Venturesome

• Designer: Michael Rieneck
• Publisher: Devir
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Recollect the images from your childhood. All the exciting books, graphic novels and movies full of tireless discoverers and travelers, surprisingly lethal archeologists, secret agents, or crocodile hunters. Now grab your cards and use them to form a unique expedition to find legendary treasures! So, where’s the catch? The heroes we’re talking about are close to immortal – whatever happened they always found a way out, never actually meeting enemies powerful enough to defeat them. You, on the other hand, will have to face your friends, who probably had the same sources of inspiration as yourself… It’s time to prepare for a tough competition full of dirty tricks!

When playing Venturesome, you try to gather a group of adventurers able to undertake a chosen challenge while evading any threats. You use the abilities of your expedition members in order to thwart your rivals’ plans. However, bear in mind that your opponents are equally ready to steal, manipulate, or do anything that is necessary to defeat you. If you don’t act quickly and decisively, instead of finding the treasure, your expedition will get into real trouble. So, forget about scruples and compromises. Be smarter, quicker, and meaner that your rivals.

Venturesome is the spiritual successor of the legendary Palastgeflüster. With the updated game mechanics and victory conditions, you can expect hours of gaming full of negative interaction. In this game each move is a risk that might pay off. Just remember about the most important rule: be RUTHLESS! That’s the only way you can win!

To start, the 63 card character deck (9 characters in 7 different colors) is shuffled and each player is dealt a hand of 6 characters.  The Threat deck (12 cards) is shuffled and cards equal to the player count are placed face up next to it.  Finally the Intimidation card pile is placed on the table.

The game is played in three rounds.  On a turn, a player will go through up to three phases.  The round will end when no one is able to play any more cards.

1] Play a card from your hand – place a card face up in front of you. You cannot play a color that is already in your line (you can’t play an Aeronaut if you already have one visible). If you already have played cards this turn, the new card must go to the very left or very right of your line of cards. 

2] Resolve the effect of your card:  (unless you are playing the final card left in your hand)

• Adventurer – Choose another player, swap hands with them
• Aeronaut – switch places of one card in your Expedition with an opponent’s played card (this is the only way to have multiple cards of the same color in your line)
• Artifact Hunter – choose one character from the Intimidation deck and place it face up; that character cannot be played for the rest of the round (or until another Artifact Hunter is played to change that card).
• Collector – give a player a card from your hand, that player must give you a card with a different type if possible
• Guide – return one card from your Expedition to your hand
• Professor – Draw the top card from the Character deck
• Reporter – no effect

3] Resolve Threat (only do this if you have played your final hand card OR you were unable to play a card in step 1) – choose one of the faceup Threat cards and resolve it.  Flip that threat card facedown. Set aside any remaining Character cards in front of you into your Treasure pile.  You are out of the rest of this round – you do not play any more cards, you can not be targeted by cards, etc.  Example threat options:

• Discard the leftmost and rightmost cards from your line
• Discard all cards with certain Artifacts on them
• Discard all maps
• Discard any two adjacent cards
• Discard cards with gems on them

It could be that you choose a Threat card that simply doesn’t apply to your card line, if so – you do not have to discard anything.

Continue having players take turns until everyone has resolved a Threat card.  Discard the used Threat cards and reveal a new set for the next round.  Each player is dealt a new hand of 6 Character cards; in the final round, if there are not enough, deal out as many cards as you can so that players all have the same number of cards in their hand. Place any revealed intimidation cards back on the deck.

At the end of the third round, players tally up their points:

• 1-3 VP for gem icons
• 1 VP per artifact and 4VP bonus for each set of 3 identical artifacts
• Each map scores 1 point per card that matches its color

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the player with fewer cards in their Scoring pile

My thoughts on the game

This is a re-do of one of my favorite Adlung-spiele games, Palastgeflüster (2007).  (Along with Pompeii, Winhard, Adlungland and Vom Kap Bis Kairo).  These games used to be a favorite stop of mine each year at Spiel in Essen.  You could buy these 60-ish card games that came in the same tiny box, just big enough to enclose the cards and the rules.  In the days before Google Translate, getting a decent translation was always an issue, so it was always nice to see that Adlung games offered multiple languages in their rulebooks.  Of course, gamers quickly found out that Adlung-ese English wasn’t exactly the same as standard English… but it was better than nothing.  You’d squint at the microprint on the ricepaper instruction manual and enjoy your 5 EUR card game… (For what it’s worth, Devir also includes five separate rule books in the box: English, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese)

The game has definitely been updated.  The artwork and overall design is much more modern than the Adlung version, and though my memory is a bit rusty, the Character actions are also slightly different – leading to a game that therefore plays a bit differently as well.   The icons are easy to grok, and the entire game is language independent.  My one complaint is that the three different decks have the same design and are only slightly different in color – there is no reason for this, and we would be able to separate the decks much easier if these decks had more distinct backs…

Venturesome feels like an old-school game – and that’s because it really sort of is an old-school game.  There is direct interaction here, with most turns causing you to swap cards with players, prevent them from playing particular cards, or messing with the cards in their line.   You’ll definitely be doing everything you can to switch cards in your hand and in your line – as you can generally only play one card of each color, though you can use the Aeronaut to get multiple cards of a color.  There is one card of each scoring icon in each color, so you’ll try to get the one you want… at the expense of your opponents most likely.

In many ways, the game can feel a bit random and determined by the cards you get dealt – but each round is a rollicking five to ten minute romp with unexpected twists and turns.  Even if you get a less than desirable hand, it only takes a well timed Adventurer or Professor to change things around drastically.  Also, for a game that only lasts three short rounds, it’s one that I’m willing to accept the experience of playing and enjoying rather than worrying about being able to fully control the events.

I like the way that the negative action of the Artifact Hunter allows the player to choose which character they want to negate.  In the original version, the King card (which did a similar thing) had the negated icon right on the King card itself; so there were times when you might not want to play a King that you held because it would negatively affect your own options!  Now, you can make a strategic decision that will hopefully mess up the plans of your opponents while leaving you in the clear.

Venturesome is a game that will work well with folks with thick skin and those willing to roll with the punches.  Games are guaranteed to provide you with plenty of surprises and laughs as players battle with each other through the varied card actions.  If you’ve never played the original, this is worth a look as it’s a solid design.  If you liked Palastgeflüster, this is still worth a look to see the updated art and gameplay (and you won’t need any player aids to explain/translate the cards!).

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…