Prophecy: a sorta review

Sorta, because I never played a full game. I ended up having to leave midway through my first game (the 2 hour time point). This didn't mess it up too badly for the other guys, as player elimination is possible. Prophecy is a fantasy boardgame that bears some similarity to Talisman, Runebound, and other role-playing-game-turned-boardgames. Overall, it felt like playing Arkham Horror, although Prophecy is not a co-op game. Here, you're competing with the other player's characters to take out typical fantasy bad guys and capitalize on special event cards.

The board is set up as a circular kingdom surrounding a sea. Getting from one place to the next quickly is part of the challenge, as you may only move one space for free. Some spaces are marked with a ship's anchor, which indicates a port from which you can travel to an adjacent port. Other spaces contain a kind of teleporter that can be used, for a cost, to travel to any other transporter. Random encounters and loot are found in the Plains, Forest, and Mountain spaces. You may purchase common or rare items in the village or city spaces.

Everyone starts with a character sheet that lists a characters strength and willpower, as well as the Guilds with which that character is associated. There are six guild spaces on the board where characters may upgrade their abilities in some way. For example, the Illusionist is a member of the Thieves Guild and the Magic Tower, and may pay experience points at the Magic Tower to gain more flexibility in moving around the board.

Much of the early game is a race to certain places on the board. This is because random encounters in the wilderness are revealed on almost every player's turn. Some of these are monsters to be vanquished for XPs and gold, some are treasures, and some are press your luck encounters with mystical characters. There can be up to two encounters per space, and they're not always exposed before you land on them . You have to fight anything that you encounter (I've never played Talisman, but I've been told that combat is nearly identical in this game). So basically, you run around the board, managing XPs, gold, strength cubes, and willpower cubes, often trading one for another to set yourself up for your next few moves.

Eventually, you get to be enough of a stud that you can take on the real prizes: the Guardians of the Astral Plain! Excited? Read on! There are five "sky" spaces on the board, on which stacks of three cards are placed. The top card is a Lesser Guardian, which is usually a bit tougher than anything that you'd encounter in the wilderness. The second card is the Greater Guardian, which is usually a real pain. The third card is an Artifact, which you get to keep by vanquishing the Greater Guardian. Artifacts bestow beneficent bounty on their bearers, and enhance their badassery. The first player with 4 Artifacts is the winner. This means that players must go after each other. If a player is killed, he drops any Artifacts.

So, that's it: Go around the board, acquiring and spending your assets to improve your character. Turns are very simple and relatively quick, but limited, so that you need many, MANY turns before you get to the point where you can go Artifact hunting.

So, what did I think? Mostly, I liked it. It's not overly cerebral, which means that there's ample space for conversation and levity. It works for what it is. On the downside, it's a little repetitive, and it takes perhaps too long to ramp up your abilities. And one of my favorite parts of Arkham, the potential to throw a double-fistful of combat dice, is sadly missing in this system. I'm unclear on how good it would be the 5th time I play it. There are two promised expansions that have, so far, experienced delays, so time will tell how well this system is supported. With all of that said, I really want to play again soon.

When I have just a bit more time.