After some slogginess to Day 1, Day 2 was remarkably refreshing. I didn’t have especially high hopes for Frostgrave as a system, but Casey (event runner) showed me the potential. He ran a full day campaign with custom scenarios and boards that really set the event apart.

I still think Frostgrave is an odd system, but this event reframed the game for me.

My first game took place in the cave. The central objective was to slay the cave bear. It… didn’t result in a lot of back and forth action. I killed the bear and my opponent made off happy with treasure.

It was odd–I had fun, but it wasn’t a competitive match. I shut down my opponent with a wall (the dice in the image above) and attracted the bear into my area to slay it.

There was an element of not wanting to be a jerk to a person you just met. The game takes place in a campaign setting, so the results of battle can be harmful to a player’s campaign. It’s almost hard to stomach doing that to someone you don’t know well.

My next game got a little more interesting due to the scenario.

First off: the board was amazing. I love dungeons and this was a great proof of concept to me for competitive play in a dungeon. This battle saw us exploring for six distinct rooms that when you entered them, you had to roll on a chart to see what was inside.

For example, when I entered the wizard’s study I found a giant fist ready to smash me into dust.

What made this fight more interesting was that I ended up with more treasure than my opponent and he actually chased after me for it!

I gained a treasure from defeating a skeleton king in the throne room and my opponent tried to steal it from me in the main hall seen above. For a moment I thought I’d be in a full on brawl, but I managed to layer a wall into the room and position my troops to stall him out. My wizard pulled a kill with an elemental bolt and my thugs held out as my thief got off the board.

It wasn’t bloody, but it was fun to problem solve with spells. I had a lot of fun here because the scenario was interesting and I still got some interaction with my opponent. No direct conflict, but an engaging and enjoyable mutual puzzle.

My final match showed me everything wrong with Frostgrave as a pick-up-and-play system.

I played on the default scenario map. Really, a learner map. The GM advised against it but I figured worst case I’d have more time to go shop the dealer floor. Five treasures, one great treasure in the middle. It ended in under 10 minutes including chatter. My opponent used teleport to take the center treasure and I carted off the two tokens next to my board edge. Done.

He found the battle relieving as his wizard had been injured and he was behind in the campaign. I found it relieving as it gave me time to browse the shops and chat for a bit. It… oddly worked, in a one day campaign setting. Had we met up for this game at a store, it would have been lame, especially if it stretched out more to, say, half an hour. At that point you’d debate if you had time for a second game.

Thankfully, the final battle more than made up for this!

Every time we “won” a match we had to choose between greed or “disrupting the ritual.” This affected the difficulty of the final battle. The GM created a deck of behaviors for this giant final boss and depending on our choices the deck would be easier or harder. Our objective here was to collectively defeat the monster, then compete over the spoils.

Starting out, the darn thing went to the opposite side of the board from me, where it lost more than half its health to my opponents. The wizard opposite mine was probably the MVP with how much damage his bone darts did (one hit for 19 points if I remember correctly!).

After spending time hanging out with my opponents, the monster decided to come hang out with my, to that point, much less violent warband. This was his undoing, as everyone else had already done 80+ points of damage to him. I managed the last 15 or so and even got the killing blow with a basic thug.

The beast dropped a vortex Artifact that was basically a moving black hole. You had to will test to pick it up and to hold it every turn. If you failed, it sucked you in.

My poor Apprentice got it to the board edge and survived an alarming amount of incoming enemy fire before finally dying.

My wizard managed the same. I came within one turn of victory twice! At this point my only hope was for a Mook to cart it off. Suffice it to say that… didn’t work, and there may be more than one man from this warband now in another dimension.

Next up was Thorsdan, a simple dwarf Knight who slaughtered four models on his path to victory.

It’s worth noting that Knights are a bit less durable than wizards. He, uh, didn’t make it.

Instead, the final wizard managed to grab the Artifact, teleport to the other side of the board, and pass his final will check to walk away and become lord of Felstad. Every other wizard had been defeated during the battle, so it was a victory well earned.

Teleport OP.

Actually, that is perhaps a problem. Teleport, wall, and elemental bolt prove very potent simply because they’re easy to use and impactful. Teleport in particular has a habit of cutting drama short. It’s almost part of the charm of the system, but I can see why many people don’t stick with it.

I had a ton of fun this day. Frostgrave made for a refreshing change after 30k and I’m convinced the one day accelerated campaign is the best way to play.

It’s enough that I think I’ll see if I can start up quarterly Frostgrave days in my club. It’d be a fun excuse to put together cool boards and scenarios and I love running these things. My hat’s off to Casey–he proved to me the merit of Frostgrave as a system. I walk away impressed and quite pleased with my experience. 100% I’d play it again next NOVA.