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Review. Riftforce
ferently around the world. They wanted to be sensitive to that point, to avoid mistakes. “We found Calvin on Twitter where he‘s very active.“ And he argues that the board gaming scene could still do so much better regarding cultural sensitivity. “We want to actively contribute to the debate,“ Roman emphasizes.
Incidentally, the Riftforce ex- pansion will not only deliver what everyone is expecting: new guilds.
“It also opens up the possibility of playing with three or four players,“ Roman reveals. However, they ex- pressly do not recommend this version for novice gamers. They
are also currently busy working on a solo variant, because many customers are now demanding that. And not just since Coro- na and the lockdowns.
A second independent game is sched- uled for release next year. It is made pos- sible by Riftforce selling so well. It has also been recognized by the “Spiel des Jahres” jury and placed on the “Kenner- spiel” (connoisseur game) recommenda- tion list. This is quite a distinction. The new game still needs some development
and editorial input, though. It is going to be called Underdogs, and with a bit of young publisher‘s luck it will probably be the first analog auto-battling game, meaning a card game where units are drafted and eventually battle against each other in a quasi-automated fashion.
“Ever since I first played an auto bat- tler online, I was eager to make it hap- pen in an analog version. It‘s incredibly difficult to solve all the problems,“ Julian explains. “But the two designers Markus
Slawitscheck and Johannes Krenner have pulled it off!“
The game is going to have far more cards than Riftforce: 78 different ones, 330 in total. And they have to interact well with each other. So again, not stress- free and fast to make, not easy going. Yet again, the magic was more important. At least for the time being, it looks like noth- ing is going to intervene with the plans of Roman Rybiczka and Julian Steindorfer again. (cs)
thirdly, you replenish your hand and score one victory point for each battle location where you are the only player present.
Activating a card means using its spe- cial ability. In most cases this results in the front enemy card receiving two dam- age tokens. As soon as the number of to- kens on a card equals that card’s number, that card is removed and the attacker scores one point, sometimes even two. To get to twelve points is the ultimate aim of the game.
Afterwards, the loser will invariably de- mand a rematch. But why would people crave it? The appeal of the game lies in the elegant and clear concept, for one thing. Contrary to the current trend, players do not have to struggle with ex- ceptions or unusual abilities. There are no super-awesome magic cards with preposterous powers that only apply in very specific cases. Which is a good thing. Leaving out frills and technicalities not only makes for easy access and handling, but also allows players to focus on the es- sence of the game, with its framework of
Catching Fire
Card-based two-player games on multiple fronts often solve
the combat challenge by using cumulative strengths to score individual battles. Schottentotten may serve as an example here. Riftforce, on the other hand, takes a different approach, with fictional beings fighting with a certain amount of remaining lifetime that must be reduced to zero. This may sound more typical of fantasy role-playing games or dungeon crawlers, but in this case their character has not rubbed off.
By CHRISTWART CONRAD
As many as ten different forces of nature, elementals such as fire or ice, are contained in the game, and somewhat oddly called guilds. Each of them has a unique ability to damage the enemy to a certain extent and in a specific way.
After each of the two combatants has taken over four different elementals through chance and drafting, they shuf-
fle the corresponding cards, nine in each deck, with the numbers 5, 6, and 7. As the active player, you now have three op- tions. Firstly, you can choose up to three cards from your hand with the same num- ber or type. These cards are placed either all at one of the five combat locations or at different, directly adjacent ones. Secondly, you can discard one card and activate up to three of your cards on the table, all of which match either the num- ber or the type of the discarded card. And
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Photos: 1 More Time Games, Becker, Conrad