Finally, the contributions from the two Penny Arcade creators were outstanding. Mike Krahulik provided a gorgeous piece of art for the box cover, and his style served as a guide for our card artists. Unfortunately, Holkins barely did anything at all. Just kidding! Jerry not only worked closely with us on every iteration of the Book of Secrets, massaging as necessary, but he contributed all the flavor text written on the game cards! Two years ago my partner and I had started regularly playing games with another couple regularly, which led to a somewhat constant need for new games. I was particularly taken with finding new and exciting things to bring to the table and at the time of quaint, pre-COVID 2019, Legacy games were all the rage. “Legacy” games are now out of fashion, but the allure in 2019 of games that evolved and changed based on your decisions and were not 100% replayable was something that really shook up the market. Pandemic Legacy, Risk Legacy, Legacy this, Legacy that, you name it, a game was trying it. For our group, though, none of the other games really stood out.

We wanted to not only tell a fun and immersive storyline, but we wanted non-linear advancement so that players could feel like they had a good deal of agency on how their particular story played out. To this end, we devised a few primary tools: the Book of Secrets, Waypoints, and Contracts.One technique I used in planning out the campaign was to build out the endgame early. Within the first two months of design, we had a “fully loaded” map to test what would be the rough equivalent of the final game, using all the new mechanics that we had invented by that time. I won’t spoil anything about the specific mechanics used, but because the playtest was largely successful – it felt like a complex and satisfying conclusion to an epic story – it did serve as a nice “goal post” for us to aim at. We knew what our destination looked like and we knew that we wanted to limit the campaign to “around ten” games, so we were able to roll out both mechanics and story in a satisfying way, all leading toward that epic conclusion.

Denver-based Dire Wolf is the creator and publisher of award-winning digital and physical strategy games. Titles include Dune: Imperium, the hit line of Clank! board games, Eternal® Card Game, and acclaimed digital board game adaptations of Root, Munchkin, Everdell, Sagrada and others. As PA told us when we were first discussing a partnership, Acquisitions Incorporated’s tone pretty much lines up perfectly with Clank!’s. The Dire Wolf design team included some longtime Acq Inc fans who dove into their video archive to learn even more about the details and tonal nuances, and we were delighted to find a world very well suited for an epic Clank! tale. Dire Wolf has been responsible for a number of acclaimed digital board game adaptations, including the Golden Geek Award-winning adaptations of Everdell and Root, along with the popular recent releases of Munchkin, Sagrada, Wings of Glory, and others. I have a complicated relationship with the original Betrayal. On one hand, I really love the theme, atmosphere and idea of the game. On the other hand, it could be a clunky weird mess. Betrayal Legacy seems to fix some of my issues with the original setup, but then not completely. Another neat thing is that the character from Jaws of the Lion can be used in Gloomhaven (and Gloomhaven characters can be used in Jaws of the Lion).

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Players will be dealing with many fantasy staples, including evil monsters, magic, and otherworldly beings. Cultists, witches, vampires, dragons, possessed peoples, and alternate religions may also be encountered. Review The Book of Secrets contains the narrative of the story and is broken up into many numbered entries. Different groups will encounter the story in different ways, depending on how they interact with Waypoints and Contracts. You do this by voting on various dilemmas (and trying to sway other players with bribes). The moderator decides on a tie – and the moderator is chosen via a bidding round. If you elect to pass on a given dilemma you get to keep the coin from the previous bidding round. The other players are simultaneously your allies and your opponent, shifting from each dilemma to the next. I am not sure if we’ll ever play another Legacy game; in fact, most games seem to have moved past Legacy as a mechanic (bringing us to whatever Oath is doing, which feels like… meta Legacy?), but Clank Legacy was, and is, something special. The great thing is that we can take it out whenever we want to play Clank itself with, seeing and revisiting our game and all the choices we made and things we did, which makes it even more enjoyable than other Legacy games which more or less ask you to throw them out when you’re done. If you have a group of 2-4 players and want something longform, Clank Legacy is a great place to look. If you’ve never tried a Legacy game before, Clank Legacy makes a great place to dip your toe into that as well, and, for us, it may even be our only Legacy game. While this is a good change, the randomness of the original game is still here. Playing a game of Betryal still feels like exploring random tiles, rolling random dice and getting random rewards or random negative effects. And in the end it might be ever before it all started because of how players (randomly) end up position wise with regards to the end goal.

Betrayal Legacy is a cooperative exploration game. You and your friends all get a character and go exploring in this weird haunted house. Slowly you explore the house, find creepy stuff and get a bit stronger (or a bit weaker). At some point the “haunt” of the house is release, and this is where the game (mostly) turns into a 1 vs the rest of the group game. One of the players gets a special win condition and the rest of the players another win condition. We’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing partners over the past few years to bring their tabletop games to digital players (and we’ll have a few more to announce soon!),” said Scott Martins, President of Dire Wolf. “ Clank! will be the first time we’re adapting our own board game title to the digital space, so it’s both a logical step and a chance for us to have some fun with it.” Clank! Legacy is dripping with story from the moment you open the box. Having played the original Clank! , most of the expansions, and Clank! In! Space! , I can definitively say that Legacy is my favorite. Not only are you experiencing the story as it unravels and creating a custom game board, but you also get to personalize your characters, watching them improve as the game progresses and giving them even more agency and buy-in to the story elements. Some might call Jaws of the Lion“Gloomhaven lite”. While that might be true, it is in some ways a better game for itThe game is played across roughly 15 games averaging about 45 min of play. Each game is set in a kings reign and each player is a Noble House trying to sway the decisions of the king. Each player wants the king to decide something that is good for their house (as they will play that house for the entirety of the legacy game) and something that will help them achieve their secret goal for that game. Each of the players controls a hero (represented by a miniature), with specific stats, equipment, and the whole work. The game really shines via the card mechanic that simultaneously acts as your abilities and your resources. This means you can blow up monsters left and right, but if you pace yourself too fast you might die before you complete the scenario. How you play your cards and coordinate with the rest of the group is the fun part of the game, so you should enjoy that sort of thing. To go deeper on the design process behind the game would require spoilers, and we wouldn’t want to do that. So for now, we’ll say farewell, and get ready to begin your own Clank! Legacy Acquisitions Incorporated adventure later this fall! Since its premiere in 2016, Clank! has become a beloved and popular board game line, with 15 releases across core games and expansions.

One of the biggest questions I had going into the game, and one someone has asked me a few times, is “How much do I need to like Penny Arcade to play this?”. Thankfully, the answer is very easy: none at all. The biggest influence PA has on the product is that Acquisitions Incorporated is their product, and the card art features Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik’s artwork. But regardless on your opinion of PA or knowledge of their AI world, what you’ll find is an often funny and compelling game that doesn’t ask for anything in return to enjoy it. There are AI characters in some of the cards, but they otherwise do very little to or for the game, meaning that any references to them won’t make much difference either way. Contracts are a new type of card unique to Clank! Legacy. The example card shown here is given to the group before game 1 begins. The group will continue to receive Contract cards throughout the course of the campaign. These cards can remain outstanding across games. Often, a group is presented with more Contracts than they can (or care to) complete within a given game, so players have agency in how they prioritize them. Remember that Clank! Legacy Acquisitions Incorporated at its heart is a competitive game, so players will sometimes prioritize strategic scoring over story reveals.

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Early in the project, Andy Clautice and I laid out the overall structure of the game experience. We worked together for a solid few months to form a strong game skeleton. Thereafter came the laborious work of complete all the connective tissue that really brings the game to life. But within the first few weeks of testing our initial ideas, we came to realize a few important design pillars for the product: We just have to start out with what I think is one of the best legacy board games and my all-time favorite board game. Yes, the hype for Gloomhaven is really and it is that good. With some of the first mechanics we designed for Clank! Legacy Acquisitions Incorporated, we tried to embed that sense of mystery and anticipation into some of the game components that you see immediately before game 1 begins. One of them was a success and never changed, and another was a bit of a failure at first, but we eventually improved upon it. Anyone who has played a story-driven game with a large book will be familiar with how the narrative elements are doled out; as players reach spots on the board or are directed via cards or other game elements, a number inside a book symbol will tell them what to read next to advance the story. Sometimes the text will trigger events such as altering the board, adding or removing cards/items, or receiving rewards or consequences. Because of this, a player’s turn can take a few minutes as the legacy elements are being added or distributed. In my experience, even two-player games can take 90-120 minutes – I could see a four-player game taking over two hours easily.