Daniel (@dungeondive) takes an early look at Hand of Fate: Ordeals — a deck-builder with a delightfully tangled pedigree (a board game of a video game that simulated a card game). Two half-games into learning it, he’s intrigued: more than any deck-builder he’s played, this one feels like an actual adventure game rather than a Dominion-style combo engine. What hooked him first was the striking look — a dark red board, clean bold cards, superb low-clutter iconography, and chalky-finish minis.
He walks the structure: pick a hero, explore a randomly-laid board of locations, and build a character via purchased trickster, soldier, wanderer and equipment cards. Combat is the clever bit — you bind attack cards to your weapon in advance, then pay their upkeep each turn during a fatigue phase, forcing you to plan attacks ahead. The goal is to defeat three escalating bosses (Jack, Queen, King), banking shards for powerful relics along the way. Modes span competitive, co-op campaign, and one-vs-many. He’s not yet sure if he loves or merely likes it, but strongly advises pairing the base game with the Royalty expansion, which adds the other three suits’ campaigns and feels like the game made whole.
Hand of Fate: Ordeals makes you bind attacks to your weapon and pay their upkeep, so you plan combat turns ahead. Do you enjoy deck-builders that commit hard to a theme, or do you prefer the clean abstraction of a pure engine-builder?