Robert E. Howard created many characters our pop culture loves until this day. He wrote most of his works in 20s and 30s of the previous century. He usually preferred shorter stories and published them in pulp magazines, especially the “Weird Tales”. Up to this day Howard is known as the creator of Kull – King of Valusia, sailor Steve Costigan, Brak Mak Morn and most importantly: Conan the Barbarian. Latest tabletop game by Mythic Games Inc. features yet another popular hero of his books: Solomon Kane.
Who’s behind the project?
Mythic Games, a young international board game company, debuted last year with their massive Joan of Arc project. Game ended up as huge success and got popular thanks to its insane quality miniatures and overall detail. Previously they worked on other big scale figurine games with other companies, like the Mythic Battles: Pantheon project with Monolith.
A Hat Wearing, Rapier Wielding Hero
Tales of Solomon Kane take place between 16th and 17th century. The protagonist is a lone wanderer clad in black clothes, topped with a stylish slouch hat. He uses rapiers and pistols to deal with all sort of evil present all over the world.
Solomon doesn’t have any motivations for what he’s doing, other than being a puritan. He just wants to help people in need and deal with dark beings as swiftly as possible. During his voyages he usually wanders between England and Africa, where he meets his good friend – a shaman called N’Longa.
Embarking on Adventures
The game recreates the setting of each story faithfully. Gameplay sessions are actually divided into acts and chapters, so you go through the plot in the chronological order. Core box will allow you to enjoy 3 stories.
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- Skulls in the Stars – involving a haunted, ghost ridden moor that Solomon Kane has to traverse and survive.
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- Blue Flame of Vengeance – pirate themed story taking place on the seas near England.
- Rattle of Bones – a horror story involving a night at mysterious german inn located in deep, dark forest
Campaign addons have some more adventures of Solomon Kane and they include additional cards and miniatures.
Four Virtues
Even though the protagonist doesn’t see them, he’s being constantly followed by 4 virtues. It may sound surprising, but these are the actual player characters. You don’t control Solomon directly, only influence his actions through these otherworldly beings. That makes for an unique co-op experience.
Courage specializes in action and combat, Justice prefers influencing others, Temperance protects him against the unexpected and Prudence provides general support. There’s also one additional virtue – Providence used only in solo mode.
Cards, Dice and Everything Nice
Each chapter has cards describing current events in the unfolding story. Players are expected to read them aloud and make decisions together. This allows for more replayability and lets you see some outcomes that never appeared in the books.
Antagonist actions are determined with a specialized AI deck that describes how your enemies move, what they do and what unpleasant surprises unfold.
Virtues sport their own 10 card decks, which add bonus actions to what they have on their dashboards. All actions are paid with “virtue dice” results. Players roll for these each turn and can even donate some to other players later on.
Inside the Cardboard
Just like in the case of “Joan of Arc”, the box with Solomon Kane is filled to the brim with miniature goodness. Every story has its own set of characters: both allies, villains and monstrosities. There are also special cards and boards meant to represent every place that the famous puritan visited. Detail on monsters matches what we know from Mythic’s previous game, although there are no colossal dragons this time. Giant snake is the closest we get to that.
Stretch goals added two more adventures to the core box including “The Death’s Black Riders”, based on an unfinished story by the original author.
Final Words
At first Solomon Kane may confuse some people, by looking like some typical miniature skirmish game. After reading more about the rules it actually turns out to be a really unique attempt at the adventure genre: with lots of customisation and varying paths. Fans of story heavy games will without doubt feel at home.
Campaign is currently sitting above $750 000 and creators keep spicing it up by adding some new content to the original box. To see the final result we’ll have to wait until July 5th, and to play it: until next summer.
