Skoventyr is a charming solitaire and cooperative card game based on Danish folklore where the 1-4 players are helping the 'soul of the forest' in the form of a badger ('Vogter') who is being chased by Gamle Erik (Old Eric) - the Devil. The game is designed by Morten Monrad Pedersen and published by inPatience. The engaging art is by Vincent Dutrait.
To win, you need to defeat Gamle Erik's six minions, which requires you to have the requisite number of allies all at different locations in the forest (a circle of initially eight tree cards). Your wooden badger meeple moves around the forest but so does the large wooden Gamle Erik figure, and it's game over if Gamle Erik catches up with your badger.
On a player's turn they activate one of the four Vogter cards. These are used in conjunction with a 'Future' deck that initially contains 25 ally cards (five of each of the five types) and 13 Gamle Erik cards. You will variously use the Vogter cards to draw allies into your hand, use an ally card in your hand to play it to the forest or to discard it for its effect, or challenge one of the Devil's minions (by having the number of allies in the forest that at least matches the number on a minion card). You can also wipe the Future deck display, but at the cost of damaging a tree (flipping it from its green to its withered side). Damaged trees that are further damaged are removed from the game, and as the forest shrinks so it gets all the harder for your badger to escape the clutches of Gamle Erik...
The result is a challenging puzzle that we've particularly enjoyed as a solitaire game. The game has a distinct arc because ally cards that go to the discard pile are ordinarily out of the game but Gamle Erik cards are usually recycled to the bottom of the draw deck - so the chances increase of drawing a Devil rather than an ally card...
And when you think you've got Skoventyr cracked so that you beat the Devil more often than getting caught by him, the game comes with two built-in expansion modules to vary the game.
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