Review: Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall (Incredible Dream)

Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall by Incredible Dream Studios is the newest — and possibly largest, because this game is physically huge — installment in a series of titles set in the fantasy world of Atios.

Night’s Fall casts players as a group of adventurers, known as “seekers.” As your characters progress through the game’s 21 cooperative missions, you’ll work together to explore the city of Din’Lux, the last bastion of light. Your group will fight monsters, meet the city’s residents, and uncover mysteries.

Strap on your gear and get your kinfire lantern ready. It’s time to explore the top five things you need to know about Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall.

A Big Box Filled with Clever Designs

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I always appreciate thoughtful design work in tabletop games, and Incredible Dream did some amazing work with Night’s Fall. A lot of these are simple touches, but they work together to enhance the player experience.

Let’s start with the box. It’s a whopper because it holds a lot of materials — card packs, mission boxes, and more. The lid (held in place with magnets) wraps over the top and down two sides. After removing the lid, flip it over and put it in the middle of your table. It becomes your game mat.

The game’s Destiny Bag for combat initiative is another interesting bit of design that we loved (okay, and hated too). More about that in a moment.

A Learn-As-You-Go Approach

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Night’s Fall takes a learn-as-you-play approach to getting players into the game. Instead of one large rulebook that covers everything, Night’s Fall uses four small rulebooks tucked into the first few mission boxes.

This approach has its pros and cons. On the positive side, it gives players a structured way to get into the game by only introducing concepts you need at that moment. You might wonder what all those other packs and goodies in the box are, but since they aren’t important yet, the game gently steers you away from them.

However, splitting the rules among four books got confusing because we lost track of which book covered which information. We solved that by downloading PDF files of the four books from the Incredible Dream Studios website, loading them on a tablet, and using our PDF viewer’s search function to track down specific references. (Technology for the tabletop win!)

Opening the Missions

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The 21 mission boxes drive game play in Night’s Fall.

When you open the flap of a mission box, you see a narrative description of what’s happening, along with instructions for the map you’ll use and what to do next. The game’s maps are spiral bound in the Atlas. Flip to the appropriate page, then put the atlas in the middle of the play mat (aka the lid).

Each box also includes a pack of story cards, counters for the enemies you’ll face, and whatever other materials you’ll need.

Cards, Cards Everywhere

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The story cards function like the game master in a traditional roleplaying game. They lay out the mission’s narrative.

Your first mission card, for example, begins with a brief story moment about facing this first monster. It continues with specific instructions about tokens to take from the box, and then points you to the next card in the story deck. It also refers you to the combat rules in the first rule book.

Later in the game, the cards offer choices of steps to take or obstacles to overcome. Like a “choose your own story” book, the options you pick change the track of the game. You’ll also find cards to swap into your character’s deck that represent skills they acquired or magical items they found.

The Destiny Bag

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The Destiny Bag takes the place of the classic “initiative roll” in a tabletop roleplaying game. It also adds delightful (and occasionally frustrating) elements of randomness and surprise.

You fill the bag with a specific mix of chits at the beginning of each encounter. The bag always starts with the same basic selection of chits to control the mission’s enemy and support the heroes. From there, you add 12 chits for the player characters.

During play, the bag determines initiative and actions in each combat. Draw a player character, and they take an action. Draw an enemy token, and it does something. You might draw several enemy chits one after another. But fate cuts both ways, so your heroes could get a string of draws that puts them on top.

Verdict

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We found a lot to like about Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall. We enjoyed the cooperative campaign-style adventure approach because it does a great job bringing out the roleplaying aspects of the game. Playing Night’s Fall feels more like joining in a card-driven roleplaying adventure rather than moving a character around a tabletop dungeon delve.

Most of all, we’re glad the game can be reset to its starting position so you can play the whole thing again and experience alternative storylines and outcomes. (To reset everything, download the “Full Components List (Spoilers)” file from the Kinfire Chronicles site.)

The game has such an impressive amount of story depth and player decision-making that we’re already intrigued to reset everything after finishing our current game and give it another go. Recommended for anyone who loves fantasy storylines and cooperative exploration.