Sword & Sorcery + Arcane Portal Review

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I like a number of Ares/Nexus games (even the much maligned Age of Conan), but man, I’ve not played one yet that isn’t a mess. I don’t think it’s just the translation from Italian. We played Galaxy Defenders quite a few times and I don’t think we played it correctly once. I’m told it’s great, but I wouldn’t know. My experience with GD aside, I was under the impression that S&S was a campaign game. Is that the case? I’d love to give it a shot if that isn’t the case.

Josh Look wrote: I like a number of Ares/Nexus games (even the much maligned Age of Conan), but man, I’ve not played one yet that isn’t a mess. I don’t think it’s just the translation from Italian. We played Galaxy Defenders quite a few times and I don’t think we played it correctly once. I’m told it’s great, but I wouldn’t know. My experience with GD aside, I was under the impression that S&S was a campaign game. Is that the case? I’d love to give it a shot if that isn’t the case.

You can play any of the campaign scenarios individually. Each scenario includes rules for how much XP, Gold, etc your characters start with. You still need to read the storybook for stuff that comes up during the scenario.

This is effectively the "Descent 1st Edition Sans Overlord" game that I was seeking a few years ago when I kicked 2nd edition to the curb, though I'm guessing that I'm in the minority here. I'm not sure many are still looking for this style of game in 2018, tbh.

If anyone wants to pick up in Boston I'll give a good deal on my KS copy.

Rarely am I very curmudgeonly -- but sweet mercy, calling that aberration in Krull a glaive grates on me. A glaive, originally, was a sword. Then, it became basically a polearm with a curved blade. Never was it an over-sized shuriken.

Glaive:



Not a Glaive:

That bothered me too, more than this from Romeo and Juliet:

While Massive Darkness isn't perfect by any stretch, I prefer it to this game. It's less fiddly and also less bogged down in details that really just add overhead.