SeaFall is a board game designed by Rob Daviau and published in 2016 by Plaid Hat Games.[1] SeaFall is a game of colonial era exploration which uses a legacy format, meaning the board and components change during each game, creating a different game each time and a story with a beginning, middle, and end.[2] The game is played by 3–5 players, each of whom takes on the role of a province taking to the seas after a long dark age.[3] Players explore the game board with their ships, revealing islands and other surprises. The game contains 430 entries in a Captain's Booke, a journal which is read in sections when players trigger in-game events called milestones. The story contains about 15 games' worth of content, with each game taking about two hours to play.
| Designers | Rob Daviau |
|---|---|
| Illustrators | Jared Blando, Brian Valeza |
| Publishers | Plaid Hat Games (2016) |
| Genres | 4X |
| Systems | Legacy |
| Players | 3–5 |
| Setup time | 10 minutes |
| Playing time | 90-120 minutes |
| Chance | Moderate |
| Skills | Strategy, tactics, logic, logistics |
The release of the game was originally announced in 2013, and its release was repeatedly delayed.[4] Many called it the most anticipated board game of 2016, coming on the heels of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, an extremely popular legacy format game designed by Daviau and Matt Leacock that was released the year before.
Gameplay
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Set in an approximation of our world coming out of the Dark Ages, each player takes on the role of a mainland empire that is rediscovering seafaring technology and setting out to explore the world. Through the use of a team of advisors, each player discovers islands, develops trade, acquires resources and technology, and initiates conflict.[5]
SeaFall evolves from one game to the next using a legacy system developed previously by Daviau in his Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 games. The components of the game itself will change, as islands the players discover on the map will be marked with stickers, and players' actions in a game will trigger events, which cause sealed packets to be opened which contain new pieces, cards and rules to be revealed.[6] There is a Captain's Booke which contains 430 Choose Your Own Adventure-style narrative entries, which are read when players trigger certain milestones.[7] Over the approximately 15 games which constitutes the campaign, a story develops which has narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end.
Players have choices over how to pursue victory, with military aggression, exploration, and mercantilism all being viable strategies.[8]
References
edit- ^ Wilding, Mark (October 22, 2016). "SeaFall: is the legacy format heralding a new era of board games". The Guardian. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
- ^ Hune-Brown, Nicholas (August 25, 2016). "This Man Will Change the Way You Play Board Games". Slate. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
- ^ Hall, Charlie (February 9, 2016). "First details on Seafall, the next game from co-designer of Pandemic: Legacy". Polygon. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
- ^ Anderson, Nate (August 13, 2016). "The hottest new board games from Gen Con 2016". arstechnica. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
- ^ "Seafall Main Page". boardgamegeek. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
- ^ Munz, Andrew (October 18, 2016). "WELL, THAT HAPPENED: Unplugged Entertainment". Planet Jackson Hole. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Tom (November 19, 2016). "SeaFall review: Hotly anticipated board game is a work of flawed genius". arstechnica. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
- ^ Winkie, Luke (September 26, 2016). "Rebuilding Boardgames: Rob Daviau on SeaFall and the Legacy Games". Paste. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
External links
edit- SeaFall at BoardGameGeek
- SeaFall Instructional Video on Watch it Played
- SeaFall Review on Shut Up & Sit Down
- SeaFall Review on Dice Tower
- SeaFall Review from Ars Technica