Ravingspire: Assault on The Tower of Madness. A Deck-Building, Rotating Dungeon Board Game for 1 to 6 Players

While a tiny bit hard to learn --with YouTube videos and a vigilant rule-book reader we figured it out(mostly) --the game is totally worth it!

Okay...let me start out by saying that this is a stunningly beautiful game. Perhaps a 9/10 on its overall aesthetics. However, that alone can't save it from the myriad of just crappy little things that add up to just torpedo the hell out of this sharp-lookingtabletop game.First of all, the instructions for the game were not well thought out at all. For most people, it would be like readingstereo installation instructions written in Mandarin Chinese if you were born in Iowa. In other words, the instruction manual simply wasn't well thought out, whatsoever. From the beginning, the sparsely-worded manual uses terms that it never really describes in detail, forcing you to constantly refer to a pretty large glossary in the back of the manual to decipher (And decipher is a *kind* word) as to what the hell the actual rules are in a given situation. And there are dozens of such "situations" which the game is totally unclear in resolving in the basic rule book. I bought the game last week and the game had four seasoned, well-experienced tabletop players just scratching their head and watching bad Youtube videos on gameplay and situations that often arise in the game. The series of videos had a lot of production value in it's opening titles--if they had only spent the energy that they had expended in the creation of its opening credits of each video and poured it into making the rest of the instructions on gameplay intelligible, they would've been great tools in helping to decipher gameplay. Certainly, the video guides should've revolved around multiple players (Hell, just two players would've been good), not just a single player.Another important issue is that you have three stats/currencies in the game; Fight, Charm, and Skill. Would it be a spoiler to mention that , the majority of the best cards in the deck require that you need one particular type of these stat cards, making the game improperly balanced towards one character class' stats? <*cough cough* THE CHARM cards>.. Play the game, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. It takes far too long to accrue any points for the decent cards and you waste needless time "powering up" in the beginning.Further, the cards in the game need to be double their size. I have perfect 20/20 eyesight and I'm trying to find a damned magnifying glass to read some of the fine print an symbols on the cards. Along this line, the cards are NOT well-marked on their backs. At all. Woe be unto you if you get some of the cards mixed up. Same colors, same design, 4-5 different decks. They are difficult in most cases to differentiate between in many situations. All the creator had to do was to put a symbol for treasure/loot, encounters, etc. on the backside of the card like most games. Ugh...it was *so* bad. The combat system itself is not great and poses more questions than the average gamer could ask the creator/publisher of the game in a one hour, one-on-one questioning session.I really, really want to like this game. Almost everything about it is great...except for the rule manual and the above-mentioned special situations involving the combat system. If only the creator spent some more time on explaining them; especially in multi-player situations. Further, if I'm paying close to $100. for a board game, it wouldn't kill the game's publisher to include some plastic miniatures or something. Perhaps if they re-do the manual with some more detailed explanations I would recommend this game; but for now...I'd avoid it in its current incarnation. It'll be more of an exercise in frustration than an evening of fun; and that makes me sad.

As an avid game player this game meets a lot of expectations with a pretty steep learning curve if you work with the rule book alone. Definitely look into a tutorial or play through on You Tube for clarifications. Otherwise a fun game to play with definite replay value.Invest in a 18" Lazy Suzanne to help facilitate the flow of the game between players because the cards are small to populate the board which makes text tough to read at times and there will be a lot of re-positioning to look at the cards available. Only legit gripe I have is ... A little bit too much "reshuffling" of the monstrously large stack of cards at times.

I got this game as a gift for Christmas. First thing I can say is the rulebook seems very incomplete and needs a LOT of work and clarification. We can't even find how to win in the rulebook. I had to go on the Web and find the kickstarter page to figure out how to win.Watching the video on the kickstarter page gives additional rules that are never mentioned in the book. For example, spending 10 to move the board any number of spaces...this is not in the rulebook anywhere that I can find.It looks interesting and it might be fun to play but I wouldn't know yet because I have to watch a YouTube video about how to play before I can play.

This is a very cool game. We had to watch some u-tube videos to understand a few things at first. We've played it with 2, 3, and 4 people, and everyone has enjoyed it. It is challenging, but it isn't impossible to win. Also, you can legitimately play this game by yourself, just 1 player. I haven't, but that is a cool feature. It comes in a monstrous sized box that is ornate, which makes it feel kind of special to pull it out, especially for people who haven't played it. The actual box is a bit heavy too because of all the stuff in it. Once you understand what you are doing and what all the pieces are, it doesn't take long to set up.

I'm sure it would have been fun if we had ever learned HOW to play! The instructions are poor. We spent all our time online watching YouTube videos, trying to learn how to play. We finally gave up, boxed it up, and sent it back.

Surprisingly fun game to play solo with a quick set up and tear down. I do with the cards were slightly bigger with perhaps some art of the items and foes on them, but that is a minor quibble. The game is very challenging, with foes being very difficult to beat. I've only won once so far. The rules are highly imperfect, but the how to play video on the company's website clarified everything. I have only played solo, and honestly that is probably how I will continue to play it. I am not sure additional players would add to the experience. Highly Recommended.

I have only played the solo variant of this game, and I can say that it is one of the most satisfying solo experiences I have ever had. For a long time, Mage Knight was my go to game, but I can easily say that this is my new favorite. The board design and game play mechanics are fantastic. It is easy to get drawn into the game's theme. The variety of endings the game offers, and the different choice of heroes, keeps the game fresh. Highly recommend this game! The image below shows the game setup for a round of solo play.