FFG – Combat In Discover: Lands Unknown
Discover: Lands Unknown is a new “Unique Game of Exploration and Survival” from Fantasy Flight Games. So of course there is going to be combat involved! Let’s take a look at how your survivors are going to face their enemies in the wild.
If you’re not familiar with Discover: Lands Unknown, we’ve talked about it before. The basic premise of the game is that each box is going to have a different “mix of environments, characters, storylines, items, and enemies in each copy of Discover.” So while the core mechanics will stay the same, no two copies of the game will be identical – each box is it’s own unique experience. We’ve also covered some of the basic mechanics already but today, we’re diving into something we’ve all been wondering about: Combat!
“Enemies can appear in Discover: Lands Unknown in a number of ways. They may surprise you, disguised as a feature token in an unexplored space. What you think might be a vital source of water could turn out to be a lethal python, waiting to ambush an ill-prepared survivor.”
The enemies tokens might also pop-up based on the scenario or if you get a particular landmark – but however the enemy arrives, it’s sure going to be interesting. The tokens have a number on the face side which corresponds to their particular card. When you reveal the face side, you pull their card and that will have their stats and other information:
Combat begins when you’re survivor is in the same space as a enemy token. To resolve a combat, all you need to do is roll the 1 grey d12 and 1 red d12. The grey die represents the survivor’s attack vs the enemy’s defense. If you roll equal or higher than the defense stat, you’ve done damage to the enemy. But the same is also true for the red die – that’s the enemy’s attack vs the survivor. If that roll is equal or higher than the number on the card, then the enemy has done damage to the survivor.
It’s a pretty simple system but that doesn’t mean players don’t have some options. For example, players can spend resources like stone and wood to reroll dice. Other survivors can also help in the fight as well. Oh and of course defeating enemies also provides rewards – that 2 meat could prevent you from starving!
Not all enemies are going to make moves to attack the players either. Most enemies will actually retreat after a round of combat. To resolve that, you simply roll another d12 and check the results vs the compass token – that’s the direction the enemy moves:
The only thing preventing the players from giving chase is their own stamina pool. That and the danger of having to deal with the enemy and possibly taking damage, getting farther away from camp, and getting stuck in the wilds…but hey, that’s part of the fun!
Survivor Death
Players will track the survivor health with the dial. Damage comes in 3 basic types: Physical, Starvation and Dehydration damage. If a survivor takes four damage they are eliminated from the game. The good news is starvation and dehydration damage can be healed through water or food respectively. But damage from fighting stays with the Survivors. There is some definite risk vs reward at play here.
Using The Right Tools
The Survivors aren’t going in totally empty handed. When the game starts they will be given a number of “project cards” when the game starts. These cards provide a “formula” for creating weapons or items that will probably be pretty useful in the game. They will have a set of resource icons that the players will need to collect to craft the items. When they get the required number of resources they can trade them in for the item:
One other neat thing about these projects cards is that once the survivor completes them, the project card is placed face up on the table for other survivors to use! And then that player can draw a new project card. Completing projects is going to be key to becoming a well stocked survivor to take on the wilds.
Discover: Lands Unknown $59.95
When two to four players find themselves marooned in the harsh wilderness, you must cooperate and compete to search for water, food, and tools that will be essential to your very survival. But your adventure holds many secrets. Every copy of Discover: Lands Unknown is unlike any other in the world. A mix of environments, storylines, characters, locations, items, and enemies have been engineered to tell a story unique to every copy of the game thanks to an algorithm that ensures no two copies are alike. Your copy will contain various tiles, cards, and tokens, each pulled from a shared pool of components, and the combination will be different from every other copy in the world.
Are you ready to face down the unknown?
