Such a fine well detailed love project from the developers. Im gushing at the amount of detail they put into creating an "add-on". Most developers would just slap on a 30 page booklet and advertise that as a solo campaign.
Your point on timers is so right - it's one of the reason I don't enjoy so many of the Fantasy Flight games - it like I'm playing against a clock, not an enemy. It's a tough balance to gently nudge forward. I don't have Klik's Madness, but I am eagerly awaiting Fall of the Ancients. I do like the core game and I'm hoping just having a bit more structure might help me get it to the table. I like the idea of sandbox hex-crawling, but sometimes I just get paralyzed with things that are too open. I know, it's weird. Regardless, pretty amazing the new book is coming early!
I fully agree, FF is obssesed with timers as a Design device, in games as Imperial Assault or Descent you find yourself running around without much thinking
@@sagittariusa9012I always felt they were so integrated into the design of the chapters (or levels) that the mechanics don't work if there's unlimited time. But if it worked for you, that's definitely better.
@miked5394 The problem is that games get easier with more time or no timers. You are right. The timers are part of the core design, at least in FF games. I usually don't like them, to be honest
Holy jeez this is amazing. This video took me from being pretty interested in HexploreIt to absolutely picking up. Thanks again, Daniel, for showing me something awesome that I would have never known about before!
I really enjoyed this campaign book. Beautiful to look at, nice reading and it gives the world much more texture. As a GM who loves reading source books about different lands of a campaign setting I LOVED that they started give us some stories in the Hexplore IT world. Cannot wait for the new Campaign book!
Awesome timing, I have been waiting on a good review on this as all the Hexplore It stuff is on Gamefound until March 31st, I bought everything else, the entire Klik's set is still in my cart :)
You could play a simplified game if you kind of ignore a lot of the board game half. Just move around on the map without worrying about mechanisms, and then read the game book when you reach those points of interest and triggered events.
@@TheDungeonDive yeah you are right but I don't really like improvising too much in these games, will wait for the Castlevania theme one in a few years to see how that does!
Ah! See, I'm all about just making up my own houserules and variants. :) When I'm playing solo. Anything that will get me to enjoy a game more is fair game. :) But I totally understand that some people don't like that at all.
@@TheDungeonDive you are lucky, for me I just don't enjoy the houseruling. It's so much easier though when you get a game like Iron Helm for example where no houseruling is needed to enjoy it to the full!
don't quote me on this, but i think the stretch goals from the FotA book crowdfunding campaign added stuff to allow you to use the bosses from KM to regular VotDK. (someone please correct me if i am misremembering!)
I have all of VotDK content including Kliks Madness en route from the latest crowdfund. I managed to pick up a Mirza Noctis base game about few months ago this ago. I’ve played that one 3 times so far and always get bogged down. I get a bit more comfortable each play, so I’m excited to play VotDK since it seems a bit less fiddly, and super excited to try the Kliks campaign! Thanks for the video!
Well done video with a great overlook on the game book. Since I own the first edition, I just made sure about the locations, but they are marked out. Never liked the map, most details are hard to see. At least I will try Klick's Madness, but incase I fail, no way I play the chapter again, may be I find another way to move forward. Always enjoy background stories about the game world I visit.
I have the second one coming as well so have to start this one lol so little time so many games. I'm more excited about the upgrade stuff coming with the next one though.
I like those types of games. But i'm not the best in English. In the end i still backed the all in pledge (Realm Crosser + every addon that wasn't in the pledge) :p
We played quite some hours of this and got to 2/3rds + through the story and loved it, notwithstanding the additional rules load etc. We had some choices that we always made in character as much as we could, and we then encountered an insta-death situation, and that was that. Now if we had carefully noted down all of our paragraph choices I imagine we could have backtracked some way, but we didn't, so we called it there. This was disappointing for us and we wanted to complete the story but just didn't have the heart to start again. So the personal ending for us was a let down, unfortunately. But putting this aside, it is a work of some wonder. In comparison, I am playing through Roll Player Adventures which also has an engaging story and good dice manipulation mechanics, and it crucially has some generous fail forward mechanisms so all is not lost if your party dies.
100% agree, my main issue with the game (It's currently my #1 solo boardgaming experience) is the threat of hard game overs. I expressed this to them and hopefully they'll be reduced in Vol 2's book.
Newbie here. So, to get started would HEXplore it: Volume II and Klik's Madness work/be compatible... etc.? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
The only volume of HEXplore It that did not go well with me is " Sands of Shurax" -- I gave up and stopped playing. However, the first 2 volumes I loved playing.
I think it’s important to point out that many viewers will find the Hexploreit games not very great. They’re pretty messy overall, design wise. I say this cause I bought Mirza Noctis and Valley of the Dead King thinking I had found a holy grail. And man, I was wrong. These games are not for everyone. If fact I would say they’re more for a minority. I still want to love them, and I’ll spend the effort to give them more tries. But yeah, just saying this it’s cause easy to think they’d be “the one” just from looking at these vids (also the concept is fantastic). I’m hoping someday another company takes this same concept and just polishes up the design. Anyways, just my 2 cents. Keep up the great work, Daniel!
A truly great campaign book and excellent work, but so far, we only played through the prologue - we felt that the combat system is, unfortunately, a bit outdated and often outright tedious (just dozens of dice rolls in a row with little strategy in choices). I wish they had finally revamped the battle system completely rather than expanding it. Another option I perhaps would like is a one-roll combat variant (although, given how the skills are designed, that would make many features meaningless).
@@TheDungeonDive Sorry I'm confused - there is a 6-sided dice roll each round for enemy actions, which then often involves skill checks (d10) for the characters?
@@radiocolumbusyou’re not rolling for damage or to hit or dodge or anything. Just one D6 to determine what the enemy is doing. You make it sound like you’re rolling tons of dice to do everything. So just wanted to clarify that. 90% of all combat encounters will only need a couple rolls of a D6 just to randomize what the enemies are doing. All hits, all damage, and all blocking is entirely deterministic. And never once do you roll “dozens of dice,” as you claimed. 😊
@@TheDungeonDive OK maybe I was a bit too dramatic (although for instance fighting a horde for 5 rounds will involve in total 5 dice rolls for the enemy + 15 dice rolls from 3 characters), but "There are no dice for combat in this." is also incorrect.
HexploreIT is truly an incredible and deep game. They keep adding tons of content that well thought out and well designed.
Such a fine well detailed love project from the developers. Im gushing at the amount of detail they put into creating an "add-on". Most developers would just slap on a 30 page booklet and advertise that as a solo campaign.
Your point on timers is so right - it's one of the reason I don't enjoy so many of the Fantasy Flight games - it like I'm playing against a clock, not an enemy. It's a tough balance to gently nudge forward. I don't have Klik's Madness, but I am eagerly awaiting Fall of the Ancients. I do like the core game and I'm hoping just having a bit more structure might help me get it to the table. I like the idea of sandbox hex-crawling, but sometimes I just get paralyzed with things that are too open. I know, it's weird. Regardless, pretty amazing the new book is coming early!
I fully agree, FF is obssesed with timers as a Design device, in games as Imperial Assault or Descent you find yourself running around without much thinking
I'm not afraid to houserule such timers :)
@@sagittariusa9012I always felt they were so integrated into the design of the chapters (or levels) that the mechanics don't work if there's unlimited time. But if it worked for you, that's definitely better.
@@the_Mike_d I don't have my pledge yet. Don't know if it will work :)
@miked5394 The problem is that games get easier with more time or no timers. You are right. The timers are part of the core design, at least in FF games. I usually don't like them, to be honest
Holy jeez this is amazing. This video took me from being pretty interested in HexploreIt to absolutely picking up. Thanks again, Daniel, for showing me something awesome that I would have never known about before!
Glad I could help!
I really enjoyed this campaign book. Beautiful to look at, nice reading and it gives the world much more texture. As a GM who loves reading source books about different lands of a campaign setting I LOVED that they started give us some stories in the Hexplore IT world. Cannot wait for the new Campaign book!
With the hexplore it games being sold cheap on the Fall of the Ancients gamefound late pledge page its a good time to get into these games.
Awesome timing, I have been waiting on a good review on this as all the Hexplore It stuff is on Gamefound until March 31st, I bought everything else, the entire Klik's set is still in my cart :)
In a way what the game really needed was the campaign book to make it simpler to play not more complex!
You could play a simplified game if you kind of ignore a lot of the board game half. Just move around on the map without worrying about mechanisms, and then read the game book when you reach those points of interest and triggered events.
@@TheDungeonDive yeah you are right but I don't really like improvising too much in these games, will wait for the Castlevania theme one in a few years to see how that does!
Ah! See, I'm all about just making up my own houserules and variants. :) When I'm playing solo. Anything that will get me to enjoy a game more is fair game. :) But I totally understand that some people don't like that at all.
@@TheDungeonDive you are lucky, for me I just don't enjoy the houseruling. It's so much easier though when you get a game like Iron Helm for example where no houseruling is needed to enjoy it to the full!
Love HexploreIt and I have yet to even crack open Klik's Madness. I look forward to it in the near future :)
don't quote me on this, but i think the stretch goals from the FotA book crowdfunding campaign added stuff to allow you to use the bosses from KM to regular VotDK. (someone please correct me if i am misremembering!)
That would be cool! I didn't pay attention to the stretch goals for that, so I'll be excited if that's the case!
@@TheDungeonDive I do believe that I read it somewhere that you can use the Bosses in KM in regular VotDK.
The "encounters in red from the book" are also available as cards in the stretch goal pack, which means that all encounters are now on cards.
I have all of VotDK content including Kliks Madness en route from the latest crowdfund. I managed to pick up a Mirza Noctis base game about few months ago this ago. I’ve played that one 3 times so far and always get bogged down. I get a bit more comfortable each play, so I’m excited to play VotDK since it seems a bit less fiddly, and super excited to try the Kliks campaign! Thanks for the video!
VotDK is the way to start with Hexplore it.
and BTW, great job, Daniel. Your enthusiasm is infectious.
Thank you kindly!
Well done video with a great overlook on the game book. Since I own the first edition, I just made sure about the locations, but they are marked out. Never liked the map, most details are hard to see. At least I will try Klick's Madness, but incase I fail, no way I play the chapter again, may be I find another way to move forward. Always enjoy background stories about the game world I visit.
Wow you read my mind. I was just watching all your hexploreit content. Backed vol 2 book and considering vol 1 with kilk.
I have the second one coming as well so have to start this one lol so little time so many games. I'm more excited about the upgrade stuff coming with the next one though.
I like those types of games. But i'm not the best in English. In the end i still backed the all in pledge (Realm Crosser + every addon that wasn't in the pledge) :p
Extraordinary game
I’ve been going between getting this with the book, or Vol 4 (the dungeons look cool). Or…Dungeon Degenerates for a nice big open world adventure.
We played quite some hours of this and got to 2/3rds + through the story and loved it, notwithstanding the additional rules load etc. We had some choices that we always made in character as much as we could, and we then encountered an insta-death situation, and that was that. Now if we had carefully noted down all of our paragraph choices I imagine we could have backtracked some way, but we didn't, so we called it there. This was disappointing for us and we wanted to complete the story but just didn't have the heart to start again. So the personal ending for us was a let down, unfortunately. But putting this aside, it is a work of some wonder. In comparison, I am playing through Roll Player Adventures which also has an engaging story and good dice manipulation mechanics, and it crucially has some generous fail forward mechanisms so all is not lost if your party dies.
Yeah. The lack of a fail forward is, IMO, a problem.
100% agree, my main issue with the game (It's currently my #1 solo boardgaming experience) is the threat of hard game overs. I expressed this to them and hopefully they'll be reduced in Vol 2's book.
Newbie here. So, to get started would HEXplore it: Volume II and Klik's Madness work/be compatible... etc.? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Boy howdy are you in luck! The campaign books are only compatible with a specific volume.
ua-cam.com/video/oKTvQ7d9gYw/v-deo.htmlsi=_GsRXVbiwXTKDZGf
Thanks.
@@fpgowner Start with Valley of the Dead king and Kliks Madness. This is the best start point for this series of games.
The only volume of HEXplore It that did not go well with me is " Sands of Shurax" -- I gave up and stopped playing. However, the first 2 volumes I loved playing.
Yep!
I think it’s important to point out that many viewers will find the Hexploreit games not very great. They’re pretty messy overall, design wise. I say this cause I bought Mirza Noctis and Valley of the Dead King thinking I had found a holy grail. And man, I was wrong. These games are not for everyone. If fact I would say they’re more for a minority. I still want to love them, and I’ll spend the effort to give them more tries. But yeah, just saying this it’s cause easy to think they’d be “the one” just from looking at these vids (also the concept is fantastic). I’m hoping someday another company takes this same concept and just polishes up the design. Anyways, just my 2 cents. Keep up the great work, Daniel!
I'd say that about most games I cover. They are very idiosyncratic.
A game that has that many pages to read i want it 😂
Your videos always seem to sync up with something I’m wondering about at the moment 🤔
Spooky! ;)
A truly great campaign book and excellent work, but so far, we only played through the prologue - we felt that the combat system is, unfortunately, a bit outdated and often outright tedious (just dozens of dice rolls in a row with little strategy in choices). I wish they had finally revamped the battle system completely rather than expanding it. Another option I perhaps would like is a one-roll combat variant (although, given how the skills are designed, that would make many features meaningless).
There are no dice for combat in this.
@@TheDungeonDive Sorry I'm confused - there is a 6-sided dice roll each round for enemy actions, which then often involves skill checks (d10) for the characters?
And when you fight Swarms, you test your skills with a d10 in every round...
@@radiocolumbusyou’re not rolling for damage or to hit or dodge or anything. Just one D6 to determine what the enemy is doing. You make it sound like you’re rolling tons of dice to do everything. So just wanted to clarify that. 90% of all combat encounters will only need a couple rolls of a D6 just to randomize what the enemies are doing. All hits, all damage, and all blocking is entirely deterministic. And never once do you roll “dozens of dice,” as you claimed. 😊
@@TheDungeonDive OK maybe I was a bit too dramatic (although for instance fighting a horde for 5 rounds will involve in total 5 dice rolls for the enemy + 15 dice rolls from 3 characters), but "There are no dice for combat in this." is also incorrect.