Vantage

Vantage is an open-world game for 1-6 players, where we have crash-landed on a distant planet far apart from each other. Each player has their own journey of exploration from their own perspective – their vantage – but collectively we have a mission to solve.

Because much of Vantage’s play rests in exploration the photos here are minimal and we won’t delve too far into the details. The mechanics of how you play are relatively simple: during set-up, the game itself will assign you both a character – each one has specific strengths – and a starting location. These are represented by large numbered Vantage cards that are placed in a holder so only you can see it. Thematically, all players are in contact via radio, so you can describe what you see to each other.

Each card is a location on the planet, and they all offer numerous choices of how you interact with them: these manifest in different ways but at a foundational sense, they’re always a version of Move, Look, Engage, Help, Take and Overpower: giving you freedom to take a peaceful and curious approach, or a more confrontational one. Each action type has a matching book, and whichever action you choose another player will read out the short passage from that book containing the result of your choice. Sometimes it may be a setback; sometimes a nugget of information, and sometimes you may develop a skill or pick up some equipment or skill tokens that will assist you on your future journey by making certain actions easier, for example. Most locations you can only do one action before moving on – choose wisely! – but some allow multiples.

Each action, however, is considered a challenge and will demand the rolling of some challenge dice. The game generously allows you to ‘always succeed’ but the bigger challenge is at what cost? Your character, skills and equipment – as well as any stored tokens – can be used to offset bad results, but any that can’t be mitigated will affect your health, morale, or time trackers: each player has them, and if any one tracker reaches zero, it triggers the end of the game. Players can help each other out in these tight spots, however, by donating tokens. At certain junctures in the game, there’s a challenge ‘reset’ and dice stored on your character/equipment/skill cards are jettisoned, freeing up space again. Matching those rhythms to when you can be more ambitious is important.

There are other currencies at play as well – boost tokens and money will play a part in the narrative – but collectively the challenge is about exploring individually, supporting each other collectively, and attempting to finish the mission set out by the game. There’ll be more about that in the Sam Says section.