Game Play Review - Near and Far

Near and Far is the sequel to Above and Below, both of which are games published by Red Raven Games. The premise of the game is for players to take on the roll of travelers who recruit additional adventurers, gather resources and explore unique locations in search of the Last Ruin. This game can be played in several modes: campaign mode, arcade mode and character mode. The end of the game is triggered when any player deploys their last camp and the player with the most journey points is declared the winner.

This post is broken into the following 3 sections, feel free to jump directly to one:

1. General summary - consisting of information about overall enjoyment, theme, replayability, and upgrades
2. Complexity - consisting of information about the rulebook, setup, player turns, and overall learning curve
3. Player turns - consisting of game type, game flow, rule you are likely to miss, and favorite aspect

Number of players we had: 3
Our play time (not including setup): 3 hours 10 minutes
Game mode: Campaign mode

Overall enjoyment

Our group has played several chapters of this game in campaign mode. This allows us to build up a character, reuse those characters and their earned talents from map to map. Near and Far is the second in a series of three games built on the world of Arzium. While there are lots of characteristics that crossover both games, and both are fun, Near and Far is a much more involved game than Above and Below.

We enjoy playing Near and Far because it has several different aspects that make it complex and require strategy, yet there is also some dice rolling and luck as well, all without overwhelming players. At its heart it is a worker placement game with a strong storytelling backdrop. It also includes dice rolling, card drafting (only during game setup), decision making adventures and artifact cards players can buy to advance their game. When I first saw the Watch it Played overview of Near and Far I was convinced I wanted to try this game. I had already played Above and Below, but was concerned Near and Far might be too much game for us. After re-watching the video several times, I decided to go for it and have not regretted that decision.

While the overview is fairly long and the rule book is substantial, the game is not overly difficult to learn. There are lots of different strategies than can be employed in this game, and as a result, there are a decent amount of things to learn. However, the different parts of the game mesh well together and make sense once you learn how they work.

If we had to pick something that players would find frustrating it would be when visiting a town space occupied by another player, which requires a duel, you lose your turn if you lose the duel. It is only one turn, but it is easy to get super focused in this game and you're always working to accomplish something before another player so it can feel devastating when it happens.

Theme

The theme in Near and Far is very well thought out. The game board, cards, tokens and game atlas combine well with the storytelling portions. The artwork is fluid and successfully ties all aspects of the game together. Player boards are compact and provide a convenient place to put treasure cards, supplies, adventurers and more. The game board features several unique locations adventurers can visit to gain many benefits. Lastly, the atlas has several unique and interesting maps.

Replayability

This game has a great deal of replayability for several reasons. These include:

• Three different modes for playing the game.
• In campaign and character mode there are over a dozen character talents that can be acquired.
• More cards than are often used in a single game in both the basic and advanced artifact deck as well as the treasure card deck.
• A total of 36 adventurer tokens that are randomly drawn and can be recruited by players.
• A storybook with hundreds of unique adventuring stories where players are required to delcare their intent before completing a dice roll to add to either the skills (skills test) or swords (combat test) in their active party and bonuses on cards.
• A play mode (arcade) that is designed for continuing to play the game once the majority of the story adventures have been read.

Upgrades

Near and Far has an expansion called Amber Mines. We do not have this expansion and when I looked for it, it was out of stock so I am unsure what is included in it at this time.

Rule book

The rule book is fairly long with a total of 40 pages. We set up our first game watching the video mentioned above as it was faster for us. While the rule book is long, it is not overly complex. There are several examples of play, how things work, and explanations of cards, boards and processes. Additionally, part of the length can be attributed to the three play modes. Throughout the rule book these are highlighted so it is easy to follow only those rules that apply to the mode you are currently playing.

Another nice thing about the rule book is the index on the back page which is helpful in locating specific rules. Additionally, there is an overview of player turns and a key for the symbols on the back page. There are also player aide cards that provide an overview of play as well as the four factions. Overall, the rule book is easy to follow and the index makes it extremely user friendly when players have a question during game play.

Setup

Setting a game up takes about 20-25 minutes for campaign mode. The process is not difficult, but there are several decks of cards, the game atlas and quest tokens, the town board, player boards, starting tokens and cards, starting character traits to refamiliarize yourself with, cards to draw, and adventurers to add to town so it takes a little bit of time.

Like any game, if all players are helping with setup, it goes much quicker!

Turns

There are two main things players can do on their turn: move to a space in town and gain/utilize the benefit of the location or go adventuring using the atlas map. When players are in town, they must move to a new location each turn and most locations allow only one player. If a player wants to visit a location another player is already visiting, they must duel. Since there are only so many town locations, players need to pay close attention to where other players are visiting.

When players are adventuring on the map, their turns will take longer if they land on a quest. Quests involve storytelling, decision making and dice rolling, and are very engaging and interesting so even though they take longer than a turn in town, the game does not lag for other players.

Using the town game board allows players to recruit adventurers, gain and swap resources, acquire treasure and artifact cards, dump artifact cards, and modify their reputation. Each of these can help with adventuring, successfully completing quests and buying artifacts. The map allows players to collect resources more quickly, based on the search symbols in your active party, and gain unpredictable rewards when successfully defeating a quest.

When trying to fulfill a quest, players must choose which skill or combat number they think they can reach out of those presented in the quest story paragraph. If they fail, they gain nothing. If they succeed, they gain random rewards. Rewards can come in the form of supplies, reputation changes, faction tokens, keywords and more. Also, each quest has an optional extra reward if an additional two skills or swords beyond what was required by the quest is achieved.

Overall learning curve

While it can seem like a lot to learn at first, the spaces in town are not overly complex and after a few turns players get the hang of how they work. With time, the other portions of the game make more and more sense. Once we watched the overview video, we had a general idea of how to get started so we jumped in. When we weren't sure about something, we used the index on the back of the rule book and read about it. In this way, we were able to get started more quickly and add those rules we were not as certain of as we went along.

Play type

Near and Far is a symmetrical worker-placement game with elements of storytelling, route building, dice rolling, decision making and much more. Quests involve the use of dice rolling and a little press-your-luck to gain the most possible rewards. There is also a lot of strategy involved in choosing how long to remain in town shoring up resources and gaining adventurers, who allow you to get more done when adventuring, before switching to the map.

Game flow

The game flows pretty quickly both when players are in town and on the map. Players must pay attention to what others are doing if they want to be sure their own plans will be able to be carried out. Sometimes you may have to switch to the map earlier than you planned if you think another player will beat you to a precious resource.

How quickly the game goes depends on your player group and how aggressively any one player builds all of their camps. We probably take longer than most groups would as we prefer to go on as many quests as we can before any one of us uses our last tent as that is our favorite part of the game.

Rule you are likely to forget/miss

There are two rules you are likely to forget in this game, both of which relate to the town game board.

1. When visiting the mine location, you must already have artifact and/or treasure cards in addition to meeting the number of skills in your active party that is required to place a camp on any location and receive the listed rewards.
2. When visiting the saloon to recruit additional adventurers, you receive one coin discount for each faction token and adventurer you already have from that same faction.

Favorite aspect

Our favorite part of this game is going on quests. We love the unpredictability of the stories, the available choices, the skills and/or combat required, and never knowing what kinds of rewards we will receive if we are successful. We often laugh at our results as they surprise us in the most interesting ways.

We also love that the town game board is double-sided, so as you become more confident with the game play, players can choose to take on a slightly more advanced version of the game.

Near and Far is a good choice for anyone interested in a larger game with a fun theme, several play modes, and lots of replayability. There are several different strategies, many ways to gain journey points, a decent amount of story telling, dice rolling and unexpected events. While this game is fairly easy to learn, it can feel slightly intimidating at first. However, once you begin playing you realize it is not overly complex and the different game aspects really add to the fun rather than making it more challenging to learn or enjoy. This is definitely a game that will remain on our shelves for many years to come!