Spire's End: Hildegard is live (Choose Hildegard's Adventure)
Update: Spire’s End: Hildegard has launched on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 29 days. You may pledge for a copy of the game. A playmat is available as an add-on.
Our preview post below was published on July 7.
Spire’s End: Hildegard is a 1-2 players card-driven narrative adventure game, and a stand-alone sequel to the designer's previous game, Spire’s End. You follow the story of Hildegard, a young warrior who was also one of the six characters of the base game. The campaign will go live on July 13.
The game plays like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except with cards. You pick one of the three starting cards (numbered 1) and follow the instructions. Cards may involve gaining a new item, making a choice, or encountering an enemy.
Fights are resolved with dice. Each enemy has a Target number, which is the number of “Bullseye” you must hit with your dice: victory or defeat will direct you to different cards. Furthermore, there is a “bonus” you may try to achieve (a specific combination of the dice, or an additional Bullseye to hit) to gain either a Feat of Marksmanship or Gold. Feats of Marksmanship allow you to purchase a one-use perk to help you during a fight, while Gold may be needed later on during the adventure.
Besides this Target number, the enemy card features two stats: accuracy (the number of dice you roll during a set) and sets (the number of rounds you have to beat the enemy). It also displays a series of symbols which you can use to complete Bullseyes. For each set, you roll a number of dice equal to the accuracy set. You can then pair the dice matching the symbols on the enemy cards to form little Target symbols (e.g. two halves of a target). However, if you lock one die for the remainder of the set, you can Finesse your roll, that is, re-roll any number of the non-locked dice, and so on until you are satisfied with the result or all dice are locked. Finally, you must roll a Wild die, that may allow you to mitigate the results, grant you a free Bullseye, or cancel a Bullseye you had formed. In the course of the adventure, you may acquire alternative Wild dice with better odds.
After the set is complete, you count your Bullseyes. You may need to go through an additional set (if available) if you don't have enough Bullseyes, knowing that the Bullseyes you obtained carry on from one set to another. If you are out of sets and the enemy is still undefeated, you lose the fight.
The game also features “face-offs”, which are more elaborated encounters, in which you and the enemy alternate turns of rolling dice. There are no sets in this case, but the enemy tries to fulfill an ordered sequence of symbols to defeat you. If it does so before you get the required number of Bullseyes, you lose the fight and go to the corresponding card.
The game consists of four chapters. If you die, you may start again from the beginning, or restart at the beginning of a chapter with the Gold, Items, Wild dice, and Feats of Marksmanship you had acquired up to that point.