The tabletop adaptation of the Terraria video game is heading to a crowdfunding campaign later this month, turning the immensely popular 2D Minecraft hit into a cooperative board game.
Terraria: The Board Game was revealed last summer as board game studio Paper Fort Games' take on original developer Re-Logic's multi-million-selling indie phenomenon.
The upcoming board game stays true to the general traits of Terraria by generating a 2D world in different biomes from a grid-based card layout. Players can explore their unique world by venturing above and below ground, encountering enemies and bosses, mining resources, and crafting both upgraded equipment and building a base. In other words: it's Terraria, but as a board game!
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As you take down enemies (of which there are over 30 different types), you'll be able to collect new cards as loot, and armor and equipment will appear on transparent cards that can be placed on your character board to dress your avatar in new outfits, which is pretty neat. Upgrading the quality of your weapons grants the player better dice when resolving combat, which is combined with action cards that provide various benefits and advantages.
Whether traversing, fighting, mining, crafting, or anything else, the game runs on an action point system that allows players to spend their available points wisely, allowing for a wide variety of possible actions in keeping with the game's exciting sandbox offering.
In addition to the smaller minions, there will be six bosses to take on (with up to three friends or solo in single-player mode) in larger battles, each represented by modular miniatures that can be modified as the big baddies take damage. Those bosses can serve as the finale to each roughly 90-minute to two-hour session, as players race to complete a series of objectives before time runs out. Those objectives can be changed and customized for each session, allowing for a different approach each time you play.
If you're more into building than fighting, expanding your base will invite new NPCs into your settlement that you can interact with, giving your party bonuses that will help them on their adventures. Building houses also unlocks new crafting stations, which provide a wide variety of equipment and items to craft from the goods you collect.
As someone who has played hundreds of hours of Terraria: The Video Game, I was very impressed with what I saw of Terraria: The Board Game at the Essen Spiel board game convention last year. The use of cards to generate a random world is a clever way to offer a varied environment to move around in, while the flexible action system seems to stay true to the core of the video game’s eclectic mix of exploration, crafting, combat, and survival. From those first impressions, it seems to be a well-thought-out and thoughtful adaptation of the sprawling adventure game.
Terraria: The Board Game will launch a Kickstarter campaign on May 28, with a full release date yet to be announced.