Hand of Fate: Ordeals is a tabletop game based on the multi-platform, storytelling deck-builder of the same name from Defiant Development. Please note: unless otherwise stated paid add ons from the Kickstarter Campaign are not included. If nothing else, Hand of Fate could lay claim to being the best-looking deckbuilder yet.Content Notes: Kickstarter Edition of Hand of Fate: Ordeals Board Game. Thanks to artist Jessie Gillespie (who provided the illustrations for the video game original) and the ubiquitous Ian O’Toole, the game has a magnificent table presence, with a vast, wood-and-burgundy central board, woodcut-style art on the cards and a wealth of sturdy tokens.
Still, we have no complaints about how it all looks. Co-op mode should mitigate this somewhat, but the rulebook includes only one measly three-scenario adventure, with further campaigns rather cynically held back for expansions.
The main game also swiftly turns samey, with the same encounters coming up during repeated plays. While the co-operative mode gives each character unique abilities, these are limited and utterly absent from the competitive base game, denying the characters any sense of individuality beyond the art on their boards and the shape of their minis. It’s all rather neat, but Hand of Fate does have its flaws. The danger being, you have to draw a certain number of cards blind, adding a frisson of risk to each scrap. Here, attack cards and cards from your deck are bound to a weapon (at the cost of some effort) and their accumulated points spent to fell foes. One of the most pleasing elements is the combat. Some cards provide 'effort', which is spent to pick up new, more powerful cards, while others still provide equipment, which goes straight onto a player-board tableau rather than into your discard pile, for extra, stacked-up benefits. The deckbuilding feeds into this through cards which provide food, which is the fuel for moving around the board, but also help in combat situations where you need to keep pushing on against numerous or powerful foes. This makes the game reminiscent of Tristan Hall’s Gloom of Kilforth albeit on a smaller scale, and with the encounters reset for each of the three boss levels. The hero with the most fame at the end triumphs – unless you’re playing the co-op (or solo) variation, in which case a mini ‘campaign’ is included for your group to attempt.Īustralian designer Michael ‘Barantas’ McIntyre combines these elements deftly, with encounter cards arranged facedown for miniatures to land on and turn to reveal events, both good and bad. They must explore and compete in a randomised, three-tiered mini-world to build their strength back up and defeat a trio of bosses: a Jack, a Queen and a fearsome King. Now we have the rather gloomily-titled Hand of Fate: Ordeals, a handsome-looking video game adaptation that combines deckbuilding with exploration-based adventure.Įach player chooses one of four characters, who have been magically sucked into a deadly metagame and stripped of all their memories, skills and equipment. Wizards of the Coast hybridised it with area control to pleasing effect for Tyrants of the Underdark, while last year Andrew Parks smartly bolted it onto dungeon-crawling and team skirmishing with Dungeon Alliance. Not that anyone should be trying to avoid it – it's a versatile and satisfying core mechanic that makes for great game escalation and tactical variation. Vaccarino invented the deckbuilder with Dominion, the genre’s become rather hard to avoid. Buy your copy of Hand of Fate: Ordeals here
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