Stonesaga Board Game First Impressions
Stonesaga is an epic adventure board game where you explore a unique world, interact with various elements of it, craft items, eat food and so much more. You’ll be exploring the world around you, uncovering various secrets, learning to survive and finding behemoths. At its core, a lot of what you accomplish will rely on stats, equipment, dice rolls, etc. but there is so much more under the surface just waiting to be explored. Driven forward by multiple sessions to complete a single campaign (3 epochs per campaign, or you can do endless mode), this is some of the most fun I’ve had in an adventure board game in a long time.
Each epoch will have you attempting to accomplish a challenge card, which will also mean completing a bunch of goals. You’ll get a set number of actions points to use to do things like moving, foraging, mining, fishing and more. There are certain things you need to make sure you do each day, like having food and water. Other things are more flexible and can be completed as you see fit. Crafting better items to use, building outposts, adding structures to outposts, delving into the depths of the world to see what you can find, and so much more.
Most of what you do will likely be driven by your goal cards and challenge cards, but I also found lots of enjoyment in just doing whatever the hell felt right. My goal might say one thing, but gosh-darn it I’m going to make what I hope will be a spear first! That said, journey cards when you move, and night cards will throw a wrench into your plans, so quick thinking and the ability to pivot to new priorities is key.
The game is driven by a number of unique mechanics, which might be overwhelming when dumped on you at once, but are pretty intuitive if you slowly learn how they each work. Matching symbols on gathered materials might lead you to a new item you can craft. The orientation of the materials also produces different items – you’ll get a code when matching items that leads to a spot in the codex – so experimentation is key.
Fishing is a really fun push-your-luck system where you’ll roll dice and try to meet pip-value minimums; you don’t have all the information when you start assigning dice, though, so good luck! Mining involves bag building, and foraging also has a bit of push your luck, but with cards instead of dice.
Foraging, like fishing, is a fun mechanic. The shine wears off after a while, but I still like how i works. You’ll lay out cards and choose which to explore, with the knowledge that to grab resources, you need to create a path of cards that has the icon you want from the foreground to background (each card is divided nicely using art to showcase the various areas). Careful, though! You might encounter wild animals and monsters you’ll need to fight, so be vigilant and on your toes!
The one word that described my experience with the game so far is clever. This game is just clever, from how the various elements come together to how you figure out what items you might have crafted. These first impressions are not meant to be a deep dive on how to play – there are plenty of YouTube videos for that – but hopefully we are doing the game justice in our words. This is worth checking out if you love adventure games, no doubt about that.
What made Mythwind – another game from Open Owl Studios – such a hit with me was the sense of progression, and I could physically see my town growing, my farm expanding, and more. Stonesaga gives me that, and so much more. As the world expands on the table, we begin to fill it with shelters, outposts, buildings, and more. And these things don’t just pop-up randomly either, they are generally brought about by hard work and dedication to a common goal. While some elements are definitely luck based – fishing especially – others come about because of choices you made, and there is a sense of accomplishment when that happens. This is your world, you created it!
Part of me wants to keep going with this article and tell you everything I uncovered, but I think that might ruin the experience for you! We will have more on Stonesaga soon, but for now, rest assured that if you enjoy adventure board games, Stonesaga is probably going to scratch all those itches!
Article By Adam
