I hate getting phone calls. It’s 2019, if you need to talk to me just send a Facebook message or text me. However, there are a few calls I hate to miss.
I hate missing calls from my kids. Right now, none of them have their own phones. So they will steal my wife’s phone and call me. Having the older ones ask me when I’m coming home, or telling me to get pizza after work is adorable. And even when the baby manages to unlock the phone and call back the last person called (usually me) it’s great to hear her giggle with excitement when I answer.
I also hate missing calls from out of own friends. Yeah, they should probably send a message. But when I don’t get the chance to see them in person, I’ll cut them some slack. I would like to actually talk and hear their voice a bit.
Lastly, and maybe the most important, I hate missing the call to adventure.
…
You know? Call to Adventure. Like the game I’m reviewing today. That was an awfully long set up for a bad joke. I’m sorry. I’ll try better next time.
Call to Adventure
Publisher: Brotherwise Games
Designer: Johnny O’Neal, Christopher O’Neal
Theme:
This game is all about theme. It takes everything that’s fun and exciting about creating a character for your typical role playing campaign and turns that into a game in itself.
There are good, heroic paths that show your character being pure of heart and virtuous. Then there are… other options that pave the way of the anti-hero, filled with the chance of corruption.
Yes, the game can be played with end game scoring in mind, but it’s just as easy to play based purely on crafting the right story for your character. At the start of the game you will choose one Origin, one Motivation, and one Destiny out of your randomly dealt cards. So you do have some options as to what kind of character you want to craft. Maybe you’re a Student (origin) who is a Seeker of Truth (motivation), and you’ll eventually become the Hero of Destiny (destiny). Or perhaps you start out as a simple Performer who wants more out of life, and becomes a non-stop Thrill Seeker. This takes you on a journey to be known as an Intrepid Explorer.
As you play out your story, you will gain traits. These traits translate to runes you can use to help complete other challenges on your journey. There are simple quests, monstrous perils to overcome, evil adversaries, and helpful allies along the way.
Gameplay:
The game is actually pretty simple. Your story is divided in to 3 acts. In each act you will need to complete 3 challenges before moving to the next act. To complete a challenge you will first choose a challenge card. Most of these cards have two paths. The two paths offer different ways your character responds to the event on the card to overcome it. Some are good, some bad, some are kind of neutral. What’s important as far as gameplay is concerned, is the reward for each path. You’ll want to choose a reward that is beneficial to your character. These rewards can give you story icons (part of a set collection mechanic for end-game scoring), traits (access to runes for completing quests of that type, more on that in a minute), and straight up victory points.
Once you have decided which path you are going to complete, you will cast the 3 starter runes. Each of these runes has a value of “1” on one side, and “0” on the other. If you have any of the trait icons on your character or previously completed challenges, you can add runes of that type to your attempt. These special runes are worth “1” on one side, and “2” on the other. So once you decide on the challenge, choose the appropriate path, add your applicable runes, you make your roll. Add up the values of all the runes showing. If the total is equal to or more that the difficulty of the path you chose, you success
fully complete the challenge. Add it to your character’s board in the correct act.
If you fail, the challenge is discarded, and you gain an Experience token. So, even when you fail you learn from the experience. These tokens can be spent to add dark runes to your challenge attempt. Just like the special trait runes, dark runes are worth “1” on one side, “2” on the other. However, if you get the “2” side, you move your marker down one on your corruption track. This can affect victory points at the end of the game. There are also other cards and abilities that will give you the option of spending experience tokens to gain an advantage.
Speaking of cards, there are two types of action cards: Hero and Anti-Hero. These cards can have multiple effects, but many of them will either give you access to additional runes during a challenge attempt or make challenges easier. These cards can be rewards for completing some challenges or given through other abilities.
When the first player gains their third card in act 3, the end of game is triggered. All other players get one additional turn. You will add up points based on challenges you’ve completed, experience tokens you have leftover (at a 1:1 ratio for victory points), any Hero or Anti-Hero cards you played are worth points, the set collection story icons I mentioned earlier, and finally the Destiny card you chose will impact your victory points in some way. The player with the most victory points win, but it’s becoming a custom in my house that we go around the table and you briefly tell your character’s story when you let everyone know your final score.
For Parents:
A lot to unpack here. First, set up is very easy with the great inserts. The tray for all runes lifts right out and keeps all different types easily organized. All types of cards have their own space to fit in, a place for Experience tokens, and even a spot for the score sheets. If you’re playing with kids, or after kids go to bed, set up time is very short with this one. And that is made even easier thanks to the great insert.
As far as playing this game with kids goes, it is amazing. My oldest two, ages 6 and 8, absolutely love it. Especially my 8 year old. When playing she was getting in to crafting the perfect story for her character. There were a few moments where she would look at me and say “my character wouldn’t do any of these things.” So I would get a little more animated, and start telling her character’s story and show her how one of the challenges could fit. Maybe it’s not something that her character would set out to accomplish, like being in a naval battle. But what if she was just taking the ship to get to the land where she wants to travel. And that ship is attacked by pirates. She didn’t want to fight the pirates, but they are trying to board the ship she’s on. Now, what will she do? And my daughter smiled, and was able to buy in to that being a part of her character’s story.
My 6 year old son, bless his heart, did awful. He chose a destiny that rewarded him for being a corrupt Anti-Hero. But once he started playing, he did heroic things, avoided corruption, and defeated adversaries. He had fun, his story was just that of one who did heroic things, despite their destiny. Which was a fun story to tell, but it didn’t gain him many points.
This game really shines when encouraging the players to embrace the story of their character, and tell that story at the end. Helping my children tell those stories, making them sound as epic as possible was fun. You could see that they took pride in the character they created when they realized the story it told.
Final Thoughts:
I have played Call to Adventure with my gaming group, with my children, with my non-gaming wife, and have even played it solo. It has been an absolute blast in every setting. That is a sign of a very special game.
I had the privilege of running demos of Call to Adventure for the Brotherwise Games booth at PAX Unplugged, 2018. I wanted to take one of the demo copies home with me right then. It is such a fun experience. And maybe that’s the best way to put it. It’s a game that’s meant to be experienced, and yes there’s a score to determine the winner. But this game is more about how it stretches your imagination through storytelling in ways that the game cannot translate.
Here’s my most thematic moment I’ve experienced so far: While playing with my gaming group, I had a character who started as a Peasant, but became a very heroic character. My Destiny was to be The People’s Champion, so many of the challenges I completed had to do with defending the innocent, supporting the commoners, and rallying against the king. It was act 3, so the game would be ending soon. One of the other players attempted a challenge I had hoped would last until my turn. It was a great battle, and one of the paths was to “Inspire the Rebels”. That’s something I need to do. That would be my character’s crowning achievement. But like I said, another player attempted it, and failed. He tried to lead the rebels, but was struck down. And hope was lost. But then I had a card in my hand. A card that read “When another player fails a challenge, you may immediately attempt that challenge.” I played it. So after my friend had crumbled under the weight of the rebels’ cause on his shoulders, I stepped forward. I raised my weapon in the air, and gave a speech that gave goosebumps. A speech that would be told and retold to generations. I cast my runes and was successful. I had inspired the rebels and help lead them to victory. We then added up victory points and I lost by 1 or 2 points… but that didn’t matter. I had my epic moment.
And that’s why this game is fun. It’s a light game, and can be played very casually. You can play it with peers and focus on the score, play it with kids or non-gamers and focus on the storytelling, or even play it with the solo rules for a fun character creation adventure. One criticism I’ve seen is that after a few playthroughs you start seeing the same cards over and over. Especially the Hero and Anti-Hero cards. That’s not a serious concern of mine, but I can see how that is valid for some players. That makes it all the more encouraging that multiple expansions are already scheduled. The first one, Name of the Wind, will be coming out this summer, and is based on the Name of the Wind series by Patrick Rothfuss. The next expansion inspired by Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson will be coming out next year.
No matter who you play games with, there’s something to enjoy here. You won’t want to miss the Call to Adventure.
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