Runebound Card Expansions Review

There seem to be two main schools of thought when it comes to expansions for boardgames. The 'fanbase camp' appear to applaude the production of any type of new material for their favourite game and gladly shower the manufacturer with their hard earned cash. Opposed to this are those in the 'cynical camp', who see expansions merely as a way to extend the life of a game, the manufacturer milking it for all it is worth and making lots more money without really having to think about it.

In truth, reality probably lies somewhere between the two. Take, for example, the Zombies!!! series. The base game is fairly average but a good laugh with the right crowd. The expansions add new boards and cards, often without adding anything remotely worth their cost. War of the Ring, on the other hand, has an expansion which adds a great deal of variety to the base game and offers two whole new scenarios, both of a smaller scale, with their own rulebook - essentially a new game in their own right. A lot does depend on an individual's opinion of a game: You won't be able to sell the Memoir '44 packs to someone with only a passing interest in gaming the 2nd World War. Neither will you be able to convince the anti-CCG lobby that Magic's quarterly release of a few hundered more cards is anything other than Wizards making full use of what could be described as a licence to print money ('Oh no!' cry the fans, 'It keeps the game fresh and exciting and people wouldn't buy if they didn't want to!).

Debating the moral or technical issues behind game expansions could lead to many a sleepless night, but it is worth bearing in mind when looking at expansions, as factors such as cost deserve increasing consideration. Those of us who don't think twice about spending £35 on a new game should perhaps take a little more time to think whether £15 - £25 for an expansion really adds that much more to the experence.

Which brings me to the crux of the article. Fantasy Flight have published a series of card based expansions for their popular Runebound game. Currently there are six available, two challenge expansions, two item/ally expansions and two adventure expansions. Each consists of a set of 30 cards and a rule sheet (the same sheet covers all of the new sets).

The Challenge Card Expansions are the most straightforward, with the new cards for each of the encounter decks just being shuffled in to the appropriate stack before play (or drawn from seperately if you like). Likewise, the Item and Ally expansions are also just shuffled into the market deck. What makes these four decks appealing is that obvious thought has gone into giving them a theme. The two challenge expansions are themed around wilderness/forest encounters and undead/horror challenges and the new encounters add interesting new ideas, such as an undead hero rising up and stalking players across the board, marked by an unused hero figure. Some themes even cross the two sets. One has a new red encounter called the 'Living Rune', while the other has one called the 'Unliving Rune'. Similarly you will find yourself facing the animated 'Skeleton of Margath' and the 'Heart of Margath'. No prizes for guessing which come from the undead deck and which from the forest deck.

Also themed are the item/ally expansions. 'Artifacts and Allies' introduces familiars which grant their masters new abilities while the 'Relics of Legend' set offers powerful artifacts linked to each of the cities of Terrinoth, including banners which each aid movement through certain terrain. The 'Relics' set also has allies themed from the cities. Now you can ride into battle on the Griffon of Dawnsmoor or be accompanied by the Wolves of Geyhaven. It is these ideas which give each set a spark of interest beyond what a randomly thrown together expansion could.

Finally, there are two Adventure Variants. These change the game in the most significant manner, taking the focus away from Margath. 'Crown of the Eldar Kings' casts the heroes in the roles of villains competing with Margath for control of the land. The heroes seek to complete a 'set' of vassels, three of either Knaves, Knights, Ladies or Dukes, which are challenges replacing the blue deck from the base game. Once a player had a set, they become the Elder King and the other heroes have a final attempt to dethrone him/her or die in the attempt. The last surviving player wins.

'The Scepter of Kyros' removes Margath from the game entirely and is set 10 years after his defeat, when a new threat arrives to Terrinoth: the Giant Lords. The twist here is that after a certain number of Giant Lords have been defeated, more arrive from the north, occupying the towns on the board. Players have to liberate the towns one by one during the Endgame, a challenge made all the harder by the fact that the giants are able to use items in the town market stacks as if they were heroes and also receive experience tokens depending on how many items are in each stack. Formidable opponents indeed.

These descriptions being me full circle back to the discussion of the value of expansions. In this case, they certainly do not appear to be a blatant attempt to cash in on a game's success. Each is resonably priced and entirely optional, yet at the same time, for what you pay, the added variation is quite a bargain, especially with the Adventure Variants.

Presentation: The cards have good art by a variety of artists and are presented in attractive tuck boxes. The only slight niggle is the somewhat bewildering inclusion of a 2mm thick sheet of card, when a slightly thinner box would have been fine. 7.0/10

Clarity of Rules: Only the Adventure Variants really require any kind of rule addition, but these are explained clearly, with examples of play. 8.5/10

Game Length: Not very applicable as the market/encounter decks don't really increase the play length and the main impact of the Adventure Variants is in the end game . n/a /10

Value: Essentially just cards in a box, but the reasonable cost and evidence of the thought which has gone into their creation means they are good value for fans of the game. 9.3/10

Overall: If you love Runebound you will certainly want to pick up these new cards. Even if you are not the biggest fan it is worth the small expense to bring some freshness to the game 8.5/10 (not an average)