Review Details

Shadows of Brimstone: Caverns of Cynder Expansion

Product Review (submitted on February 10, 2016):

Shadows of Brimstone is a game focused around the idea of breaches in the barrier between worlds opening up and allowing monsters to come through or your heroes to cross over, with each base game including one Other World for you to explore (Swamps of Jargono and the Targa Plateau). While an excellent concept and great fun to play, having only three places to be can wind up being repetitive after multiple playthroughs.

That is where Otherworld Expansions come in.

The first of what I hope to be many more, the Caverns of Cynder expansion is dedicated to introducing another Otherworld for the heroes to explore, along with more artifacts, gear, monsters, encounters, missions, and terrain hazards to enjoy.

Upon opening it was obvious that Flying Frog's love of Cards and Tokens would be readily served here. Several sheets of pop-out tokens were included, which consisted of map tiles, new Lava tiles, and endless amounts of poker chip tiles. My only real complaint would honestly be the poker chip tiles, which were "home rule" additions given on the off-chance that your group would want to use them for...something. While I appreciate the addition of home rule tokens, and they are of high quality, they give a LOT of tokens for something you may honestly never use.

The monsters themselves (The Lava Men) are fun and challenging fights, giving a new Large-sized creature for the heroes to contend with. They add to the feeling that this Otherworld is designed to be used for higher-level or experienced players, such as a move that does more damage to people with higher corruption points or mutations. The Lava Tiles are new ground hazards that can be employed to make the maps more immersive, and to break up the habit of every map just being a straight line run to the next door, as we now need to be more aware of our surroundings before moving.

The Gear cards are fun as always, with the Artifact cards adding new melee items that are always welcome additions.

Over all, it is a very high quality product, and with the Miniature Market pricing it is a great value. If you are fine with adding a new pile of tokens and cards and maps to what is already a pretty accessory-bloated game, then you can't go wrong with picking this up.