Runebound has been a huge brand from Fantasy Flight games since 2004 and the 2nd edition is so well loved, and rightly so with great artwork, a beautiful map to explore and the largest numbers of expansions of any game release, it remains a classic example of the genre. However there was one further edition to come in 2015, with a visually improved map, artwork and a more structured approach to the game time, the 3rd edition.
The game is a contained adventure played across a beautiful world map, which remains one of the best around. As you explore you will gradually reveal quests, some combat driven, other location orientated to point of interest, and undertaking these will gradually level up your hero and improve their abilities. Also visiting towns will give you access to new equipment which you can trade for or buy. Heroes each have a theme, they start will slightly different skill stats and powers, and can ultimately be built up however you want them. There is a lot of character to them and the models are a nice quality too.
The approach of the game is quite free form, you can choose where to go and what to discover, but over time various key points of interest will become must visit locations. The way you explore is excellent, you roll movement dice and match the terrain symbols with what you need to cross on the map such as plains, rivers or mountains., and whilst engraved dice would have been better quality they work nicely in the context of the game. Combat is also pretty unique, moving from dice throwing in the 2nd edition to token throwing in the 3rd, which once you get used to it works really well and you can manipulate or re-roll these using skills and effects. What really joins it together is that new items or equipment you obtain will add new tokens to your pool, which really makes your choices feel meaningful.
One further improvement over the great 2nd edition is that there is now a doom tracker built into the game instead of being fan made, which will be counting down your final enemy encounter and ensuring you cannot keep questing until you become invincible. This tracker will also trigger story events from a deck of cards unique to each scenario which keeps the game fresh, focused and varied. In addition, the different scenarios build new encounter decks on a particular theme which again makes each adventure feel different, whether taking down the dragonkin or fighting the undead.
While the game originally is written in a semi competitive format, with the first player to overcome the boss declared the victor, for me it is the co-operative side of the game that makes it stand out and this was expanded in the 3rd edition expansion called Unbreakable Bonds, and so this game has remained one of the greatest against competition that is becoming better. It has a simplicity to its play style and a sense of adventure and encounters rarely matched outside of much more complex rules.
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Expansions
There are a number of expansions you can add to enhance or change the gameplay (my additions highlighted green = own, blue = part owned, red = not purchased) :
Unbreakable Bonds
Whilst this was not the first expansion released, it is certainly the most important and larger than the others. It added a lot of new content, with two new heroes, two new scenarios focused on defeating a warband and a plague, five cooperative or solo scenario re-writes, and a wealth of new asset and skill cards. It enabled you to play as part of a group or solo using enemy boards to provide an intelligence to the enemy battles, and even enabled you to send messages between characters in different towns. The is the expansion to get.
Scenario Packs
These two expansions focused on a new challenge, with new story and enemy cards. Caught in the Web is gigantic spider theme based and has a knight hero and is highly recommended, and Dark Star is a more player versus player orientated game with a more magical hero and is a pack i never got around to buying.
Adventure Packs
Also adding in a new hero each, these two pack included 15 more generic adventure cards to build variety into your core game decks, plus new sets of skills and equipment cards. The Guilded Blade added in the athletic Red Scorpion character and Mountains Rise added a solid berserker fighter. These are just great for adding variety to every adventure you play.
The game sadly did not expand any further, although if you own Descent 2nd Edition set in the same Terrinoth world you can use a number of the enemy models to add impact to your board when they appear. In addition some fan based heroes cards were added on boardgamegeek using the characters from that core Descent set.
Second Edition
This edition was amazing, with so many big and small box expansions of its own that it has so much variety. While the 3rd edition improved production and focused the game into a more structured form, this edition still remains an excellent adventure, and one that i still enjoy. It is a viable alternative to the newer edition but with both out of print the costs to obtain expansions for either are high now.