Terrene Odyssey is a card game made to emulate the feeling of an adventure party’s random encounter in a Japanese RPG (e.g. “Final Fantasy”) combined with the deep strategy of a trading card game. To give a brief explanation of the game, each player has a 30-card deck with characters, items and commands that can easily change the flow of play. Players start with four characters face down, one item or command “controlled” by each character and one terrain card. There are two resources in the game: supply and actions. Each character costs a certain amount of supply (one, two or three), and each player can have up to four supply worth of characters on the field at one time. Face-down characters cost one supply each. Meanwhile, actions are produced by the terrain card at the start of the turn and are used to attack and recruit, thus, controlling most aspects of the game.
One of the best things about the game is that the rules are so simple almost anyone can understand it completely after playing it once. This does not mean, however, that it is a shallow game. Rather, it’s quick to learn, but difficult to master. As creator Chris Solis puts it: “I made the game to be casually accessible, but competitively balanced. Anyone, from people playing the first time to those who have played for years, should be able to have just as much fun playing.”
I myself enjoy the game quite a bit. The game had a similar feel to Magic at first, but as I played more, its unique qualities made it shine. The starting setup is diverse enough that no two players I’ve played against, even with the same deck, have had exactly the same setup. As for me, I prefer playing with the Tactician deck, which uses traps to force my opponent to play carefully, giving me much more time to set myself up for victory.
The game is currently awaiting funding via its Kickstarter campaign, ending on Feb. 25. If you would like to try the game before then, the creator hosts demos nearly every Friday night at Uncle’s Games in Redmond Town Center and regularly hosts events at other game stores in the Seattle and Eastside area. The link to the Kickstarter and more information on the game itself, is found at http://www.terreneodyssey.com or by contacting Chris@CGCgames.com.
Until next time, happy gaming.