Episode 159 featuring Rune Stones by Queen Games

Episode 159: Rune Stones

Click here for the direct download link for this week’s episode

1) The Pegs discuss their recent game plays including Disney Villainous, Circadians: First Light, a Harper’s Bazaar, Bosk and many more;

2) All the Pegs review the deckbuilding game Rune Stones; and

3) Look back at Feudum.

Join in the conversation for this episode over at our Board Game Geek guild.

Show Notes

00:01:00 – Trivia

Banter

00:06:05Computer Dwarfs
00:09:36Patreon contests
00:11:00Redbubble Store
00:12:10 – Blade Gaming with Stephen and Dan
00:16:03 – Harper’s Game Topper and what are children?
00:18:52 – Next episode delayed, Pax Unplugged

Plays

00:20:34 – Robb discusses recent Legacy game experiences of Rise of Queensdale [Buy] – alea; Designer: Inka Brand, Art: Fiore GmbH, Michael Menzel and Betrayal Legacy [Buy] – Avalon Hill Games, Inc.; Designer: Rob Daviau; Art: Scott Okumura, Ben Oliver

00:29:43 – Disney Villanous [Buy] – Ravensburger; Designer: Prospero Hall

00:35:57Circadians: First Light * [Buy] – Renegade Game Studios; Designer: S J Macdonald; Artist: Sam Phillips

00:46:31King of the Dice * [Buy] – HABA; Designer: Nils Nilsson; Artist: Gus Batts

00:51:19Detective Club * [Buy] – Blue Orange Games; Designer: Oleksandr Nevskiy; Artist: M81 Studio

00:56:11Brains Family: Burgen & Drachen * [Buy] – Pegasus Spiele; Designer: Reiner Knizia; Artist: Andreas Resch

00:59:15Age of Steam [Buy] – Eagle-Gryphon Games; Designer: Martin Wallace; Artist: Ian O’Toole

01:09:54Bosk * [Buy] – Floodgate Games; Designer: Daryl Andrews, Erica Bouyouris; Artist: Kwanchai Moriya, Matt Paquette

News
01:17:45Honey Buzz Kickstarter
01:21:20 – Secret Santas: BoardGameGeek, Brawling Brothers
01:23:20Oath by Leder Games

Rune Stones *

01:28:53 – Rules Breakdown

Rune Stones is a 2-4 player deckbuilding game designed by Rudiger Dorn, with art by Dennis Lohausen, and published in 2019 by Queen games.

Over the course of the game, players – in the roles of druids – will be playing cards from their hands to purchase new cards from a common market, collect crystals, cash in those crystals for artifacts, and exchange sets of artifacts for points and persistent special abilities.

On their turn, a player will take one of three actions.  The first is to purchase cards. Each card in the game has between 1 and 3 different colored orbs at the top of the card.  A player may play 1 or more cards of matching colors to create a pool of currency. In the market, the cost for new cards is displayed in the space below the card – a value between 1 and 4.  Players may purchase as many cards as their currency pool allows and place them in their discard pile; afterwards, cards in the market are shifted down – becoming cheaper – and new cards are dealt into the display.

Players may also play cards out of their hands to perform actions.  To complete an action, players play exactly two cards from their hand and perform every available action.  In general, actions involve collecting and transforming crystals from the main supply. Other actions might be to earn points, roll a die and collect the resulting resource, or get free cards.  After all actions are complete, the player will discard the card with the highest numerical value. Each card in the game – along with its currency value and actions – has a numerical value, with more beneficial cards generally having higher values.  This results in players culling their decks with every action they take.

Third, players may cash in crystals they have collected for 1 or 2 artifacts.  Artifacts come in five different colors, and a player may have no more than 2 of the same colored artifact on their player board.  The cost of the artifact is determined by the market space into which is it randomly drawn, with more expensive artifacts giving players a bonus benefit.  Players must cash in crystals of the same color as the desired artifact, swapping in wild white crystals as necessary.

Finally, as a free action, players may cash in sets of different colored artifacts for points and persistent abilities.  Point awards range from 3 for cashing in 2 different colored artifacts, to 15 for cashing in all five different colored artifacts.  The player may then claim a bonus token granting a persistent, rule-breaking ability for the rest of the game. The same bonus abilities will appear in every game, and there is always 1 fewer token than there are number of players.

Play continues like this until a player reaches 65 points, at which point every other might receive one additional turn, assuring that every player has the same number of turns in the game.  Artifact tokens on each player’s personal board will score as if cashed in, and some additional points are gained for leftover crystals. The player with the most points wins.

01:32:90 – Review
01:57:40 – Ratings

Reroll

02:08:45Feudum [Buy]

Check out our original review for Feudum during Episode 134.

* Disclosure: These titles were received free of charge by the publishers or distributors.

Gameplay Photos

One thought to “Episode 159: Rune Stones”

  1. Great episode! I’ve been quite remiss over the past year in not leaving feedback…I’ll be sure to amend my ways. Just a quick shout out to Jeremy…great job with the Rules Breakdown every episode…that’s not an easy thing to pull-off, so, again, great job! Robb and Christina, I look forward to seeing both of you in a few weeks in my home town of Philly!

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