Players: 1-6
Time: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: 6 (of 10)
The Components
Venturers in Argent comes as a ZIPped set of PDF files that you can download from www.worldofargent.com. It includes: a 21-page rulebook, a set of character sheets, a world map, a set of site maps, an encounter display and a page of encounter tables, and four pages of stand-up figures. There are also a few sheets of advice on how to put together the components.
Overall, the components all feature professional art and layout. It's all black and white or grayscale work, but it looks good.
Rules: The rules are slightly obtuse in some cases, but are full of examples and include a glossary of design notes and background on the world.
Character Sheets: The character sheets are attractive and quite easy to use, with shields that you fill in during play to mark skill levels and dots that you cross out to note spell use. They're simple but show good utility.
Maps: The master world map of Argent is actually four sheets big, but the instructions suggest a clever way to put it together so that the individual sheets are cut where you'd fold it. When my wife saw this map she was initially confused at how I could have gotten it off the Internet (because of its size) before I showed it to her up close.
The site maps display several different locations that you can explore, including a cave, a stronghold, a fortress, a monument, a temple, and the Silent Mountain. Each one contains all of the info you need to explore the complex, laid out in an intuitive manner.
Encounters: The encounter display lays out a tactical battlefield for your party and any opponents you might be facing, and also has some standard info that you'll need during the game, while the encounter tables list the logistical specifics of 36 different encounters you can have during the game. Together they form the conflictive center of the game.
Figures: Finally the stand-up figures are four pages of figures you'll use to depict yourself and your opponents in Venturers in Argent. There's some good advice in the instructions on how to make these figures extra sturdy without too much work.
I didn't actually put together my copy of Venturers in Argent. The author printed out a copy and mailed it to me. However, the effort level doesn't seem to be that high. If you print your main sheets out on cardstock, and the various maps and character sheets on parchment they'll look quite nice. The maps and stand-up figures just need to be cut and taped. I'd guess 1-2 hours to print everything out and cut and tape it (or as I measure it when doing this sort of thing, 1-2 TV shows).
On the whole the artwork and design of Venturers in Argent is attractive and there's been good effort made to make it easy to use. I give it a "4" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
Venturers in Argent is a adventuring board game where you'll create characters, find a quest, and then set off to that quest's location hoping to defeat the Shadowlord there.
Setup: A game of Venturers in Argent starts with the five characters being handed out. Ideally you'll have five players, and each player will thus get one.
There are five standard characters: fighter, plunderer, spellcaster, marksman, and guide. Each has different starting stats in the various skills (wisdom, guide lore, marksmanship, fighting ability, plundering, and spellcasting).
As you set up your character you'll choose a race (which can influence some encounters and mighty deeds) and a sex. Then you'll roll dice to increase all of your skills by 0-2 points, except your primary skill (plundering for a plunderer, fighting for a fighter, etc.), because that's already at "4".
For some classes you can choose whether to be a spellcaster or not; spellcasters have access to 10 spells each adventure, but have the deficit of a 0 defense, which means they're easier to hit in physical combat. Everyone else has a 1 defense.
Playing the Game: The overall gameplay of Venturers in Argent has a general structure to it.
First, characters look for travellers in Argent, hoping to discover a map. This will then provide them with a quest location based on the traveller they encountered and the current level of the adventure (initially, 4).
Next characters will move across the world map looking for their quest trailhead, which is a location near the quest which is noted on the map. At the trailhead they'll try to have encounters with more travellers to get clues. These clues will later give some bonuses in the site itself.
When they've had enough they'll then move across the world map to the site location. Here play moves onto a site map which has a number of set locations, many with loot and one with the Shadowlord who is effectively the "boss monster". Hopefully the players move across the site, pick up some treasure, then defeat the boss.
Players then move back to Argent, where they began, finishing their current adventure.
Order of Play: The basic order of play is simple: move then encounter.
Move means that you move from one space to an adjacent space. On the world map this occurs via moving from city to city (or other large space) via roads or ship routes. On the site maps this means moving from corridor space to corridor space or to a room.
Encounters are the heart of the game. Each space has a different listing for what encounters you might have. For example on a typical outside space you have to roll a die and have a hazard encounter on a 1, a rogue encounter on a 2, and nothing on a 3-6. There are three classes of outdoor encounters: hazard, rogue, and traveller. Likewise there are three classes of encounters that you only face at sites: creature, trap, and discovery.
Once you've defermined that you're having an encounter, and you know the class of encounter, you then roll an additional die. This tells you which of 6 specific encounters in that class you have. So, for example, on the rogue table you have: pilferers (1), sneakthief (2), trickster (3), gang lord (4), taxman (5), and patrol (6).
Encounter Resolution: Whenever you have an encounter, you use the encounter display. Your characters sit to one side, and any opponents (which can be critters or abstract concepts like a "tricky climb") sit to the other. What skills you're going to use to interact are defined by the Encounter Table.
Initiative. First up is initiative, which can use Guide Lore (for hazards or creatures) or Plundering (for rogues, travellers, traps, and discoveries). The person with the highest initiative stat rolls a number of dice equal to his skill (so, a starting plunderer with a 4 skill thus rolls 4 dice; this is a standard die-rolling mechanism used throughout the game) while the opponent (played temporarily by the player to the roller's left) rolls a number of dice as shown on the encounter table. This could be a set number, from 0 to 7, or it could be a number based on the "level" of the a adventure, so initially 4.
When the dice are rolled any result of 4-6 is a success.
The two sides now compare their successes. There are two possible results: adventurers have surprise (+2 successes over enemy), adventurers have initiative (+1 or even successes), opponents have initiative (-1 successes), or opponents have surprise (-2 successes).
If the adventurers had surprise, they can ignore the encounter; else it continues.
Targeting. Now, if the players had surprise or initiative they can "target" their opponents, which can mean firing arrows at them, but can equal mean preparing plans to deal with a less combative threat (such as that aforementioned "tricky climb"or aternatively a trap or discovery). Another skill is used for this: Wisdom or Marksmanship depending on the encounter.
Each encounter has a target number from 0 to L+4. (That's adventure level + 4, so initially 8.) Each player gets to roll his dice in the appropriate skill once. If his number of successes exceed the target, he applies that many "reductions" to the opponent he was targeting. One reduction is effectively a wound, while two takes someone out.
Enemies don't target even if they win initiative, except the rare-case of the level-ending Shadowlords, who have spells that they can throw if they win iniative and thus get a targeting opportunity.
Engagement. Finally, the parties close. The center of the encounter display shows the front lines: up to three opponents and up to three party members. The least wounded opponents go in the bad guys' front line. Party members get to select who goes in their front line unless they were surprised, in which case it's random.
Now the battle goes back and forth between the front lines, with each member making an attack on his turn. This is done by rolling the engagement skill, again listed on the encounter table. It's usually the same as the initiative skill--Guide Lore or Plundering--except in the case of a creature encounter, in which case it's Fighting ability.
You usually attack the person right in front of you on the display. You each roll the appropriate number of dice for the skill and whoever rolls more successes applies the difference as reduction to his opponent--except when Fighting the defense skill can remove the first reduction.
People in the back row can't do much. They can move up if there's a space (taking their action that turn) or they can cast spells (on which, more in a second).
As characters involved in a conflict take two reductions they're moved "out" and when one side is all gone, the other side wins.
A Few Additional Notes on Encounters. As noted already, the encounters cover a wide variety of different things, from fights with creatures to hazards like floods to friendly meetings with travellers. Thus, the results of being "out" can differ quite a bit. For physical encounters, reductions are wounds, and sometimes poison. Rogue encounters can result in your losing some of of your loot. Meanwhile, traveller and discovery encounters are good: they can give you various information or treasure if you win. As already noted travellers are what get you going in Argent, then give you clues at the trailhead.
Each character also has two "mighty deeds" which he can use in any type of encounter to give him a +2 (meaning 2 extra dice) for one die roll. Some deeds are limited to being used on certain skills. After you use a deed you must roll to see if you maintain it or it disappears.
Overall the encounters represent a simple, tactical system for all sorts of task resolution.
Spells: A simple spell system augments this task resolution and adds some more tactics to the encounters. There are four spells: healing is needed to keep wounded or poisoned players from dying; divination lets you reroll a die roll if you've previously prepared that divination; fireball lets you target a single opponent; and purge lets you target multiple opponents.
A spellcaster gets 10 spells at the start of the game, which must last him through the adventure. Casting a spell requires dice rolls.
Items: Among the treasures that players can find are various items. There are just about 20 total, but they allow some nice opportunities to power up your character without a bunch of complexity.
Winning an Adventure: Players succeed at an adventure if they get into a site and are able to do some looting and perhaps defeat the Shadowlord as well. At this point they must return to Argent, ending the adventure.
Players now get advancements. They can use these and/or gold to increase their skills. They can also buy lower-level items.
When the players next go on an adventure, the adventure level will be one higher (running from 4 to 9).
Winning the Game: Venturers in Argent can also be played as a longer campaign. The ultimate goal is kill The One Who Waits in The Silent Mountain. However there are time limits too, so they can't wait too long!
Relationships to Other Games
Venturers in Argent is an adventure boardgame. This is the same category that includes classics like HeroQuest and Talisman as well as Fantasy Flight Games' Runebound.
With its full character sheets, its tactical task resolution system, and its theoretically open world map, Venturers in Argent reminds me a lot more of an RPG than most of the others. On the other hand its set encounter table feels less evocative than the card-driven mechanics of a Runebound or the gamemaster-driven HeroQuest, but more on that momentarily.
The Game Design
Generally Venturers in Argent is an interesting design, with some room for growth as well.
The encounter system is the heart of the game, and it's pretty well-done. Given the tactical encounter display, I would have liked a bit more tactical depth, but most decisions were pretty obvious: put the guys with the better skills up front, and attack the wounded enemies. There was some tactical depth thanks to the possibility of spell-casting, which is constantly a question of using limited resource. A very interesting, and enjoyable aspect of the encounter system is the fact that it's used for all sorts of task resolutions, from actual combats to dealing with hazards or glad-handing potential patrons. I enjoyed this, and think it's pretty unique in this sort of game.
The inclusion of a page of encounters, just 6 categories with just 6 possibilities each, ulltimately feels like a limiting factor in the game. My band of players enjoyed it, but some commented that the novelty would soon be wearing off with just those 36 options each time. I personally felt like it did get a bit repetitive toward the end of our game. Games like Runebound instead use a deck of cards which allows for quite a few more options, and feel more evocative to me. Our players generally said that a few extra pages of optional charts might do the trick here.
Before closing out on the topic of encounters it's worth mentioning one other thing: the system is somewhat complex. It's not too bad, and we were well into the groove of it within our first hour of playing, but there are three different phases, three different stats, and a visually oriented conflict system, and that all results in it not being as simple as most board game combat systems--though it's definitely simpler than most RPGs.
The other notable component in Venturer in Argent's design is its map-based movement system. I really enjoyed seeing the world map spread out before me, and feeling like I could go anywhere. However ultimately the choices were pretty limited, since there wasn't much reason to do anything but go to the site and back. If there were reasons to travel throughout the world, not just to your site, the game would immediately become that much richer and more three-dimensional. Set locations with special powers or treasure rewards for cavorting about might do the job here.
The site maps did provide more strategic depth and more real reasons to choose one of several different paths, and that's exactly what I'd love to see on the world map too.
Finally, the experience system also worked quite well. The changes were big enough to make you really feel like you were advancing a character through new skills and items, but wasn't too complex nor too powerful.
On the whole Venturers in Argent was an enjoyable game, and when I finish writing up this review, my copy of it is going back to our regular roleplaying house, so that we'll have the option to play it again next time we're short a real RPG gamemaster. However, I also think it's somewhat limited, though there is room for growth. I've given it a high "3" out of "5" for Substance, slightly above average, and it would edge upward if there was more variability, be that via more different encounters or more to do on the world map.
Conclusion
Venturers in Argent is an adventure boardgame which lets you play RPG-style fantasy characters, but doesn't require a gamemaster. It's got some clever systems and is overall an interesting design, but I also think that some expansion might be needed to make it a truly great game.
