The thing about Awaken Realms

This is a tale about the power of storytelling an narration and the desire for us human beings to be sucked in to other worlds – worlds that are eerily close to the one we know, worlds that are conceived within the limits of our imagination, and worlds that we get lost in that are far apart from what we know. This is the tale of a talented group of storytellers who are masters in their craft. Today I sing my praises to Awaken Realms.

Awaken Realms is a Polish company that designs board games and releases them through Kickstarter in all their glory, while later selling the condensed games through retailers. The real fans, though, they know where to look – on Kickstarter, that’s where it’s at.

I suppose you would expect me to list all the Awaken Realms games I’ve backed, received, and have been happily playing ever since. I’m sad to report I have not – yet. I do, however, have one game that, while it is a recent purchase, is a viable contender for my all time top 5 – possibly top 3.

What I’d like to do today is talk you through the various Awaken Realms projects that have caught my eye, what speaks to me, and why I will be backing all the upcoming Awaken Realms projects – for $1, at the very, very least.

This War of Mine

The town of Pogoren is in disarray as a result of the war, but you couldn’t care less for the cause – you and your fellow band of survivors care only for whatever they need to survive another day. Improve your shelter, build upgrades, and go scavenging at night to ensure existence in the near future.

It’s a funny thing – the first Awaken Realms game I own doesn’t say so on the box, but it very much is – that is This War of Mine, currently being published (and expanded upon) by Galakta Games. I wasn’t active on Kickstarter when the project was live – heck, I wasn’t even that much into boardgames back then, and even if I was, I would’ve dismissed this one because I haven’t played the video game (yet – I have downloaded a copy since I got the game) and therefore wouldn’t want a game based on a franchise I’m unfamiliar with.

Flash forward to about a month ago and I slowly turned around. The excellent playthrough of Meet me at the Table was the decider. I got this game from the money I got from my family for my birthday – I always like to spend that money on something memorable, and this surely is.

The way you give your survivors tasks during the day reminds me of the planning you do in Robinson Crusoe. The night phase, where you go scavenging and raiders visit your shelter, reminds me of the unpredictability of the cards in Robinson Crusoe and those darned weather dice. There’s a lot to take into account in This War Of Mine, and you probably won’t survive. I love it! I haven’t played a game that evoked these strong emotions since Robinson, so I think this game is eventual Top 3 material for me.

You can expect a review from me for the base game, the first expansion called Tales from the Ruined City, and the second expansion Days of the Siege, for which I got a review copy.

Tainted Grail

When King Arthur brought his knights to Avalon, they purged the land of everything that threatened their existence: most of its original inhabitants, as well as the Wyrdness. They installed Menhirs to keep the Wyrdness at bay; now their power is fading and the Wyrdness is creeping toward civilization. Merlin sent out a team of your fiercest warriors to find a way to mend this, but they have not returned. Now it’s your turn – the B-team – to step in and find out what happened with the island and with the first exploring party.

Tainted Grail launched at a really bad time for me – at least, that’s what I thought at the moment. You see, I had just late late pledged The 7th Continent a few months before and thought ‘hey, this Tainted Grail thing looks expensive and just like The 7th Continent – hard pass!’.

<insert mouth handfarting sound>

Flash forward to a year later, and The 7th Continent has left my collection again. The signs were there: Tainted Grail hit Kickstarter on December 5th, which is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands – our very own Santa Clause equivalent. This game should’ve been a gift to myself all along!

Why will I like this better than The 7th Continent? Because Tainted Grail focuses much more on narration and character progression. You are part of a story that slowly unfolds itself, a story that drives the game and its mechanics. I like how the two major actions – combat and diplomacy encounters – don’t just push you to score the highest number of successes, but just the right number between the margins of scaring away your target or getting trounced yourself.

But how will I get this game? It is not on Kickstarter anymore, they don’t accept new pledges anymore, and I sure as hell don’t want to wait for the watered down retail version some time next year. A fortunate situation is coming up, however. Tainted Grail is shipped in two waves, and after the first one has been fulfilled, the pledge manager is reopened for current backers who can then add whatever they want to their pledge to ship in wave 2 – including games for unfortunate souls like me. Sundrop pledge, here I come!

I’m really looking forward to this game, as it feels like a game that will entertain me for some time to come, and a game that might be as impactful as Robinson Crusoe and This War Of Mine before it.

Etherfields

You dive head-first into this immersive experience of exploring a surreal dream world. Discover secrets and hidden truths about yourself, the world around you and other entities in it… Or is all of it just a dream? Etherfields looks to offer the same immersive storytelling combined with clever game play mechanics and awesome looking miniatures.

This was the next big Kickstarter campaign from Awaken Realms and as such, I wasn’t really aware of it, neither was I interested in it. Since then I have started delving more into the games of Awaken Realms. I remember watching Rahdo’s runthrough of it on my flight to Bali and being impressed with the clever puzzly spatial nature of combat and the different powers of the masks you can utilize. The late pledge is still open… should I just suck it up and back this one?

In the end, I decided not to and decided to wait for the Tainted Grail piggyback option. (Still waiting.) I’m still convinced this is the best thing to do, at least for me. The backdrop of the Arthurian legends speaks more to me than this dream world.

Nemesis

‘In space, no one can hear you scream’ is one of the most catchy punchlines of movie history and it perfectly describes this game. That’s because Nemesis is basically the board game version of Alien, the movie. That first movie (singular, not plural) has been lacking a true board game adaptation, and this look like it’s just that – a team of a few underclassified humans trying to evade nefarious aliens on their spaceship, which may or may not be sent out by their employer with dark ulterior motives…

I am very happy with Legendary Encounters: Alien as the official Alien game. It doesn’t hurt it is a deckbuilder, but you’d like something more visually thematic. I really like how the card game evokes the feeling of all the movies, but it’s all just cards. I’d like to sneak around on a spaceship, oblivious like Ellen Ripley in Alien, fighting the odds and trying to figure out what the hell you’ve woken up to. Nemesis is just that – a game of unlikely heroes, insurmountable odds and godlike enemies that you’d be perfectly happy not to introduce yourself to. A game where you fill in the gaps in the story yourself, with your own imagination.

You can play Nemesis solo, multi-handed, and the game even comes with the possibility to play a campaign. There was plenty of stuff that came with the Kickstarter version of the game. The sad thing is, Nemesis was the first Awaken Realms I seriously looked into backing – but I didn’t. This recurring theme I tend to stop as of next Tuesday…

The Great Wall

Your nation has built The Great Wall, one of the greatest achievements of mankind. Not every nation shares your point of view and would rather see you and your artificial border made of stone fall. You will need to manage your troops optimally to fend of foreign threats to the safety of you and your loved ones.

The Great Wall is the next big Awaken Realms game. We don’t know a lot yet – there’s a Kickstarter preview page and the usual channels where some information comes through (a Facebook group and Boardgamegeek). But what we know and can deduce is enough to pique my interest.

Solo mode? Check! Interesting historical reference point? Check! Tower defense meets engine builder? Check! Cheaper price point without minis? Check!

Wait, what? Yes, you’ve read that right. I certainly had to check it twice when I read it on the Facebook page – at first I thought it was wishful thinking from a potential backer, but then I checked the page and there it was.

Pledge £45 ($75) or more: Tiger Pledge – The Great Wall Core Box (Meeple version) including all unlock Stretch Goals.

Woohoow! I’m not saying I’m opposed to minis, but I’m not a fan of all minis, all the time. I really like their decision to give me the option for minis, or not. This game feels like the most Euro Awaken Realms game yet, and that’s a genre where I couldn’t really care about minis. (Insert Anachrony logic paradox here.) This price is a very reasonable one, and I will be following the campaign starting Day 1 to see what stretch goals will be unlocked.

Closing thoughts

You could argue that Awaken Realms games are too expensive because of all the minis in them. While the minis certainly come with a price tag, they do give your game better table presence and feel – I mean, what’s better than moving minis around and making the sounds too?

With The Great Wall, launching on Kickstarter this Tuesday, Awaken Realms will be giving you the option to back the game without minis. You can’t use the minis argument anymore.

So how about you? Do you own any Awaken Realms games? Are you Realms-less just like me, but looking forward to jump on this train? Let me know!

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