Folklore The Affliction 2nd Edition

Product Information

Where Folklore deviates is in its execution, as it is completely cooperative – no Game Master required. Steve and I had the opportunity to sit down with Will Donovan on Roll20, an interactive online game tool, and give the first adventure line a go. I’ve found it a bit punishing for 2 players, but we do keep coming back to it (and we haven’t got past Dusk level adventures yet). The characters are unorthodox, you will not find your traditional warrior, archer, or mage, instead you will find characters pulled mostly from European folklore (hence the name).

It’s important to understand the difference because some abilities, items, or effects last an entire round rather than just a turn.To deal with this, checkout the 'advanced rules' from the expansions, as well as 'Encounter Tactical variants' house rules that you can find on Board Game geek. But be mindful, the rumors, the whispers, the stories passed down between generations are not just tall-tales and legends. Free the denizens from the scourge of vampirism and lycanthropy and expand your power and abilities.

In this way, Folklore really provides the opportunity to become your character and take control of their actions. The foes have tracker tiles to make this easy and the amount of vitality each possesses scales based on the number of heroes.Zpocalypse 2 hit and, although another presentation improvement, I still found myself having to flip back and forth the first couple of games trying to find things which almost felt obscurely hidden. The combat rules cover a variety of situations such as auras, flames, line of sight, covens, swarms, and so on but never get to the point of being overwhelming. This not only gives you a better chance of hitting but brings combat to a much swifter conclusion after you have whittled down your enemies to a last one or two. The story journal will also point the players toward different locations across the world map and the current party leader gets to choose where the group travels to next.

Before I truly dive in allow me to also recommend the person tasked with the role of narrator be someone who can get into a roleplaying spirit as Folklore contains a good bit of reading aloud. If the hero strikes home the player simply uses the damage that weapon, spell, ritual, etc will deal (along with any additional modifiers they may have) from the vitality of the creature. Lore is where much of the ongoing character advancement and roleplaying aspects of Folklore come to the fore. When I say diverse, please understand that I am referring to their diversity in classes and abilities, not their racial diversity. The detail is really good but the cuts aren’t as deep as you’d see with metal or resin figures which are utilized in dedicated miniatures games though.

You have a character sheet (or several) with a range of stats that change as you adventure and also contribute to your dice rolls. There are multiple decks of cards, a world map, a rule book and story journal, loads of tokens and counters, a slew of adventure (combat encounter) maps, as well as thirty-five detailed miniatures. Please note: The second edition of Folklore: The Affliction contains cardboard standees instead of the plastic figures from the first edition. The setting and many of the details are given a haziness that allows the audience to generally recognize the setting without focusing on the anachronisms that pop up at a steady pace. The character sheets also display a variety of skills which can include archaeology, awareness, ecology, faith, nerve, occult, speech, and trickery.