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THIS IS THE WAY
Now like many of us I am a bit of a sucker for Star Wars content but I'd actually resisted this. On paper, I wasn’t entirely sold. I just didn’t see the appeal of playing through the first season of the show, even though I enjoyed it very much. However, my middle spawn was very keen to try this at Tabletop Scotland, and I'm SO glad we did! The Mandalorian: Adventures is a really solid addition to the mix of Star Wars content that’s there but, whilst it feels familiar at times, crucially it does some things that are both different and interesting.
I CAN BRING YOU IN WARM, OR I CAN BRING YOU IN COLD
At its heart, The Mandalorian: Adventures is an adventure game. The game book is laid out with maps for you to explore as Mando and a team of characters from the show, as you broadly explore the plot of the first season. The map books will certainly appeal to folk who like that from Gloomhaven and its ilk, though there’s less token management here as terrain is already in situ. Also, its plot is neither identical nor entirely predictable - some missions include secret traitors, for example. This is a very appealing mechanic, especially if you have scheming teenagers or just like betraying your friends. Indeed, there's quite a lot that's hidden in the game - objectives tokens are typically facedown so you don't know till you encounter them whether they're an asset (anything from a keycard to a bounty) or a hidden enemy.
WEAPONS ARE PART OF MY RELIGION
The most interesting aspect of the game is the way it uses hand management. You have, typically, 4 cards in your hand from your unique character deck - this can be changed to alter the game’s difficulty, which makes for an extremely efficient scalable challenge mechanic (and in turn adds replayability).
You have 2 actions per turn, in any combination: Move, Attack, Intel (look at a hidden token) or Plan (draw a mini bonus card, which can help you or your allies with extra actions or other bonuses). Hand cards have values of 1-4, showing their strength (move range, attack power etc) and you place them once played below the relevant book slot, each player adding in turn. But this is where things get really interesting. Once the cards in a slot total 5, enemies activate! Their AI deck indicates which ones activate, and how they behave... BUT if your cards total 6 or more, a crisis occurs as well! In the first mission, this spawns more enemies, and 3 crises causes the players to immediately lose. Cards in slots reset when enemies have activated, so there's an excellent push-pull tension, a delicate balance that you negotiate as a team. Generally, it’s all very intuitive, with clear damage systems for both Ranged and Melee attacks, although the Line of Sight rules may feel a bit abstract (or even simplistic) as they are just hex-to-hex.
MANDALORIANS ARE STRONGER TOGETHER
The Mandalorian: Adventures really does excel at the 2/3 player count; 2 is more of a challenge, and 3 feels like a sweet-spot. At 4, whilst good, it can feel a little easy – though the scalable difficulty and nature of triggered AI can offset that. That being said (#spoileralert) the traitor missions are great fun with 4 of you, and there’s a neat mechanic that incorporates it in solo play as well, where one of your NPC allies can turn on you (again, spoilers). As a solo game, it does certainly aim to capture the vibe of being Din.
Djarin and succeeds mostly: it is pretty brutally tough as a solo experience, though obviously to some that may very well appeal (as solo gaming is so often about finding the right level of challenge). It definitely spins the narrative out well, and it’s great to see the whole gang team up: I particularly love jetpacking in as Paz Visla, but then, maybe I just like really big guns. Also, it’s well worth mixing it up as different characters: how would IG-11 have coped if it had been the one to rescue The Child? Or even Migs Mayfield? Well, now you can find out.
STOP TOUCHING THINGS
As for the The Mandalorian: Adventures production values, they’re rather good too. There’s plenty of variation in the shapes of the individual tokens (bonus from an accessibility perspective) and all of the cardstock is pleasingly chunky. The character standees are spot on – we can debate minis vs standees but the bottom line is that these absolutely do the job. Great card art and straightforward iconography make everything very clear, and the rules are very accessible even to younger players. Interspersing the map book with comic-strip narrative of the show is a neat touch which helps refresh your memory or help make it accessible to more casual fans (a trick that Marvel Champions campaign expansions do so well). Also, I love the details: the secret mission envelopes really add a sense of mystery, whilst even the recycled cardstock insert feels appropriately grungy for that lived-in Star Wars universe vibe. A great game with some really interesting mechanics - not just one for the dedicated fans.
