Vrahode: Age of Prophecy (Saturday Review)

The Age of Inception is all but over. People are starting to forget the stories that were passed down. Tabuhl’s Tail, a sign of things to come, will soon return. While our memories fade, that most ancient of omens is ready to lighten the night sky once again. It is time for a few of us, whose memories are more vivid, to get ready for a new age, when Tabuhl’s Tail returns and reigns supreme in Vrahode: Age of Prophecy by Jeffrey Irving from Weathervane Games.

Big Promises

Created by Jeff Irving in 1990 and inspired by epic fantasy novels and tabletop games, Vrahode: Age of Prophecy is a tabletop roleplaying game, without anyone having to take on the role of story-teller. Players can focus on working together to get through the encounters as well as possible, while the game takes over the rest.

Not only that, Vrahode is actually a game system, where Age of Prophecy represents the core box, which by itself is already full of immense potential. It promises over fifty hours of play in a story-driven campaign, dozens of individual quests and solo mini-campaigns in which you, brave adventurers, will explore the gigantic world of Vrahode. To top it all off, three expansions are already planned as well: The Enlightened & The Enslaved, Facing The Storm and The False Gods’ Deceit.

The world of Vrahode promises to be, and I quote, “a unique world filled with creatures, races, and lands unlike anything seen before, free from tired and overused fantasy tropes.” So while being set in a fantasy world, this game tries to create something new and different, rather than relying on well-known and trampled-to-death cliches.

Epic Tabletop Presence

I was given a partial review copy. So I expect the final game to include a lot more than I have seen. Even so, the version I have is already massive. The box is huge and contains six minis that have a dark wash on them to bring out their detail, dozens of cardboard standees, various tokens, clear plastic gems, some dice and a plastic console for every player with a cardboard overlay, where players track various stats. There are also a number of double-sided cardboard single-fold maps with a glossy finish, which represent the encounters in your campaign. They have a brief introduction and describe the setup and goals of the scenario.

On the table, Vrahode: Age of Prophecy looks absolutely amazing. The player consoles loom large and are reminiscent of character dashboards that you might find in online games. They also hold your spell and other cards, as well as the plastic gems that you need to cast your spells. The illustrations on the map fit the setting and are very clear. When you place the hero minis and enemy standees on them, everything really comes to life.

I have been given the list of all the artists that worked on the game and it is huge. It is clear a lot of work has gone into the artwork, the 3D sculpts, the design of the player consoles, the components and everything else. It definitely looks epic. Not only that, two fantasy writers, Shawn A. Dressler and Alex Fox, are responsible for the stories and scenario descriptions and other creative writing. It is clear that no expense has been spared.

Promising Start

When I first saw Vrahode: Age of Prophecy at UK Games Expo this year, I was really excited. I was already imagining playing this game and having a roleplaying experience without everyone having to write their characters’ backstories, while one of us would come up with a campaign story arc, locations, enemies and whatnot. Here was a game that you could take out of the box, set up and play with very little preparation.

Hearing that two professional authors helped with the story and creative writing also got me excited. I imagined a lot of deep lore and imaginative settings and storylines that would see our characters evolve and grow with each encounter. I saw us all bragging about how we defeated our enemies and how we would end the massive campaign feeling like we had lived a lifetime.

Yet, I was also a bit reticent, because I had seen many crowdfunding campaigns in the past that had lots of minis, amazing artwork and promised a lot, but in the end were hugely lacking in gameplay. While that is what certainly attracts people who just want to move minis around the table and aren’t too concerned about storytelling, Vrahode: Age of Prophecy promises the whole package.

So you can imagine my excitement mixed with nervousness when, after reading the relatively short rulebook, I set up the game for the first time to play with friends. Everyone chose their favourite character, diligently set up their player console, placed the rather fiddly tracker tokens in the corresponding positions to record our stats, found their relevant equipment and spell cards and slotted them in, filled one of the compartments in the console with energy crystals and then proceeded to admire their miniature, while I explained the rules.

Over Prophecising

So we set up our first encounter and tried out different things to explore how the game works. We moved, we attacked and we defended. We tried out our spells and innate character abilities. Everyone cheered when we killed one of the beasts. We tried different strategies to see how best to take advantage of everyone’s strengths. We changed positions and initiative order. Eventually, we had it down to a good sequence of moves, attacks and defence.

Once we knew the best strategy, we stuck with it. Unfortunately, that created a rather repetitive pattern. Everyone just kept doing the same thing until the enemies were defeated. Nobody felt they made any particularly interesting decisions. If Vrahode: Age of Prophecy was a computer game, it would have been a matter of preprogramming your action combo and executing it on repeat.

I appreciate that the first scenario of any game is intentionally kept more simplistic to allow everyone to get used to the rules and try different things. However, the first scenario of the game comes in two parts, where the second is basically a repeat of the first. That didn’t fill us with a lot of motivation.

Yet, we plodded on, because we wanted to see what happened at the end. After all, surely there would be an amazing reward for our efforts. Maybe we would get upgraded weapons. Increasing our stats would also have felt good. Unfortunately, all we gained at the end were some basic extra items. It was nothing amazing. As you can imagine, we were all rather disappointed. Maybe we just didn’t deserve huge rewards for this simple first mission.

Rest My Friend

Licking their wounds, both mental and physical, our characters decided to rest before the next encounter.

The rest mechanism in Vrahode: Age of Prophecy is one of the things I was particularly interested in seeing. The game comes with a rest deck. You shuffle it and draw the top card, which either tells you to heal a point or two or it’s an ambush. To help you protect yourself from an ambush, one of the group can stay awake and be the watch, while the others can gain some strength back.

That little bit of randomness sounded really interesting. You could never be sure what you might get in return. It was possible that you would all sleep deeply and recover a little or you might get a nasty surprise.

The problem is, you only ever gain one or two health back. So when your characters have lost ten or so, you will have to rest at least five times, probably more. You’ll have to draw five or more cards and each time hope it’s not an ambush.

While drawing cards doesn’t sound too bad, the problem is when you get ambushed. Irrespective of whether you have set a watch or not, you have to start another encounter. You basically have to defeat the same enemies again. The only difference is, when you have set a watch, you can place the enemies where you want. However, you’re going through another whole battle again, probably losing a lot of health again. More importantly though, the encounter will take a while to play through, after which you will have to rest some more.

Beat, Sleep, Repeat

On top of the repetitive combat and endless resting, there isn’t a lot of change from scenario to scenario. While enemies become harder and have new abilities, which require different strategies, the rewards don’t get much better. Once you have worked out the best way to deal with a specific enemy, it’ll be a matter of attack, heal, repeat.

Characters don’t seem to evolve much or maybe not as quickly as I had hoped. Yes, stats will improve and new equipment and spells will be added, but at the core of it, everything feels very much the same. Each different enemy is a different standee with a different enemy card, but they don’t actually feel different.

Unfortunately, the writing is also a bit disappointing. I know it is hard to create a deep story in a small space that fits into the corner of a map. So I can forgive that each encounter’s introduction is brief. However, the overall story is the usual fare of a band of adventurers exploring the lands to discover the truth behind rumours and fighting and picking up loot along the way.

I can see that for some people Vrahode: Age of Prophecy is going to be a great way of spending a few fun-filled hours rolling dice, triggering spells and playing with minis. For me though, it just doesn’t work. I don’t feel like I need to find out where the story goes or how our characters will grow and change. I don’t need to explore all the different enemies and lands that await.

As much as I had hoped for this game to allow me to while away the hours during dark autumn evenings, it just isn’t it.

Useful Links

• Vrahode: Age of Prophecy: https://www.vrahode.com/
• Rulebook: https://www.vrahode.com/_files/ugd/d7f5fc_bff3f9371008454da014e604872f569c.pdf
• Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/weathervanegames/vrahode-age-of-prophecy
• Weathervane Games: https://www.weathervanegames.com/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/412436/vrahode-age-of-prophecy

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.

• I was sent a free review copy of this game by the publisher.
• At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

Music: “Cinematic Trailer” by AShamaluevMusic.
Website: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com

Music: “Area 18” by Sascha Ende
Website: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/10436-area-18

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: