Sleeping Gods

Today's review is of the 2021 release, Sleeping Gods. For 1-4 players, it takes 60-120 minutes per session, with multiple sessions making up a campaign. (The full campaign might take 20 hours.)

Overview

You control the crew of the Manticore, a vessel lthat was lost in a storm and now in a strange land. You learn there are gods in this world that require totems to be freed. Obtain them, and they will get you home. Are you up for the challenge?

This is a cooperative sandbox game, meaning an open world game that you can explore at your leisure. It has a lot going on, but at a high level:

To set up, the eight crew members are divided as evenly as possible between all players. (There is also one captain.) The active player controls the captain and their given crew members. These crew each have special abilities that will help you overcome the various types of challenges (strength, cunning, savvy, perception, craft) and may do something unique in combat. Continuing the setup, you place the ship on the designated page and area on the atlas, distribute tokens and shuffle/place the various decks as indicated.

On their turn, the active player takes the following steps:

1. Visit a room on the ship. Each room on the ship grants different benefits, from drawing ability cards (which you can equip to your crew members) to gaining command tokens (which you spend to perform different actions) to removing fatigue, damage, or used command tokens.
2. Draw an event card. The event card is generally some challenge you must overcome. It may give you a benefit if you succeed, and always damages you (or the ship) if you fail.
3. Perform two actions. You can travel (move the ship to a new location, which may require turning to a different page in the atlas), explore (read a scenario matching a number in your ship's location and do what it says), go to market (if in a market location), or go to port (if at a port location).

The heart of the game is in the explore action. This points you to the storybook, a 172-page collection of numbered scenarios that is where most of your decisions will be made. You will encounter monsters, villages in need, mysterious ruins, and more. You will do combat. Your choices may open up quests (quest cards that unlock progress in the game or give you ideas what to do next), adventures, and items. 

A 2-player game at start (each controls 4 crew); image from here

Review

This game is very highly-regarded and has a sequel in the works. My feelings are mixed. 

The good:

- I love Ryan Laukat's art 

- The open world is fun

- There is a lot of content; a lot of story and planning went into this

- The combat system is intriguing (each enemy has a grid on them, where you can hit different parts of their body to diminish their health or their attack power)

The disappointments:

- There is a lot going on, and the rules didn't address some important points

- As an open world, you can wander aimlessly with no idea how to progress. One friend called this a "slow burn," and a reviewer mentioned "it's the journey, not the destination." We played for . . . 3 hours? . . . and got nowhere. We fought a dragon at the end that was a nice climax, but we made zero progress towards finding any totems. 

- In the action phase, one person's turn could last a long time if they chose the explore action. Other turns (if players chose other actions) could be over in a minute. The disparity made for an odd feel.

Ultimately, I had fun, but that was in part due to playing with good friends who were experienced gamers and knew how to enjoy the journey. I know I will never invest the 20+ hours needed to finish this game. 

I'm coming to realize that sandbox board games are not for me. I love the open world concept but feel it better handled in a video game; replicating it on the tabletop is cumbersome.

Rating: B