Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs
- Designers: Joe Klipfel, Nikki Valens
- Publisher: Cephalofair
- Players: 1
- Age: 10+
- Time: 20 minutes
- Amazon affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B05SVtGDo
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs is a solo play game, with an original campaign story written by Isaac Childres, that features a playstyle similar to Gloomhaven in a fraction of the size.
Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs is set after the events of Gloomhaven and Forgotten Circles. The Aesther recluse Hail has earned a reputation for being highly instrumental in saving the city from recurring disasters, and she absolutely hates it. Wannabe heroes are constantly barging in on her studies at the Crooked Bone, looking for help in becoming famous themselves — not to mention all the demons that come by looking for vengeance. She briefly considered moving, but as that would require effort, she instead just placed an enchantment on her front door: Anyone who attempts to open it becomes miniaturized and therefore is no longer a problem.
Your character is one such wannabe hero. In an ill-advised attempt at fame, they try to visit Hail, and poof. Now they’re the size of a mouse and have entered an entirely different realm of lawlessness and self-preservation. They must find a new way into the Crooked Bone to convince Hail to return them to their previous size.
Each scenario is a single card, pitting one mercenary against a handful of enemies with simplified actions and AI. Each mercenary has a hand of just four double-sided cards, but they can be used twice — both the front and the back — before they are discarded. Attacks are resolved using a die in conjunction with a modifier table, and both the table and the mercenary ability cards can be improved as you level up throughout the campaign.
I enjoy the Tiny Epic line of games published by Gamelyn games. Now owned by Tycoon Games, I was excited to see more of my favorite in the line, Tiny Epic Dungeons. Tiny Epic Dungeons Adventures keeps the same lightweight dungeon-crawl mechanics but it also links up multiple games in a bit of campaign. The Phantom Voyage is a small expansion that adds a new hero, some monsters, and minions. It will serve as a bridge to an upcoming Dungeons Adventures sequel. While the original line of Everdell games has come to a close (no more expansions), there are still more games to be had in the Everdell universe. Everdell Emerland is in the original Everdell genre: an engine-building worker placement game. Everdell Journeys has players building up a little journey route of cards, which are activated as players’ tokens move along the path.
