Stokerverse

Welcome my friends! It is nice to see you all joining me while the hour is getting late and the night is falling upon us. This moment of the day couldn’t be more perfect to set the right mood to enjoy together Stokerverse, the new boardgame published by IconiQ and set in the imaginary universe of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In fact, Stokerverse is the very first boardgame officially supported by the family of the legendary author and a nice little gem to play if you love quick, strategic card games. As you will soon read, I found this game to be quite easy to learn and fun to play. In addition, the Gothic theme is very well managed so the game is still quite suitable for a family night together as well as for a themed Halloween party.

Now, if you think you have what it takes to know more about the children of the night and the fun that awaits you, we can walk together into the crypt and open the box of this game (*** opening door creaking sound***).

The crypt of the Master – Game Content

Stokerverse comes is a very compact and portable box. Inside it, you will find 180 cards nicely organized in two piles in a plastic tray. The cards are of good quality and they have a nice weight thus they are quite suited for a game where you shuffle the decks a lot. A compass on the back identifies which one among four different decks the cards belong too (North, South, East, West). The colour of the compass is also used for the background of both the front and the back of the cards making quite easy to recognize which deck each card belongs too. This is a crucial aspect of the game as you will shortly see.

In addition to the cards, the game includes a nice rulebook and a lore book. The first one is very well designed and streamlined and it helps you getting into the gameplay right away. I always appreciate having some themed lore and background in my boardgames thus the inclusion of a lore book is quite the welcome benefit. I also like that the lore is kept separated from the main rulebook as it is still very accessible but it does not drive attention away from learning the game.

For the dead come fast – Gameplay and Strategy

In Stokerverse, players compete to complete 5 Quests with at least one from each of the four different Decks. Alternatively a player can win by completing any 7 quests although the 5 quests goal is usually easier to achieve. There are three different type of Quests: Monsters, Curses and Hunters. Monster quests can be completed by discarding the two items depicted on the Monster card and two copies of the same item can be used as wild card to fulfil one of the Quest requirement. Curses, on the other hand, can be completed discarding any card to match the number of cards listed on the Quest. As any card can be used to fulfil these quests, Curses usually require more cards in order to be completed with respect to Monster quests that only need two specific object cards.

In both cases, all cards have to be discarded at the same time in order to complete the quest and this makes managing your hand a very important aspect of this game. In fact, all players start with 3 cards they can draw from any deck and they can draw 2 more cards at the start of any of their subsequent turn. Cards can be drawn from the four decks and from the top of any discard piles in any order the player prefers although any card exceeding the max hand size of 9 should be discarded at the end of the turn.

To add a twist in this horror game, getting new cards can turn into a trap for the player as drawing can allow an opponent to complete an Hunter quest. These quests can in fact only be completed during the opponent turn if they draw cards matching the requirement of any of your Hunter Quest. For example, the quest “Vea Gallows” can be completed by a players if the opponent draws a Green (East) and a Blue (South) card. Due to this, Players should always state very clearly from which decks they are drawing in their turn.

Last but not least, each deck includes a limited number of very unique cards, the “Dracula” cards. This type of cards lists a choice of two bonuses players can choose from including drawing additional cards, stealing a certain number of cards from an opponent or preventing an another player from taking a turn. Once used, each Dracula card also blocks the discard pile preventing a player to draw from it. Considering the powerful effects they have, Players can only play one Dracula card per turn but there is no limit to how many of these cards they can have in hand.

Stokerverse – Final thoughts

When I first heard of it, I was very curious about Stokerverse. Dracula has been for years one of my favourite books and movies considering how rich and complex the story and the characters created by Bram Stoker are. Dracula is more than just a Dark Gothic adventure set in the Victorian period and I have been wondered what type of game will come out from the mind of Luke Melia and the team at IconiQ. After a good amount of plays, I honestly think Stokerverse is a nice little game that should not disappoint any fan of Dracula.

The first aspect I truly appreciated is the artwork on the cards. As mentioned above, the cards are very well made and their design is dark enough to suit the theme of the game without however cross into the realm of horror and gore. You can clearly recognize how menacing the Monsters and the Curses are but none of them should populate your nightmares. Dracula is likely the most scary card of them all but it reminds more of the Victorian lord portrayed by Gary Oldman than the Prince of Darkness that does not “Drink Wine” and toys with the life of mortals.

Stokerverse is also quite fun to play and easy to learn in just a few minutes. Also, an average game does not take too long making it a perfect choice to fill some time at lunch or during a long game night. In terms of balance, there are enough strategic elements to make it interesting for experienced players without resulting too complex or lengthy to scare away younger players. Overall, I think both artwork and gameplay have been well thought to create a good product for everyone to consider in their small game collections. This last aspect to me is also a big plus as the game is very compact and portable making it easy to be taken around. Unfortunately there is no solo-mode in the game but who would like to hunt in the night by themselves?