Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 minutes

Venture Forth is a unique game with a fantasy theme. It is part dungeon crawl, part resource and hand management and it all adds up to a lot of fun. You’ll need to outsmart and out plan your opponents plus get a bit lucky to win this game.

Venture Forth Rules Description:

You begin Venture Forth with an adventurer five cards and three or four gold. Each turn you can take one of four actions. When all the explore tokens have been placed on the board each player gets one last turn. You then tally your victory points and the player with the most wins.

The four actions you may take are: playing a card, venture forth, make an offering at a temple or regroup. You play cards on spaces on the board and in return you get gold and will. Gold can be used in the temples and to recruit adventurers. Will is used to level your heroes and may also double their power for one encounter. You may only place a card next to an area that matches that card’s background color or next to a card that matches its background color. After playing a card you draw another from the deck.

Once the spaces connecting two areas are filled you may venture forth. When you venture forth you encounter each card along the path you took. There are two types of cards placed on the board, adventurers and monsters. Adventurers may be added to your party if you spend gold equal to their power which ranges from 1-3. You must meet or beat a monster’s power value or be defeated. If you win you’ll gain everything on the explore token sitting along the path (usually treasure cards, gold, or despair). If you lose the monster takes a resource or gives you a despair token and stays on the board. Monsters that are left undefeated are turned sideways and if someone loses to them again, they are discarded.

Despair tokens subtract three victory points from your total at the end of the game. But you can remove them by leveling up or visiting one of the temples. You may make an offering to a temple you are currently on. Each of the temples lets you exchange money or a treasure card for something. Some examples are: an extra turn, more will, more gold or discarding cards.

Regrouping allows you to discard cards and redraw up to five.

You score points by leveling your heroes. But each hero is unique and has a specific ambition that triggers it to level. You must also have enough will on the hero too. As the hero levels you’ll get more points and are able to remove one despair token from them. The maximum level is three at which point your hero will get a unique special ability.

Once the game ends you subtract points for your despair tokens then add points for will gold and having the most explore tokens. Each hero may also score one unused treasure card. The player that has the most victory points wins.

Quick Venture Forth Review:

Venture Forth is not your typical adventure game. There are no dice, no treasure slots on your heroes and heroes do not really grow in power. But it is very unique and combines some excellent mechanics to be a Euro-adventure game. On top of that it is a lot of fun.

I really like the way each hero is different and interacts with each other and the board differently. You’ll have to figure out the best number of heroes to recruit and their power level. There are a ton of combinations to explore and tweak.

Card placement can be very strategic as well. Can you level someone twice with one venture forth action? How about leveling two characters by defeating the same monster? The game allows for this type of action efficiency and rewards it.

The components for this game are high quality and everything looks great. The rules could use a bit of polish but if you can read them and then run through a few turns and read them again them most of your misunderstandings should be cleared up.

I can see Venture Forth hitting the table a lot. It is easy to teach and play, not too long, has broad appeal and is fun. New players may be at a slight disadvantage but after a play or two the playing field should be level.

I must admit I was expecting something different when looking at the box, but I am pleasantly surprised with Venture Forth. Be warned this is not a hack-n-slash run through a dungeon. But it is an excellent blend of so many other things. You should definitely check out Venture Forth.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6