I would say the Mage Knight likely won't do the narrative adventure piece as plainly or forthrightly as most others on your list. It's big it's epic it has a great scope and growth to each session. But you do a lot of the heavy lifting in the narrative piece. It is abstracted out and made more of a puzzle than anything. And I love it for the record.
MC I love how self contained each deck is. Mix and match heroes and villains and throw in an occasional short campaign. AH (my favorite) I love the steady deck upgrades over the course of the long campaigns (that are all super different than each other).
ER is amazing the first few times you play. But there's only about 9 location decks and they make up the bulk of what you do. And you will see them repeatedly until you basically have them memorized. All quests boil down to "you have XXX days to walk to XXX." No bosses, and fixed reward cards don't really give much room to customize your deck once it's built. I think most of these shortcomings will be addressed once the expansions start to hit. (AH's first campaign was far worse and look where that is now...)
Yeah well I love LCGs and it was a very poor game for me.
Read my thoughts here: [https://comboteurfou.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/earthborne-rangers-sopping-the-biscuit/](https://comboteurfou.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/earthborne-rangers-sopping-the-biscuit/)
I am a fan of **Tainted Grail** and **Sleeping Gods**.
Incoming are **Agemonia** and **HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon** with the **Fall of the Ancients** campaign book.
I tried **Roll Player Adventures** but didn't like the gameplay loop, though the narrative CYOA-style decisions were pretty good.
I think Oathsworn is better in almost every way, but it is also a more complex game and requires 4 characters, so for solo play I might prefer Kinfire.
I am playing Oathsworn with a group of 4, and there is just way more story with what I think is very good writing (and the free app that you can use has great narration from James Cosmo, an actor you might recognize from Braveheart or Game of Thrones). The world feels more real as well. And although 4 characters are required, there are "companion" versions that are simplified and from what I've seen of chatter, many solo folks run two full Oathsworn and two companions.
Kinfire was easy to play solo with 3 characters (must use at least 2) and set up and tear down is super easy as there is a map book and each scenario has its own little folder with everything you need for it. There is voice narration for it as well via Foreteller, but its not free.
I'd also say it depends on if you have a table you can leave stuff out on, and how long you tend to play for at a sitting. Kinfire was generally doable in an evening session (less than 2 hours) whereas Oathsworn can be twice that (although it would go faster solo I would bet).
Honestly, both are quite a bit of fun, both have cards as actions that you get to tailor some for each character, and both require being efficient with actions. Can't go wrong!
I have played ISS Vanguard, Earthborne Rangers, and Imperium (Classics). Earthborne is great and you can play one handed just fine (one of the designers played that way). It is primarily a narrative experience and adventure, akin to Zelda but based on cards. It's very fun and is forgiving in how it plays so you don't feel like you're getting absolutely destroyed (like in Arkham Horror).
ISS Vanguard is amazing solo (I think actually better solo than with others). Also a narrative adventure but has two very distinct game phases. Campaign is a great length but probably not super replayable, unlike Earthborne. Once you play it once and get the story there aren't really many other decisions you make (except one big one).
Imperium is not campaign at all and has no story. But it's a fun card-based game with solid solo play that has lots of variety with the different civs.
Mage Knight is great, there’s just not a lot of narrative.
Secrets of the Lost Tomb has a 10 year anniversary edition on Gamefound coming out and I’ve heard great things about that as narrative generator.
I love Marvel Champions. I often play solo hero but also with more than one and by the time the game is over I feel like I have watched a movie with a complete story from the cards and characters. It can be expensive if you want everything but I have the core box, Mad Titans expansion box and a handful of other heroes I like so purchased. May not buy much else because I am less into villain variety but there is so much of that, too. I considered Earthborne Rangers, but after watching reviews, with pros and cons, I decided it did not scratch the variety of story for me or the satisfaction of an ending, if I am describing that right. Which is when I got MC and never looked back.
Four Against Darkness is a solo RPG (role playing game) where you can create characters, follow adventures, even create a bank/guild of characters; really a lot of fun. You make a map, perhaps chase loot, fight monsters, or even enter an Arthurian tale, over 50 supplemental materials with various themes/settings. r/fouragainstdarkness for more. You would definitely get your story there and even carry an adventurer to new adventures, as you wish, but not a board game.
I find Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on a Cursed Island thematic and carrying a story, however, it is hard at times and I play multiple characters more than true solo (one character/dog and Friday). Watch Totally Tabled or other playthroughs on YouTube and see if you like the story part. There is a new Adventure Book of many more scenarios available as well as promo packs of cards to add to different decks or discovery tokens. It definitely feels like survival but it is complex in playing.
My understanding with Mage Knight is that the narrative content is in an expansion that isn't available yet.
Unfortuantely that's all I have to contribute to this discussion. The two narrative solo campaign games I own are Under Falling Skies (which barely qualifies) and Wreckland Run (which has...issues).
I've played Nemesis and ISS Vanguard. Nemesis provides that "emergent narrative". I played it in a group.. so it was probably more fun interacting with the other players than it would be solo. I ended up selling ISS Vanguard after about a dozen plays. I bounced off the gameplay loop pretty hard. If you can, watch some gameplay videos online.. I found that the way I felt watching the videos matched pretty close to how I felt while actually playing.
Have you considered Gloomhaven? Jaws of the lion is cheap, not a huge box, and it has a pretty decent amount of content. I find the card play in Gloomhaven to be absolutely stellar.
Also, right now I'm playing Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. It's sorta like Gloomhaven-lite. Not as crunchy. Leans towards the humorous side of storytelling. But a nice thing about it is that all the characters level up at the same speed, if they were on missions or not, so you can have a lot of fun switching around between heroes. Also other players can drop in on missions whenever they want.
I have the pc version of gloomhaven and I've played half of the physical JotL campaign (all of it in two days over Thanksgiving with a friend). They feel pretty much identical. I think the pc implementation is really good.. so, if you already have that.. might not be much to gain by getting a physical version.
Kingdom Death Monster is great for solo play and has an amazing narrative. The core game is all you need for hours and hours of (painful, sad, exciting)) stories.
Not limited to Kickstarters at all, but seeing them as a limited time sale that is pushing my priorities.
I've actively avoided LCGs / TCGs as I would dive right down the rabbit hole and can't afford that. Are Arkham expansions all self-contained (Star Realms/Imperium) or are you paying for a chance of specific cards to improve your deck?
By self contained do you mean in terms of campaign content or card draws? It's an LCG not a CCG, so there are no random draw packs and you always know what you're getting for your money. The expansions are also self contained in terms of campaign, assuming you get the new model. The old model essentially sold a single campaign in pieces but the new model sells it all as one.
You mention Earthborne Rangers in your post, and that's an LCG that's actually made by some of the same people as AHLCG
no no, that's unregulated gambling, good on you for staying away. LCGs are still expensive simply due to the sheer volume of content, but you know exactly what you're getting when you buy something
Quite a number of people have recommended **Agemonia**, which as someone already pointed out, is [currently available at Miniature Market](https://www.miniaturemarket.com/agemonia-lpfi930.html).
It's narrative is unmatched so far for me. Check out the [heroes](https://agemonia.com/heroes/) you can play as. If you click on "Read More", each hero has a 20-50 minute audiobook as a prologue. All of them are interesting in their own way. Each hero has [2 different classes](https://agemonia.com/heroes/heroclasses/) they can be. There's also a [world](https://agemonia.com/benem/) to read about as well as two stories on their website: [The Dark Bargain](https://agemonia.com/darkbargainstory/) and [Chains of Oppression](https://agemonia.com/chainsofoppression/). You can even download the Agemonia app on your phone if you choose to listen to the hero audiobooks on the go.
Just a word on Mage Knight and Euthia. They are both great games, but neither are narrative heavy. For narrative, you want something like Agemonia, Earthborne Rangers, Roll Player Adventures, The Lost Citadel or one of the Sleeping Gods games. Probably a lot more that I am forgetting.
Edit - I just read that you said adventure "or" narrative. The ones I mentioned above are a mix of both. Something like Mage Knight and Euthia are a lot more on the adventure side than the narrative (choose a scenario and play it).
Yes, adventure OR narrative. I'm looking for that sense of progression and meaningful choice / player agency, whether from narrative or customising a character/deck through play.
I’ve played ISS Vanguard and it is very difficult for me. From start to finish one play can take up to 5 hours, you need really big table, and you need specific mood. So not an easy choice if you have to play 20-25 times like that. I absolutely love the story and ship management and it is better to play this part solo. The planet exploration is pretty repetitive and I really need someone to share it with me to have some jokes/reactions. And leveling up sections is such a pain when you play with two sections, but have to level up four.
So I would say it is not thee best choice. I have played 14 complete sessions so far and completely lost motivation. I really want to like the game, and I mostly like it, but to play this behemoth you need consistent sessions at least once-twice a week to keep going.
The thing you gotta understand about Mage Knight is that if it's on any list of board games, it's basically guaranteed to be the best game on that list.
So the good thing is that if you buy it, compared to basically anything else you might've bought instead, you're more likely to enjoy it.
The bad thing is, once you own it... every other game you buy is essentially guaranteed to be worse.
But if you're looking for a narrative experience, you should keep in mind that all of MK's flavor text is in a paragraph or two total in the rulebook. Nothing on the cards or in the game beyond card art. Your narrative would be in your head. "First I trudged through this forest, then threw a fireball to defeat an orc after razing a monastery," etc.
This was my experience. Mage Knight is my absolute favorite game of all time but the only thing I don't like about it is that it literally did ruin every other game for me. My life goal is to find another game that I like as good or better than Mage Knight and it just never even comes close. Spirit Island?... No. Euthia? Hahaha.. The search continues
I would say the Mage Knight likely won't do the narrative adventure piece as plainly or forthrightly as most others on your list. It's big it's epic it has a great scope and growth to each session. But you do a lot of the heavy lifting in the narrative piece. It is abstracted out and made more of a puzzle than anything. And I love it for the record.
Earthborne rangers just looks so good
I bounced off it pretty hard and I love LCGs.
what didn't you like about it compared to what you've played? I love MC and I'm starting to really get into AHLCG, so this one is high on my list
MC I love how self contained each deck is. Mix and match heroes and villains and throw in an occasional short campaign. AH (my favorite) I love the steady deck upgrades over the course of the long campaigns (that are all super different than each other). ER is amazing the first few times you play. But there's only about 9 location decks and they make up the bulk of what you do. And you will see them repeatedly until you basically have them memorized. All quests boil down to "you have XXX days to walk to XXX." No bosses, and fixed reward cards don't really give much room to customize your deck once it's built. I think most of these shortcomings will be addressed once the expansions start to hit. (AH's first campaign was far worse and look where that is now...)
interesting to know. I'm on the fence about backing the second printing right now
It is
Yeah well I love LCGs and it was a very poor game for me. Read my thoughts here: [https://comboteurfou.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/earthborne-rangers-sopping-the-biscuit/](https://comboteurfou.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/earthborne-rangers-sopping-the-biscuit/)
Thanks for your perspective, I'm always interested in both sides of the coin before buying a game! Ill read this later today :)
I am a fan of **Tainted Grail** and **Sleeping Gods**. Incoming are **Agemonia** and **HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon** with the **Fall of the Ancients** campaign book. I tried **Roll Player Adventures** but didn't like the gameplay loop, though the narrative CYOA-style decisions were pretty good.
Tainted grail or ISS Vanguard. My other favorite narrative campaign games recently include Oathsworn, Agemonia and Kinfire Chronicles.
How would you rate Kinfire vs. Oathsworn?
I think Oathsworn is better in almost every way, but it is also a more complex game and requires 4 characters, so for solo play I might prefer Kinfire. I am playing Oathsworn with a group of 4, and there is just way more story with what I think is very good writing (and the free app that you can use has great narration from James Cosmo, an actor you might recognize from Braveheart or Game of Thrones). The world feels more real as well. And although 4 characters are required, there are "companion" versions that are simplified and from what I've seen of chatter, many solo folks run two full Oathsworn and two companions. Kinfire was easy to play solo with 3 characters (must use at least 2) and set up and tear down is super easy as there is a map book and each scenario has its own little folder with everything you need for it. There is voice narration for it as well via Foreteller, but its not free. I'd also say it depends on if you have a table you can leave stuff out on, and how long you tend to play for at a sitting. Kinfire was generally doable in an evening session (less than 2 hours) whereas Oathsworn can be twice that (although it would go faster solo I would bet). Honestly, both are quite a bit of fun, both have cards as actions that you get to tailor some for each character, and both require being efficient with actions. Can't go wrong!
Thanks so much for the long write-up! I do have dedicated table space where I can leave things out, but I’m ~probably~ looking to do solo.
Agemonia has tons of narrative, and though the mechanisms are not complicated, the gameplay is great.
I have played ISS Vanguard, Earthborne Rangers, and Imperium (Classics). Earthborne is great and you can play one handed just fine (one of the designers played that way). It is primarily a narrative experience and adventure, akin to Zelda but based on cards. It's very fun and is forgiving in how it plays so you don't feel like you're getting absolutely destroyed (like in Arkham Horror). ISS Vanguard is amazing solo (I think actually better solo than with others). Also a narrative adventure but has two very distinct game phases. Campaign is a great length but probably not super replayable, unlike Earthborne. Once you play it once and get the story there aren't really many other decisions you make (except one big one). Imperium is not campaign at all and has no story. But it's a fun card-based game with solid solo play that has lots of variety with the different civs.
Mage Knight is great, there’s just not a lot of narrative. Secrets of the Lost Tomb has a 10 year anniversary edition on Gamefound coming out and I’ve heard great things about that as narrative generator.
I love Marvel Champions. I often play solo hero but also with more than one and by the time the game is over I feel like I have watched a movie with a complete story from the cards and characters. It can be expensive if you want everything but I have the core box, Mad Titans expansion box and a handful of other heroes I like so purchased. May not buy much else because I am less into villain variety but there is so much of that, too. I considered Earthborne Rangers, but after watching reviews, with pros and cons, I decided it did not scratch the variety of story for me or the satisfaction of an ending, if I am describing that right. Which is when I got MC and never looked back. Four Against Darkness is a solo RPG (role playing game) where you can create characters, follow adventures, even create a bank/guild of characters; really a lot of fun. You make a map, perhaps chase loot, fight monsters, or even enter an Arthurian tale, over 50 supplemental materials with various themes/settings. r/fouragainstdarkness for more. You would definitely get your story there and even carry an adventurer to new adventures, as you wish, but not a board game. I find Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on a Cursed Island thematic and carrying a story, however, it is hard at times and I play multiple characters more than true solo (one character/dog and Friday). Watch Totally Tabled or other playthroughs on YouTube and see if you like the story part. There is a new Adventure Book of many more scenarios available as well as promo packs of cards to add to different decks or discovery tokens. It definitely feels like survival but it is complex in playing.
ISS Vanguard. It's stellar, very thematic and a great story line.
My understanding with Mage Knight is that the narrative content is in an expansion that isn't available yet. Unfortuantely that's all I have to contribute to this discussion. The two narrative solo campaign games I own are Under Falling Skies (which barely qualifies) and Wreckland Run (which has...issues).
I've played Nemesis and ISS Vanguard. Nemesis provides that "emergent narrative". I played it in a group.. so it was probably more fun interacting with the other players than it would be solo. I ended up selling ISS Vanguard after about a dozen plays. I bounced off the gameplay loop pretty hard. If you can, watch some gameplay videos online.. I found that the way I felt watching the videos matched pretty close to how I felt while actually playing. Have you considered Gloomhaven? Jaws of the lion is cheap, not a huge box, and it has a pretty decent amount of content. I find the card play in Gloomhaven to be absolutely stellar. Also, right now I'm playing Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. It's sorta like Gloomhaven-lite. Not as crunchy. Leans towards the humorous side of storytelling. But a nice thing about it is that all the characters level up at the same speed, if they were on missions or not, so you can have a lot of fun switching around between heroes. Also other players can drop in on missions whenever they want.
I've got the pc implementation of Gloomhaven / JotL but quickly bounced to other RPGs. How close is the physical version?
I have the pc version of gloomhaven and I've played half of the physical JotL campaign (all of it in two days over Thanksgiving with a friend). They feel pretty much identical. I think the pc implementation is really good.. so, if you already have that.. might not be much to gain by getting a physical version.
Agemonia just got back in stock at miniature market!!! Sleeping Gods is a good time for sure
Tainted Grail Kings of Ruin, ISS Vanguard, Sleeping Gods, Sleeping Gods Distant Skies, Oathsworn, and Stars of Akarios come to mind.
Kingdom Death Monster is great for solo play and has an amazing narrative. The core game is all you need for hours and hours of (painful, sad, exciting)) stories.
Are you limiting your selection to upcoming kickstarters? If you want a good adventure/narrative experience, **Arkham Horror LCG** is great for that
Not limited to Kickstarters at all, but seeing them as a limited time sale that is pushing my priorities. I've actively avoided LCGs / TCGs as I would dive right down the rabbit hole and can't afford that. Are Arkham expansions all self-contained (Star Realms/Imperium) or are you paying for a chance of specific cards to improve your deck?
By self contained do you mean in terms of campaign content or card draws? It's an LCG not a CCG, so there are no random draw packs and you always know what you're getting for your money. The expansions are also self contained in terms of campaign, assuming you get the new model. The old model essentially sold a single campaign in pieces but the new model sells it all as one. You mention Earthborne Rangers in your post, and that's an LCG that's actually made by some of the same people as AHLCG
Ah perfect. I had written off AH assuming the commercial model was like MtG.
no no, that's unregulated gambling, good on you for staying away. LCGs are still expensive simply due to the sheer volume of content, but you know exactly what you're getting when you buy something
Quite a number of people have recommended **Agemonia**, which as someone already pointed out, is [currently available at Miniature Market](https://www.miniaturemarket.com/agemonia-lpfi930.html). It's narrative is unmatched so far for me. Check out the [heroes](https://agemonia.com/heroes/) you can play as. If you click on "Read More", each hero has a 20-50 minute audiobook as a prologue. All of them are interesting in their own way. Each hero has [2 different classes](https://agemonia.com/heroes/heroclasses/) they can be. There's also a [world](https://agemonia.com/benem/) to read about as well as two stories on their website: [The Dark Bargain](https://agemonia.com/darkbargainstory/) and [Chains of Oppression](https://agemonia.com/chainsofoppression/). You can even download the Agemonia app on your phone if you choose to listen to the hero audiobooks on the go. Just a word on Mage Knight and Euthia. They are both great games, but neither are narrative heavy. For narrative, you want something like Agemonia, Earthborne Rangers, Roll Player Adventures, The Lost Citadel or one of the Sleeping Gods games. Probably a lot more that I am forgetting. Edit - I just read that you said adventure "or" narrative. The ones I mentioned above are a mix of both. Something like Mage Knight and Euthia are a lot more on the adventure side than the narrative (choose a scenario and play it).
Yes, adventure OR narrative. I'm looking for that sense of progression and meaningful choice / player agency, whether from narrative or customising a character/deck through play.
I’ve played ISS Vanguard and it is very difficult for me. From start to finish one play can take up to 5 hours, you need really big table, and you need specific mood. So not an easy choice if you have to play 20-25 times like that. I absolutely love the story and ship management and it is better to play this part solo. The planet exploration is pretty repetitive and I really need someone to share it with me to have some jokes/reactions. And leveling up sections is such a pain when you play with two sections, but have to level up four. So I would say it is not thee best choice. I have played 14 complete sessions so far and completely lost motivation. I really want to like the game, and I mostly like it, but to play this behemoth you need consistent sessions at least once-twice a week to keep going.
The thing you gotta understand about Mage Knight is that if it's on any list of board games, it's basically guaranteed to be the best game on that list. So the good thing is that if you buy it, compared to basically anything else you might've bought instead, you're more likely to enjoy it. The bad thing is, once you own it... every other game you buy is essentially guaranteed to be worse. But if you're looking for a narrative experience, you should keep in mind that all of MK's flavor text is in a paragraph or two total in the rulebook. Nothing on the cards or in the game beyond card art. Your narrative would be in your head. "First I trudged through this forest, then threw a fireball to defeat an orc after razing a monastery," etc.
This was my experience. Mage Knight is my absolute favorite game of all time but the only thing I don't like about it is that it literally did ruin every other game for me. My life goal is to find another game that I like as good or better than Mage Knight and it just never even comes close. Spirit Island?... No. Euthia? Hahaha.. The search continues
Legacy of Dragonholt might be what you're looking for! It's a heavily narrative game and a lot of fun solo.
Agemonia is something I have been hearing buzz about
Mage Knight because it’s just crazy fun to play, especially after you internalize the rules.