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The Knights of the Round Table must assemble once again to protect King Arthur's kingdom from numerous threats. But wait – these aren't the knights of old, but rather their children. Can these newcomer knights prove up to the task of tracking the dangers out there and putting a stop to them before it's too late?
In Shadows over Camelot: The Card Game, the players (mostly) work together to complete quests before the danger level of a quest gets too high.
In game terms, the quests are represented by five types of cards, with each card showing 1-3 swords, as well as a number from 1 to 4 or a question mark. These cards are shuffled together with Morgan le Fay cards (which curse the players when they appear) and Merlin cards (which remove some aspects of the curse) to form the rumor deck. Each player receives a secret loyalty card at the start of the game, with at most one person being a traitor to the cause. On a turn a player either:
-----• Reveals a rumor card.
-----• Attempts a quest.
-----• Accuses a knight.
To reveal a rumor card, the player flips it onto the top of the revealed stack of cards. If it's a quest card, players try to keep track of the total value of cards from that quest, with ?s each worth as many points as the number of ?s revealed of that quest. If a Morgan le Fay is revealed, players can no longer speak to one another; in addition, Morgan twists the values of some cards or removes some from play. Merlin allows players to speak once again.
Players are trying to stop quests when the total value is 11, 12 or 13. Any lower, and they arrived too soon, wasting time; any higher, and they arrived too late. To attempt a quest, the player points to the top quest card and says, "It's time." The player then reveals all cards in the deck. If the sum of that quest is 11-13, then the players receive 1-3 white swords, as shown on the quest cards. If lower, they receive one black sword; if higher, 1-3 black swords. All other quests are checked to see whether the players were too late, then the stack resets. A failed quest rewards the attempter with a special bonus card for later use.
Once three swords have been claimed, whatever the color, a player can choose to accuse another player of being traitorous to the cause, winning a reward if correct and a penalty otherwise. If the players collect seven white swords, they have stopped Morgan's forces and win. If, however, they collect seven black swords first, then Arthur's kingdom falls.
In Shadows over Camelot: The Card Game, the players (mostly) work together to complete quests before the danger level of a quest gets too high.
In game terms, the quests are represented by five types of cards, with each card showing 1-3 swords, as well as a number from 1 to 4 or a question mark. These cards are shuffled together with Morgan le Fay cards (which curse the players when they appear) and Merlin cards (which remove some aspects of the curse) to form the rumor deck. Each player receives a secret loyalty card at the start of the game, with at most one person being a traitor to the cause. On a turn a player either:
-----• Reveals a rumor card.
-----• Attempts a quest.
-----• Accuses a knight.
To reveal a rumor card, the player flips it onto the top of the revealed stack of cards. If it's a quest card, players try to keep track of the total value of cards from that quest, with ?s each worth as many points as the number of ?s revealed of that quest. If a Morgan le Fay is revealed, players can no longer speak to one another; in addition, Morgan twists the values of some cards or removes some from play. Merlin allows players to speak once again.
Players are trying to stop quests when the total value is 11, 12 or 13. Any lower, and they arrived too soon, wasting time; any higher, and they arrived too late. To attempt a quest, the player points to the top quest card and says, "It's time." The player then reveals all cards in the deck. If the sum of that quest is 11-13, then the players receive 1-3 white swords, as shown on the quest cards. If lower, they receive one black sword; if higher, 1-3 black swords. All other quests are checked to see whether the players were too late, then the stack resets. A failed quest rewards the attempter with a special bonus card for later use.
Once three swords have been claimed, whatever the color, a player can choose to accuse another player of being traitorous to the cause, winning a reward if correct and a penalty otherwise. If the players collect seven white swords, they have stopped Morgan's forces and win. If, however, they collect seven black swords first, then Arthur's kingdom falls.
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While at Gen Con 2012 I got in half a play of Shadows over Camelot: The Card Game, and while that might be enough experience for some people to feel competent enough to review the game, I'll take the more conscientious route of just throwing out some first impressions. The heart of SoC:TCG remains the same as in SoC: Players try to work together to complete quests, but alas, someone might be working against the group. You need to root out this person – should a traitor actually exist – to keep him from bringing ruin to all.
The game play, on the other hand, differs quite a bit from SoC as the players are no longer scampering off on their own quests, but rather focused on the shared card stack and the running totals for each quest. Theoretically, you can try to keep track of each total, with some spuerbraniac summing numbers as they appear or each player focusing on one type of quest, but two things complicate this effort: (1) Blabbermouths who run off accusing others at the drop of a hat and otherwise gassing on about life, the universe, and everything and (2) the Morgan le Fay cards, which add both a prohibition on talking (and presumably other forms of communication between players) and a specific curse that affects play. One card makes you choose one type of quest, placing a token for this quest face-down next to the stack. When this quest is evaluated, the highest-valued card will be ignored. Multiple cards of this type are present, and since the tokens are hidden, you've now added another item to track.
Other Morgan cards reduce the value of ? cards to 1 instead of a variable amount, so if you were simply tracking totals, your numbers will now be off; another Morgan card forces you to play cards face-down and state what's on them; still another, pictured below, forces you to add one to an increasing collective tally. Yay, another thing to track!
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Vivien, if I recall correctly, has the active player swap his loyalty card with one set aside at the start of the game, while also choosing another player to do the same thing. Yes, a one-time traitor can now be reformed – or vice versa, of course.
The memory aspect of the game is huge as that's what's driving game play – hit quests within certain number ranges or fail! – and naturally that might be a deal-killer for some who have been struck on the noggin with bats or who dislike memory games in general. Plus, there's that "someone might be a traitor" feel that some players dislike, while others dig the back-and-forth banter and accusations and kibitzing. C'est la vie. A solo option is available in the game for those who dislike traitors, but like counting and memory challenges.
Shadows over Camelot: The Card Game will be out in Europe in mid-October for Spiel and in the U.S. in late October, with a retail price of $25/€23.
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