It's More than Just Gaming

Hello everyone, and welcome.  Today I am fortunate enough to be previewing a print and play prototype for the upcoming Kickstarter Campaign, Forest of Fate.    Please take into consideration that for the purposes of this preview I only had access to some elements of the game, as the creator wished to keep some surprises for Kickstarter backers.  I can’t really argue with that.

Please also excuse the slightly non-uniform sizes of the cards in this article as this is the first time using my brand new laminator and guillotine, and as such some of the cards came out looking a bit ragged around the edges.  (Insert your own joke about relatability here).

Forest of Fate is an adventure type game where players build a path through the Forest of Fate from a deck of encounter cards and then take their party of adventurers along the path created.

Each encounter has some story text describing the scene, much like in a roleplay game or a Choose Your Own Adventure Book.  Players decide which of their characters is going to attempt to overcome the obstacle, by checking what skill checks are available on the encounter and comparing them to their character sheets.  They then check the corresponding skill check on the encounter card, which directs them to an entry in the Story Book.

The Story Book is an element of this game that I love.  Each entry in the Story Book is a paragraph of text that develops the plot of the encounter, and then challenges the player.  There are four levels of skill ranging from Fair to Epic and each initial encounter entry in the Story Book has 4 options depending on the skill level of your character.  Each option points at a second entry which completes the plot for the current encounter.  So, if you choose wisely then you will complete the encounter and maybe get some loot.  And if you choose poorly, well you might find bad stuff happens to your characters.  The following video briefly introduces the game and goes through a basic turn, and you will see how well I did making the choice…

So, we won’t speak about thieves and rope bridges ever again.  I really enjoyed this short dabbling in Forest of Fate.   With the full game shipping with 32 encounters, each of which have 4 routes to them, with 4 skill checks apiece, there is so much potential replayability.  And, as I said on the video, it doesn’t take much imagination to envision expansions with additional encounters, characters and storybooks.  Though, given the 900 entries in the prototype I can well imagine that being a fair amount of work for the creator.

I reckon I will back this project when it goes live as it has replay value, ticks the fantasy and adventure box and seems to run fairly quickly.

You can follow developments for this project on the Forest of Fate Website or Twitter

Thanks for reading and watching.

Bye for now.

***Update 19/09/2017 – Kickstarter Live and fully funded.  You can click on the Forest of Fate Kickstarter Hyperlink to go to the campaign page***