Runebound

Runebound

Runebound box
Designer(s) Martin Wallace, Darrell Hardy
Publisher(s) Fantasy Flight Games
Years active 2004 to present
Players 1-6
Age range 12+
Setup time 30 minutes
Playing time Varies
Random chance Dice rolling, card drawing
Skill(s) required Dice rolling, Simple arithmetic

Runebound is a 1-6 player high fantasy adventure board game published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2004. A second edition was published in 2005. In Runebound, players take the roles of adventurers who seek out quests (indicated by markers on the map). The quests are then resolved with either victory for the player, or a loss of some item. Curiously, there is usually little direct conflict between the players. Each player is seeking quests and trying to gain experience which results in greater power and combat skill.

Runebound is one of a number of fantasy board games published by FFG, others include Talisman, Descent: Journeys in the Dark and licensed games Warcraft, World of Warcraft and several The Lord of the Rings games. Runebound shares the same heroes and artwork and (some) items with Descent:Journeys in the Dark and Runewars and is set in the same world as the card game Rune Age'.

The first large expansion, to Runebound, Runebound: Island of Dread, was released in 2005. Many other expansions to Runebound have been released by FFG, some are just sets of cards, others contain new maps and rule changes. Only one "large" expansion or adventure variant deck can be used at a time.

Gameplay

Each player assumes control over one hero of the land. These heroes can attempt weak quests, medium quests, hard quests or game-winning quests (colored respectively green, yellow, blue and red). In the scenario included in the base game, "The Rise of the Dragonlords," the first hero to complete three of the game-winning quests wins the game. Many small box expansions listed below offer variants changing the victory conditions, themes, monsters, and items available.

Most quests features a battle with a monster. Each monster has a skill in each of three masteries: ranged combat, melee combat, and magical combat. A single hero can only attack in one of these mini-battles, and must defend in the other two. However, a hero can recruit one or two allies who can attack during the other two phases of the battle.

The heroes are able to use a few items which enhance their abilities such as magic swords, enchanted armor, and healing potions. However, the main way that heroes gain strength is by adding to their starting abilities through use of experience tokens. Experience tokens are exchanged for increased combat power, or more life. As heroes grow more powerful this allows them to tackle more difficult quests (yellow, blue, and finally red quests). Various expansion card decks change the basic game as you can gain familiars, banners, and new powers.

Finishing a game can take many hours but the rules book offers some variant rules to speed up play.

Expansions

FFG has released many expansions for the game. The following is a complete list as of March 2010. This includes the following:

Board Expansions

Item & Ally Card Set Expansions

Challenge Card Set Expansions

Adventure Variants

Character Decks

All Releases

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Related Games

External links