1-100 Players
Designer: Papermage Games
Artist: Papermage Games
Publisher: Papermage Games
We go to a world full of adventures, monsters and hexes in this fantasy roll and write. But is this a world where dangers bring epic adventures, or is it hexed from the curses of the dark minions?
How to Play
To setup, each player needs a map, an encounter table and a character. Game will go until a certain number of boss monsters are defeated, depending on the number of players.
Each turn 3 dice will be rolled. Each player will chose one for movement and two for encounters or battles. The movement die will determinate how much the player will move, if they go into special terrain, like mountains or water, and how many provisions they need to spend. Players can never move into the same terrain twice, and if they can’t move they are out.
The other two dice are used for either encounters, where players get or trade for resources and/or levels of weapons, or fighting monsters. To fight a monster a player needs to either have the necessary weapon levels or pay in life the difference. Both the encounters and the monsters available depend on the terrain type the player is in. If they are in villages or castles they can chose that or the terrain its on.
Bosses can only be fought in each of the six castles, and they require not only weapon levels, but also a special item (or additional life). Once a certain number of them are defeated, depending on the game type, the game is over.
Rules and Components
Beginning with the rules you’ll start to see a trend with this game: high quality, if not a bit of excess. The rules are well laid out, detailed and with plenty of illustrations and examples. It also has quite a bit of thematic flare to it. It also details every enemy, character and scenario. With all that, it is a huge 100+ page beast.
Initially this game was released with a full page with one map and encounter table for each character. The problem is that there are 300 maps over 3 scenarios, and 16 different characters. Luckily, one stretch goal was hit that broke that down into 3 parts, so you just need to print the 16 characters, 8 encounter table for each of the 3 campaigns, and the maps. Again, there are 300 of them. Honestly, print a sample that and you’ll be fine.
But let’s analyze those parts. The character and encounter tables are clear and easy to understand and use. I wish the spaces to mark your stuff, specially food and life, were bigger. It can get a bit messy. But it’s mostly fine.
The map is clear and feels big, but it’s also a bit busy. Since you have to mark all of your travel, halfway through the game it can get chaotic. I highly suggest having a meeple to. mark your current location.
Score: 8.5 / 10
Gameplay
This game plays a bit like trying to fix a leaking boat on the water. You need to get food, get more life, improve your weapons, and not get stuck, and usually you have to spend or forego one for the other. You will be in constant fear of defeat, but with careful planing you can turn around and get powerful.
There is never a dull moment in Legend of Hexdom. Every turn is tense and exciting, and filled with grueling decisions. But making your plans work and getting the bosses make you feel that much better.
Score: 8.5/10
Theme and Art
The theme is classic adventures in a dangerous Kingdom deal, and it’s heavily inspired by old school JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. But what’s cool is that Papermage took its time to give every character, enemy and boss its own personality and a little backstory. This is going above and beyond for theme, and I appreciate that.
Art style is very distinctive, and it will either trigger your nostalgia or it will fall flat. It is well done, but simplistic. But it fits well with the package and it integrates with the theme.
Score: 8/10
Conclusion
Legend of Hexdom is an excessive game. Almost everything is almost too much, and that usually comes at the cost of good design.
Luckily, that’s not the case here. This is a cohesive, well rounded and well balanced game. Games are exciting and have a great arc, ending just when they should. It’s a well. designed game that just happens to have an absurd amount of extra stuff.
| Rules and Components | 8.5/10 |
| Gameplay | 8.5/10 |
| Theme and Art | 8/10 |
| Score | 8.3/10 |
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