'Call to Adventure' Teams up With Big Fantasy Writers for Innovative New Game

Brotherwise Games is teaming up with fantasy writers Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson for their next tabletop game.

The maker of popular games like Boss Monster and Unearth is currently running a Kickstarter for Call to Adventure, a new tabletop game in which players try to build a classic fantasy hero with the greatest destiny. The Kickstarter is already funded, and Brotherwise has announced planned expansions featuring plot points and characters pulled from Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind and Sanderson's The Way of Kings, two of the most popular fantasy books out today.

Call to Adventure uses a unique mechanic that involves casting rune tiles to build a hero. At the start of the game, players choose between two origin cards, motivation cards and destiny cards. Throughout the game, players attempt to complete challenges and collect cards that stack underneath your character's base motivation. Challenges are completed by casting runes — special tiles that are etched with special runes and symbols on them. If your runes have enough symbols on them, you'll complete the challenge. Otherwise, you'll gain experience that can be used to fuel special ability points.

Players can also add special runes to their throws by spending experience and risking corruption. Although corruption will eventually grant players victory points, too much corruption will eventually subtract from your high score.

Players score points in different ways. Your destiny card lists specific objectives on how to gain points, and characters may also rack up points by collecting cards that follow specific paths, or by playing hero and anti-hero cards that have a certain value to them.

ComicBook.com had a chance to playtest Call to Adventure at Gen Con last weekend. The game is very intuitive and the cards feature a branching system that gives players choices with each challenge. Our favorite part of the game was watching players pick out challenges based on how they wanted their character's story to go — giving the game a bit of a roleplaying element. Tthe rune system was also a welcome change of pace from rolling dice, and there's something very satisfying about tossing a half dozen runes across a table and hoping they land in the right way.

The first expansion for the game will feature events from The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, and Brotherwise Games just announced that the second expansion, due out in 2019, will feature characters and plotlines from Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive" series of books.

You can pre-order your copy of Call to Adventure on Kickstarter today. The core game costs $40 and players can purchase both the core game and the expansion for $55. The Kickstarter ends on Aug. 13.