Every week, we’re going to spotlight a different part of gameplay in Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall. Last week we talked about Combat, and the week before that, Character Selection. Welcome to part 3 of Kinfire Focus: Adventuring!
The life of a Seeker is full of challenges. They take perilous journeys, investigate mysteries, chat with strangers, and even solve deadly puzzles. As you play through your story, you’ll come across various choices in the game, such as crossing a river, or deciding which way to approach a location. Often, you’ll be presented with multiple paths you can take, and you must choose as a group how to proceed. The cards will give you options, and you’ll need to choose how you want to solve them. The most basic type of card presents a simple question, such as whether to go right or left. You’ll make your choice as a team, and then go to the corresponding card. The three other types of adventuring cards are detailed below: skill checks, conundrums, and memories
Skill Checks
When you and your companions do something dangerous or risky while adventuring, you may be asked to perform some sort of skill check. You’ll be given a choice for how you want to solve the check, such as trying to use strength to swim across a river or dexterity to jump across the rocks. Each card color represents a different heroic virtues– Red is power, Green is finesse, and Blue is wisdom. You can choose how you want to handle the check based on what your Seeker’s skillset is. Their basic deck make-up is in the middle of their character sheet.
Asha's deck has mostly green cards, followed by blue, and then red
Then you’ll flip over cards from your deck trying to match the color you want. Remember, dual-colored cards count for either, and white cards are wild. As the campaign continues, the skill checks will be less straightforward, with either more options or alternate ways to succeed. Having certain Seekers in your party can make your skill checks easier, harder, or let you bypass them entirely! You’ll have to play the game multiple times to see everything the characters bring to the table.
If you fail a skill check you’ll have some sort of punishment, such as going to a different card, taking damage, or taking an exhaustion card. Exhaustion is dead weight in your deck when it comes time for combat, and will deal you damage if you charge your lantern with one in your hand. You can only remove them by resting at an inn.
Samples of two different skill checks, and an Exhaustion card
Conundrums
Even the best of friends don’t agree 100% of the time, and throughout the game the Seekers are going to have different ideas on how to approach a problem. When you come across a Conundrum card, you as a team will have to make a choice on how to proceed, unlike skill checks where you can each tackle the problem individually (such as some Seekers swimming across a river while others jump from rock to rock). These choices will take you to different cards and paths that could affect everything from how a battle is set up, to NPCs you can meet, to treasure you can find.
Each of the Seekers have their own way they would like the Conundrum to go, and if your Seeker gets “their way” you’ll be rewarded with a Kinfire token. These can be used to level up your character’s deck, and we’ll talk about those more in the next blog. However, it’s not always the most beneficial to the group to just fight for “what my character would do.” Sometimes the choice you make is more important than the reward.
What do you do? Investigate the noise or rest a bit?
Memories
At pivotal moments in the game, something will happen that you’ll want to remember. The game will provide you with a memory card to remind you of that event, which you can keep for the rest of the game. At various times, a card may offer an alternative option if you have a specific memory card. Some prompts will let you choose if you want to do something, others will immediately send you to a different card.
With this memory card, you might be able to sell the black powder bomb in town. Or you could always use it...
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Adventuring provides some of the best opportunities for roleplaying in the game, and creates both hilarious and nerve wracking moments of teamwork and decision making. The best examples of this can be seen with Felicia Day’s group in their first episode of the Kinfire Playthrough Series.