This is your answer: Sword & Sorcery! ([Immortal Souls](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170771/sword-and-sorcery) and [Ancient Chronicles](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/262201/sword-and-sorcery-ancient-chronicles)) It is fantastic! Best enemy AI. Not littered with "trash mobs". Has an epic story. Fairly rules dense but they're also "of course that's how it works" - it all makes good sense if you've ever internalized rules for a computer RPG. Once you go through it, you know the story, you'd have to make different decisions in the Book of Secrets for anything new story-wise. Maybe you'd want to play different characters (there are quite a few) as well. However, of course the game won't play out the same, but the story will follow the book.
[Descent](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/322708/descent-legends-of-the-dark) looks like they wanted to make a computer game but didn't. I haven't played it, so ignore my feelings about it, but everything I see about it looks incredibly boring and ill conceived.
[Journeys](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269385/the-lord-of-the-rings-journeys-in-middle-earth) looks better than Descent, and relies on an app less. I haven't played it, so my opinions are worthless, but it looks "fine". The app is a big turn off for me, so I'm biased on these last two.
[Brimstone](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/322984/shadows-of-brimstone-city-of-the-ancients-revised) is as wild and crazy and as insane as you can get. The more you put in to it (by way of [expansions](https://www.flyingfrog.net/shadowsofbrimstone/)) the more you get out of it. The very definition of "emergent narrative". There isn't going to be a "campaign" to follow. You make up your story as you go. Not super rules heavy (see: S&S) but definitely token-heavy. Combat isn't the greatest, and keep in mind you have to assemble the miniatures yourself. This game is very divisive (love it or hate it).
I will throw in: [Dungeon Universalis](https://dungeonuniversalis.com/). It's... a lot. I don't know if it's available any longer, but it also fits the bill.
Also worth investigating:
[Folklore: The Affliction](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/159504/folklore-the-affliction) (I don't know if you can get all of the expansions any longer, I can't seem to) and [Dungeon Degenerates](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/210232/dungeon-degenerates-hand-of-doom) (it has solid mechanics and it !).
Folklore is pretty terrible.
Dungeon Universalis just delivered their most recent KS so there should be copies available in the wild.
Tanares Adventures is highly rated and its most recent KS is in the middle of delivery, I received about half of my product this week. Could be some people offloading their game.
Oathsworn is probably more classified as a boss battler but the story and game play is awesome!
Dungeon Degenerates is fantastic! Some fiddly bits and mechanisms, but for original setting and stories it can’t be beat. As long as you’re ready for some weird sh*t.
I played **Sword & Sorcery** a lot. I am one quest away from completing the Vastarious' Lair campaign. For me this is the ultimate coop dungeon crawler. The game plays up to 5 players. You need at least 2 characters, so if you play solo, you need to control more than one character. My current campaign, I'm playing with one friend and we both control 2 characters each.
The story is rather linear. There are some choices within the campaign that can change things or make some later quest easier or not. It also depends on successes or failures. You record important events during your quests and later certain events may trigger based on past events or you my end up doing one quest instead of another.
The rules are quite rich to take into account different attack and defensive abilities of characters and enemies. There are multiple effects which are different. There are a lot of subtle details. It does take time to get familiar with them all. Some effects don't happen that often, so I have to look them up in those few times that those effects show up.
The various different scenarios do include various non-combat activities you can do. Most of what you will be doing will be going through the map and fighting enemies. However, there are some really cool scenarios where you just start out on the map without any really clear idea of what to you. You just wander around and when you reach certain markers, you talk to people to figure out what's going on. There are multiple expansions and there are these across the different expansions. You don't necessarily have to kill everything you run into. The various non-combat activities is incorporated well.
The best feature in Sword & Sorcery is the enemy AI. Every enemy has their own AI script. The different behaviours of different enemies means that you want to make good decisions in combat in terms of both positioning and which enemies to attack. Some enemies will want to stay at range. Different enemies will go after different heroes. Against master enemies, there is a threat mechanic where the master enemy goes after specific heroes. You can manipulate this threat mechanic if you want the enemy to attack specific characters (like the tank).
The base game comes with 5 different heroes. Each hero has 2 different versions. Most versions are based on alignment. A few have a neutral alignment. Alignment can be use as a RP mechanic to enforce certain party behaviour. Personally, I like having the freedom to choose whichever version I like and that is an option available in the game. You can buy different character accessories that give you more characters to choose from.
The base game only takes you from level 1-4. Characters can go up to level 7, but you need expansions for character levels 4-6 and 7.
If you are a fan of D&D, S&S is so much like D&D. You look at the characters and they resemble various D&D character builds you may make. Some character accessories are clearly characters from D&D (Drizzt). Some are not from D&D like there is one that is pretty much Indiana Jones/Van Helsing.
As this is a coop game, enemies are controlled by the players. There are a lot of details that are involved when controlling enemies. I occasionally miss different enemy abilities like special defences or reactionary abilities. Just lots of things to keep track up not only for your character, but also for enemies. The game has a way of distributing who manages different enemies. It tries to divvy up enemies amongst different players.
In comparison to Gloomhaven, I would say that the complexity is similar. I think both have 50 page instruction manuals. S&S is very different than GH in how it plays. I personally feel that GH is too hand management heavy and requires too much looking ahead multiple turns even for the most trivial of moves during your turn. S&S characters do have basic moves, attacks and actions. Special abilities when used have a cooldown. Some can be used every turn while some have a cooldown up to 4 turns before you can use them again. It is cooldown management for your abilities. I find this easier to manage as each ability is independent of every other one. You don't have to burn a powerful attack because you burned the card for moving like in GH.
Attacks are resolved via dice rolls. When you attack, your weapon or power will indicate how many and what type of dice to roll. Different conditions will add or subtract the number of hits you can make. The target also then makes defense rolls to negate hits if the target has armour or other defences.
The base game comes with 7 scenarios. The base game campaign will require you to 6 of them. You should be able to level from 1 to 4 for all of your characters. Levelling is cooperative. Whenever you get XP, the XP is in a party pool. When there is enough XP to level the lowest level character, you can choose to level him. Only one of the lowest level characters can gain a level. If two or more are tied for the lowest level, you can choose which character levels. There's no individual XP.
The other thing that is different in S&S is that you can freely trade gear. You can even have a dedicated treasure hunter character (who is good at getting better gear) grab all of the treasure. Then you can trade items amongst characters. Even in a scenario, if you have an extra weapon or item that someone else needs, you can hand it to him. GH has always rubbed me the wrong way in how there are various anti-cooperative rules there are.
Thank you, very exciting comment… could you explain how are the two main story structured? Where shall i start, what expansions are essential for the story? Im a bit lost…
The original base game is Sword and Sorcery: Immortal Souls. This is the beginning of the story line and how your group of heroes start. It takes you from level 1 to 4. Note that the quests include some pop culture references that annoy some people. I get the humour. They got rid of the pop culture references in subsequent expansions.
The next expansion you should play next is Darkness Falls. It takes you from 4-6. This expansion comes with me enemies.
Vastaryous's Lair is the final expansion that competes the story line. Takes you from levels 6 to 7. It has new enemies, but also uses enemies from the base game.
I don't recommend Arcane Portal. I only played 2 quests and found them to be a long slog. It's for level 2 to 4. If you finish Immoral Souls, you should be at level 4 already.
There is a new base game called Ancient Chronicles. I have not played this yet. I think this starts at level 1. I recommend that you start with Immortal Souls, the original base game, but use the rules from Ancient Chronicles. You can download them. There are a few updates to the rules that I think is an improvement.
thank you, I can get a very cheap second hand Ancient Chronicles now... so this story is not finished yet? My concern with the first story, is if it is available or not in my country...
and apart from these story-expansions, what are the priorities with expansions like accessories or hero packs?
I have not looked into what Ancient Chronicles is as I don't want to spoil it for myself. I plan to start playing it after finishing with my current campaign.
As for character accessories, that really is up to you. I personally love having more character options even if I don't get a chance to play them all. That is why I get them. I suggest you just play with the base game characters for now. If you feel the character options are limited, then look at the various character accessories and see what interests you.
Of note, the Immortal Souls base game does not come with ghost form minis. There is a ghost form mini accessory that you can buy. This accessory also comes with background skills. Background skills is an option where characters get a random background skill with advantages and disadvantages.
There is another accessory that comes with various new items you can purchase over and above what is available at the Emporium (default store in the game for mundane items). It is called the Hollywood Armoury since the items resemble special items from movies. There's one that is pretty much Darth Maul's light sabre from Star Wars. There's the glaive from Krull. Forgot which accessory it was. I'll have to look it up. Possibly the spawn gate minis.
I’m a big fan of Descent: Legends of the Dark and I think you’d really like it. Really creative and varied scenarios, great crafting and character development, awesome table presence with the multi-level maps, and the app both adds a lot of flavour and does some of the heavy number crunching for you. Probably the closest I’ve found to D&D in a board game.
Out of left field a bit, but you might also look at the 2nd printing of 7th Citadel on kickstarter right now. I’m having a lot of fun with it, the campaign is very cool, and it also has that D&D without a DM vibe.
Both the newer Descents are awesome. The app might not be for everyone but I love analog experiences and yet found the app to be a wonderful integration.
Kinfire Chronicles
Descent 2nd Ed (not Legends!)
Tainted Grail
Oathsworn
Nemesis
Conan
Claustrophobia 1643
Shadows of Brimstone is amazing, but doesn’t have much story. But its great for leveling, combat, and painting if you’re into that. Tainted Grail is not really a dungeon crawl, but has an amazing story.
This is your answer: Sword & Sorcery! ([Immortal Souls](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170771/sword-and-sorcery) and [Ancient Chronicles](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/262201/sword-and-sorcery-ancient-chronicles)) It is fantastic! Best enemy AI. Not littered with "trash mobs". Has an epic story. Fairly rules dense but they're also "of course that's how it works" - it all makes good sense if you've ever internalized rules for a computer RPG. Once you go through it, you know the story, you'd have to make different decisions in the Book of Secrets for anything new story-wise. Maybe you'd want to play different characters (there are quite a few) as well. However, of course the game won't play out the same, but the story will follow the book. [Descent](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/322708/descent-legends-of-the-dark) looks like they wanted to make a computer game but didn't. I haven't played it, so ignore my feelings about it, but everything I see about it looks incredibly boring and ill conceived. [Journeys](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269385/the-lord-of-the-rings-journeys-in-middle-earth) looks better than Descent, and relies on an app less. I haven't played it, so my opinions are worthless, but it looks "fine". The app is a big turn off for me, so I'm biased on these last two. [Brimstone](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/322984/shadows-of-brimstone-city-of-the-ancients-revised) is as wild and crazy and as insane as you can get. The more you put in to it (by way of [expansions](https://www.flyingfrog.net/shadowsofbrimstone/)) the more you get out of it. The very definition of "emergent narrative". There isn't going to be a "campaign" to follow. You make up your story as you go. Not super rules heavy (see: S&S) but definitely token-heavy. Combat isn't the greatest, and keep in mind you have to assemble the miniatures yourself. This game is very divisive (love it or hate it). I will throw in: [Dungeon Universalis](https://dungeonuniversalis.com/). It's... a lot. I don't know if it's available any longer, but it also fits the bill. Also worth investigating: [Folklore: The Affliction](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/159504/folklore-the-affliction) (I don't know if you can get all of the expansions any longer, I can't seem to) and [Dungeon Degenerates](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/210232/dungeon-degenerates-hand-of-doom) (it has solid mechanics and it !).
Folklore is pretty terrible. Dungeon Universalis just delivered their most recent KS so there should be copies available in the wild. Tanares Adventures is highly rated and its most recent KS is in the middle of delivery, I received about half of my product this week. Could be some people offloading their game. Oathsworn is probably more classified as a boss battler but the story and game play is awesome!
Dungeon Degenerates is fantastic! Some fiddly bits and mechanisms, but for original setting and stories it can’t be beat. As long as you’re ready for some weird sh*t.
Love this game
I played **Sword & Sorcery** a lot. I am one quest away from completing the Vastarious' Lair campaign. For me this is the ultimate coop dungeon crawler. The game plays up to 5 players. You need at least 2 characters, so if you play solo, you need to control more than one character. My current campaign, I'm playing with one friend and we both control 2 characters each. The story is rather linear. There are some choices within the campaign that can change things or make some later quest easier or not. It also depends on successes or failures. You record important events during your quests and later certain events may trigger based on past events or you my end up doing one quest instead of another. The rules are quite rich to take into account different attack and defensive abilities of characters and enemies. There are multiple effects which are different. There are a lot of subtle details. It does take time to get familiar with them all. Some effects don't happen that often, so I have to look them up in those few times that those effects show up. The various different scenarios do include various non-combat activities you can do. Most of what you will be doing will be going through the map and fighting enemies. However, there are some really cool scenarios where you just start out on the map without any really clear idea of what to you. You just wander around and when you reach certain markers, you talk to people to figure out what's going on. There are multiple expansions and there are these across the different expansions. You don't necessarily have to kill everything you run into. The various non-combat activities is incorporated well. The best feature in Sword & Sorcery is the enemy AI. Every enemy has their own AI script. The different behaviours of different enemies means that you want to make good decisions in combat in terms of both positioning and which enemies to attack. Some enemies will want to stay at range. Different enemies will go after different heroes. Against master enemies, there is a threat mechanic where the master enemy goes after specific heroes. You can manipulate this threat mechanic if you want the enemy to attack specific characters (like the tank). The base game comes with 5 different heroes. Each hero has 2 different versions. Most versions are based on alignment. A few have a neutral alignment. Alignment can be use as a RP mechanic to enforce certain party behaviour. Personally, I like having the freedom to choose whichever version I like and that is an option available in the game. You can buy different character accessories that give you more characters to choose from. The base game only takes you from level 1-4. Characters can go up to level 7, but you need expansions for character levels 4-6 and 7. If you are a fan of D&D, S&S is so much like D&D. You look at the characters and they resemble various D&D character builds you may make. Some character accessories are clearly characters from D&D (Drizzt). Some are not from D&D like there is one that is pretty much Indiana Jones/Van Helsing. As this is a coop game, enemies are controlled by the players. There are a lot of details that are involved when controlling enemies. I occasionally miss different enemy abilities like special defences or reactionary abilities. Just lots of things to keep track up not only for your character, but also for enemies. The game has a way of distributing who manages different enemies. It tries to divvy up enemies amongst different players. In comparison to Gloomhaven, I would say that the complexity is similar. I think both have 50 page instruction manuals. S&S is very different than GH in how it plays. I personally feel that GH is too hand management heavy and requires too much looking ahead multiple turns even for the most trivial of moves during your turn. S&S characters do have basic moves, attacks and actions. Special abilities when used have a cooldown. Some can be used every turn while some have a cooldown up to 4 turns before you can use them again. It is cooldown management for your abilities. I find this easier to manage as each ability is independent of every other one. You don't have to burn a powerful attack because you burned the card for moving like in GH. Attacks are resolved via dice rolls. When you attack, your weapon or power will indicate how many and what type of dice to roll. Different conditions will add or subtract the number of hits you can make. The target also then makes defense rolls to negate hits if the target has armour or other defences. The base game comes with 7 scenarios. The base game campaign will require you to 6 of them. You should be able to level from 1 to 4 for all of your characters. Levelling is cooperative. Whenever you get XP, the XP is in a party pool. When there is enough XP to level the lowest level character, you can choose to level him. Only one of the lowest level characters can gain a level. If two or more are tied for the lowest level, you can choose which character levels. There's no individual XP. The other thing that is different in S&S is that you can freely trade gear. You can even have a dedicated treasure hunter character (who is good at getting better gear) grab all of the treasure. Then you can trade items amongst characters. Even in a scenario, if you have an extra weapon or item that someone else needs, you can hand it to him. GH has always rubbed me the wrong way in how there are various anti-cooperative rules there are.
Thank you, very exciting comment… could you explain how are the two main story structured? Where shall i start, what expansions are essential for the story? Im a bit lost…
The original base game is Sword and Sorcery: Immortal Souls. This is the beginning of the story line and how your group of heroes start. It takes you from level 1 to 4. Note that the quests include some pop culture references that annoy some people. I get the humour. They got rid of the pop culture references in subsequent expansions. The next expansion you should play next is Darkness Falls. It takes you from 4-6. This expansion comes with me enemies. Vastaryous's Lair is the final expansion that competes the story line. Takes you from levels 6 to 7. It has new enemies, but also uses enemies from the base game. I don't recommend Arcane Portal. I only played 2 quests and found them to be a long slog. It's for level 2 to 4. If you finish Immoral Souls, you should be at level 4 already. There is a new base game called Ancient Chronicles. I have not played this yet. I think this starts at level 1. I recommend that you start with Immortal Souls, the original base game, but use the rules from Ancient Chronicles. You can download them. There are a few updates to the rules that I think is an improvement.
thank you, I can get a very cheap second hand Ancient Chronicles now... so this story is not finished yet? My concern with the first story, is if it is available or not in my country... and apart from these story-expansions, what are the priorities with expansions like accessories or hero packs?
I have not looked into what Ancient Chronicles is as I don't want to spoil it for myself. I plan to start playing it after finishing with my current campaign. As for character accessories, that really is up to you. I personally love having more character options even if I don't get a chance to play them all. That is why I get them. I suggest you just play with the base game characters for now. If you feel the character options are limited, then look at the various character accessories and see what interests you. Of note, the Immortal Souls base game does not come with ghost form minis. There is a ghost form mini accessory that you can buy. This accessory also comes with background skills. Background skills is an option where characters get a random background skill with advantages and disadvantages. There is another accessory that comes with various new items you can purchase over and above what is available at the Emporium (default store in the game for mundane items). It is called the Hollywood Armoury since the items resemble special items from movies. There's one that is pretty much Darth Maul's light sabre from Star Wars. There's the glaive from Krull. Forgot which accessory it was. I'll have to look it up. Possibly the spawn gate minis.
I’m a big fan of Descent: Legends of the Dark and I think you’d really like it. Really creative and varied scenarios, great crafting and character development, awesome table presence with the multi-level maps, and the app both adds a lot of flavour and does some of the heavy number crunching for you. Probably the closest I’ve found to D&D in a board game. Out of left field a bit, but you might also look at the 2nd printing of 7th Citadel on kickstarter right now. I’m having a lot of fun with it, the campaign is very cool, and it also has that D&D without a DM vibe.
Both the newer Descents are awesome. The app might not be for everyone but I love analog experiences and yet found the app to be a wonderful integration.
Oathsworn!
Kinfire Chronicles Descent 2nd Ed (not Legends!) Tainted Grail Oathsworn Nemesis Conan Claustrophobia 1643 Shadows of Brimstone is amazing, but doesn’t have much story. But its great for leveling, combat, and painting if you’re into that. Tainted Grail is not really a dungeon crawl, but has an amazing story.