The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

The instructions were somewhat unclear but a quick youtube tutorial and a couple play thrus made it easy to understand. I'm a big fan of the Dresden Files so it was nostalgic and fun playing this cooperative game with my favorite characters and stories from the books!

I've now played this game with 3 different groups of people: My Friday RPG group as a filler game (one guy started reading the books after playing this, the rest hadn't read them) My wife and a few friends (All fans of the novels and board gamers) At Board Game night at a local Brewery (Some had read the books, most didn't. All were experienced gamers) In every case, once we were done playing the first scenario (30-45 minutes), I asked if we should go another round or switch to another game. Every time, the group wanted to keep going. and wanted to play again another day. So based on the reactions of a dozen of so players, this is a win and was money well-spent. To set some expectations: This can be a difficult game and will require strategy to defeat, especially in the harder modes. Most newbie groups failed the first scenario the first time through. That being said, each scenario plays thorough in around 30-45 minutes depending on the number of players and how much you discuss strategy. The game plays like a logic puzzle skinned to a Dresden Files theme. There is theme there in the art in in the specific skills of each character, but this isn't an RPG board game. It reminds me of Legendary, which has been reskinned to just about every 80s and 90s IP at this point.

I've now played this game with 3 different groups of people: My Friday RPG group as a filler game (one guy started reading the books after playing this, the rest hadn't read them) My wife and a few friends (All fans of the novels and board gamers) At Board Game night at a local Brewery (Some had read the books, most didn't. All were experienced gamers) In every case, once we were done playing the first scenario (30-45 minutes), I asked if we should go another round or switch to another game. Every time, the group wanted to keep going. and wanted to play again another day. So based on the reactions of a dozen of so players, this is a win and was money well-spent. To set some expectations: This can be a difficult game and will require strategy to defeat, especially in the harder modes. Most newbie groups failed the first scenario the first time through. That being said, each scenario plays thorough in around 30-45 minutes depending on the number of players and how much you discuss strategy. The game plays like a logic puzzle skinned to a Dresden Files theme. There is theme there in the art in in the specific skills of each character, but this isn't an RPG board game. It reminds me of Legendary, which has been reskinned to just about every 80s and 90s IP at this point.

Bottom line is that the game is devoid of any of the excitement and cinematic action of the books. It doesn’t feel like you’re fighting an epic battle against the forces of evil, or that you might just be killed by horrors not known to man – there’s no peril or rush of excitement when playing this game. It’s all about numbers. You could replace each and every attack card with “Generic Attack” and nothing in the game would change. You can replace the specific names of enemies with “Generic Bad Guy” and nothing would change. There’s no sense of theme here. As play progresses, you are simply trying to balance the amount of Fate you have left with the cards you have in your hand. You are not given much opportunity to draw cards in the game, unless someone has a special ability that lets you or someone else draw a card, so you find yourself staring at the same cards in your hand from the beginning of the game until the end. There is some strategy in deciding what card effects to use in certain situations, but the actual meat of the card doesn’t matter – it all comes down to the Fate/Investigation/Attack value. That’s it. The addition of the “Fate Dice” seems clunky and, quite honestly, feels shoehorned into the game because Evil Hat Productions likes to use them everywhere. Normal dice would work fine here, or no dice at all. The dice add some randomness to the game, but more often than not , the dice have little effect in the course of the game except during the Showdown. What would have been nice if, instead of the normal Fate dice, we get custom dice like the ones used in many other games. Dice that show lightning bolts, fireballs, or other thematic elements. The gathering and spending of fate works fine, but doesn’t really mesh with the theme of the books. It would make more sense if the “Fate” points were simply “Willpower” or “Will” points, since that’s something mentioned heavily in the books. Making these points “Fate” feels like a decision to make the game familiar with the fans of the RPG, as it uses the Fate system used in all of Evil Hat’s games. In the Showdowns, the lack of theme makes the scenarios feel empty. All the scenarios feel the same. You simply shuffle the cards and put them on the track – the cards themselves are named after characters and events in the book, but it just feels empty and repetitive. None of the scenarios present special rules or circumstances that are special to that event. There’s no feeling of progression or accomplishment when you’re going through the game – you’re just washing, rinsing, repeating – often quietly since you’re not supposed to talk specifics with other players while you’re playing. All of this makes the game feel incomplete – like a game still in the process of being developed. The execution falls well short of a good game let alone a good Dresden Files game. I am so disappointed in this game. The requirement of using Harry Dresden also seems forced. I know he’s the hero of the books, but this is a game. What if we players want to try using other heroes to defeat the bad guys? Since the theme and the mechanics of the game really don’t matter based on the attacks and spells used, why force someone to play Dresden? Who cares? From what I could tell, there are some enemies that have abilities that specifically target Harry and only Harry. Why could this not just be made more generic – like instead of an effect only on Harry, make it an effect on “Wizards” or “Vampires.” The character cards could include icons showing what they are susceptible to. If you did this, you could increase the level of strategy in the game – give bonuses on Holy characters vs. Demons or something like that. Plus, requiring one character to be played eventually makes the game less fun. At some point, someone is going to be sick of playing Harry Dresden. There are already three expansions out for the game, giving you six new heroes to play, and six new scenarios. A big parameter to enjoying a game for me is whether or not the players, at any given time, decide to end the game to just end the game – no other reason, they just want to stop playing. This is one of those games. I can’t recommend it – not to Dresden Files fans.

Bottom line is that the game is devoid of any of the excitement and cinematic action of the books. It doesn’t feel like you’re fighting an epic battle against the forces of evil, or that you might just be killed by horrors not known to man – there’s no peril or rush of excitement when playing this game. It’s all about numbers. You could replace each and every attack card with “Generic Attack” and nothing in the game would change. You can replace the specific names of enemies with “Generic Bad Guy” and nothing would change. There’s no sense of theme here. As play progresses, you are simply trying to balance the amount of Fate you have left with the cards you have in your hand. You are not given much opportunity to draw cards in the game, unless someone has a special ability that lets you or someone else draw a card, so you find yourself staring at the same cards in your hand from the beginning of the game until the end. There is some strategy in deciding what card effects to use in certain situations, but the actual meat of the card doesn’t matter – it all comes down to the Fate/Investigation/Attack value. That’s it. The addition of the “Fate Dice” seems clunky and, quite honestly, feels shoehorned into the game because Evil Hat Productions likes to use them everywhere. Normal dice would work fine here, or no dice at all. The dice add some randomness to the game, but more often than not , the dice have little effect in the course of the game except during the Showdown. What would have been nice if, instead of the normal Fate dice, we get custom dice like the ones used in many other games. Dice that show lightning bolts, fireballs, or other thematic elements. The gathering and spending of fate works fine, but doesn’t really mesh with the theme of the books. It would make more sense if the “Fate” points were simply “Willpower” or “Will” points, since that’s something mentioned heavily in the books. Making these points “Fate” feels like a decision to make the game familiar with the fans of the RPG, as it uses the Fate system used in all of Evil Hat’s games. In the Showdowns, the lack of theme makes the scenarios feel empty. All the scenarios feel the same. You simply shuffle the cards and put them on the track – the cards themselves are named after characters and events in the book, but it just feels empty and repetitive. None of the scenarios present special rules or circumstances that are special to that event. There’s no feeling of progression or accomplishment when you’re going through the game – you’re just washing, rinsing, repeating – often quietly since you’re not supposed to talk specifics with other players while you’re playing. All of this makes the game feel incomplete – like a game still in the process of being developed. The execution falls well short of a good game let alone a good Dresden Files game. I am so disappointed in this game. The requirement of using Harry Dresden also seems forced. I know he’s the hero of the books, but this is a game. What if we players want to try using other heroes to defeat the bad guys? Since the theme and the mechanics of the game really don’t matter based on the attacks and spells used, why force someone to play Dresden? Who cares? From what I could tell, there are some enemies that have abilities that specifically target Harry and only Harry. Why could this not just be made more generic – like instead of an effect only on Harry, make it an effect on “Wizards” or “Vampires.” The character cards could include icons showing what they are susceptible to. If you did this, you could increase the level of strategy in the game – give bonuses on Holy characters vs. Demons or something like that. Plus, requiring one character to be played eventually makes the game less fun. At some point, someone is going to be sick of playing Harry Dresden. There are already three expansions out for the game, giving you six new heroes to play, and six new scenarios. A big parameter to enjoying a game for me is whether or not the players, at any given time, decide to end the game to just end the game – no other reason, they just want to stop playing. This is one of those games. I can’t recommend it – not to Dresden Files fans.