Excalibur, I call on your power.
Your quest is complete! Download the Tainted Grail rules summary and reference!
Awaken Realms do some pretty cool stuff, and although delivery times on their Kickstarters can still be longer than I’d like (especially if you don’t want to pay for two shipments), once they do arrive they capture that certain special excitement that first made me obsessed with boardgames. This War of Mine and Nemesis are visually stunning games with great production, arresting, immersive stories, and most importantly, mechanics that work. Tainted Grail looks like another triumph.
I haven’t got it yet—hopefully in the next month or two?—but I’ve gone ahead and created this summary and reference because those people who paid for the core set shipment are already playing the game and saying it’s great. It’s a deeply story-driven game of exploration, diplomacy and combat in a dark version of the Arthurian legends, with an interesting mechanic that allows you to chain together cards when fighting—or diplomatically negotiating with—the people and creatures you encounter.
My only criticism so far is a very common one, especially for foreign-language publishers—the rulebook is challenging to read at best, with a messy and crowded layout and stream-of-consciousness approach to rules writing. Hopefully this summary will make the rules a lot clearer and the game easier to play. Good luck on your quests!