of Death cards and the other locations is the randomizer which we can find at the bottom left corner of the card for either side. Each variant will have a unique icon for randomizer, either STR, INT, AGI or Neutral icon.
The idea is, if we want to play randomly, we can just draw a Power Card and the type of that power card will determine which variant we use for this game.
The title for each variant are the same but the title for Elzoof can help tell the difference between the variant.
Here are the details for each variant.
The Chaos Wizard (Underlined) variant
Randomizer: INT (Yellow)
Room 1: Magic Barrier. We need to have 5 or more in one of the Hero’s Stats or our HP become 0. Before we have that, we should not try to enter at all.
Room 2: Guardian. We do CHECK 1 and the result is the shadow that attacks you. That means, we can defeat the Shadow with cards or Magic Points. Since it comes from the Power Card deck, the power of the Shadow can be from 0 to 6.
Room 3: Trap. SHOCK 1, which means we will lose a card in our hand randomly.
Room 4: Elzoof. SHOW 2 Power cards with the total power equal or less than 4 or our HP become 0.
That means in the last room, we need to have at least 2 cards in our hand and the total power must be equal or less than 4. We may have to save those low value cards from the start or a couple of turns before, especially if we have no way to cycle.
For this, we only need to show the card which includes the one card for our remaining 1 HP. Abilities related to Test card are not very helpful for this.
For the previous room, we need 1 extra card and preferably another lower value card. It will be helpful if we have the ability from Knight (Shining Armor).
We can defeat the Shadow with Magic Points to save some cards. Just make sure we have up to 6 Magic Points before entering the Tower. At this point, the Abilities to earn more Magic Points is kind of useless because in the next room, there is no other way to spend the Magic. We need cards.
Getting 5 or more for either STR, INT or AGI is not a a big deal. We even start with 1 of them. However, sometimes, to get the same Stat, the location or events are not that easy to access.
With all of that in mind, before we enter the Tower of Death, we need like at least 3 cards in hand, preferably lower value ones, and 6 Magic Points. It will be very helpful if we can have the Blue Wizard Ability and teleport from The Castle of Light. Moving to the Tower of Death Location can be very expansive.
The Ancient Evil variant
Randomizer: STR (Pink)
Room 1: Magic Barrier. We need to have 6 or more in one of the Hero’s Stats or our HP become 0. Before we have that, we should not try to enter at all.
Room 2: Elzoof, the Ancient Evil. We need to win a Test with the total power of 12 in any of the three types. If we win the test, we have to either spend 4 Magic Points or suffer SHOCK 1. But if we lose, we have to discard an Item or suffer Lose 1 then repeat this Test.
Effect from Event: with Master Notaker (Woods of Mana) around, LOSE become SHOCK. Orc Magician (Village of Dawn) and Skeleton Wizard (Lake of Hope) may increase the required Power for the Test.
Room 3: Elzoof, The Ancient Evil. The test requirement is the same as the previous room. If we succeed, we win the game but if we lose suffer SHOCK 1 but we can repeat the test of this room.
Effect from Event: with Master Notaker (Woods of Mana) around, Players may not HEAL. Orc Magician (Village of Dawn) and Skeleton Wizard (Lake of Hope) may increase the required Power for the Test.
Even though the test from the final room is the same as the previous one, the hero’s condition, the number of cards in hand is probably not. In the final room, we need at least 2 cards. One to play and the other for the HP.
If we have more, we can afford to repeat the test but that means we need 2 more cards because of the SHOCK 1 penalty. The Knight’s ability can be helpful here.
For the second room, we also need to have 1 additional card at least to start the Test. An extra one if we don’t have 4 Magic Points for the winning consequences.
Since both of these are Tests, we can get HEAL 1 if we play the same type of Power card as the challenge we choose. That means, even if we have limited number of cards, the losing consequences, SHOCK 1, can be taken from that healing.
Also, for the Test, the ability like Determination (Hobbit), Stealth (Thief), Smash (Fighter), Shuriken (Ninja) can help but most of them only if we have more cards.
Hobbit can add 2 points but require INT card. Ninja needs a AGI card and it is a bit push your luck because even if we can get +1 there is no guarantee that the new CHECK 1 card is at least the same.
Thief is easier to use because we don’t need specific type of Power cards. Fighter is better if we have STR card and we just need to Show the card, not discard.
The designer told me that the Fighter’s skill can be used again in the next attempt.
Having Knight can be a life saver here because there is a chance to ignore the LOSE or SHOCK. There is no guarantee but we can save our cards.
The two tests require 12 points of any stats, but just to enter the Tower, we already have at least 6. That means, the two cards from our hand and from CHECK 1 must be at most 6 as well.
We can upgrade our stats up to 8 and we only need the total power of 4 from the 2 cards. It is a guarantee win if the card from our hand is 4.
With all of that in mind, we need to have at least 4 cards in our hand before entering the Tower. I don’t think we can start with 6 but if the card we play for the test has the same type, that means we can afford to lose because of the healing. We can afford to lose but at most just once.
The Archvillain variant
Randomizer: Neutral (White)
Room 1: Magic Barrier. We need to have 6 or more in one of the Stats or our HP become 0. Before we have that, we should not try to enter at all.
Room 2: Secret Door. We have to discard a Fairy Dust or suffer SHOCK 1.
Room 3: Hidden Stairs. We have to spend 4 Magic Points or suffer SHOCK 1.
Room 4: Elzoof the Archvillain. The test requires 13 points from either INT, STR or AGI. If we succeed, we win the game. Otherwise, the player will be teleported to Garden of Mushrooms.
Effect from Events: Goblin Magician (Swamp of Talis), will change the target location for Teleporting to CHECK 1. Orc Magician (Village of Dawn) and Skeleton Wizard (Lake of Hope) may increase the required Power for the Test.
For this Boss variant, we will get teleported out from the Tower of Death if we lose in the final room. For solo mode and cooperative mode, we either lose the game or get eliminated.
In cooperative mode, we can still continue the game and the HP doesn’t become 0. Depending on the board setup, we may have another shot before the other player beat the boss. Don’t forget the possibility of healing if we play the same type of card as the test.
For the final room, all we need is just 2 cards, preferably the higher value one. One to play the test and the other for the HP. One additional card for the Room 3 if we don’t have less than 4 Magic Points.
Another card for the Room 2, unless we have a Fairy Dust. Knight’s ability can be very useful here, even though it is not a guarantee. No card needed for the first room.
With that in mind, we need 4 cards to win. If we have both the item and Magic Points. we just need 2 cards. So, we have some cards to activate abilities to help us with the Test.
We have to start with 6 from either stats just to enter the Tower. That means we need the total power of 7 for the test from 2 cards. One from our hand and the other from doing CHECK 1. If we can have full stats, we just need 5.
If we even have more than the required Magic Points, the Dwarf can add 2 points. With 3 cards, assuming the type is right, Thief can add 3 points, Hobbit can add 6 points, and Fighter just 1 point. Ninja is a bit random.
Maybe this Boss variant is easier than the one with underline.
The Big Foozle variant
Randomizer: AGI (Blue)
Room 1: Magic Barrier. We need to have 5 or more in one of the Hero’s Stats or our HP become 0. Before we have that, we should not try to enter at all.
Room 2: Trap. Suffer SHOCK 1.
Room 3: Altar (optional). For every 2 Magic Points we spend, we get Heal 1. Alternatively, for every item we discard, we also Heal 1.
Effect from Event: with Master Notaker (Woods of Mana) around, Players may not HEAL.
Room 4: Elzoof, the Big Foozle. SHOW 3 cards with the same type of any type to defeat Elzoof. If we can’t the HP become 0.
This variant is actually an interesting one. We just need to SHOW the cards not play for test. That means the cards includes our 1 HP. However, they must have the same type of card and this is rather random.
We definitely have to take advantage of the Room 3. Collect a lot of Magic Points and items, then trade them into cards in this room. However, it is still not a guarantee to get 3 of the same type.
Remember that we are allowed to heal more than 6 but then discard down to six. This is a way to trade some cards in our hand. Spend as many Magic and discard as many item as we can, then choose 6 from those cards and the one from our hand.
The designer told me that the word optional means that we can skip the room, not that we have to choose between spending Magic or discard item.
The nice thing is that the Power value of the card doesn’t matter. Even though it sounds easy, we may have to collect those cards before even entering the Tower.
For this Boss variant, the Blessing skill from Priest can be very useful. I think it is better to spend Magic Points for Cycling rather than Healing in the Tower for the purpose of getting the same type of cards.
So, for this variant, we just need 3 cards to enter but very specific type. If we can have 4 cards of the same type, the SHOCK from Room 2 becomes irrelevant.
Power Cards
These are the last components of Adventure of D and they are probably the most complex element of the game. The reason is because these cards are multi use cards and multi purpose cards.
Multi use means, the player will have different ways to play the cards. While multi purpose means it can be used for other things in the game but players can’t decide how.
There are 60 card of these that come with the base game. In the game, this will create a single stack face down.
If I remember correctly, the designer said that the card is already too crowded with information that he can’t add some flavor text to the card, even though he wants to add some.
The back of the card can’t reveal anything so that it only displays the game logo. Similar to the Hero Cards, the background is the BATIK pattern from Indonesia with darker color.
AS HP and Power Cards
One of the use is as HP or Hit points or Health Points, indicated by the number of cards in our hand. If we have 6 cards, that means the Hero’s HP is 6 and 6 is the maximum limit. In this game we always need to have 1 card in hand or the consequences can be very expensive.
The other use is as the Power Cards. If we hold the card vertically, we can see at the top left corner of each card, there is a number from 0 to 6. The power value themselves can be used for several different things.
Some of them are to determine the Shadow’s power during Movement and as the Move card themselves, or as Test Card, to defeat a Shadow, or activate an Actions by spending or discarding the card. The card we use for one action can be useful for the next action as well.
With all of different uses, we may be discarding the same number of cards. However, the Power value of those cards can be different. There are also 4 type of cards, with different color each, STR (pink)card, INT (yellow) card, AGI card (blue) and Neutral card (white).
NEUTRAL CARDS are not considered as Wild cards in this game.
Each power type has 15 cards, three cards for each value. The Neutral cards are a bit different. They have 1 card with a value of 0, taken from the value of 1 and 6, taken from the value of 5.
That means, below are the probabilities for each value when we draw the cards randomly.
0 and 6: 1 card of 60. (1.6% each)
1 and 5: 11 cards of 60. (18.3% each)
2, 3, 4: 12 cards of 60. (20% each)
I don’t know if we can practically use the information in the game but it can give some insight. This game does encourage players to consider the probability of the outcome like in completing TEST, the DANGER LEVEL for SHADOW. Maybe players with a good memory can take advantage of this.
In this game, some of the actions that can be activated may require some specific number and type of the cards. With those three things, players will have to think carefully which card they have to discard and which of them they need to keep.
Hand management is the main mechanism of this game and the multi use cards mechanism give a depth to the game.
Diceless Randomizer System
The other purpose of the Power Cards other than as play cards in player’s hand is as the randomizer to determine the outcome. The designer calls this as the DICELESS POWER CARD SYSTEM.
Instead of roll a dice, we flip a card. Nowadays, similar concept is being used in a game like Gloomhaven as modifier deck, a different set of cards. Here, the single Power Card deck can be used for multiple purpose.
Most of them are related when the game tells us to do CHECK 1. That means, we draw a card from the Power Deck and the information from the card will determine the result.
One is as the modifier when we do a TEST. The value will be added to the value of the card we play. If the result is higher than the test difficulty, we win.
At the start of the game, players will have to do CHECK 1 for their character. The result is to determine which of the 3 Hero stats to increase. In this purpose, we only see the type of the card.
Throughout the game, when we move the character from one location to another. there is a chance that we have to deal with the SHADOW. It is not a guarantee.
If we do CHECK 1 and the power value is higher than the target location’s danger level, it is a safe journey. In this game, we will do a lot of moving, even in a single turn.
The other use of this randomizer is when we do Teleporting. Sometimes if we fail on test or challenge, the consequence is getting teleported to random place. We then do CHECK 1 and the stated location of the card will determine where we will end up on.
The last use of this randomizer system is to decide which events that will come out. For this we will ignore the power value but the other part of the card is what matters.
With all of that in mind, we will recycle this deck multiple times in a game session. Add them with the cards that goes to the 3 players hand, it is not that long to get through 60 cards.
We will likely to see the same cards again, as the events. This is definitely a clever system to create a very deep game with just a single deck of cards.
As Events cards
So, the first purpose of the card is for the player to do some hand management. The other purpose of these cards is as an Event which is displayed from the remaining element of the card in horizontal orientation.
From the top middle, part, we can see the name of the location. When we draw this card as an event, the Event will appear on that corresponding location. As mentioned earlier on the LOCATION CARD section, each of 12 locations can have from 1 to 6 events.
When an event shows up on a location, we need to get rid the event first, before we can activate the Action from the location.
Because the event cards come from a single deck, we really don’t know for sure, which event and which location the next draw will appear. With the random setup for the board, this give a totally different experience from game to game.
At the top left corner of these event cards, we can see a skull head with a number. This displays the DANGER LEVEL of the location. Most of these cards will display the same Danger level as on the Location cards.
However, there is a chance that the event will increase the danger level. If the number has a red font color, that means the danger level is higher than the Location’s. There are 10 event cards that do this.
Then each card will have an illustration for the events. Most of them are Monsters that we can try to defeat. There are several that depict humans or event in general, or items.
At the bottom part of the card, we can see between 1 up to two rows that contains some additional information for the game. Most of the card has a row with a beige background color.
On this row, we can see the name of the event and the Action that we can do, with the HAND ICON. Right below the name, we can see a TEST DIFFICULTY level. It is the number in either blue, pink or yellow color and icon with the type of card.
Then, we can see two letters either L and W. This describes the result for either losing or winning the Test. Some of the events can be a joke where they switch between the winning and losing condition or both of them can be a reward.
There are also some events where we don’t need to succeed the test. However, they still have some requirements before we can activate them just like the action from the Location. A few of them we can get it for free, assuming we can access the location.
Some of the events can have EFFECTS. These are the row with white background color and red text.
When this kind of event shows up, the effect will continue to apply on all of the locations until it has gone. The effects can prevent us to Heal, teleport, or increase the test difficulty level for certain power type.
Usually these effects are very easy to be overlooked, especially if it appears on location where we can’t access it easily. When they first come out, we may notice it but at that time it doesn’t effect very much. However, it turns out the event stays a couple of turns and we forget that it is even there.
This is typical problem with card game where the card can suddenly add additional rule.
NOTE: There is a misprint on GIANT STINGER event. It is missing a trash icon which is the card was supposed to be discarded after we have completed the quest.
Jack Darwid published the PDF file specific for this card. We can find it on this page, here.
As Item Cards
The last row of the event card is the ITEM. The row is in green background and displayed upside down. Most of the time, if we activate the action of the said event, or succeed the test, we can earn the event card as the item.
As we can see, it has the name of the item, even with unique logo to illustrate. It also has an ACTION or HAND ICON because to spend them, they are considered as separate action.
The effects of using the item allow us to do some action like heal, teleport, cycle, or increase some of the hero’s stat permanently or temporarily. Most of the items are one time only. We use and discard the item immediately. Some require to spend the item on specific location.
I have to say that these items, aside from the Fairy Dust, are very hard to access. They are tied to the Events which are also tied to the Locations. Sometimes even the locations are already very difficult to access.
While some of the items can definitely help us to win the game, they have to be taken as just a bonus. We can’t make any plans to get them, let alone spending them on the right place or the right time.
It is rather sad since the designer seems to put a bit effort to the detail with those unique icons.
There are 22 unique items that we can get mostly from winning the challenge from 22 events. Here are the details.
Details of Each Item from Events
Item Name: Amulet of Alexa
Action: Right after rest, you may spend 1 Magic to HEAL 1. Once per turn.
Event: Rock Golem (Village of Dawn)
Item Name: Amulet of Water
Action: At Lake of Hope, increase STR BY 1. Discard after use.
Event: Water Elemental ( Forest of Gloom)
Item Name: Blue Scroll
Action: TELEPORT any one player to a location adjacent to their location. Discard after use.
Event: Gargoyle (Tower of Death)
Item Name: Brown Scroll
Action: TELEPORT any one player to Plain of Sorrow. Discard after use.
Event: Nick the Grey (Mountain of Mage)
Item Name: Careset Cube
Action: At Plain of Sorrow, increase AGI by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Red Goblorc (Old Village of Dew)
Item Name: Emerald
Action: At Swamp of Talis, increase AGI by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Ice Elemental (Lake of Hope)
Item Name: Fire Gem
Action: Spend 1 Magic at The Great Cham to increase AGI by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Fire Elemental (Woods of Mana)
Item Name: Goblorc Fang
Action: At the Tower of Death, increase INT by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Goblorc (Mountain of Mage)
Item Name: Potion of Agility
Action: Increase AGI by 1 and decrease AGI by 1 at the end of turn (if possible). Discard after use.
Event: Blue Zombie (Forest of Gloom)
Item Name: Potion of Intelligence
Action: Increase INT by 1 and decrease INT by 1 at the end of turn (if possible). Discard after use.
Event: Yellow Zombie (Village of Dawn)
Item Name: Potion of Strengtj
Action: Increase STR by 1 and decrease STR by 1 at the end of turn (if possible). Discard after use.
Event: Red Zombie (Woods of Mana)
Item Name: Red Fur
Action: At Woods of Mana, increase INT OR STR by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Red Wolf (Castle of Light)
Item Name: Red Scroll
Action: TELEPORT any one player to Village of Dawn. Discard after use.
Event: Javelin Contest (Castle of Light)
Item Name: Ring of Deven
Action: Right after you rest, you may CYCLE 2. Once per turn.
Event: Carnivorous Plant (Village of Dawn)
Item Name: Scroll of Light
Action: Any one player CYCLE X (you choose X). Discard after use.
Event: Jelly Cube (Plain of Sorrow)
Item Name: Scroll of Power
Action: Reveal a new event or discard an event on any location. Discard after use.
Event: Goblin Traveler (Lake of Hope)
Item Name: Scroll of Vision
Action: Teleport any one player to any location. Discard after use.
Event: Giant Stinger (Swamp of Talis)
Item Name: Shovel
Action: Spend 1 Magic at Mountain of Mage to increase STR by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Goblin Fanatic (Village of Dawn)
Item Name: Soul Stone
Action: At Garden of Mushroom, increase STR OR AGIL BY 1. Discard after use.
Event: Ghoulax (Tower of Death)
Item Name: Tasty Coco Tomato
Action: HEAL 1 then CYCLE 1. Discard after use.
Event: A Tasty Tomato! (Lake of Hope)
Item Name: Topaz
Action: At Forest of Gloom, increase INT by 1. Discard after use.
Event: Young Ice Dragon (Swamp of Talis)
Item Name: Wand of Magic
Action: Each other player gives you 1 Magic (if possibe) then you get Magic Point equal to CHECK 1. Discard after use.
Event: Arm Wrestling Contest (Old Village of Dew)
So, those are all of the components that come with the base game of Adventure of D (2nd Edition). They are just a deck of about 100 cards. Now, we are ready to learn how to play.
How to Play
Adventure of D can be played in several different game modes from multiplayer competitive mode, cooperative mode or solo mode. Regardless, the basic idea of how to play remains the same.
Even if we play competitively, we are racing to be the first one to beat the final boss first. So, this how to play guide will describe how the competitive version in general, because it is the main game mode. Then, I will point out what happen during the other two modes.
The game can support up to 3 players for both competitive and cooperative mode.
The next video is from The Dungeon Dive YouTube channel for this game.
Setup
First, shuffle the HERO CARDS to form a single deck face down and put the deck in the middle of the table. Each player will then draw 1 card blindly, which they can put the card on the table in front of them.
Make sure each player have enough table space for their tableau as shown by the next picture. Each character will start with zero for all of the three Hero stats, STR, INT and AGI.
Second, shuffle all of the POWER CARDS and form a single deck face down. From that deck, each player will do CHECK 1 separately.
At this point, we will only need to look at the type of Power Card. That type will determine which Hero Stats will get +1. If it is a neutral card, the player can choose which of the three will get increased.
That means, each player will start with not only different Ability or Skill from their Hero but also probably a different Hero Stats. It is possible to start with the same Hero Stats.
After each player has done, they can return the POWER CARD to the deck and shuffle again.
Third, take the corresponding type of UPGRADE CARD for each player. Slide that card under the player’s starting Hero cards revealing only the number on the left of the Upgrade Cards.
Players will start with one type and the value of 1 based on the Second step above.
Fourth, take all of the LOCATION CARDS and use only the side with underlined names. That means only one Tower of Death card will be used or 12 Location cards in total.
Shuffle those cards and place them randomly on the table to create a 4 x 3 grid.
Fifth, take the PLAYER TOKENS for each player and put them on the Castle of Light Location Card.
Sixth, choose the FIRST PLAYER randomly and give that player the POWER CARD DECK face down.
Essentially this deck becomes the ACTIVE PLAYER MARKER and at the end of the player’s turn, the active player and the deck goes to the next player.
Make sure whoever has control of this deck, also has a space for the discard pile for the Power card deck. Whenever the deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to create another deck.
Players are not allowed to examine the contents of the discard pile.
Seventh, depending on the number of players, each player can start with MAGIC POINTS. The first player will get none, the second player in clockwise order gets 2 Magic Points and the third players will get 4 Magic Points.
Those who gets Magic Points will take THE UPGRADE CARDS FOR MAGIC, the one with the grey color. Then they put the card at the right side of their HERO CARD with the corresponding number at the top.
This setup is for the Competitive mode. For solo mode, the one player will get 4 Magic Points, for the Cooperative mode, nobody gets Magic Points at the start.
Eighth, each player draw 6 POWER CARDS as their STARTING HAND. This is also for the Competitive, Solo mode and cooperative mode with 2 players only.
For the 3 player Cooperative Mode, each player starts with 5 but the maximum in the game is always 6.
Even in cooperative mode, we are not allowed to reveal cards in our hand but we can still discuss the strategy with other player.
Ninth, for Solo and Cooperative mode only, we need to set a TIMER CARDS. We take certain number of cards from the Hero Deck depending on the difficulty level of the game to create a separate deck, also face down right next to the Hero deck.
Use 8 cards for beginner level, 6 cards for medium and 5 cards for the expert. At the end of each round, we will return the card from the TIMER DECK back into the HERO DECK.
That’s the setup.
Gameplay
In each player’s turn, there will be 5 phases.
1st. Reveal a New Event
2nd. Reveal a New Event
3rd. Main Phase
4th. Rest
5th. End of Turns
After the last phase, it is the next player’s turn. The game keeps going until Elzoof or the Final Boss has been defeated.
In competitive mode, whoever defeat Elzoof first, wins the game. For the Solo and Cooperative mode, we will have to defeat Elzoof before the timer runs out of card.
At the end of the round, after all players have taken a turn, we have to return 1 card from the TIMER DECK to the HERO DECK. If we can’t do that, we lose the game.
REVEAL A NEW EVENT PHASE
At the start of their turn, the active player have to REVEAL A NEW EVENT. What that means is, the active player draw 1 card from the POWER DECK and show the card to the next player.
The next player can accept or reject the card. To reject the events, the next player has to either DISCARD A POWER CARD FROM THE HAND to the discard pile, or SPEND 2 MAGIC POINTS, rotate the Magic card.
If the event is rejected, the active player will have to repeat the process until the next player accepts it. Once the next player ACCEPTS it, we will then place that POWER CARD to the same LOCATION as indicated by the card.
If there is already an event on that location, the new event will replace it and put the existing card to the discard pile. Also, if there is already an event on another location with the same Power Type, we discard that existing event as well.
This way, there can only ever be a maximum of 4 events on the map. One for each type, each on different location. It is possible that there is only one event at a time because the new event from the second phase can replace the new event from the first one.
Each turn, players will do REVEAL A NEW EVENT twice for the first and second phase of their turn. As long as the next player accepts one events for each phase, regardless of the number of events on the map, the active player proceed to the next phase.
It is also possible that during MAIN PHASE, the player complete the last event on the map which the map has no event at all. When that happens, the active player will immediately do reveal a new event again until there is at least one on the map.
Effects from Hero Skills: BARD (SONG OF JOY). If the active player has this skill, by spending 1 Magic Points, draw 2 cards, show one card to the next player and discard the other.
This can be done during REVEAL A NEW EVENT phase at the start of the turn or when the map has no event at all.
For SOLO MODE, we do this to ourselves. We reveal the new event and we can decide whether to accept or reject the events.
The point of accepting or rejecting the event is to take control of the board. We might want to prevent other players to win some event because the event is on the location nearby to that player in competitive mode.
At the same time, we might also want to keep the existing one which could be accessible by us. On the other hand, if we play cooperatively this can help each other with the events.
This is the phase where player interaction can really happen intensively in Adventure of D.
MAIN PHASE
This is the part where the active player will start TAKING ACTIONS OR MOVE their Hero. The active player can do multiple actions and moving in any order as long as they have the required resources.
Once they decide to take no action anymore, he can proceed to the next phase, REST.
The actions we can do can be found from:
the LOCATION CARDS that we are currently on if there is no event covering the location,
from the EVENT itself,
the ITEM CARDS that we have, or
the HERO’S SKILL.
Each of these actions has a HAND ICON right next to the title. For the cooperative mode, if two players are on the same location, they can do TRADE ITEM action.
Any actions are optional to do but when we do take the action, the follow up requirement must be completed. WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE AN ACTION IN THE MIDDLE OF ANOTHER ACTION.
Some of the actions can be done only once per turn but some other can be done multiple times if we have the resources to pay.
The goal of the game is to defeat Elzoof in his Tower of Death. What that means in this game is we do the series of actions listed on the Tower of Death card.
ENTER THE TOWER OF DEATH is considered as a single action, with just 1 HAND ICON. If we can successfully pass all of the challenge, pay all of the required resources, we defeat Elzoof.
Read from the Components section of this article about each Tower of Death variant and what the action means.
Check for EFFECTS
The first thing we need to do before taking any action is to check whether there are any effects from the existing events. This is very easy to overlook and forget especially if that event came early and where at that point it didn’t matters and now it affect the action we want to take.
It may prevent us from teleporting, healing or moving. Some may force us to suffer additional consequences or increase the Test difficulty.
This will affect any players wherever they are and continue to do so until it are gone.
There are 7 events that have some effects and each of them happens on different location. Here are the events and their locations.
Orc Magician (Village of Dawn)
Master Notaker (Woods of Mana)
Skeleton Wizard (Lake of Hope)
Frozen Cloud (The Great Chasm)
Blizzard Eye (Forest of Gloom)
Goblin Magician (Swamp of Talis)
(no name) (Tower of Death)
Move
MOVE means means moving the player token from one location to one of the adjacent location. Remember that the map wraps around, so in the 4 x 3 grid, we can move from the leftmost location of the grid, directly to the rightmost and vice versa. This also works with the top and bottom.
To move, the active player must play a card from their hand as their MOVE CARD. The type of the card doesn’t matter.
That means we can’t do that if we only have 1 card left. After we play the card, we move the tokens.
There are two things that can happen. This move can be a safe journey or we can get attacked by the SHADOW This depends on the danger level of the new location.
To determine that we need to do CHECK 1, or draw a card from the POWER CARD DECK. If the POWER VALUE is HIGHER than the danger level, then it is a safe journey.
However, if it is LOWER OR EQUAL, we meet the SHADOW. The SHADOW has the power equal to the power value of the MOVE CARD we used.
Now, we have to defeat the SHADOW or our HP BECOMES ZERO. Read the next section for what it means.
In general there are 2 ways to defeat the SHADOW. One is by playing other cards from our hand with the total power value EQUAL or HIGHER than the SHADOW’S POWER.
This way, not only we will defeat the Shadow, but we will also gain MAGIC, equal to the Shadow’s power. That means it is a chance to trade cards into MAGIC.
The second way to defeat the Shadow is by spending MAGIC, EQUAL OR HIGHER than the Shadow’s Power. If we use this method, we will not gain any MAGIC for defeating the Shadow.
After that, we need to discard the MOVE CARD, the result from CHECK 1 and the additional cards to defeat the Shadow.
With that in mind, before we do MOVE, there are several things we need to consider. How likely are we going to meet the Shadow? If we do meet the Shadow, do we have the cards or Magic we can spend to defeat them?
NOTE: SOME EVENTS CAN INCREASE THE DANGER LEVEL BY 1.
This is the event on the target location. If that is the case, nothing is change except we will more likely to meet the Shadow.
NOTE: THE OTHER HERO CAN FOLLOW THE ACTIVE PLAYER’S HERO TO THE NEW LOCATION.
This is assuming that they are on the same location card when the active player do MOVE. There is no penalty or cost for doing this and if I understand correctly, there is no limit.
If the active player keep moving from one to another, the other player can keep following regardless of the benefit. Also, it doesn’t matter if the active player failed to defeat the Shadow, the other player suffers nothing.
With that in mind, this can be a very powerful thing because in this game, MOVE or moving is very expensive. This also will engage the other player to make a plan even though it is not their turn.
Since we start the game from the same location, the second or third player can immediately do this during the first player turn. In competitive mode, each player may try to avoid getting followed but in cooperative mode, we can discuss the plan.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: THE GREAT CHASM WILL NOT RESTRICT THE FOLLOWING.
As long as the active player has AMAZON’S skill to enter the Great Chasm. the other player may still follow.
Moving is very costly in this game. We can’t just MOVE trying to chase some events without considering whether we can afford the cost. It is recommended to also plan several steps ahead.
For example, after we have done things on the target location, where can we move from there with our remaining cards. More importantly, where should we do REST. Read the next section about REST PHASE.
TEST
Most of the action (with the HAND ICON) that we can do from EVENTS can have a TEST or CHALLENGE that we can try to complete. Whether we fail or succeed, there may be consequences.
If the event or location has a TEST, right below the name of the action, we can see the stats (STR, INT, or AGI) icon followed by a number. After that some may have a letter L and W followed by the consequences for losing or winning.
The number indicates the TEST DIFFICULTY. We need to reach at least the same amount using our STATS, POWER CARD and the CHECK 1 result to win.
We know for sure the value from the first two variables and so reduce the chances on losing. Even those two can be enough without the last factor.
But the result of CHECK 1 can be give dramatic result for test with higher difficulty. Also we only use the one HERO’S STATS that match to the TEST.
FIRST, we might want to check other Events on the map. Some of the events may increase the TEST DIFFICULTY for certain test type. This can be a deal breaker.
SECOND, we have to play ONE CARD from our hand. Remember that we still need to keep at least 1 in our hand.
If the card we play has the same color or type as the TEST, we get HEAL 1. That means we immediately draw 1 card from Power Deck to our hand. Now, we have at least 2 cards in our hand if that is the case.
THIRD, we do CHECK 1, or reveal 1 card from THE POWER CARD DECK. The type doesn’t matter, we only look at the Power value of the card. It is possible to get between 0 to 6.
FOURTH, we add the HERO STATS + POWER VALUE of the card we play + POWER VALUE from CHECK 1 result.
If the total value is EQUAL OR HIGHER than the TEST DIFFICULTY, we win the test and get the reward from W. Otherwise we lose and suffer the consequences as indicated by letter L.
One of the consequences will force us to LOSE 1 or SHOCK 1, which we have to discard 1 card from our hand randomly or by choice. If we only have 1 HP left and have to suffer those penalties, our HP becomes 0.
Read the next section about HP becomes 0.
Which is why, we also need to plan ahead, especially if there is a big chance for losing the test. Also, what are we going to do after the Test? Rest?
Is is a good location to rest? We might want to have more cards before doing the TEST. The TEST itself only takes one card to play.
NOTES: Some of the TEST can be a joke where they switch the winning and losing consequences. For those, we might want to try LOSING.
From 60 event cards only 6 of them have no TEST. From the location, only Woods of Mana and two variant of Tower of Death have Test.
Cooperative Mode Additional Rules
In cooperative mode, there are two additional actions that players can and must do. The first one is TRADE ITEM, this is optional.
What it means is we are allowed to give or take item from another player as long as both players are on the same location.
The second is HEROES ASSEMBLE. What it means is that when we finally decide to do the action of Enter the Tower of Death, it has to be done together. All players have to do it at the same time.
Unlike the competitive mode where players are racing against each other and can enter the tower alone. So, in cooperative mode, one player can move to the Tower of Death location card first.
Then, that player must assemble the other players to be on the location before entering. The other players who haven’t been on the location must discard one card from their hand of their choice, then move the player token to the Tower of Death card.
The rulebook says that the other player may not discard any card if their HP is already 1 left. However, that means, there is no way that player can succeed inside the Tower. It is possible that they are aiming just to reach the temporary win.
When they decide to enter, all players must proceed from room by room in order together. However, they still need to tackle each challenge from the room individually.
The designer told me that any player can try to complete the challenge first, without following the original turn order. That includes if the challenge allow us to repeat if we fail.
NOTES: ENTER THE TOWER OF DEATH is considered as a SINGLE ACTION, with up to 4 rooms or challenges.
There is a rule that says we are not allowed to take an action in the middle of another action. That means, we are not allowed to use skills, items or even trade items during the action on the Tower of Death location.
If we really want to do those action, we have to do them before.
Also, remember that this is still the active player’s turn. The other player are not allowed to do other action inside the tower but even before entering, they are still not allowed to do other actions.
So, even if after HEROES ASSEMBLE, the active player trade item to another player, that other player cannot spend it because it is still in the active player’s turn. The idea of giving the item at that point is probably just so that player can discard one for the challenge.
With that in mind, in cooperative mode, we also need to plan ahead who would be the one to do HEROES ASSEMBLE and ENTER THE TOWER OF DEATH action. Don’t forget about the timer.
HP BECOMES 0
During the game, after we do an action, we could run out of cards in our hand. That is when the HP=0.
In general, we are not allowed to do any action if we only have one card left. However, we may suffer some consequences that make us lose that one card.
When HP becomes 0, we have to draw one POWER CARD and get 1 Magic, then IMMEDIATELY END OUR TURN. At this point we may still have more than 1 Magic but the card in hand remains 1.
That means during next turn, most of the time, we have to immediately REST because with a single card, we can’t move or play that card to do action. Read the next section about REST.
If we can we have to avoid getting our HP down to zero. The consequences is like losing another turn.
However, there will be some exception. For example, if we have some items that let us Teleport like Red Scroll, Brown Scroll, Blue Scroll and Scroll of Vision, we might want to use that. Especially to avoid having to REST on location with high danger level.
Other possible way is if we have the Tasty Coco Tomato item. It let us HEAL 1 and CYCLE 1. With that, we then get 2 cards which one can be used to at least MOVE. That is assuming we have enough Magic to defeat the Shadow or lucky enough to get a safe journey.
For Solo mode and Cooperative mode, HP = 0 means different thing if it happens inside the Tower of Death. In solo mode, we lose the game immediately but in cooperative mode, we get eliminated from the game. The other player can still continue.
The rulebook suggests that it is possible to get HP becomes 0 during another player’s turn. Not really sure how that can happen.
But it says, we can continue the game, where we can still follow, reject an event, etc., until it is our turn. Then, during our turn, we get 1 HP and 1 Magic and have to immediately end the turn. We might want to avoid that.
As we can see, there is no actual player elimination in the general rule. However, it is a bit different if it happens inside the Tower of Death for SOLO and COOPERATIVE mode.
Read more from the Winning Conditions section below.
REST PHASE
Rest means we are ending our turn, not taking any further actions. We are replenishing our HP by doing rest, which means getting more cards in our hand.
However, depending on the location we are currently on, we may not get a hand of 6 cards, which is the maximum limit. It depends on the danger level of the location, the number at the top left corner of the Location card, with the skull head.
The way it works is we draw cards until we reach 6, then discard a number of cards equal to the danger level. As a compensation, we will also earn Magic Points equal to the danger level.
It is possible to even do REST when we still have a lot of cards. Maybe we only need to enter the Tower of Death and need just specific type of card, to Teleport or anything.
If that is the case, we can still discard the remaining cards in our hand, except for 1 card because that is our HP. That is in the hope that the new hand of cards we get is better than the previous one.
But it’s possible to get worse, so there is another push your luck element. We can try to keep some of the good cards and discard the useless ones.
With that in mind, REST is like HEAL and CYCLE combined.
Not only we have to think carefully about the location we should be doing REST but also what exactly the action we need to do during next turn. With that consideration, we then have to choose which card to keep and which to discard and get a new one.
Try to avoid having to REST right after moving to a location and complete an event. We may succeed on the event but it is not that rare to find ourselves have to rest right after. It gets worse if the danger level is very high on that location.
That means, in this game, we need to plan at least two steps ahead. Sometimes it’s better to just REST first then try to complete the event next turn.
Resting on location with danger level 4 is almost as bad as HP=0.
We can also rest even if the EVENT is on that location. However, some of the EVENT may increase the danger level of the location if the event is on the map.
This will effect the cards and the Magic point we will get. There are 11 EVENTS that can INCREASE THE DANGER LEVEL. Here are the list.
Castle of Light: RED WOLF and ORC WARRIOR
The Great Chasm: FROZEN CLOUD
Old Village of Dew: SKELETON WARRIOR
Plain of Sorrow: HARPY, JELLY CUBE and GOBLIN JOKER
Village of Dawn: NOCK THE FIRE LIZARD, YELLOW ZOMBIE, and GOBLIN FANATIC
Each of them will increase the danger level by 1. The increased level will use red font color instead of the usual black.
That is the end of player’s turn.
END OF TURN PHASE
In this phase, the active player should take the cards from the POWER CARD DISCARD PILE and put them at the bottom of the POWER DECK. Then, the active player will have to pass the card to the next player in clockwise order.
Therefore, the next player becomes the active one and take control of the POWER CARD DECK. Now, that player can start their turn with the REVEAL A NEW EVENT PHASE.
END OF ROUND PHASE (TIMER PHASE)
This part is for the solo and cooperative mode only because the two game modes use TIMER CARDS. The rulebook suggests that the last player will have to return one card from the TIMER CARD DECK to the HERO CARD DECK.
If we can’t do that because the TIMER DECK there is no more cards, that means we lose the game. Elzoof has conquered the island.
One round means every player gets one turn. Each round the game starts with the same player.
Winning Conditions
Depending on the game mode we choose, the winning and losing condition can be different.
For COMPETITIVE MODE, whoever defeat Elzoof first, wins the game. There is no player elimination so, even if a player failed to do so, they can still retry and have the chance to win.
For SOLO and COOPERATIVE MODE, we have to defeat Elzoof before we run out of time from the timer cards. In the multiplayer mode, the game suggests several different winning conditions.
We completely win the game if all of the players manage to defeat Elzoof.
If only half or more players do, it is considered as TEMPORARY WINS. That means for the full player counts, at least 2 players have to defeat Elzoof. In two player mode, only one of the player needs to defeat Elzoof for this win.
If fewer than half of the players can do that, Elzoof become angry and unleashes a devastating spell to destroy all of the heroes. ELZOOF WINS!
For SOLO and COOPERATIVE MODE, if a player’s HP becomes 0 inside the Tower of Death or they get teleported out, that player is ELIMINATED from the game.
The other players can still continue for the temporary win. Unless, only one player left in 3 player mode.
Heroic Mode
The rulebook also suggests some ways to increase the difficulty level of the game. This is only for Solo and Cooperative mode.
One way is to reduce the number of timer cards down to 5 cards. Using 8 cards is considered as the easiest one. We can probably try somewhere in between first.
Another suggestion is to change the rule for REST. In the regular rule, we will get the same amount of MAGIC as the location’s danger level. To increase the difficulty level, reduce the number by 1.
Additionally, if we do REST on location with a danger level of 0. we have to spend 1 MAGIC or we can only draw up to 5 cards instead of 6. That means this additional rule only applies for the CASTLE OF LIGHT location because that is the only location with a danger level of 0.
Some of the events on that location can even increase the danger level. In that case, it is not going to significantly change the game.
That is it with how to play Adventure of D (2nd Edition). The designer has announced that he will publish a campaign for the Solo play in October 2020.
Update: We can find the PDF file for SOLO CAMPAIGN on their official page here, under RESOURCES section. Check out the EXPANSION section below about this campaign.
My Experience and Thoughts
So far, I have played mostly the Solo mode of this game. Somehow, I think it is not the best mode of the game. If we follow the designer’s note, we can see that Jack Darwid already designed two games with the similar power card system and both of them are solo game only.
Adventure of D is the multiplayer version of those two games or at least the system. So, I think the original idea, which is probably the best game mode is the multiplayer competitive mode. The solo and cooperative mode came later.
The best element of this game is the player interaction from ACCEPTING OR REJECTING Events. It is non confrontational, but the decision can deeply impact the other players. Because the designer wants this to become a family friendly game, there is no card that will allow us to attack each other.
Stealing is probably the most. But it is very situational. This is a good game for carebear players.
This is also true in the cooperative mode, where each player can use that element to help themselves or each other. In the Solo mode however, it comes with a price of spending the player’s own Magic or Cards which is already limited.
We will more likely try to save those resources rather than pushing our luck trying to get something randomly. Why this works differently?
In the multiplayer mode, even if all of the players only accept any events, not rejecting at all, we can recycle through the events faster. More opportunities will come out. This will encourage the players to then reject them.
Then why is this better in competitive but not the cooperative? It is because of the timer. With the time limit, whether in solo or cooperative mode, we really can’t do many things.
The resources are already limited, just 6 cards and 8 Magic points. We will more likely trying to save those or take action that we know we can succeed rather than trying to gamble.
The margin is too narrow. Even a single mistake and we will definitely lose the game. HP becomes 0 or even REST on danger level 4 will take one turn doing nothing. In solo mode, that is equal to losing one round.
In the competitive mode, there is no timer. Sure, it is a race game. However, I would argue that the other player will have to face the same problem as us with limited resources and limited option to move.
We also start on the same location. The different stats between players is not going to change a lot. and there is a chance to get the same for 3 players.
We do have different skill but there are only 4 of them where we can actively use them. Most of the rest are really situational. For some we may not even get the chance to use at all like the Amazon if the location is not accessible by moving.
With the timer, we will more likely to REST when the card is either just 1 or 2. Somehow we are forced to try make the best use of our turn.
Without the timer, we can still afford to rest just to CYCLE the card, especially during earlier rounds.
I think it is not very rare when I blindly choose to take a very difficult TEST just because there is no other option. Either we wait for new events to come out or take a risk of losing from the very hard challenge. From both of them, we will lose the time. Spending Magic or cards to reject is not a guarantee.
Then comes the randomness of the locations or the main board. We can get stuck on a location surrounded by those with high danger level or useless location’s action. Not to mention, if one of them is The Great Chasm, that we cannot do anything.
Sure, we are not supposed to chase any event, but with the time limit, that one location is probably the only way to win. I get it that maybe the strategy is that we need to choose a spot from the start of the game where we can get a lot of events, without the need to move a lot.
Still, the randomness of the board may prevent us for doing so. I did try once setting the locations not randomly so we just need to focus on one spot, move at most just once. It does help a bit but then, the randomness of the cards gets in the way.
Maybe I just play this game poorly but I think the solo mode is too restricting. To the point where we have to ignore most of the game elements.
Most of the time, using ITEM is just to discard. There is no guarantee on getting the useful ones and if we do get it, some will tell us to use them on specific location. That can take one or more turns that we cannot afford because of the timer.
I do get it that the timer is necessary to create a challenge for Solo and cooperative mode but I don’t think it is a good way for this game. Maybe it works for the first edition, I’m not sure.
I mean, maybe there are other ways like introducing an AI or virtual player just to replicate the multiplayer experience. Another idea would be to add some rules like if we have items we can discard them to Teleport or something like that.
If it is too easy, maybe add that we also have to spend Magic. That way, we can try rely on Fairy Dust and getting them is still not a guarantee. We can also only have one. At least, it reduce the layer of randomness.
It is not impossible to win, with the current rules. But I feel they are mostly because of the luck.
The cooperative mode is probably slightly better than the solo mode. The timer is still a problem, but with more players we get 4 or even 6 events per round. Remember that we can also follow if we have other players.
That is another missing thing from the solo. Not that we can use them a lot. Maybe we can with 3 players.
Regardless of how they implement the solo mode, I think the multiplayer competitive mode is a great game. This is indeed a big game in a small box.
With just a deck of cards the game can give a lot of replay value. Unlike the designer’s other game, Goblins vs Zombies, which is also a big game in small box, there are a lot of elements in this game but most of them are not significant.
Location cards are probably the most significant aspect and what players should be focusing on. While the Power Card can make the game very interesting because of the multi use and multi purpose but the event themselves are a bit too random.
As a multi use card, the Power card can make the game very deep. We have to consider which card to spend and which to keep as a move card, as HP or as Test card. The choice is never an obvious one because it may for one action, but we have to think ahead what our next action will be.
Most of the time, having higher value cards is better but there are elements of this game that may force us to thing the other way. Like when we are about to meet a Shadow, or to increase the stat from location and even the final challenge from the Tower of Death.
However, as a multi purpose or multi function card, or how the game can use the Power Card differently, I think it can be a bit canceling each other out. As a randomizer, this is a better way than dice.
Other game may use separate deck, but here, with this one deck, it can decide the Events, the Shadow, Power value modifier, or target location for teleporting. The problem is then, we will recycle the deck very fast.
We may see the same card twice in the game but at the same time we may not see the other because they become another function. We are supposed to consider those other elements like items and skills as just a bonus.
If we get it, then be flexible and make a use for it. Not really something we can plan to get from the start.
Like his other game, Adventure of D is a very compact, portable and optimally designed game. It is just that the production value is not the most important aspect of the design.
With a clever diceless randomizer system for the Power Card this can give a big game experience from just a deck of cards.
My Automa / AI Variant for Solo Mode
Thanks to the clever diceless power card system by the designer, I think it is not that difficult to create a virtual player or AI that replicate almost like a human player. What we need to do is just to set the rules.
This is just my unofficial idea not exactly a good variant because I’m not any game designer. Let me know via the comment section below if anybody ever give this a try or have some suggestion.
If anybody think that the official solo rule is okay as it is, please just ignore this part. This is just me who plays the game poorly and try to come up with something.
However, I think it can also be added to the multiplayer mode, for both competitive and cooperative play.
I do encourage anybody to come out with their own variant, maybe by tweaking some of my idea. This is just an example that it can.
Coming up with ideas is easy but turning them into a solid game is not.
It will require a lot of playtesting before this can be a good variant to play and I don’t have the means to do that.
The Objective
First of all, as I said earlier, I’m not a big fan of how the official rule for solo mode for Adventure of D. The timer is a bit too restricting and as a result we have to ignore some of the features in order to win the game.
Also, the solo mode is lack of player interaction, specifically regarding the accepting and rejecting new events. I said earlier that even though the other player always accepts and not rejecting at all, it can help generate more events on the map.
So, the timer and the other player are 2 separate things. We can still use the timer rule if we want but we do need the virtual player.
Thematic Concept
In my mind, I would call this virtual player as the SHADOW character, inspired by the Shadow that we have to deal with while moving from location to location. The Virtual player will start with one of the Hero and that Hero becomes the DARK variant of that character.
For example, if we draw a Knight, then he becomes the SHADOW KNIGHT as that character is possessed by the Shadow.. We can draw randomly.
So, this character will wander around from location to location and like the Shadow, it is possible for us to get attacked by the Virtual Player. Because he is still a human, we can see his position, use one of the player token.
This character doesn’t care about the Elzoof or the Heroes. But, if it happens that he is on the Tower of Death, he could beat Elzoof, assuming he can pass through the MAGIC BARRIER.
Like the other Hero, he can also take action from the Location or events to increase his 3 stats, STR, INT and AGI. He can take items and learn some skills but he doesn’t spend or use those skills.
While there is no guarantee that the AI will beat Elzoof first, but it is possible and if it happens we lose the game. So, the racing element is still there.
How the AI works?
The AI is the starting player. CHECK 1 to determine his starting location.
The AI uses no hand of cards. We draw 1 Hero randomly and we will use all of the 4 Upgrade cards.
In the AI’s turn, like in multiplayer mode, he starts with revealing a new events which the player will need to accept two events. Then, it is the MAIN PHASE for the Virtual Player.
Essentially we only do CHECK 1 for AI.
If the result is any NEUTRAL CARD or 5 of any type, he will do ACTIONS. That means there is a 40% chance he will do action.
If the result is:
1 of the other 3 types, the AI moves 1 space up or north.
2 of any 3 types, the AI moves 1 space to the right or East.
3 of any 3 types, the AI moves 1 space to the bottom or South.
4 of any 3 types, the AI moves 1 space to the left or West.
So 60% chance the AI will move.
Everytime the AI move, he will gain MAGIC equal to the danger level of the target location. If the AI gets more than 8, he will finally REST and lose all of the MAGIC. He can still move or do action if the MAGIC point is 8.
Then, it is the player’s turn. During the REVEAL A NEW EVENT, the AI can reject the events without spending anything. The main idea is he will try to make the event closer to him.
The AI will only reject if the event is 3 steps away from him or if the new one is farther than the existing one. After the AI accepts 2 events, the player proceed with the MAIN PHASE.
AI’s Action
Depending on the situation, the AI will first do action from the EVENT, assuming he can. He always get the (W) result and will increase his stat as stated. If it is an item, he will take to his tableau.
The next target would be the player. However, he will only attack the player if he has the same or higher Magic points than the player. His MAGIC minus the location’s danger level becomes the Shadow that attack the player.
If the result is 0, the AI doesn’t attack the player.
That means, even though this is not the player’s turn, player need to defeat the shadow or the HP becomes 0. Player can use his Magic or play cards with the same value as the Shadow’s power. With cards, player will then get Magic equal to the Shadow’s power.
If the player succeeds, the player can take one of the AI’s items or skills. Then, we take the AI’s token out of the location and end his turn. He will reenter the map again with the remaining skills, items and current stats but losing all of the Magic.
If the player take the last skill, the AI will draw a new one again, at the start of AI’s next turn. Player can still lose if the player has no enough Magic or cards.
When that happens, the HP becomes 0, player will immediately draw 1 card and get 1 Magic just like the official rule. At the start of the player’s turn, player will have no choice but to rest.
AI will not be able to attack the player again when the player is in the HP=0 state. Instead, AI will continue with the MAIN PHASE until he reach more than 8 Magic.
The last action the AI can do is from the locations as the lowest priority. It is possible that the AI can do several actions in a row based on the CHECK 1 result.
AI will get all of the benefits like getting skills and increase the stat from the same location over and over again.
This way the AI can eventually enter the Magic Barrier in the Tower of Death. When that happens and CHECK 1 result allows him to do an action, the AI wins.
Player attacking the AI
So, the idea is during the player’s turn, the player can try to attack the AI if both of them are at the same location. The purpose is only to get items or skills from the AI, so the AI is like a moving inventory.
When a player does this, the AI’s stats then become the TEST DIFFICULTY that the player can choose one from. Player can only choose the highest stat of the AI.
Resolving the test is the same as the official rule for regular mode.
If the player succeeds, the player claim the reward and the AI will do TELEPORT TO CHECK 1. However, if the player fails, the HP becomes 0.
Comments and Suggestion
Again, this is just an idea of how we can use the diceless Power Card system as the randomizer to create an AI or virtual player. There are still a lot of things that I haven’t thought about between the AI and the existing element of the game.
I’m glad that I gave this a try. It is a nice design exercise and now I know how complicated in can be when designing a game. I need to try it out more and as I stated before, I may not have the means to do it.
While I like the idea of how the AI works, but it can be exhausting to almost play like two characters. I keep forgetting to reveal a new event phase for either my turn or the AI.
We will recycle through the power card deck even more. I guess if this can be added to the multiplayer, each player can take turns running the AI.
Hopefully anybody or Jack Darwid, the designer himself can use this idea and come up with a better version.
Expansions / Accessories
The 2nd edition of Adventure of D was offered via Kickstarter in 2020. While we just need the base game to get a full game, we can also purchase an Upgrade Pack.
For additional $17, we can get a bigger box, 4 Environment cards, and 3 resin acrylic Player tokens. The price already includes shipping but it can vary depending on the address, especially during Covid-19.
We can still purchase this directly from the designer. They may have some extra copies but mostly just to satisfy the Kickstarter backers.
Deluxe Box
The base game box is made of paper, similar to the cards and it can no longer fit the cards once we use sleeve. With the bigger box, we can fit all of the sleeved cards with the extra tokens.
The designer said that he used Ultra Pro sleeve to test but we have to throw away the base game box. If we use the thinner sleeve, we can still fit the base game box in the deluxe box and still have room for more cards.
The size of the deluxe box is 10.7 x 8 x 8 cm for the lid. Somehow the base box is a bit taller so the lid will not cover everything. The inner part of the box has about 10.5 x 7.3 x 8.3 cm space.
I think we are supposed not to lay down the cards but put them standing horizontally. Then we can place the other components, rulebook, Stat cards and tokens above the cards.
We can lay the cards down but it will be harder if we just want to take some of the cards. Most of the cards will be used in any session, anyway.
Acrylic Hero Tokens
These custom tokens have the shape of the illustrated character from the paper tokens. I think it is a bit smaller than the picture and the thickness of each is about 1 cm.
I think each of them are made of two pieces of acrylic glued together. Then, they cover both sides with the illustration from the paper tokens.
I think I would prefer they use a white color for the middle part instead of leaving them transparent. From some angle, if we look at them from above, we can see through the illustration from the location cards or event cards.
As I said above in the section for the paper tokens, we don’t necessarily need them. We can just use flat paper token and put them on the card. There is no need to have a standing token but if they are standing, it will be easier to pick them when we want to move them or place event cards.
Environment Cards
If we purchase the Upgrade Pack, we will also get 4 Environment cards and one Thank You Card in a plastic zip lock bag. These 4 Environment cards will add some extra rules that can change the gameplay.
Some of the rules can make the game even harder. On the other hand, the Environment card will give extra rules that can help players as well.
Ice Wall. If we play with this card, the map doesn’t wrap around. So, it is like a there are walls that cover the grid. That means, the moving will be more difficult. However, we are now allowed to Teleport from any location by either spending cards or Magic.
Rainy Days. With this card, it introduce flipping the location cards. In the base game we only flip the card for the setup and just play that variant for the session. Now, everytime the event shows up, the corresponding location card get flipped. However, players will now have the action to flip as well.
Old Map. With this card, we can now play with 6×2 grid instead of the regular 4 x3. It also introduce moving diagonally but it will be more expensive.
Magic Realm. This environment card introduce Swapping a pair of locations. It will move the Hero and the events on those two cards. For this one, players can pay to prevent that.
At the back of these Environment cards, there is a rule but more like recommendation of how to use them. The designer suggests on using them after we have played the base game a couple times.
Only then, we can pick one randomly. Later we can try to use not just one in a game. The designer also said that he will publish a campaign for solo mode using these Environment cards in October 2020.
For those who didn’t buy the Upgrade Packs, these cards are just additional rule. We can take notes or print the card ourselves.
Solo Campaign
Here is the link for the rulebook of Solo Campaign.
This is not included within the expansion but we can download the file from the publisher page. To play the campaign requires the expansion.
The first part of that file is about the SOLO STAGES where anybody can start playing the solo mode starting with the easiest difficulty or TRAINING mode before they increase the difficulty into expert mode.
The second part is the solo campaign, which is totally separated from the Solo stages. In this solo campaign, we will be playing three games of Adventure of D Solo mode, and each of them will have additional rules and twist.
We start with the first part and our progress of the game like the hero stats will be carried over to the second and third part. There are new things like enemies that will be introduced in the first part and we have to defeat them at least during the second part and something similar in the second to the third part.
I haven’t tried this and I can only give a bit of overview.
Part 1: Chaos Rider
In this part there are 3 enemies that we can defeat and will have to defeat all of them at the end of Part 2. These enemies will be moving or teleporting from location to location and when the hero is at the same location, the hero must spend their resources either card or magic.
To defeat them, during the main phase, the player must discard one card either STR / INT / AGI card. For these Riders, we have to use the paper tokens that comes with the base game, assuming we are using the acrylic one for the hero.
We can use other means to replace them and remove from the board after we have defeated the Rider. The Riders are just additional threats. We still need to defeat Elzoof within 7 rounds or 6 timer cards.
Also, the game will use one of the Environment card randomly.
At the end of PART 1, the hero will keep their stats to the PART 2 but remove additional skills and remaining items. We don’t have to defeat the Riders during Part 1 but if we do, it will be easier during Part 2.
PART 2: CHAOS RODS AND GIANT GARGOYLE
In Part 2, they introduce another threat, CHAOS RODS. Each of these 4 RODS will increase the TEST DIFFICULTY by 1 when they are on the map.
The Rods are just Event cards we draw randomly from the Power Deck which we set aside, not place them on the locations. However, we do need to go to that card’s location in order to destroy the Rod so we can decrease the Test Difficulty.
They are not considered as Event cards in the sense that we will take the reward after destroying them. Rather, they are just the effect of events that will affect the entire map unless we get rid of it.
During this Part 2, we have to defeat all of the remaining RIDERS from the previous part. The Rods, however, can stay but like the Riders, we have to eventually destroy them during Part 3.
Also, for the Part 2, we have to defeat GIANT GARGOYLE at the Tower of Death location. Essentially, the special action from the Tower of Death card is ignored and replaced by the one to defeat this Giant Gargoyle.
To defeat him, the hero must have an 8 for either of the Hero’s stats as the requirement. Then, the hero will HEAL 1 and must SHOW either STR / INT / AGI card. If we fail to do so, we will instantly lose the game.
This has to be done in 7 rounds as well. Also, we will use a different environment card randomly.
At the end of PART 2, the hero will keep the item but remove all of the additional skills and reset the Hero stats. The RIDER must be defeated but the remaining Rods will be carried over to the last part of the campaign.
Part 3: THE PORTAL OF CHAOS
In Part 3 of the campaign, there is no additional elements added to the game, other than the remaining RODS from the part 2. We still need to defeat Elzoof as in regular game but there are some twists.
First, we start at the Tower of Death. Second, the Rods will still increase the Test Difficulty but we don’t have to destroy them. The final twist is that we will use no timer cards.
Instead, each end of the round, we will EXHAUST one of the location randomly by choosing one from CHECK 2. In addition, the more exhausted locations, the more Magic or Power Card the hero will have to spend in order to survive. If the hero fails to do that, they will immediately lose the game.
There is no way to recover the exhausted locations. We will lose the game if all of the locations are exhausted. However, similar to rejecting events, the hero can deny the result of CHECK 2 in order to save some of the locations.
We will also lose the game if we let the Tower of Death get exhausted or if we exhaust the already exhausted locations.
Based on just looking at the rules, this campaign will definitely add extra difficulties for the solo mode. I was hoping that the designer could add something to help make the game easier but there is none.
So, for those who think this game, especially the solo mode is not challenging enough, they might want to give this campaign a try.
Session Reports and Pictures
Usually, I share a session report of playing a game on BGG. Here are the links of each session for this game.
I also put turn-by-turn pictures of a session and unboxing pictures for every game on my collection that anybody can find on my Instagram. For this game, search for #AdventureOfDAtHomeOfMark on IG for all of the sessions.
Also, check out my blog on BGG. I occasionally write a detailed session report / written playthrough for a game that I’ve played. In each, I will explain the decision process during the game every turn.
August 2024 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram and on TikTok. Started as Priest, using the Tower of Death with healing room and 3 of a kind cards to win.
May 2024 session and more pictures of that session on IG. Started as Dwarf, played with the same side of locations except the Tower of Death, first card but the Purple side.
March 2024 session and more pictures of that session on IG. This was a Full Session Report. Solo Play, starting with a Ranger. One major error.
November 2023 session and more pictures of that session on IG.
February 2023 session and more pictures of that session on IG.
October 2022 session and more pictures of that session on IG.
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Summary
Adventure of D (2nd Edition) is another big game in a small box. It is a fantasy adventure card game that comes with just a deck of about 100 cards, which is very portable, compact and affordable.
Like the other game from Jack Darwid, the designer, the game can be played in several different modes, solo, cooperative or competitively up to 3 players. In this game, we will play as a hero trying to defeat Elzoof, an evil sorcerer in his Tower of Death.
Before we can enter, we need to train our character by increasing three hero stats, Strength, Intelligence, and Agility. To do that, we have to travel around the cursed island to meet some Masters, fighting against Monsters and completing quests.
The map of the island is made of cards that will form a 4 x 3 grid. How we lay down these location cards can be different from game to game because we can just swap the cards. These cards have two sided as well, so with this one variable we can already get a lot of replay value.
The game uses what they call as diceless power card system. It is basically a deck of 60 cards that can be a randomizer. However, these cards are also multi purpose cards with several features on each card, as item or as event.
These power card is also multi use cards, that player will take them as their starting hand, and use them for several uses. They can be the hit points or HP of the hero, as a move card, or play card using the Power value. Everytime we want to play these cards to take actions, there are a lot of things to consider.
With just a hand limit of 6, we have to consider as well what will be our next actions and which card to keep for that. Hand management combined with Multi use card mechanism makes this a very deep game.
The most interesting element of this game is probably the player interactions from accepting and rejecting new events that will come out. The idea is In competitive mode, since we have to be the first to beat the final boss to win, we can prevent other players from accessing some of the events. Especially an easy one.
But this idea can also be used in cooperative mode where we can help each other to have those easier events. There is not much of other confrontational or directly attacking other player. That makes the game really family friendly good for carebear players.
Sadly the solo implementation of this game remove this interesting element. The idea is there but not as good as the other two modes. For the solo and cooperative mode, the racing element is replaced with timer.
Somehow that makes the game a bit too restricting even in lower difficulty level. We may need to ignore a lot of things to win the game in those 2 modes. The competitive is probably the best way to play Adventure of D.
Other elements like items, Hero skills, can give more setup variables for different game experience from game to game, but only as minor things. They are not even necessary to win the game but some can be very powerful.
With a lot of randomness from multiple variables, luck can be a major factor of deciding how likely we can win. It is still acceptable but not with the timer element.
For the size of the game, with a deck of just about 100 cards, Adventure of D is an optimally designed game. It can deliver an experience of a big game in a small box. A very portable and affordable game but they have to sacrifice the production value.
More Similar Games
There are many tabletop games out there whether a board or card game that might share some similarities with Adventure of D game. Some people may look for those similarities that they enjoy. It can be the mechanism or even just the same theme or setting.
Usually, a board game will have a lot of elements. It is kind of difficult find another game where everything is similar. Which is why, in this section, I try to break them into things that I enjoy from the game and point out games that share the same experience.
These next games are just some games that I have tried, played and written a review for them, up to this point. Check out the link to each article to find out more and also check this Complete list for more games.
Also, check out my blog on BGG. There are more games that I’ve played but I haven’t had the chance to write a review for each.
Adventure / Exploration
As the title of this game suggests, Adventure or Exploration is the main theme of this game. This is not just about moving from one spot to another on a grid, so there is a spatial puzzle. But there is also the element of chasing, specifically the Event that can lead to pushing your luck while the event is still there.
That exact event that can help the player progression only happens in that specific location. Players also have a way to push their luck by rejecting the event until they run out of magic or until they find the right event.
However, events are temporary. Players should focus on just exploring the action on Location cards and make a plan how to move between that place and the location to rest efficiently.
One similar game with those aspects is Tiny Epic Defenders. This is a Tower Defense game but players can move their characters from one location to another to secure the location from getting destroyed. However, in order to win, players can get better chance to win by getting artifacts.
To do so, they need to move to exact location as where the Dire enemy is attacking. By taking the damage, the character has a chance to get a good Artifact. Of course, the character cannot just stand in that position all the time because then they cannot secure or defend the other locations. If enough locations were destroyed, then players lose the game.
Maquis is one of the thematic games that I think also has that similarity. In this one, the single player is trying to send the worker in specific location in the city to get resources or deliver goods. The challenge is that those workers need to find an escape route, avoiding patrols from getting caught. Failing to return home means that worker failed to do their task to gain or deliver goods.
While there is a spatial aspect but the exploration is not in the sense of discovering something new but more about securing what’s available.
Another thematic game with exploration theme is The Lost Expedition. The game is about exploring and surviving forest full of hazards in order to reach the lost city of Z. Players will get a hand of cards that they can play in arranged order to create the path for the explorers from their starting point to the end.
The cards may show hazards or some potential resources they can take. Most of the choices are a bit complex, not obvious answer and can make things worse. For some dangerous aspect, players probably should avoid the card completely by skipping them. If there is a spatial challenge, it is more about a single line or one dimensional.
One of the games in Nautical setting but with exploration idea is Voyages. This is a print and play, roll and write game. Players will try to move their ship on a board full of hexes by rolling 3 d6. One die will determine the direction, another for the speed or how far the ship move and the last one can be used for completing task on the ship.
The ship may land on an island, pick a cargo or sailors on the ocean space. Usually the ship has to stop the movement exactly on where the cargo or sailor is. There is a way to manipulate the dice face to help getting that exact value.
Another game with similar theme to that is Riverside. In this one, the cruise ship will move a random number of space in a single line river. Along this riverside, players can find a couple of villages to run different kind of excursion for the cruise passengers.
Every round, players can launch a boat from where the cruise is to one of these villages as long as they are within 3 spaces from the cruise to score. There is a way to increase the range. The exploration is more about timing, waiting until the cruise is close enough.
But there is a restriction of how they can score from those villages. Each village has different value to score. Players can only score the next one of the same excursion type only if the next score is higher than the previous one.
The locations and their value are open information right from the start. They can make a rough plan which excursion to score first and where. So, the game is about preparing to make sure when the boat gets there, player can score high enough. Like waiting in Adventure of D in one location and somehow there is a nearby event that they can try to complete the challenge.
Character Progression with Variable Powers
I already mentioned above that Adventure of D has the aspect of character progression. Player starts with a character with unique ability and one of the 3 stats either Intelligence, Agility or Strength. To reach the final boss location, they need to level up the character according to the requirement. Ideally they also need to learn some new abilities in order to help complete the final challenge.
From the same designer as Adventure of D, character progression can also be found in the Dungeon of D, which is the solo inspiration for Adventure of D and 6×6 Tales, a roll and write game.
For games with this element, I already mentioned Tiny Epic Defenders. However, maybe to get that element, it requires the Dark War expansion. With this expansion, players can gain Experience points to level up the characters and eventually learn new skill.
Similar to that idea but a deck building game is probably Hero Realms, especially with the Character Packs and Campaign expansion. Everytime player completes an encounter, the character may gain a Treasure card which can be added just for that class as their starting deck or they may gain a Character Point. The Character point can be spent to upgrade that class cards or additional health card.
In a way, deck building is one way that a game can use for character progression. The Big Book of Madness is another deck building game with this element. Each player can start with different wizard and their unique power and elements. As the game progresses, players can buy more powerful cards not just from that character’s initial element but the other as well.
Another game with character progression but uses dice like this is One Deck Dungeon: Forest of Shadows, or even the original version. Thematically this is a dungeon crawler game. Player will start with a character with a class and ability. As they face more enemies, they will level up the character, add more items and skills to become stronger. Ideally the character has to be developed according to the Final Boss’ stats.
Assigning Multiuse Cards for Different Phases
The last part that for me, makes Adventure of D interesting is the idea of multiuse cards. Not exactly how the game utilize a single deck for different purposes as it is unique for this designer. I’m talking about specifically of how players can use those cards differently.
In this game, each card itself is the HP for the character, one card for one HP. At the same time, each card can have one of 4 different colors with a value between 0 to 6. The value works for various things like moving or to complete some challenges but by playing the card, the character will lose their HP. Sometimes players, if they have the ability, they can discard specific card to trigger some powers to help that challenge.
In a single turn of this game, the active player has to decide what they are going to do in the next couple of actions by assigning those cards. If they get lucky, they can save those cards, meaning saving HP. Otherwise, they have to lose the cards just to survive and maybe cancel their plan.
So, it is not just about the Multiuse cards but how players have to prepare for various phases the entire turn. Player might want to use one card for one way but then the game forces the player to use the other way.
Aerion is another one with Multiuse card. However, in this one, we don’t actually have a hand of cards. Instead there are up to 6 cards that we can try to get by having the right set of dice. However, to manipulate the dice, we can discard those cards to reroll. If we are not careful enough, we might end up discarding the card that we are trying to get.
So, while we are doing just 1 action, taking up to just 1 card, we need to plan ahead. Based on the initial dice roll and the available cards to be discarded, we need to figure out how likely we can get that required poker set from the dice.
Peloponnes Card Game is another one. In this one, we have Coin Cards that on the front show different kind of resources. We can spend them as Coin for Bidding in earlier part of the round or keep them and use them in the latter part of the round. Whether it is for the resources to construct the building or in future rounds to pay for food.
Fleet, the card game one also has this Multiuse card. Every round, we have to do auction first, launch a boat and hire Captain for the launched boats. All of them must be done using the same Boat Cards.
Different Boat Cards have different value of money. We also can only launch a boat that we have the license for. Like Peloponnes, the bidding part has random part that may force players to spend more cards. So, we will be planning the entire round, first by assigning cards for the last two actions and then if we can afford, we spend more to win the bid.
I think The Lost Expedition can be considered as well. In this one, every round, we will get like 6 cards and we have to assign them into 2 phases to create a line of cards. Each card will have icons that becomes the action and penalties that the character must take.
The goal is to make sure that the character can go through those cards from left to right safely while getting the necessary resources. Some cards can even cancel or skip the effect of another card. Each phase will then rearrange the card differently.
Oh My Goods! is another card game with Multiuse cards. The cards can either become the Factory we are building that round or the resources to start the existing factory or even to boost the production.
Between the planning and the phase where we actually play the card, there is a 2nd market phase which may provide the necessary resources to start the engine. However, during the planning we have to choose which factory to run and how efficient the worker will be. Allocating the cards becomes making a plan B, in case the Market doesn’t go our way.
For non card, multiuse components, I already mentioned Voyages. Every round, we roll 3 d6 and have to assign each for 3 different uses. One for the Speed of the ship or how far the ship moves, another one for direction and the last one to complete some tracks and gain bonuses. The current position and spatial aspect will become the restriction to use one value over the other for that specific purpose.
Regicide is a game that can be played with the Standard deck of playing cards with 52 cards in 4 suits. This one also has that Multiuse cards that players need to assign them in different phases. Each card depicts a character with a value and a suit and the suit will trigger special ability.
The value means how powerful the character’s attack power and how powerful their ability. At the same time, that value works as health, how much damage that the card can take from the enemy. So, players might want to use the card for their ability but if the enemy’s attack is so powerful, the player has to keep the character to take the damage later.
Final Words
That is all I can share with you about Adventure of D (2nd Edition) Card Game. This is a second game that I have tried from the same designer and publisher.
I probably have missed something. Please don’t hesitate to point that out and share what you know related to this game and I will update this article.
I keep saying that these tabletop games can be a good way to spend some time without looking at the screen of our gadget. If we do have someone close, that we can play with, there are games where we can play cooperatively just like Adventure of D.
So, what is your experience on playing this game? If you know other games similar or even better than this, please do share via the comment section below. I would love to learn and play that game, assuming I can get a copy.
This article is just my notes about what I can find from the internet. Hopefully this can help anybody who reads it.
Thanks for reading.
Mark M.