Avalon awaits.
The original Tainted Grail, an amazingly detailed adventure game by Awaken Realms, featured some really excellent writing as is definitely at the top of my ‘games I will finally finish playing one day when I have enough time’ list. Long campaign adventure games are virtually impossible to rope another player or players into, and I rarely have time for a lot of solo gaming. But I was also a bit put off by some of the more grindy aspects of the original game’s system – specifically the need to maintain those damn menhirs!
But now when I do free up that time, I can dive right into the streamlined systems of Kings of Ruin, Tainted Grail’s sequel, first. How Awaken Realms manages to come up with so many pages of original, atmospheric story material never ceases to amaze me; but here all that imagination is married to game mechanics that benefit from the four years or so of feedback and development between the last game and this one.
Time is still the issue, but I’ve set this up semi-permanently on a side table in my office, and I’m determined to enjoy this one in my spare moments. As usual from Awaken, it’s a stunning production; the faux-leather covered version of the Exploration Journal is particularly nice – and for my money much more tactile and enjoyable than using the app.
I was lucky enough to get the sun-dropped miniatures set, and I must also point out this is the first time that treatment has been so good I don’t feel any desire at all to go the the trouble of painting the miniatures. Which is good, because they tend just to be markers anyway, rather than essential game pieces in any tactical sense.
Rest assured this rules & reference isn’t just a quick redo of my last one – I redid this completely from scratch to ensure it followed the updated rulebook completely. Good luck on your quests!
