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Merchants of the Dark Road (Kickstarter – Deluxe)
After half a year of daylight, we must now prepare for the dark season. The roads will be treacherous but they will still need to be braved by a select few in order to keep our cities thriving. In Merchants of the Dark Road, you are one of these brave few merchants that travel the dangerous paths between cities. While the job is perilous, fame and fortune await.
Discover the capital city where most of your actions will take place using a rondel action system. Collect and produce items to add to your caravan, or sell these items to local heroes and hire them to travel with you. Manipulate the market price of items, visit the back alley sellers, or delve a nearby dungeon for magical items to gain the potential for even more coin and notoriety.
Gather lanterns to ease your passage along the dark roads as you guide your caravan to distant villages. Deliver goods and heroes to the best destinations and gain fame for your bravery! Balance the money you earn with the height of your fame because your final score after a number of game rounds will reflect the lowest of these two values.
After all, what good is a purse full of the coin if the people don’t sing songs about you, and what good is a song with an empty mug of ale?
—description from the publisher
The Deluxe Edition contains everything in the Standard Edition, with upgrades in the components, the box, and the insert.
| Ages | 12+ |
|---|---|
| Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
| Play Time | 60m – 120m |
| Designer | Brian Suhre |
| Mechanics | Rondel, Worker Placement with Dice Workers |
| Theme | Dice, Exploration, Fantasy |
| Publisher | Elf Creek Games |
CombineCR
A good game but to much dempster ndet from luck, two or three bad Dice rolls and the game ends for you
Addiction2k
OK now that I've played it a few times it's alright. Its supposed to be a pick up and deliver game but it's really a game about making lemons out of lemonade. Its easy for the market not to have the items you need stocked, for commissions to not match items that you actually have in hand and for the characters not to match up with the commissions you pull. That means as often as not you'll need to make the best of a bad situation. And it's nonsensical that instruments can take up so much of your cart and yet by the time you get to sell them they are worth less than you payed for them. You simply don't have enough storage to play the long game on materials in this game. With all my gripes it's at least a serviceable 7, and could flex a little higher. I just want people to know what they are getting into. I ended at 7.5. It’s not really good but it’s also not bad. But the really nice components elevate the play experience. However the really shitty storage solution makes it a pain in the ass to take out and play.
angel73
A bit much to setup but overall it is one of the most immersive euros I know. It is not brutal, lots of ways to mitigate and some luck based gambling with the dice. Cannot wait for an expansion that hopefully focuses on the travel aspect.