Daniel (@dungeondive) returns to Gregory Favreau’s world with Spire’s End: Hildegard, the standalone follow-up to the original Spire’s End, here with softer-toned art by Diego Frias and Audrey Rovin. He’s quick to warn that the gentler palette is deceptive: like its predecessor this is a 16+ game in spirit despite its 12+ label, and it goes to some dark and violent places (one card involving a live crow he flags as edging into animal cruelty).
Across four chapters of story-card decks, the draw is discovery — flipping cards, making choices that lock you out of others, and finding genuine replayability. The standout is the dice system: a Yahtzee/Elder Sign hybrid where you lock and re-roll dice to assemble “bullseyes” for Hildegard’s slingshot, plus contested combat rolls and a fun fishing minigame. He’s frank about frustrations, too — a rulebook that buries key information (the status-effect card lives at the bottom of deck four) and reads better fully digested before play than learned on the fly. Well-written, strongly narrative, and he’s eager for chapters two through four.
Spire’s End: Hildegard wears soft, pretty artwork over a genuinely dark and violent story. Does a mismatch between a game’s look and its tone bother you — or can a gentle veneer make the darkness land harder?