You flip the location card, which offers the default outcome as usual вЂ“ but if your character has the much-loved Pet Pal skill, which lets you talk to animals, the storybook overrides the default text with a new entry in which you have a nice chat with the horses. This also enables a tabletop equivalent for another of the videogameвЂ™s bright ideas вЂ“ the tag system. A storybook directs Kieron to set up each encounter accordingly, much like a choose-your-own-adventure novel (any player who knows the game can do this, however вЂ“ a dedicated GM isnвЂ™t necessary). There may be two different versions of a castleвЂ™s location card вЂ“ one where itвЂ™s intact, another where itвЂ™s been burned down вЂ“ and if the party has screwed up, the card thatвЂ™s used is the smouldering ruin. A -2 flame and a +2 water droplet on a Campfire location, for instance, clues us in that any enemies who spawn here will have their resistance to fire damage reduced and their water resistance increased вЂ“ a bad place for our Hydrosophist mage, then.Д®ncounters can vary per playthrough, depending on how things have gone previously. This is further complicated by the modifiers on each location card, all conveyed via a clear, icon-based visual language that reminds me of Terra Mystica (which can somehow depict its immensely deep mechanicsВ without using words at all). If it weren't for my woeful rolling this would be devastating, and I combo Throwing Knife liberally with Cloak and Dagger to pull it off. With a range of one, Throwing Knife is my only non-melee attack - it usually uses four black dice to deal damage, but if I am invisible, I can use red dice instead (this is a change from the text on the card by KieronвЂ™s permission, who notes that the game is still a prototype and needs some balancing). Each has an AP cost and a cooldown measured in turns, just like the videogame. Your abilities are cards which you can play. WeвЂ™re obliged to have a bit of a chat about who should go where and how closely we need to stick together. With a party of four we have to split up if we want to explore every location before time runs out, but we also know combat is coming and that when it does, moving between locations will cost action points.

The turn limit also creates some nice tension.

The turn timer goes all the way up to eight, suggesting there will be much larger encounters than these, but itвЂ™ll be cool to have this way of estimating how much time youвЂ™ll need when budgeting your eveningвЂ™s commitments with your gaming group. Allowing for a snack break and the fact that weвЂ™re learning, confident players could probably complete either of them in an hour, so I reckon an average turn may take roughly 20 minutes.

We complete two encounters, each limited to three turns, in about three hours. When everyone in the party has resolved their location card, thatвЂ™s one turn. You might discover some loot, some information hinting about future encounters, spawn some enemies, that sort of thing. Exploration is abstract: we discuss who should go where and simply put our figurines down on the location cards, which are then flipped to reveal text describing what happens. The Divinity: Original Sin board game flows around вЂencountersвЂ™, which are built of eight location cards slotted into the roundel at the centre of the table. IвЂ™m getting ahead of myself, however вЂ“ more on combat later. Thanks to animal advice the first encounter goes cleanly, but it could've been very different

Pet pal divinity original sin 2