A Call To Adventure - Board Game Review

Call To Adventure is a game Produced by Brotherwise games. In Call to Adventure players will choose their characters fate. Beginning with an origin, a motivation, and a destiny card will help to point the players in a direction they may go. The players will reveal their character's origin and motivation at the start of the game. These cards give players access to runes and abilities used throughout the game. A players destiny is kept a secret from other players. The destiny card will give players a path to more victory points during final scoring. As players progress through the game they will gain traits, and select challenges to face. These traits and challenges help to shape the story, give the character more experiences to use. The goal of the game is to be the one with the most victory points at the end.

In Call to Adventure players will cast runes to determine how successful their adventure is. Each rune is two-sided. Most show a symbol on them triggering success conditions. There are three base runes are used in every challenge. There are six other runes available throughout the game. These runes are strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. If a player chooses they can bring in dark runes to aid in their journey.

Each challenge in Call to Adventure has a difficulty rating and shows runes that can be used during the challenge. Players will select the three base runes, any of the origin and motivation cards will show runes available for use. Gathering the runes, the player will cast them to determine success or failure. Casting runes is a lot like rolling dice in other board games. It gives the game a unique twist.

Each challenge in Call to Adventure comes with the uncertainty of the runes. While a trait is simply gained, the fate of each challenge is in the casting of the runes. Success in the challenge the player gains the card and places it under the leftmost card with less than three cards under it. The cards are placed so the challenge they faced, or the trait shows the runes available for the next challenge the character will have access to. If a player fails the challenge the card is discarded and the player gains an experience token.

Experience tokens are used throughout Call to Adventure to aid the player. During a players turn they can spend an Experience Token to journey taking one of the face-up cards and replacing it with another from the same deck. A player may also use XP tokens to add dark runes to your attempt at a cost of one XP token per rune to a max of 3. Some origin and trait cards may allow you to gain or spend XP tokens in different ways throughout the game.

The traits and challenges that are available in Call to Adventure come during the three acts of the game. Players start with act 1 revealed. These traits and challenges are available for all players to attempt. Beginning with their origin, when a player has three cards under their origin it opens up the next act for players to select from. Each player can select cards from the act they are on, and the next act if it’s revealed. Players cannot select cards from acts behind their current act. Gameplay continues until one player gets three cards under their destiny card triggering the end game. Each player takes one final turn.

Each player begins Call to Adventure with 3 hero cards. These cards can be played during the game to aid your opponents. Throughout the game, players may gain access to more hero and antihero cards. The antihero cards may help you out when played, but most of them are used to thwart your opponents' plans.

Final scoring in Call to Adventure takes into account the entirety of the adventure. The destiny card is revealed. Following the Ending the Game scoring list players will determine the winner of the game. Destiny points, triumph, tragedy points, unspent XP tokens, and cards played throughout the game all add up to the final victory points.

Call to Adventure from Brotherwise Games is a fantastic story-building game. I have played it quite a bit with my local gaming group with a lot of positive feedback from players. I have played this solo as well with a lot of enjoyment.

As a writer, this game provides a lot of inspiration for story building. Each time it is played reveals a new story. During the game, if you fail a challenge the card is discarded. For me, the failure is still part of the adventure, so I will often keep the failures set aside by my character sheet showing more of my characters overall story.
For myself each time I’ve played I have worried less about winning and more about experiencing the story that comes from it.

This game is fantastic and I encourage anyone to pick it up and give it a try!

Who am I?
Joe DeMarco, single father, aspiring writer and game designer, software tester. I am a writer on Elfwood a seafaring campaign setting from Harsh realities. I enjoy all aspects of writing and storytelling. I get my inspiration at renaissance faires, conventions, playing games with friends, and even from the adventures of watching my son play and craft his own stories through his imagination.