Coming soon to Kickstarter, Soul Raiders is a story-driven cooperative adventure game where 1-4 players explore locations and follow branching paths to complete quests.
Shown here on Board's Eye View is a preview prototype with just some of the components you can expect to find in the finished game. Players all play as warrior mages, so not as different classes, but they each have their own individual action decks and the actions they can take depend on how they choose to use the hand of multi-use cards they draw: typically for movement, combat and spell casting. Rather than a conventional board, players place their character avatars (standees in our preview version) out on large format cards that represent what the characters can see. Threats are generated but players get to choose the paths they take, and they can explore together or split the party to try different options. Either way, all the players maintain a shared vested interest: their health, for example, is pooled rather than separately tracked and the game incorporates a 'timer' that limits the number of actions available before the game ends.
Soul Raiders combines a versatile game system with an immersive narrative, and it can be played in standalone 60-90 minute sessions or as an ongoing campaign where the 'chapters' of each game build a story arc. When you fail a 'chapter', you have the option to replay it but that's not a requirement. As in other campaign adventure games like Gloomhaven (Cephalofair), you can move on to the next chapter and continue the story. And, if we're drawing comparisons with other adventure campaign games then, based on on the Prologue in our preview copy, it's worth pointing out that the story narrative in Soul Raiders is much more compelling than is evident in Gloomhaven and the like.
Soul Raiders is designed by Marc André, who is best known for Splendor (Space Cowboys). A host of artists have contributed to the game, which is being published by One for All. It launches on Kickstarter on 7 July. Click here to join the campaign.