1-99 Players
Publisher: NukaZombee
After a few very bleak releases, NukaZombee comes out with a whimsical journey through a land of orcs, alchemy and air balloons. But is this journey going to soar but is the orc’s curse is just too much?
EDIT: A few corrections due to a rules misunderstanding.
How to Play
To setup, put the enemy on the first spot on its path, your character in the middle and gems on the spots on the player sheet and map. Each turn is broken into three steps: move, actions and enemy movement.
To move, the player rolls two dice, one sets the destination and the other for the move amount. If the player acquired any constellations they can use them to change one or both of the values to get to specific spots.
On the actions, first the player can move one of the gems between the classes to get different bonuses, then getting ingredients or mapping stars. Then, depending on where the player is, they can get more ingredients or heal the villagers . Finally, the player can craft items and brew/sell potions. After that, the orcs advance one space, two if the player went off of the edge of the map.
The player wins if they are able to get the healing skill to max and do one more healing, and lose if the orcs reach the final spot, the King.
Rules and Components
Take this section with a grain of salt, since this is an early preview copy and lots can and will change. As of know, the rules have a great and vibrant layout and use a lot of visuals to show each element of the game. However, as of now, they feel incomplete and a few spots are unclear. Again, early preview copy. The game is perfectly playable, even if a mistake or two are there.
As I mentioned, the visuals are clear, vibrant and rich. There are two sheets, one for the map and one for the player. The player sheet works great, rules are embedded on each spot and they work really well. The map, while beautiful, lacks a bit of usability, specially a spot to clearly see which villages are there.
Gameplay
SkyCraft is not rules heavy, but it’s surprisingly thinky and requires a lot of planning to be successful. Movement is the main challenge, just getting to the right place and getting the right ingredients or skills at the right time. There are four skills, and you can only move laterally and one gem per turn. Having flexibility with the movement will probably mean that you are not healing or foraging as well.
Healing is a bit odd. You have one die, plus one for each gem on the healer class, and you have to roll within a range, not less or more. Whenever you succeed you advance on the skill, if not you move back. The odd part is while you do move towards having more gems as your skills increases, it also requires more dice and a harder roll. It’s not always advantageous to skill up.
Even with these hurdles, as of know the game is fairly forgiving in terms of the challenge of completing the goal before the orc gets to the final spot, specially when there is a potion that moves back the orcs a whopping 20 spots.
Theme and Art
I absolutely love the art for this game! The characters, both the one available on the preview and the ones announced, are goofy and have a lot of personality. The map is also interesting, with even spots that share a type being unique.
The theme for the most part comes through as well, with the character just flying around the land and, in my mind, tossing healing potions right to villagers head. There are a few spots that I feel it could be better.
One, it bothers me to no end that we are stealing from the villagers we are trying to save. It could be donations or something else, but stealing just feels wrong. Also, the orcs as of now feel mostly just like a timer. They are not a looming scary presence that can cause havoc, they are just walking around up until the next step.
Conclusion
Despite my criticisms, I feel like SkyCraft is a blast to play. It’s a game where you take very little to get into, but then slowly start to realize that if you don’t plan right, you will not do well. It’s a game about understanding the odds and planning your turns ahead of time, and when you are able to pull it off you it’s exciting.
Unsurprisingly, there are a few balance issues, but even with those the game feels rewarding and complete. And, on top of it, knowing that there will be extra characters I’m super excited to see what they are going to bring to the skies.
NukaZombee has a knack for making longer roll and writes feel like a breeze, and I feel engaged the whole playthrough. If a thinky but whimsical adventure is up your alley, you will find a great game here!
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