I’ve become a fan of solo gaming – which will not surprise folks who’ve read my various reviews and recaps here on the Opinionated Gamers site over the years. That means I’m always looking for a new solo challenge… and one that is – because of the nature of my work life – highly portable.

52 Realms: Adventures fits that bill quite nicely. With the required components consisting of the print’n’play map & character sheet, 3 markers (which you can steal from pretty much any game you own), and a standard deck of playing cards, it is easily tucked into my computer bag and fits comfortably on a hotel desk.

52 Realms is an abstracted dungeon crawl – but with enough twists, turns, and details to give the proper dungeon-y feel. On the initial map/adventure that I was able to play, my Barbarian character faced lizards, goblins, ghouls, and even a couple of wights – as well dealing with challenges, curses, and looting goodies from a goblin hoard.

How It Works

The game structure itself is disarmingly simple – you make a choice of which room to explore next and then resolve that journey and/or room by drawing & playing cards. Work your way across the dugeon map to the boss and defeat them without (a) taking on too many wounds, or (b) becoming exhausted (running out of cards in the deck).

Cards can be placed (and then used) in three different ways:

• they can be an item – each character has four slots based on the suit of the playing card that can become single use items
• they can be equipment – the player uses equipment cards to travel and fight – they are “tapped” when used and can be reset/readied
• they can be loot – the player can salt away cards into a score pile for the end of the game

In addition, cards are used to determine the nature and strength of the monsters you face. When you’re in a fight with them, turning over cards triggers their actions and can be placed as wounds on your character. Finally, cards also represent the rewards you get for defeating a monster – and rewards can be assigned as items, equipment, or loot.

How It Plays

I’m the first to acknowledge that the last few paragraphs are not heavy on detail – it’s an overview/preview, not a rulebook. However, I’m happy to let you know more about my personal impressions of the game.

The first couple of rooms and battles were slow going – trying to make sure I wasn’t missing any rules or nuances of the game. As I moved further along, I began to see the interesting trade-offs in the game beyond the obvious “loot = points VS equipment = survival” dynamic. Controlling how you hit the monster (due to special effects scattered along his hit point track) is key… as is deciding when to take a chance on being wounded in order to get a big hit in on something threatening.

My first play was a near thing as I managed to amass a lot of wounds quickly and spent the last half of the game hoping against hope that I would survive. In the end, I defeated the big bad with 24 wounds – one wound short of dying.

My second play I tried focusing on equipment early – which turned out well because (a) it’s not a bad strategy, and (b) I got really lucky with weak monster cards.

As advertised, a game takes about 20 minutes (your first will take 25 minutes as you get the hang of how it works), making it a great solo filler game with an appropriately sized footprint. I’m getting to hit the road for work again this afternoon – and my standard card deck and the map/character sheets are going with me so I can play it again tonight!

How To Get It

The Kickstarter for the game has four more days to go (it ends on Sunday, Dec. 15th). I know your next thought may well be “well, Mark got a review copy of the game, so he’s more than happy to puff it up to get us to buy it.” Not at all – by the time my preview copy arrived, I’d already personally backed the game as I’ve had excellent experiences with the games Matthew Dunstan has designed for Postmark Games (especially Aquamarine and Waypoints).

If you’re interested in more detail about the game, the Kickstarter page does an excellent job of laying out the game and how it works – in fact, I borrowed some of the pictures from there for this preview.

The preview copy of 52 Realms: Adventures I have only has a single map and a single character (the Barbarian). Upon release (this month!), there will be two dungeon maps and four characters (adding the Seer, the Fell Knight, and the Druid) with more content likely to come. Historically, Postmark Games has been great about adding excellent content to these games.

I’d encourage you to check it out – and, if it looks at all like your cuppa tea, back it. Heck, it’s only six bucks. Call it an early Christmas gift to yourself.