Chronicles of Drunagor - RFY / WFY
Review copy provided by the publisher
Chronicles of Drunagor: Age of Darkness felt like one of those games where the biggest hype train arrived at the station after the game had already departed. It had a very successful Kickstarter campaign in which roughly 3,500 backers pledged over $500,000 to the atmospheric dungeon crawler, but there wasn’t as much clamor about the game until the first wave of reviews started coming in and it started to arrive on backer’s doorsteps. That’s when the retroactive FOMO and the intense desire by many to play the game began to truly foment.
I was fortunate enough to play one of the advance copies of the game with Alex from BoardGameCo and then I’ve been playing it on my own since then, and I’ve definitely enjoyed my experience with the game. Enough so that I joined the Apocalypse expansion campaign on Gamefound in order to get the new content. I’ve shied away from the larger pledge options (mainly for the safety of my bank account), but I’m firmly in the camp of appreciating what Chronicles of Drunagor is doing.
And I think it’s a well-founded appreciation of the game. The over-5,000 backers on the Apocalypse and reprint campaign seem to agree with me as well because this second crowdfunding effort has almost tripled its first funding level as of this writing.
But that’s neither here nor there. What matters is not the number of people pledging to buy the game or the amount of fundraising that it’s able to accrue. Instead, what matters is whether Chronicles of Drungaor is worth your time. Is it right for you? Is it wrong for you? These are the questions that keep me up in the late morning…
Let’s open up the Interaction Book, pick a page, and see what story starts to unfold.
Overview
Chronicles of Drunagor - Age of Darkness is a dungeon crawler. It’s fully compatible with solo or cooperative play and it mixes tactical combat in close quarters with progressive character leveling. The story will evolve piece by piece on three-dimensional terrain as a tiered system of dungeon trays brings locations to life. Characters will explore these places shrouded in darkness and try to fight back against the tidal wave of evil that looms large over the continent of Daren.
Each scenario in the game can be played as a one-shot adventure by players, but they also thread together into one large storyline. Adventures have unique rules for the setup, encroaching darkness, and player objectives, so when it’s all combined together, it is a continuously changing narrative and strategic puzzle.
Using an initiative tracker, heroes and enemies will activate over the course of multiple rounds until the scenario objectives are complete, a hero dies, or a hero is consumed by darkness and cannot cleanse themselves.
Interaction points throughout a scenario can be approached in a number of ways and doors can be randomized through digital app integration so that an adventure will rarely ever play out the same unless players cycle through the scenario a ton of times.
The choices that players make while adventuring, as well as the potential for growth from the skills, abilities, and equipment that characters can access, make for a truly customizable experience for players.
Theme
Amidst the shadowed boughs of the ancient forest known as the Dead Irall, a powerful master of the necromantic arts has called forth the very dead, risen to his command. Shambling forth from the carpet of dead leaves, these undead now serve his purposes. They search deep underground, seeking an elder evil that, if harnessed, could allow this master of undeath to rule over the entire world, forever tipping the balance towards evil.
However, brave individuals have come forth to search these dark woods. Driven by righteousness, wanderlust, or their own thirst for power, they have gathered together to oppose the minions of Darkness—and few are aware that their victory is now the only thing that can prevent the oncoming Age of Darkness...
Drunagor is a world besieged by evil. Daren is a land in need of heroes. But heroes don’t appear out of anywhere. They are forged by adversity. Tempered in the fire of peril. And sharpened on the whetstone of conflict.
If you want to save the world, you’ve got to step forward and do your part. Chronicles of Drunagor invites players on an epic 18-adventure journey across the continent of Daren with the promise of a rich story and the opportunity for personal discovery and growth. These characters will evolve into skillful practitioners of the art of death.
Hone their skills. Unlock their abilities. And unleash them on the growing Darkness.
Accessibility
This is probably where there is a pause in the suspension of disbelief. A good story keeps you in that space, causing you to forget where you’re at and focusing you on the immersive adventure.
Chronicles of Drunagor stumbles a little bit in the accessibility department given the scope of what’s happening on the table. There are Game Trayz inserts, and while a well-organized game is always welcome, the final production copies of the inserts don’t fully encapsulate all of the components as they should. In some games, this would be a minor complaint, but in a game as expansive as this, any inhibiting factor that takes more time for the player to deal with is another barrier to smooth gameplay. The reprint of Chronicles of Drunagor: Age of Darkness plans to address this, but it’s a small hiccup here that interferes with a game that wants you to be sucked in.
Ultimately, though, the trays are a minor element in what could scare off players.
The main bulk of it is simply that—the bulk. Chronicles of Drunagor takes up so much space on the table. I have a dining table that is 108” by 40”. It’s big. This dungeon crawler fully commands two-thirds of it while I’m sitting in the center. And I still have situations in which the dungeon trays and adventure tiles sprawl out and get in the way of the initiative tracker or the three booklets or the remaining inserts. It’s just huge. Which makes it unwieldy. That will be a turnoff for some players, and there isn’t much you can do about it.
However…
Once you get into a rhythm with playing the game, you’ll get better at unpacking and packing the game. I’ve got a routine going and I’ve moved components around to better access what I need during a game. It still can take some time. But I’ve sped up the process.
Most players will probably find a similar system to ease the pain of setup for Chronicles of Drunagor. If you’re someone who has a gaming table with a recessed center space, though, do yourself a favor and keep this out and ready to play whenever you can so that you don’t have to mess with setup and breakdown whenever possible.
Gameplay
This is a game where the larger narrative is divided into smaller chunks, chapters, or scenarios. Whatever you want to call them. The campaign features one to five heroes opposing forces of evil, ranging from Rookie to Champion in difficulty.
In a scenario, players will use their character’s abilities in a round-based system to move, attack, and interact with the environment. They must keep in check the Darkness that pervades the land, manifested in the game with physical Darkness tiles and malignant Curse Cubes. And they must also protect their natural health against the assault of the enemy Monsters that populate each adventure.
There are a lot of paths that characters can explore—Dungeon Roles, Class Abilities, Class Skills, Equipment. It all informs what type of fighter the hero will be and how they’ll need to navigate the battlefield. And beyond the combat encounters, deep lore exists of the world and players can discover things about each scenario and the land of Daren at large through the Interaction Book, which has unique moments in every adventure with which players can engage.
And the quality of gameplay, the return on investment for your time, deepens as you progress through the campaign. The more you unlock, the more a character feels powerful and adaptable to each scenario.
Granted, I’m only playing this solo right now, but I’m having a really good time. I imagine it would be a very fun and engaging group play with the right set of people around the table ready to dive in.
But if you want to know if Chronicles of Drunagor has the gameplay goods, then I feel it delivers.
Modes of Play
The two biggest draws to the game will be solo and cooperative play, specifically in the larger, connected narrative of the game’s campaign. One or multiple characters will be pit against the overwhelming forces of Darkness and must prevail in order to cleanse Daren of the evil that plagues it.
However, there are more ways to experience Chronicles of Drunagor.
You can set up one-shot adventures using the different scenarios in the book. There are Level Up: Heroes cards and specific one-shot rules that are outlined for the adventures and players will just follow those rules in order to create a single session of the game at the table.
And then there is even a player-versus-player mode to try if you want to remove the cooperative element of the game and have the heroes face off in a fight to the death. There are changes to how Dungeon Roles, Cubes, Effects, Conditions, and Monsters all operate in a PvP game, but the back of the rulebook outlines how it all works.
So there are numerous ways to engage with the content (even just the core box) in Chronicles of Drunagor.
Innovation
The Action Cube system only gets more interesting as characters level up and unlock more skills. Dungeon Roles become more nuanced. Class Abilities get stronger and more specialized. Leveled Skills accentuate a character’s strengths in unique ways. And all of these characteristics and actions are accessible in the innovative cube system where players select what they want to do with Melee, Ranged, Agility, and Wisdom Cubes (as long as those spots aren’t blocked by Curse or Trauma cubes).
Whenever a player runs out of Action Cubes, they must recall them and suffer a Curse Cube, which blocks that action for the rest of the adventure until that Curse Cube is cleansed. This creates tension and player anxiety (in a good way) as decisions must be made as to what actions take less priority in any given scenario. Actions on a player’s turn take up Action Cubes, but so do Reactions against Monster attacks, so players must weigh the choice between suffering attacks and negative conditions against the faster depletion of their Action Cubes and the accumulation of Curse Cubes.
It’s exciting when you correctly block the right actions, only to cleanse them later and keep your momentum. But it’s equally nerve-wracking when you start to suffer from more Curse Cubes and your action selection slims down as an adventure continues.
This emotional rollercoaster only gets bigger and swingy-er as the characters grow, gaining more abilities to mitigate the Curses and the Darkness but also increasing the agony when that one power or ability has to be blocked in favor of others.
Action selection in Chronicles of Drunagor is one of the most satisfying game mechanisms I’ve experienced in big dungeon crawl experiences.
Pricing
If you’re just getting the core box, it will likely cost over $100. Depending on how you value expansive dungeon crawlers, this could either be way too much or right in a comfortable range. For all of the additional content in the first wave of the game, you’re looking a several hundred. Currently, on the Gamefound campaign for the Apocalypse pledge, the full gameplay bundle for Chronicles of Drunagor: Age of Darkness is $340. The Hero Pledge that includes the core box and Kickstarter stretch goals is $115. The new Apocalypse content, without the big boss miniatures, is $95. To get absolutely everything, you’re looking at over $550 depending on what add-ons you might want.
It can get really really expensive. But I do think the Hero Pledge level is worth the price. The level of experience that you get out of Chronicles of Drunagor makes it one of the most compelling dungeon crawlers I’ve played and I believe most players will greatly enjoy the opportunity to either go solo or join with others in a progressive campaign with characters who evolve and power up over the course of the story.
I’m not sure what the retail plans are for this game, but with over 8000 backers between both campaigns, I imagine that the game will also be available on the secondary market over the next couple of years.
All in all, a good value at the entry price point, but it will greatly vary from player to player whether the pricing valuation makes sense as more content is considered.
Daniel Alves and Eurico Cunha are back with more Chronicles of Drunagor goodness and you can get just about any combination of content you want from the original game’s reprint and the new content. To get in on the game this time around, check out the Gamefound campaign that’s live right now.
If you’re interested in the publishers, learn more about Creative Games Studio.
Chronicles of Drunagor is…
Right for You!
Check out what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.
Read about all of the content on the Gamefound campaign.
Learn more at Creative Games Studio.