Check out Baladins in this episode of Chichuki Views!
It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Views, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. Today, we're checking out Baladins on Steam. Baladins takes all the fun of tabletop gaming and puts it into short little bursts. That way, you can play the game your way during the time you have!
You can play Baladins by yourself, with friends, or online. For the sake of the video, I played solo and it's really fun because you never really know what's going to happen. You can pick from different playable characters like the Dancer or the Cook, complete with different skills and attributes. When I played Baladins at PAX East this year, I picked the Pyro because he looked the coolest and this time I also picked the Pyro. It was also because he looked the coolest as a cat guy! You start out with different skill levels that will help during the game. For example, you might have a high destruction level or a high strength level. Those levels will help perform tasks during the game.
Baladins takes place in a six week cycle and the game ends on week seven. At the end of six turns, the gameplay cycle ends. Along the way you'll make your way to all kinds of locations along the map and perform quests. You have movement points and well as skill points. You can move around the board with the help of movement points. You can get more movement points at certain locations but when you run out in a turn, you can't move anymore. That being said, your action points are handled the same. Different locations have different things you can do at said location. Use the action points to perform actions and gain the upper hand in your journey.
You will have to play smart if you want to find everything that you need as well as every ending. Lucky for you, that the cycle ends after six weeks. However a dragon eats you and sends you back in time the start of the cycle. When you make it further into the adventure, you will gain the ability to keep an item and have that item go back in time with you. All the other items will go into the dragon's mouth as food for the monster. Your goal is to try to help the people of the neighboring towns as well as give the dragon a full meal. Everything is done with a dice roll. Roll a dice and add the value to whatever you're trying to do. Find a secret location would add dice value to intelligence or break something with strength. If you don't get the right value, you could use another action point to try again, if you can do the action during the same turn. Not everything can be done multiple times during turns.
Baladins is fun take on the table top genre. It lets you play the game your way or with friends. The writing is pretty funny and the art style really adds to the fantasy.