HEXplore It Vol. 2: The Forests Of Adrimon Review

• Overview
• Gameplay
• What I Like
• What I Don’t Like
• Components
• Voice / Art / Music
• The Tales Told
• You Might Like This Game If…
• Score

Overview

From developer Mariucci J. Designs, LLC:
The forests were once populated by the elves of old- stewards of nature and protectors of the realm of fey. They departed nearly a century ago, emptying their pristine cities. Slowly the settlements were repopulated by other races and culture eventually returned to their walls.

Now, however, the peoples of the forest kneel to one enigmatic sorceress named Adrimon. All who enter slowly succumb to her presence, eventually becoming mindless slaves bound to her will. The cities are now lost, havens only to the mind-wiped. They work tirelessly on the Magi's automatons, enormous constructs fueled by the souls she has bound.

There have been heroes who have faced her and failed. In each attempt, they sacrificed themselves, vowing an oath that just might lead to Adrimon's undoing. These oaths gave power to their equipment creating relics that can diminish her magic, but they have been broken to pieces and scattered throughout the land. It is whispered that the only way Adrimon can be defeated is to find these relic fragments and piece them together.

Enter the Forests of Adrimon and attempt to gather the relic fragments, creating powerful equipment that may help destroy the sorceress. Players will be able to gain Favors from the spirits of the heroes who came before them, sneak into the mind-wiped cities, move though the fey-realm and interact with the Dryad (a powerful ally), battle tough foes and even save some of them from the Magi's wrath. There are hundreds of unique scenarios that can affect each game.

Team up to create your heroes and unseat the terrible sorceress, freeing the mind-wiped from their terrible enslavement.

Contents

HEXplore It: The Forests Of Adrimon is a Kickstarter (crowdfunding) game that has had one dedicated print run. Each subsequent volume’s crowdfunding campaign has offered overstock and a reprint option, and plenty of copies are also available through retailers, though, so the game is not hard to find.

In this review, I’ll be looking at The Forests of Adrimon‘s base game (core), its expansion, Return to The Forests of Adrimon, and all of the available extras, decks, and bling that can be added.

As of this writing, I’ve played the game five times: Once two-handed solo (controlling two heroes myself) using only the core game in order to learn the rules. Once with two players also using the core game. Then, three more times, using the expansion, all the extras, and a mix of different gameplay options, all solo. With so many ways to play, I felt it was necessary to try most of them before weighing in on the game. The only mode I have yet to try is the expansion’s Magi vs All, where one player takes on the role of Adrimon herself and fights the players.

Player count

While the game officially supports up to six players, I don’t think I’d recommend it at that player count. The rules are lengthy, and the roles players take for their heroes have complex abilities. Between teaching and how long battles will take at higher player counts, most players will probably get lost before the game really gets off the ground. I think solo, two or maybe three players would be the sweet spot.

Play time

Speaking of time, The Forests of Adrimon is fairly long, easily reaching the 4+ hour mark from start to finish with additional time for setup, teaching, and tear down. Thankfully, splitting the game up into different sessions is fairly easy, especially if you can leave it set up on the table. Since turns are relatively quick and straightforward, I’ve also found that it’s a decent game to solo slow crawl over a week or so, taking a few turns when free time allows.

Fall of the Ancients

Of note, a completely different way to play is by using a massive campaign book called Fall of the Ancients. However, it’s so different from the regular game that I have yet to try it, and I feel it warrants a separate review anyway.

Gameplay

Even though The Forests Of Adrimon has a number of ways to play, its core remains the same. It’s an RPG Hexcrawl adventure at heart, where you’ll take on the role of heroes who travel the Greenfire forest as a group to complete quests, defeat enemies, and explore the wild landscape.

Your ultimate goal is to defeat Adrimon before you’re either mind-wiped by her powers, defeated by one of the many foes you’ll encounter, or Adrimon comes to finish off the group herself. To be successful, players need to rapidly power up their heroes while collecting fragments of ancient relics, eventually reforming them into weapons capable of diminishing Adrimon’s deadly combat abilities.

Setup

Setup begins by building the forest from hex tiles, then seeding the available circumstances (random encounters), destinations (quests), relics and starting spaces for yourself and Adrimon’s fortress. While it’s possible to arrange the tiles in any configuration, there’s a recommended option that decreases some of the randomness and is best for learning the rules.

Once the forest is populated, it’s time for the heroes. They are made up of combinations of two choices: race and role. Roles in HEXplore It are like classes and are divided into types: Assist, Healer, Sapper, Striker and Utility. Races vary the starting stats of a role and provide a unique ability to be used throughout the game. Thankfully, the differences a race makes aren’t critical to victory (unless maximizing for harder difficulties), so it’s more akin to choosing options in a roleplaying game like Dungeons and Dragons, something that’s as flavorful as it is mechanically impactful.

Round Structure

Movement

Each round in The Forests of Adrimon starts with a simple question: Where do you want to go? Movement is always first, and even then, you have a choice: camp, move cautiously, normally, or recklessly.

Skill checks

After moving, each member of the group rolls their skill dice. This represents their ability to stay on course (or wander if enough of the group fail to navigate and are not moving cautiously) and forage the area for food and valuables. Successful skill tests provide gold and enough food for players to sustain themselves without dipping into their supplies or starving. Critical successes offer the additional benefit of an attempt to harvest further valuables in the form of flora that can be traded in for unique items in the fey realm.

Circumstances

Once skill checks are complete, it’s time for the circumstance. Five circumstances are face up in plain view of players across the top of the board. These, or a sixth random card from the top of the circumstance deck, are the possibilities players can encounter. To determine which they face, players roll a six-sided die. These circumstances range from good (treasure, helpful events, allies, etc.) to bad (harmful effects and powerful enemies). Travelling cautiously allows players to discard the circumstance (unless stated on the card), and landing on a board space with an event ignores the circumstance phase entirely, so the deadly ambush the players might have faced can be avoided!

Event & Magi phases

Finally, there are the event and Magi phases. The Magi phase is straightforward, increasing the Fate tracker by one and the Fate number if the tracker is full, increasing Adrimon’s power. If she is ever stronger than one or two of the player’s skills, those skills always fail, and if her power is ever greater than all three of a player’s skills, that player is mind-wiped (effectively dead).

In the event phase, players encounter what’s printed on the hex they’ve stopped on. It can be a friendly settlement, a mind-wiped city, a powerful boss, Adrimon herself, or several other things. The game includes large placards describing what the players find and how to resolve it. Sometimes, these events are destinations (quests), where the cards for them dictate.

Combat

When it comes time for combat, focus shifts to the Battle Mat. This is a placard with space to do battle math and keep track of statistics for both sides. It has some additional spaces for the group’s inventory as well, so it can also act like a quick reference outside of combat.

Players choose what they’ll do on the round, which is generally a choice between attack, defend (and use items), one of two abilities, or to flee. After players have decided what to do, a die roll determines what the enemy does, then all attacks and all damage is dealt at once. This means even if the enemy is defeated, they’ll still damage the players before they go down.

There’s a bit of nuance to combat as well. Abilities take energy, that goes for players and enemies both. Many abilities damage energy so running an enemy out means they’re reduced to an often weaker attack. Enemies also have a type, and players have a favored opponent, so when players fight their favored enemies, they get an additional, unlockable die worth of damage added.

One more cool addition to this version of HEXplore It is a new type of vital called Influence. Some mind-wiped creatures of the forest aren’t evil, so you can break the charm on them rather than outright kill them. This can provide a unique bonus as well. From a challenge standpoint, there’s practically no difference, but from a roleplay narrative, it’s a pretty neat addition.

The combat can become quite mathy after awhile. Statistics begin from around 2-6 and can end anywhere from 20-30 or even higher. There’s complexity when abilities ask you to take half, one third, or combine other statistics together in various ways to get a new number to use. That’s going to change constantly with your statistics so there’s actually little places on the role placard to keep track, it’s just a bit of a chore to remember to do so.

Endgame

Each time players accomplish something, they gain power. This could be in the form of new gear, powerful items, or straight boosts to their stats. Adrimon’s statistics, as with all the bosses, are in plain view for all, so players know how strong their opponents are going to be. It’s up to them to decide when they’re ready to fight, spending the rest of their time completing destinations, gathering fragments, forging relics and generally gaining as much power as they think they’ll need to be successful. Beat Adrimon and win, fail the fight against her, and it’s game over.

What I Like

I’ve had a really fun time playing The Forests of Adrimon. Learning the game was a little challenging at first, I’ll admit, but after falling into the rhythm of the game’s general flow, I found a lot to like.

Exploration

I’ll highlight the sense of exploration first, as it’s probably my favorite aspect of the game. Even the act of learning the rules was kind of fun. Like whoa, look at all the of options I have on my turn! What’s a moon root? I got a dark relic, what’s that do? Oh look, a fragment, lets see what that does! Suddenly, referencing the rules and placards wasn’t so much of a chore, as I was always engaged by always getting something.

Add that sense of discovery to the circumstance and destination decks and there’s no shortage of things to find. Some of the circumstances are even quite swingy, throwing you into deep trouble or boosting you to such a high degree that the whole course of the game changes. There’s luck mitigation built into those too, as one specific item lets you discard cards from the circumstance bar, letting you manipulate it such that only beneficial options exist.

There’s actually a bit of paralysis that happens when staring down so many options. Everything seems impossibly far away, yet enticingly within reach at the same time. That naturally fades after awhile, but it’s an impressive feeling while it lasts and one that I don’t see very often. It reminded me of video game experiences like Dark Souls or Skyrim, where everything is so big and new that while you start out a little lost, you can’t wait to dive in and learn it all.

Roleplaying

The roleplaying and RPG elements in the game are strong indeed. Right from the gate, the role / race combination is a fun set of choices. There’s lots to consider and explore just in the available options, and like any good RPG, that’s a great start. I’ll give some quick examples of how you can actually roleplay in a later section, but I’ll attribute that possibility to the massive amount of options the game gives you. There isn’t one path to victory, so the choice allows you to embrace who you’re playing.

There’s another funny little thing in the game that reminds me of pen and paper roleplaying too. Gear and items don’t have cards. Items are written on your role placard, and gear is simply represented by dots in a ring around your statistics. This means gear is essentially imaginary, and it’s assumed you’re always finding, or buying, better than you had previously. It’s an interesting system, and because there’s so much going on the game already, I actually don’t miss the addition of item cards.

Emerging narrative and world building

The world of The Forests of Adrimon, the Greenfire forest, is fantastically built. The game even comes with an optional Story Book to add additional flavor to people, places and events found throughout. It is a little over the top in some aspects perhaps, leaning heavily into a high fantasy fey realm type vibe, but that’s not bad, and it’s definitely immersive and a lot of fun to explore.

The emerging narrative is just as strong as the theme. Maybe you spend time raiding your old hometown, avoiding newly brainless citizens that might have been your neighbors not long ago. Maybe you decide the forest should be healed, not burned down, focusing your energy on influencing creatures. You can avoid most combats and acquire power in other ways. Maybe you just like exploring the forest, fishing with pixies, pulling fragments from overgrown trees, or helping Elowen’s keepers. There’s a whole lot of story unfolding as you play, and a whole lot of ways to reach your goal.

Player / Ability synergy

Many role abilities buff, heal, or bounce off of each other, with many of them taking advantage of each other’s strengths. An example is the Historian’s ability to buff others, including add their favored opponent type to another player. Another example is how many abilities allow the player to use their defense action while using them, ensuring some protection while staying useful in a tight spot.

I like the thought that’s gone into the abilities, as complicated as they might be at the end of the day. There’s only two per role so while it might take a little time to get used to them, their strengths become clear with a little practice. It’s engaging for players and makes them feel like they’re useful in other ways besides dealing damage.

For the solo’ist it means there’s a little more to learn, but I think the challenge is a welcome one. It’s a whole lot of fun to mix and match roles and races, trying different combinations for great effect. It reminds me a little of old school, party based RPG’s. The only downside to this is that some roles are really not good for solo only play. I’d recommend always using two heroes until getting to know which will work better for true solo.

Game modes, options upon options

Because there’s so many ways to play this game, I feel its worth talking a bit about them, highlighting some of my favorite or not so favorite parts.

First I’ll say that I appreciate the inclusion of all these options, but what I really love is that they’re pretty much all plug and play. You can use some, none, or heck, just house rule things as you like. With a game like this I would not feel guilty doing so, as the game is a system rather than a structured, linear experience. You’re not really cheating it by changing a few things since at the end of the day, having fun with it is the real goal.

One of my house rules for example, one that also happens to make the game a little easier, is to ignore the rule that adds to the fate tracker when the symbol is found on cards throughout the game. This slows the rate that Adrimon mind wipes you and forces you to fight her, drawing out the game and allowing you to become quite a bit stronger before needing to face her. I actually played my first game doing this accidently, but realized I liked the game a little better when it was slower. Difficulty can just be adjusted by the included settings anyway.

Normal – Core Box only, standard play

This is the basic way to play using just the Core of The Forests of Adrimon. It’s best for learning the rules and getting used to the game’s flow. I quite like the base game by itself, it’s plenty thematic and there’s nothing wrong with the gameplay out of the box so I can’t say that it requires an expansion to shine or anything. There are downsides in the art department, but I’ll talk a little more about that later.

Normal – Core box with Expansion

When adding the expansion, just about all of the content is optional and includes:

• New relics & fragments, circumstances, power ups, and powerful, multiclass roles
• Traits, which add starting bonuses, a small achievement-like progression system, and a unique ability
• New bosses & Item cards for new and existing items found throughout the game
• Elowen’s grove & Fey realm exploration options
• Magi vs All mode (1 vs many)

While I can’t speak to the Magi mode, the rest of the expansion is great. I don’t think I’d play without it again, just choose which parts of it I include.

The new power up cards for example, come with a caveat. Most of them are way more powerful than the core game’s but they have the fate tracker symbol on them, speeding up the rate at which Adrimon forces you to fight her and end the game. You’ll need to decide if you want a faster game or not.

I found traits interesting, but largely insignificant and easy to forget in the cluster of other things to remember. I could take them or leave them and it wouldn’t impact much.

Also, while new relics are cool, more relics means more fragments, and the deck starts to get a little bulky with them added, meaning its harder to acquire what you need. There are in-game items to help with this, but they are rare and need to be found randomly.

The new bosses are really fun, but they’re difficult, and show up based on specific triggers. That’s even more to remember, and two of them significantly alter the game half way through. I’d put them squarely in the optional category, only if you want the gameplay changes they offer.

Story mode

Using the Story Book, players can find triggers across the game world to prompt narrative entries to expand on what they find. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact, but is a great immersive addition, especially when playing solo. Just to speak to the writing quality a little, while it’s all excellent, I did find many of the entries to be kind of generic. Basically the enemies and places are what you’d expect, and I’m missing a little unique flair to take the Greenfire forest over the top.

Additionally, the Story Book includes some small gameplay additions sprinkled throughout:

• Alternate start – Play as Elowen’s keepers. Don’t start near a mindwiped city with starting gear, instead start in her grove with harvesting equipment and maximum food. Thematically I love this, it actually prompted a bit of roleplaying for one of my plays that I’ll touch on a little later.
• Acropolis triggers – Start the battle with Adrimon with a different augment depending on what space players camp in to initiate combat with her. This is pretty cool, but once again, adds more to remember. I’d throw this rule in a game here and there, even on the fly if I remember to, but if I don’t, it’s no big deal.
• Circumstance tables – Rather than random circumstances drawn from the deck, roll a d10 on tables themed around the type of hex you stop on. This is a really neat idea, again especially for the solo’ist on GM player who’s looking for maximum immersion. I haven’t used it myself, but it’s a cool addition.

Core optional modes

The rules for these modes are in the Core rulebook. They change up the game to make it faster, slower, easier, or deadlier:

• True Solo – This mode adds slight rule adjustments to help a single hero. It adds a free revive in case they die early, a way to add some block every turn of combat, and rolling twice when attempting skill tests in destinations.
• Valor – This mode is all about specific goals, just like video game achievements. You keep earned valor across playthroughs and can gain new starting bonuses depending on how much you’ve earned over time.
• Double up – As the name implies, doubling the acquired rewards throughout the game speeds it up dramatically. This is largely done through a powerful end game item given to you early.
• Quick / Family play – Players power up quickly by sharing power up cards, start with more power, and some endgame Fey items to help them with power up choices. Adrimon is weaker, and she doesn’t create sentinels. This cuts the game play time probably in half, to maybe 2-3 hours. The only thing I will say is that the character development is then at break neck speed, it can actually be hard to track it all.
• Marathon – This mode hides the relics, so you need to discover what they are before you know which fragments you need. It also reduces the amount of available Destinations at once. Then there’s the rule that states you must defeat every boss before you can win, and the game difficulty increases after every second boss kill. This means even if you defeat Adrimon, the game isn’t over and by the end of the game every enemy is very difficult. Now that’s epic!
  I had a rather fun time playing this mode with the expansion boss Hyperion. It wanted to effectively “eat” the other bosses, adding their power to Adrimon. To prevent that, and hunt them myself per the goal, almost the whole game was a mad dash to each boss, with the rewards from one providing barely enough power to defeat the next. Pretty neat.
• Dual game – What a great addition! The first volume of HEXplore It: Valley of the Dead King, can be used in games of The Forests of Adrimon. Mixing the previous game’s content adds even more variety to what you find, and that’s always a win in my book.

Magi: 1 vs all, expansion only

This mode requires the expansion, and while I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, it’s great for players who enjoy having a DM or some competitive play.

Deck additions

There are a few new decks you can mix into The Forests of Adrimon. Some are purely cosmetic, while some alter the gameplay in subtle, but interesting ways:

Power up art

With a recent Gamefound crowdfunding campaign to fund the Fall of the Ancients campaign book, some of the stretch goals introduced art decks for power up cards. These don’t alter gameplay, but they add art to all the power up cards in both the Core and Expansion. The art is really good, greatly helps the theme, and addresses one of my concerns around lack of art.

Encounter

In the same crowdfunding campaign, an encounter deck was added as another stretch goal. It not only add art for all the enemies found in the Core and Expansion, it slightly alters the way circumstances work by removing enemies from the circumstance deck, then reserving two of the five spots on the board specifically for them. That way, you’ll always know what enemies you could face, and you know some enemies will always be possible encounters.

Living Cards

This has been around since the first printing of the game, but it’s a fantastic addition that adds a few nice additions to the game. First, three cards in the Core game have QR codes on them. Scanning those codes takes you to the official website where the resolution of the cards changes over time, so you never quite know what you’ll find.

Then, if you have the Living Card Deck, you don’t need to use the QR code, you have physical stacks of the card’s options to play through. There’s also one circumstance stack included that is not shuffled, staying together as a narrative string of goals, like a side quest. Additionally, the Living Card Deck adds Peril cards: optional, often deadly encounters that you can decide to reveal when rolling a Hex (6) on the six sided die to determine circumstances.

My preferred way to play

After trying these options, here’s my preferred way to play:

• Core with expansion, but remove the expansion power ups and roles (unless ok with how strong they are). Do not add the Elowen or Hyperion boss unless desiring their gameplay changes, but add the Noble and Highguard Captain.
• Add the encounter and living card decks.
• Begin with the alternate start, as Elowen’s keepers. This is just flavor, but I feel it’s better thematically.
• Play with the rule from marathon mode that increases the game difficulty after defeating every other boss. This might be a little much for a new player, but once you know the rules, this change balances the end game much better.

What I Don’t Like

Most of what I don’t like about The Forests of Adrimon stems from what I do. The game is big, heavyweight, and requires a lot of learning, bookkeeping, and careful thinking through your options.

Getting started

Between the large amount of rules, and some difficult balance at the beginning, it can be a tough game to get into. I can see many players being turned off by the introduction, set up, and constant thumbing through rules. It’s a game I can envision sitting on a table for a week before the daunting thought of picking it up again means it just goes back in the box instead.

Fiddly gameplay and bookkeeping

As I said, there’s a lot of bookkeeping in The Forests of Adrimon. You’re constantly acquiring new things and changing your character, writing, erasing, and writing in updates again. It’s actually a pretty smooth system since it means you don’t need to keep track of cards or tokens everywhere, and is reminiscent of a roleplaying game like Dungeons and Dragons, but it means you’d better enjoy that aspect of play. Players who generally do prefer cards and fewer, simpler rules might get lost here.

As if that wasn’t enough, there is one particularly annoying omission from the game, reference sheets. Don’t get me wrong, there are some, just not enough. Many rules, conditions, and with the expansion, an entire shop is stuck in the rulebooks, making it annoying to remember their locations, and reference them each time you need. I can’t imagine a couple more double sided placards would have been that hard to produce, so it’s disappointing that it takes that much more effort to enjoy the game to its fullest.

Mechanics that feel extraneous

There’s a few mechanics I think the game could have refined or even done without entirely.

Using skills while traversing the board for example, while an interesting idea, is not very fun and not even very impactful, just annoying. Being thrown off track and moving in a random direction, having to run back to town for food, or tying gold to dice rolls feels arbitrary. It’s like padding, making you do a chore rather than be fun or engaging. By the end of the game your skills are so high than none of them matter anyway, they’re only to slow the early game down. I think the game would have been better streamlined without any of them, honestly.

I’m also not too keen on the way energy, and energy damage works. You need energy for your abilities, as does the enemy, so I get the theory behind it. In practice, however, you rarely need to think about energy, and it’s generally not effective to focus on it compared to health damage since the battle can be over faster than you can deplete an enemy’s energy anyway. I think the whole concept could have been changed to cooldowns and disables, rather than fiddle with the energy numbers.

Snowball effect

Admittedly, this is kind of between a like and dislike, but the game does have quite a snowball effect. It’s cool to go from zero to hero, a grunt to a god, but it means that by the end of the game many mechanics are diminished down to nothing. You can end the game with any item you want, kill anything, and nothing matters except the final bit of power needed to defeat Adrimon. I mean, you definitely feel powerful, it’s just such a rapid assent that it almost feels… off? Some house rules, like something in between marathon and easy modes would be my ideal sweet spot for the game.

Lack of art

I’ll talk about this aspect a little more in a bit, but in the Core & Expansion, there’s a distinct lack of art that makes the game feel unpolished or imaginary. Circumstance cards just have a big exclamation mark on the back, with written text on the front explaining what you find, or just monster statistics if it’s an enemy. What is a boggard? What is a moon stalker? Who knows.

Ditto to the quests and power up cards, which are equally devoid. Only the back of the role and boss placards have art. Now, I get it, art is expensive, but I think a little bit more, especially for the back of the cards would have served better.

Components

The provided components are all generally very good quality, I have no complaints. Here’s what you get in the box:

• 1 Rule booklet (88 pages, 17.8×12.8 cm, two-sided full-colour glossy perfectbound)
• 1 Story booklet (62 pages, 21×16 cm, two-sided full-colour glossy perfectbound)
• 4 Map Quadrants
• 4 Map Frames
• 10 map HEXtiles
• 2 7-hex tiles
• 6 4-hex tiles
• 4 3-hex tiles
• 1 Dry-Erase Battle Mat (16×26 cm)
• 8 Dry-Erase Role Mats(16×26 cm)
• 5 Boss Mats (16×26 cm)
• 4 Game Play placards (16×26 cm)
• 12 Race cards (70×110 mm)
• 6 Relic cards (70×110 mm)
• 54 Circumstance cards (62.5×88 mm)
• 54 Power Up cards (62.5×88 mm)
• 36 Destination cards (62.5×88 mm)
• 18 Fragment cards (62.5×88 mm)
• 3 card deck tuck boxes
• 1 Hero Party miniature (Reaper “Andriessa, Female Wizard”, SKU 77386)
• 1 Acropolis (plastic miniature)
• 1 foldout poster (Forests of Adrimon; Sands of Shurax)
• 7 Dry-Erase Markers
• Tokens
  • 21 Destination tokens
  • 5 Enthralled Waypost tokens
  • 4 Root System tokens
  • 4 Sentinel tokens
  • 1 Ashul’s Workshop token
  • 1 Paragon’s Hall token
• 18 ten-sided dice (6 each in green, blue, yellow)
• 1 teal eight-sided die
• 1 purple six-sided die
• 3 ziplocs (two 10×15.5 cm, one 10×14 cm)
• 2 organizing inserts

Paper

The cards are of standard weight and hold up nicely to shuffling and general play. Same for the board tiles, which are thick, beautifully done and hold up well. The placards are large and all dry erase, some are reference boards with rules or shops, while others are for roles and others still are double sided for the various bosses. You can write on any of them, and erase as necessary to keep track of anything you need, though you’ll be using the role and battle mat ones the most. It’s a really cool addition, and welcome compared to writing on paper sheets. I will mention that the placards tend to warp just a bit, but it’s nothing bothersome.

Plastic

Two miniatures are included in the game. One is a city, that denotes Adrimon’s fortress and has a few small gameplay elements to it. The other is a Reaper miniature of a druid looking character to denote the player group. It works, and I don’t think any more miniatures would be necessary.

If you have the stretch goals from the Fall of The Ancients crowdfunding campaign, you’ll also have standees to represent bosses and sentinels. They’re cool, really not necessary at all, but they’re pretty.

Companion App

Another cool addition is a Companion App. It offers a soundtrack and a pretty decent way to track player heroes in the game. I’m not the biggest fan of it, since there is a lot of clicking around it to set everything up and constantly update it. For the time it takes to use, I’ll have just written the changes down by then. It’s a nice option, though, especially if you plan on saving the game for later and need a way to track the party. I can see some people really enjoying having the app up on a tablet during play, too.

Voice / Art / Music

Voice

Since The Forests of Adrimon isn’t a linear, narrative experience, there wasn’t a need for voice over.

Art

I mentioned the lack of art already, but I’ll expand on that point. All art for the Core & Expansion is

relegated to the box covers and back of the placards, with a sprinkling on the fragment/relic cards and a few illustrations throughout the Story Book. It’s not unprecedented for a game to lack art, and it actually fits with the RPG theme, so while it works, it’s still a little off-putting when you compare it to say, an Awaken Realms or CMON game.

The hex tile’s all have art, which is decent, but similar enough that it can actually be hard to differentiate the hex types sometimes. There’s a lot of green on everything, and the giant trees of the forest actually have a gameplay element to them. I think I would have added a contrasting highlight or outline color to the trees, maybe orange.

The art that exists is really good. The style is fairly cartoony, but the wonderfully contrasting colors fit the theme perfectly, and it’s perfect to help immerse yourself into the world.

Adding the optional decks

Adding the power up and encounter decks helps the art issue tremendously. Suddenly I know what my enemy looks like, and the fruits of my labor adventuring across the forest is more visually realized beyond just the numbers. There’s really well done art included in these decks and I definitely recommend them if the lack of art is particularly grating.

Music

Interestingly enough, Forteller, which primarily does voice work for games, was still involved with The Forests of Adrimon. They created a complete soundtrack for all volumes of the series. With soundscapes for combat, early, mid and late game exploration, there’s a lot of variety for an entire play session. Available for free through the companion app, or for $13 through Forteller directly (so you can download and keep a copy), it’s a very cool addition to the game.

I went ahead and purchased the soundtrack for all volumes (I love supporting Forteller) to have copies for myself. I will say that while I enjoyed what they did with this volume’s music, I don’t think it’s particularly memorable. I was definitely more immersed in the Greenfire forest with it playing in the background, I just wasn’t left humming any of the tunes afterwards.

Some other fantastic soundtracks for this game might be anything be Jeremy Soule, or the wonderful OST’s of Endless Legend or Songs of Conquest.

The Tales Told

While there’s no story to follow while playing The Forests of Adrimon, there is a short story in the Story Book called Elrick’s Fable that wonderfully sets the stage for the game’s world.

The emerging narrative in The Forests of Adrimon is fantastic. I’d even say it’s incredibly strong once you add the Story Book entries. The introduction to the game just through the rulebook is already pretty good, but adding additional entries elevates the immersive storytelling even further.

I’ll give a couple short examples of how I went about roleplaying with the narrative as it emerged. Notice how the plethora of gameplay options allowed for the games to be completely different. This is all optional, of course, focusing on the mechanics will get you to the end, the roleplay is just to enjoy the journey.

The tale of Brom, the Ivy Knight

A Wellspring channeling Ivy Knight leaves his hometown of Elashor. He is the the last sentient being after the rest of his neighbors had their minds wiped by the Magi. He leaves with as much gear and miscellaneous items as possible, but is now alone in the forest. Very quickly he decides to return back inside, intent to loot what is now useless to the soulless bodies roaming his former home. Several times he delves, being caught and injured, but easily escaping each time.

Better equipped for the journey, he focuses his time on searching for the multitude of hidden fragments throughout the forest. Stashed between poisonous trees, in ravines, dense thickets and watering holes, he ends up with several, increasing his power tremendously. He’s now ready to take on Mraka’kek, with eyes on the goblin king’s stash. From there, the journey continues. More looting leads to more gear, which leads to more fragments, which leads to the ability to conquer the forest’s most deadly foes one by one, leading all the way to the Magi herself.

Greenfire Groove

Beginning in Elowen’s grove, the group begins as keepers of the forest. Elowen sends them on a mission to kill Adrimon, the only way to save the forest. Beginning in her grove with plenty of food and a harvesting kit means instant access to fast travel around the forest, so the group quickly begins by harvesting resources from trees.

From there, much work gathering valuable flora takes place, all while encountering other keepers, creatures of the forest and even the powerful fey court. Returning to grove to purchase items with what was gathered equips the group so they’re powerful enough to take out Mraka’kek, the goblin king. Increasing their physical size using giant’s potions, the group defeats the boss and takes his dark relic, returning it to Elowen to trade it in for further resources. The group has fragments of relics from their encounters, other keepers, and what was held by the goblin king.

They’re well on their way to reforging a relic and gaining ground on Adrimon. One more option the group decides to take is to continue down the path of keeping the forest, not burning it down. Whenever they encounter a foe they’re capable of saving, they break the Magi’s influence on it instead of put it down. This becomes especially handy when saving the great owl. Thankful for her rescue, she is now at their disposal, carrying them wherever they need to go to continue their quest.

You Might Like This Game If…

Anyone who loves a good “RPG in a box”, hexcrawl, or even adventure game will want to check out The Forests of Adrimon. For the solo’ist, or small group that enjoys these types of games and wants something they can sink their teeth into, the depth of adventure found in this game should be a pleasant surprise.

There’s enough theme, immersion and roleplay opportunities that I would say anyone looking for something they can escape into for a few evenings will also enjoy what’s on offer. Don’t let a little lack of art and the seemingly mathematic nature of the combat turn you off either, as they’re made up for by the emerging narrative and more than enough gameplay options.

On the flipside, if a huge amount of rules with some grey area between them, a long play time and a buffet of gameplay options scare you off, then The Forests of Adrimon is just going to be overwhelming. Likewise if you’re looking for a tight, balanced, crunchy, puzzle-like experience, you’ll probably be a bit disappointed with how a lot of the gameplay turns out.

If you’re interested in picking up a copy of The Forests of Adrimon, the official website doesn’t have a shop, but plenty of copies exist all over the web, including right from Amazon.

Score

Despite a few things I’d change to tighten, balance, and streamline gameplay, and a very heavy weight that could be off-putting to some, there’s no doubt that this game delivers a fantastically thematic and highly immersive experience. As an RPG adventure system in a world that is a really fun time to be in, it’s something I’ll be returning to again and again. HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon gets a 4/5 with a golden quill.