of Dreams & Shadows 2ND Edition, Multicolor

Brilliant, story-driven board game! The stories are deep and never get boring. In terms of story and RPG experience, this would be a FIVE STAR game! Unfortunately, the games mechanics are a bit simplistic and run of the mill. Combat, in particular, does not match the epic feel of the game's three main quests. Hence, I must remove one star from my review.In short, if you want STORY in a board game, then get "Of Dreams and Shadows." If you want DEEP, THRILLING COMBAT, and other game MECHANICS, then you should try before you buy.

Wow, I picked this game up on advice of a friend and I sat down with my kids (15/17) to play and was really amazed at how fun it is. We have played it several times now and have had a great time. Spoiler: Dont start your first game playing Arawn, He is really challenging, wait until you get a little time in playing! I've hear their is a second edition coming out soon as well as an expansion pass.

So I tried running my very first roleplaying game campaign and to my shock, amazement, and horror, I discovered that every member of my own family has absolutely no talent for storytelling. It simply isn't there. It was like being trapped in the movie The Invention of Lying and mom, dad, bro, and sis all took turns being Jennifer Garner in the first 45 minutes. So I ran away screaming, licked the wounds of my GM alter ego, and reassembled my thoughts. Okay...they can't make stuff up. Crap. That leaves Arabian Nights and this game, Of Dreams and Shadows. Which to pick? Hmmm...I watch the playthrough video on Youtube. This guy has the most extreme accent ever. To him they aren't Quest Tokens, they're "Quist Tooukins." You know what? Fudge it. The artwork is incredible. I can make it work. Really, it's the shading on the nose of the dominant Redcap Assassin that sells this game. Once you've played it however, it becomes glaringly obvious that having an odd number of players is suicide. Even the rulebook admits that doing that is more challenging, and boy it isn't kidding. Expect complete annihilation in 35 minutes with 3 people. So why the 4 stars? The game just needs the slightest tweak and then it shoots up to one of the top 3 slots in your list of all time favorites. I'm not kidding. It was so close to being perfect, and the designer just barely missed the mark. It's a real shame. Here's the house rules analogue patch: go online and copy/paste/print up some of the artwork into 5x5 inch laminated coasters with the following turn steps rules printed on them:(1). Choose 3 of the following actions to start with, + 1 additional action for each quest token gained:Travel 1 space awayRest to heal 2 points of healthBuy a resource on a realm or capital spaceInvoke a spellGive an item to anotherTake an item from anotherUse your special action once this turnPurge a shadow token(2). Enter combat(3). Select a scenario or go on a quest(4). Draw an event cardFREE ACTIONS :Retreat 1 space away to end a combat roundand/orReturn 1 card in the hand for the top card in the resources deckThere. Game fixed. You're welcome. What did I change? Just one thing: + 1 additional action for each Quest Token gained. That's the only hang up. That right there. You see, you only have 5 turns before Act 2 begins and then you can't earn anymore quest tokens. To beat the bosses you need Quest tokens, but with only 3 actions per turn, you can't move around the board fast enough to reach the spaces with quests on them. It's simple math. Moving a maximum number of 3 spaces on each turn means that if you are 6 spaces away from a randomly spawned quest, you will waste two turns just traveling to it. And you might not even earn that quest token! Now you haven't fought any monsters, or bought any weapons, you have nothing so far and two full turns have already gone by. Three more turns after this and the boss shows up. But if you get more actions after gaining quest tokens, then you can use the extra actions to do things other than traveling. There are seven other actions to take other than traveling. Adding this rule let's you explore those options. Why the laminated coasters? To cover up the bottom half of the scenario and quest cards of course. The guy on Youtube ends up using one of the Event Deck cards to pull off that trick. Tacky. They're too small for that anyway. Besides, no one will remember the order of the steps on their turn without a guide to go off of so you might as well plan that trip to your local OfficeMax's laminating machine. I know what you're thinking: dude, you're really not selling me on this, here. Well, I want you to have fun. And this game is a HUGE amount of fun and suspense as long as you can do stuff other than just playing the chicken that crosses the road. The way the rules are written right now, that's all you can do: race across the board to your death because there wasn't time to buy any armor. Not fair, not fun.Order of bosses from easiest to hardest: The Dragon, Morrigan, and finally Arawn.The Dragon's shadow tokens merely act like the Event Deck blockade card, so you just go around them or wait for him to come to you. He's fast enough, he'll get to you.Morrigan is faster. If it was just her that generated a shadow token in each capital when she reached it, that would be fair. But her remaining minions on the board get the same ability, so that means you have only two turns in Act 2 to take her down before every capital is engulfed in darkness. Good luck with that without a bow or the Call the Storm spell.I've never beaten Arawn yet. His followers have abilities that compliment each other far better than any of the henchmen for the other two bosses. I would say that with the Dragon you can have two champions, with Morrigan you need four, and you should have six champions if you want to take down Arawn. Which, when you think about it is a very clever, word of mouth approach: "Hey, me and my roommate just beat the Dragon, but we can't defeat Morrigan. Wanna come over and help us take her out? Bring a friend."Finally, yes, this game CAN be played solo. There is no GM. The scenario and quest cards tell the stories for you. You just have to make sure that if you are playing solo, you are choosing the best champions for the boss you are tackling.The Dragon: Freya, Hadrian, and SeleneMorrigan: Brom and NoraArawn: Anton, Natasha, and Tamlin

I played through one of the beginner scenarios at GenCon 2017 and fell in love with the game. The number one draw for me was the captivating story, with the beautiful artwork being a close second.In terms of gameplay, this game plays a lot like Eldritch Horror mixed with the crossroads cards from Dead of Winter. You get three actions per turn to move around, purchase (or steal for the rogue character) items, trade or rest and heal up. That is followed by a combat round and an environment/quest card. The environment cards are essentially beefed up crossroads cards. They tell some story, followed by a choice and/or a die roll. It's a welcomed the opportunity to role play a little, as I had a fun time making my choice based on what my character would decide. The choices are saved and impact the gameplay in the expansion to Of Dreams and Shadows.All in all, it was a fun experience with a well made game. There's a lot of story here and a lot of replayability. Highly recommended to fans of RPG/exploration focused board games.

It really tells a story good and the atmosphere is incredible. Highly recommended!!

First time I played, I loved it. Played with 2 other people. Fought the Dragon but there is an issue with hero imbalance. Some are just completely garbage. Otherwise, I had a ton of fun because we rolled dice just to see if we could survive.