Runebound

Today's review is of the 2015 release, Runebound (3rd edition).  For 2-4 players, it takes 2-3 hours.

Overview

Runebound is an adventure game set in the realm of Terrinoth. It is a dangerous place that is home to powerful wizards, mighty warriors, and noble barons. But only the greatest hero will become a legend and live forever in the hearts and minds of the people of Terrinoth. - from the rulebook

Runebound is a scenario-based game, meaning each game will have different objectives, cards, and victory conditions based on the scenario chosen.  After choosing a scenario and setting up the board, decks, and tokens for it, each player chooses a hero to control.  On your turn, you get three action points, which you can use to:
- move
- shop (if in a city)
- adventure
- rest
- train

Adventures are key to the game.  You'll start with almost nothing, and need to earn gold and trophies to buy weapons and gain skills.  You do this by going on adventure (going to a hex with an 'adventure gem' and spending two action points to draw the top card of the matching deck, doing what it says).  Adventures can be quests, events, or enemies, each with specific success conditions.  Meet the condition, and you'll earn what you need (gold, trophies, prestige) to increase your might, preparing you for the final battle.

There are other cards to aid you.  Skill cards (which you obtain by the 'training' action and play by paying trophy cards you earn from adventuring) can be a big boost, as can asset cards (weapons, clothing, and devices you buy in markets across the realm).  Scenario-specific story cards (unveiled as the time token reaches certain places) provide more opportunities for improve.  You'll need all the help you can get for combat (an interesting "token-flipping" system). 

game components; image from here

Each scenario ends by battling a 'boss' of some sort.  Destroy him and win!

Review
There's a lot to like about this game.  There are lots of choices, the action point system is good, and the rules are elegant and simple enough (for how much there is going on), with nice ways of keeping it challenging as characters increase in power.  A few dings, though:
- it takes a long time to set up (since you have to customize decks, etc.)
- the dice are of poor quality (had to apply stickers to each side yourself, sometimes they come off)
- the game seems to take forever (we played with 3; can't imagine playing with 4)
- the ending seems anticlimactic (perhaps because we were tired at the point and just wanted it to be over)
Overall, I think this is a good game; a few tweaks could make it great.

Rating: B+