Another tomb along the Nile been discovered. It is full of rewards for the hearty adventurer who is willing to take the risk. You and your comrades are just the ones who are willing. However, the risk of Kofre’s, said to have been a sorcerer, tomb holds a greater risk because he was possessed by the gods when he was entombed. Every tomb is said to have a curse. Stories told to keep the ancient tomb raiders away.-----
Kofre’s Curse by Stephen Gygi is a tile based game designed to introduce role-playing to young players. I had the opportunity of playing Kofre’s Curse at Salt Lake Gaming Convention 2018 (website) with Stephen and Kyrie Gygi (who also did the art with Stephen).
Premise
Kofre’s Curse is a tomb full of treasure and curses. The party of explorers delve into the 5 x 5 dungeon complex. They are exploring individually, but also with an element of cooperative play. For when Kofre is finally confronted, they must defeat the sorcerer before he can escape his tomb and bring destruction upon the world.
Mechanics
Each player takes on one of the pre-generated characters. There are four basic statistics and the characters have different favored abilities that help them during the game, both while exploring and in the final confrontation.
Exploring the tomb is accomplished by turning over a tile and placing it. The tiles have challenges and rewards for the characters. Challenges are resolved by a single die roll. The roll and associated character ability are combined to determine if the result is high enough to achieve the favorable outcome and earn the reward. Too low of a result leads to an unfavorable outcome including damage to the character.
Characters run the risk of dying. In our three person game we did not roll the dice well. By the time we finished exploring the crypt there was only one character left to confront the evil sorcerer.
The final combat against Kofre is a scalable event with a level of random determination at the beginning. Kofre is possessed by four ancient gods (matching character abilities) and a random determination is done to see which ability is his main power. This allows for different characters to take the lead in the final showdown—one character isn’t always going to be the hero who can do the most against Kofre. There are also rules for scaling the combat. Instead of just toe-to-toe damage, there could be tasks needing to be done by both sides.
Artwork
Kofre’s Curse is illustrated by Stephen and Kyrie Gygi. The art is appropriate for the ages the game is designed for and provides individualized scenes to provide recognition in later games.
Overall
For older players (especially parents) who have younger gamers in their home wanting to join in, Kofre’s Curse is a good introduction to RPG style playing. The concepts are simple to understand and only basic math skills are needed. Young players will need help in reading the concepts on the tiles and characters, but they also have unique artwork allowing ease of reference for later play.
Kofre’s Curse is designed to last 15–20 minutes. The speed of the game should keep the attention of younger players. The tiles being placed as they are drawn also present a random aspect to keep attention.
The scalability of Kofre’s Curse allows young players to advance their play with the game over a period of time. I know a number of gamers (older ones) who become bored with a game after they play it a few times because of repetitiveness. There are enough multiple outcomes to allow for continued play.
Kofre’s Curse is scheduled to be on Kickstarter any time now (late July 2018).
Kofre’s Curse is produced by Binary Cocoa (website) and is designed for 2–6 players ages 6+, and to last 15–20 minutes.
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The remains of Kofre lie in the dust at the base of the stairs leading out of the tomb. You feel weak from the loss of blood and you see that in the running battle two of your four comrades didn’t make it. They will be honored. You’ll make sure they are remembered. If it wasn’t for their courage to fight against the undead sorcerer, stopping him, who knows what would have happened to the rest of the world.
If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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