CASTLE DECK premise – Slay the Count – a Vampire, making sure you have a “Stake” in your equipment, sounds easy.. Actually it is… you play an adventurer (Hero) – you have four to choose from, also available are certain promotional cards one of which a HERO card (created by Gary Gygax prior to his passing). The rules fit onto one piece of a4 paper in nice simple English, the cards do exactly what they say on them.

Each adventurer (Hero) has a unique power that influences or affects things. You travel (or rather you adventure) finding unguarded treasure or a trap or come across a creature barring your way (possibly with an item on its belt) – if you are successful in killing the creature, you get to keep what you kill or rather the item that it was carrying.

Each Hero, has 4 life points (health) and when you lose a health you turn the card from 4 down to 3 etc (on the Hero card top left is the amount of health you are currently on), you can heal life points with potions, or find cards (Armour bonus to stop damage if you roll higher the actually damage received), everything using 2d6..

Upon finding a monster (you check if it has a attack modifier) the person on your left rolls for the monster, and you roll for your attack utilising your equipment as your modifiers, but prior to rolling you need to decide if you want to fight it, +1 zombie, but you have find a +2 dagger, that gives you the advantage. Roll 2d6 add modifier (+2) and the monster – or rather the person to you left rolls 2d6 (+1), and hopefully you win… but lots of pressure is on the dice roll… easy – yep it is… but still very enjoyable.

I liked it so much I brought a few copies for friends, I am really looking forward to the expansions, I believe they have expanded ways of winning with a new option of collecting 3 special treasures.

When I got back home I played it solo (but in my opinion its not really meant for playing alone) – definitely a multiplayer game; Two player, was nice and relaxed play talked socialised; Three player was the fastest play and the most loudest; Four player has been the best for me so far quick fire, and so many OOOOOoooo’s so close; Five player was actually faster then I expected we burned through the draw deck (2 castle packs one Count) until one of us got lucky with a stake and dice rolling …

There are house rules, which have been created by the fans, but the main core rules should be played until you either want to try to add something new, or maybe even add your own house rulings.

Massive amounts of fun and you get to keep your friends after play finishes…

The CASTLE Deck is available in the UK as will be the expansions when released here
(MMMGames is currently the only importer of the game into the UK)

Information on Adventurer
Time to play 3-4 players 20-30 minutes (longer with 2decks)
Contents of CASTLE Deck – Box, 80 castle deck cards, 1 limited edition bonus card, 2x D6, 1 page rule sheet, 4 heroes
(There are a number of promotional cards available….)
Cost £15 (Castle Deck)
Expansion approx £10 (Chaos and Portal packs)
Made by K.R.Bourgoine Adventurer Games (Shadowcircle Press)

Fun Factor: 4.5 out of 5
Ease/Playability: 4 out of 5
Value Factor: 4.5 out of 5

Don’t get me wrong – in my opinion – Its very good , but always room for more, plus I haven’t played the Expansions they might make it a 5