Preview #1
by Corey Konieczka
World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game is a brand new board game set in the World of Warcraft universe arriving summer 2008. Today I am going to talk about characters and how they differ from characters in World of Warcraft: The Boardgame.
In World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game, there are no teams and every man, woman, and orc fights to be the most renowned [insert race here] of the land. Each player starts the game with two quests, which lead them into the wilderness and away from the safety and security of their starting city. By completing quests, players start their journey towards ultimately becoming the most powerful being in the land.
Ability Cards
The game is all about characters, and each one is very different. Not only does each character have a figure and card describing his unique stats, but he also has a deck of unique abilities that will help him on his journey.
Each player starts the game with a hand of 3 cards from his ability deck. These abilities range from combat powers (Frostbolt), to non-combat powers (Ritual of Summoning), to just plain wacky (Execute).
Each card has an energy cost associated with it, which can be found in the upper right corner of the card. The amount of energy that a player has available depends upon what he rolled on his movement dice at the start of the turn.
The movement die not only determines how much energy a player receives, but also how far he can move during that turn. The more energy that a player receives on his turn, the less movement he will receive. Besides this balance, players have a pack full of potions that they may spend to decrease their energy costs.
Since each character has a custom deck of abilities, each one is unique. For example, a frost mage can play entirely different than a fire mage, since the deck is based upon the character instead of the class.
Ability cards also grow more powerful as the character gains levels. For example, the green level "Fear" ability not only cancels a battle, but can also make the opponent run away!
Each character has four double sided character cards, one for each character level. Each character has two different 'modes' which are represented by the card sides. For example, the Orc Warrior can enter be in either Battle Stance or Berserker Stance. Each side functions differently and some ability cards may require a particular stance.
Another example is the Warlock who can pay energy to flip his card and summon a Void Walker. The dichotomy of character sides leads to important decisions and can affect how a character plays.
Speaking of double sided cards, the back side of challenge cards is also used in a very important way. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until the next preview to discover how these cards work.
