Day 5 - Runebound 3rd Edition

After three attempts at it, you'd think Fantasy Flight Games could finally get the Runebound franchise right... They didn't. Runebound is an overland fantasy adventure, You play as characters in the Terrinoth universe attempting to defeat some big bad, while competing with your fellow heroes to be the best at it. You'll have random encounters, go on quests and fight monsters or even each other as you explore the lands around Tamalir.

Runebound has always had issues hence 3 editions. The second edition was interminably long with 4 players and very swingy with all checks being resolved with 2 x 10 sided dice, giving you a result between 2 and 20.

Third Edition does a lot to tackle the second part. The dice are removed entirely. Checks are now resolved with card flips, while combat is handled in a more tactical way through icons on rune tiles that you cast and then spend to defeat your opponent. While this system makes combat infinitely more interest than previous editions, it also makes it slower and messier. The runes are double sided tokens that you throw or flip onto the table, which can end up rolling away, or falling on the floor. Also, in previous editions of Runebound, while you resolved a combat other players could be taking their turn, in this version another player needs to play your opponent, meaning everyone must stop and wait for the combat to be resolved.

Overall Runebound's Third Edition feels like a very grindy experience as you struggle to attain any power and items and move very slowly across the map. Previously in Runebound you rolled 5 dice for movement, here, that has been reduced to 3 to allow for items to grant you additional movement and to introduce a new Action Point system, but it makes everything so much slower, Also, you are no longer guaranteed to have an encounter if you end your movement with an encounter gem, but instead you must spend two actions to do so, And the encounters are so difficult, especially combat, that you always feel under powered and struggling.

Ultimately this version of Runebound feels like a fantasy version of Eldritch Horror, but the stories it tells just feel bland and generic and an interesting combat system just isn't enough to save it.