First impression : Runebound is a great family game

By kalle, in Runebound

I played the game with my kids, 12,10 & 7 year old boys. We started the game fresh after a few rounds, having realized too many rules errors on the first try. We made some serious rules mistakes on the second session too, but didn't care and just played the game to conclusion. Some of the rules could be clearer, but reading the faq clarified the gray areas.

The feedback about the game from the boys was best ever, and we have played a lot of board games ! They wanted to immediately start another game, even though the the first session took quit a while to finish.

So, I was really positively surprised of the game's quality. I didn't really expect that much, I thought it might be fun, but was suspecting that it would be too simple for our tastes. My favorite game is Descent, which is a huge board game. This game hits some spot in the little boys heart : You play a brave adventurer, battling deadly horrors, and improving rapidly to be ever more powerful. The movement mechanism is unique and very well done. There is enough tactics involved in selecting Your targets : should You go to market, what level of challenges to take, what kind of equipment to purchase, what stats to improve etc. And there is a right amount of tactics involved in the combats. I also like the low player interaction : the fact that everybody is more or less playing their own game makes the stress between brothers lower. There were also no hard feelings from the boys that didn't win, it felt like the team of heroes won in the end. The ending of Talisman for example leaves more bad feelings to the losers, as the winner is actually beating the others to death. This may of course change as the game is more familiar, and the urge to win is higher...

This is an excellent family game !

I'm pleasantly surprised that FFG makes such quality games--primarily in parts and also in content. These days with more folks playing computer games, it's great to see quality board games--especially of fantasy genre--being made.

Keep up the quality FFG! That really sells me!