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Radiant: Offline Battle Arena Champion Edition (Kickstarter – Arena Champion Pledge)
20m - 50m
2 - 2 Players
Ages 13+
Join our discord: https://discord.gg/DKqZPUV
Radiant: Offline Battle Arena (ROBA) is the MOBA-inspired strategy card game where heroes and legends clash to claim the ultimate prize. Draft your team, challenge your friends, become a champion!
ROBA is a fast-paced tactical game for two players. It can be taught in five minutes, but offers a challenge that will test the skills of even veteran gamers to their limit. ROBA pits a colorful and diverse cast of heroes against each other using a dynamic deck-drafting mechanic that offers rewarding depth and lasting replay value.
ROBA was designed by Jack Murray, and tested by a team of over one-hundred playtesters from all around the world.
Every game of ROBA begins with the draft, where you’ll create your own deck by selecting heroes from a shared pool. You’ll alternate drafting heroes with your opponent until you’ve each assembled a team of three. Every hero brings an associated deck of ten cards – one of which will be that hero’s powerful Ultimate ability. Shuffling your heroes’ three decks together will create a play deck of thirty cards, and this – along with the three heroes themselves –is what you’ll use to play the game.
Every hero brings unique strengths to a team, and different heroes support different strategies, opening up unique paths to victory. There are many possible combinations to explore, but be wary of falling into predictable patterns! Each player also gets to ban heroes during the draft, removing them from the pool of available picks entirely. If your opponent’s strategy is transparent, you can punish them with a crafty pick. But beware! They can do the same to you.
ROBA pitches you against another player in a contest of nerve, wits, and skill. The aim of the game is to defeat the opponent’s deity, a powerful divine force that begins the game out of play, and must be forced to manifest before it can be destroyed.
To achieve this, you pit your team of three heroes against your opponent’s, each of you wielding your heroes’ unique skills and abilities. The player who does this best – utilizing their heroes to the fullest, while exploiting the weaknesses of their enemies – will emerge victorious.
The battle takes place across three lanes, each of which holds two divine conduits – one belonging to each player. When all three of your opponent’s conduits are destroyed, their deity will appear – bringing its divine might to bear upon the conflict. When a deity falls, the game ends – with victory going to the player who defeated it.
| Ages | 13+ |
|---|---|
| Players | 2 Players |
| Play Time | 20m – 50m |
| Designer | Jack Murray |
| Mechanics | Open Drafting |
| Theme | Card Game, Fighting, Video Game Theme |
| Publisher | Heel Turn Games |
The Laughing Monk
I had the opportunity to demo Radiant at PAX between rounds of L5R and Doomtown! I can’t wait to get my hands on this game. I’ve never done a review of a game before, but this one leaves me feeling compelled to do so. I’d like to give you a little background as to why my review is meaningful. I’ve played games my whole life, but 2-player card games have always drawn me in. It started in 1995 with Marvel Overpower, then a short stint with Magic and onto L5R by 2000. From there I’ve played Middle Earth, 1st and 2nd edition of A Game of Thrones, Star Wars LCG, Call of Cthulhu, Netrunner, Codex, Doomtown, Mage Wars, Blue Moon Legends, Twilight of the Gods, Ashes:Rise of the Phoenixborn and Star Wars Destiny (if that counts as a card game). Many of which I have played competitively and all of which did I purchase numerous expansions. How much fun can you have with just the base game?! If I were to rank all of the above games, I’d have to put L5R and Doomtown as #1 and #2. Mainly due to the activity and composition of the community. I play A Game of Thrones melee about once a month with a group of friends, but rarely ever play it as a 2 player game. Radiant rivals Codex as my third favorite 2 player card game! I’ll explain why, but first, let me give a very brief synopsis of the game. The goal is to destroy your opponent’s Deity which starts out of play. You each have 3 locations containing a ‘conduit’. Your Heroes are trying to knockout (not kill, because they can return) your opponent’s Heroes and/or destroy their conduits to force the Deity to enter play (after all conduits have been destroyed, either by your opponent or yourself, your Deity is forced into play, but you can bring it out at any time). There’s a lot going on here, but that’s the basics. Here’s why I loved playing this game: Radiant has something for everyone in regards to both strategy (aggressive, defensive, card manipulation, control, etc.) and theme (knights, tribal dudes, magic, sword fighting, dragons, mythical and mystical creatures, good and evil, male and female, etc.). Decks are easy to put together and easy to change up between games if your plan didn’t quite work out. You pick your Deity, 3 Heroes and 3 Items. Each Deity comes with 3 fixed conduits and each Hero comes with 10 fixed cards. To change your deck, choose a different Hero, remove the 10 cards from the old Hero and add the 10 cards for the new Hero. Also, each group of 10 cards has 3 copies of 3 different cards and 1 ‘Ultimate’ card. This makes each deck you build quick and easy to learn, consistent and balanced. All of the cards are useful and the Ultimate cards are exciting! It’s quick to learn, but seems tough to master. There are a lot of strategic decisions to be made with a relatively small set of rules. Also, there really wasn’t a time where I felt I need to ‘call a judge’ or consult an FAQ. I’m not saying it’s perfect, just saying that it’s pretty clear what the cards do. I love that there is so much fun to be had with just one box. I don’t really know how the game is going to be released, but let’s just say there are 5 Deities and 10 Heroes. I don’t really know, but I saw a variety on the table. Choosing 3 of 10 Heroes can happen 120 different ways. Then, for each Deity, you have a total of 600 combinations! Not to mention the items. Again, there may be more or fewer Deities/Heroes/Items, I’m just throwing out an approximation of what I saw to give you an idea of the number of combinations. I also like the length of time it takes to play. Games always take longer the first time you play them, but by the end of the weekend, games were settling in around 40-45 minutes. I personally find this amount of time for a 2 player card game very satisfying! PAX was about a month ago at this point and I’m still thinking about Radiant! That’s why I finally decided to write something up. All of the above listed games have numerous reviews. While I have my opinion, I don’t think there’s anything I can say that hasn’t already been said. Radiant isn’t even out so I wanted to give an honest, however glowing, review of the game as I experienced it a month ago. I sure hope this game catches on so I can get my hands on it! If you like 2 player card games, especially any of the above-listed ones, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t enjoy this one. You may not like it quite as much as I do, but I can’t imagine you’d feel like it wasn’t worth the time or money to play it. I would happy to answer any questions of comparisons and/or why I like Radiant over the other games I listed above if you ask.
ABigOleBoat
A nice card game that does a pretty good job of delivering on its MOBA theme. Rules are pretty straightforwards, and after a few turns most people seem to grasp the game pretty well - the rulebook is well written/constructed as well. Game gets a lot better with repeated plays - the draft is a really key part of the experience, so the first play through won't be very satisfying for a lot of people. Once you start understanding the skill decks and how to pick/ban the game starts to shine a lot more, which I think is a brilliant bit of theming for the game. If you have a play group that can get a 2 player game like this to the table multiple times, and you enjoy the MOBA theme, this is a very solid game. I've found it to be a keeper for my own collection. If you're the type that don't get to play the same game very often with the same players, I think it might suffer a bit in the fun department.
sekira
Great game. Lots of strategic thinking. Drafting heroes is awesome, and just enough hidden info to keep the game replayable.