Corunea is a French made, card based, role-playing/battle game that has recently been translated into English, and as a long time role-playing gamer myself, I had to absolutely jump on the idea of reviewing it. However the funny thing is I jumped on this idea several months ago, and only now am I able to create a review that can fully grasp the span of what
Corunea is and even then I still feel I must be missing some points here and there because of how big the game truly is. What I found out in my many treks to
Corunea play tests is that the game itself is incredibly expansive. In fact, there are so many options and so many things to do, I think it is safe to say that
Corunea is the most complicated card game I have played thus far, and once you get the hang of the game you find out that this is a very good thing, because it's almost as if you are playing a different game every time you sit down. When you total up the many different instruction manuals you have to read to be able to play the game, you end up with a veritable tome of several hundred pages of rules, errata, and exceptions to those rules and errata. You also need the greater portion of a dinner table in space to just set up the whole game play area which, although cumbersome, is definitely something that
Corunea can brag about. Unfortunately,
Corunea's biggest strength is also its biggest downfall as this level of complexity can tend to be overwhelming. Still, if there is any adjective that can describe
Corunea, it's epic, in that the game is epic not only in its story and setting, but also in the very scope of its game play.
I normally review games by giving players a rundown of how the game is played, and I do this because I feel that if you are going to take up a new game you should have an idea of what the game is like instead of simply going in blind and hoping for the best. I hate to disappoint you but I actually cannot do that this time around. You see, the first thing you will notice about
Corunea is that there are more game play modes than you can shake a stick at. There is arena play, which is a simple versus battle between two people, and it has separate rules for 1v1, 2v2, and 3 player free for all battles. Then there are pre-made adventures which allow all players to use an adventure deck in 1v1, 2v2, 3 person free for all, or co-op mode to play out a scene that can last anywhere from 15 minutes to over 7 hours depending on how complex the adventure is. There's a fan endorsed basic role-playing mode in which a GM (game master… or the guy who runs the game for role-playing novices out there) picks and chooses between GM cards to make a custom story There is a fan endorsed co-op GMing mode. Heck, there is even a marathon mode where you try to complete adventure after adventure while carrying over your treasure and skills from each one. This, together with the fact that there are numerous tweaks that you can apply such as Hardcore mode (i.e. once you die you can't come back) shows that there are more ways to play than I can explain in one simple review.
So the best I can do is to describe what each mode has in common, and that actually gives you a pretty good feel for what
Corunea is like. In a traditional pencil and paper role-playing game the GM writes the story and the players go through a process called character creation where they generate a persona they play based on certain rules. In
Corunea, both the GM's story preparation and the player's character creation are replaced with traditional TCG style deck-building. The GM (if he exists, as players can play a
Corunea game without a GM by allowing an adventure deck to run itself) chooses the places the players will visit, the enemies they will encounter, the treasure they will find, and so on, placing them in several piles which the players will attempt to adventure through, while the players themselves choose their race, class, allegiance, equipment, and any number of other cards to make their character and their character's personality and put it all in one 50-60 card deck.
I'd like to list the card types in
Corunea for you, but once again there are too many to list without confusing the heck out of you. Among just a few, there's the character you are playing, that characters allegiance, the character's class, that character's race, that character's home (as a sanctuary, which can be “open” or “closed”), current weather conditions, servants and followers, weapons and equipment (which adhere to several encumbrance rules), battle effect cards with separate cards each representing special maneuvers, magic spells, poisons coated on weapons, random events, and much much more, and there is even a card that just has your character's picture on it (and possibly a movement ability) called a positional card, which is used to represent where your character is, as it would take far too much work to move your whole setup. Also keep in mind many of these are represented through several
different card types or even combinations of many different cards and that the ability to play other cards in your deck is dependent on what character you have built, so each card does matter in some form. Almost all of these cards can be bowed (turned sideways) to activate some effect, and most of them can also be used as costs for other effects as well. Overwhelmed yet? No? Good, because there is more.
The battle system in
Corunea while complicated is actually one of the systems I like the most out of all the TCGs I have played. The reason? It is all based on rolling d100's. This reduces your chance on succeeding on anything, whether it be attacking your enemy or opening a trapped treasure chest to a simple percentile chance based on one of your character's stats, and as I have always said (which runs a bit contrary to the theme of this review actually) simple is better. Players make an attack roll (using either melee, archery, thrown, or other combat stats) by attempting to roll underneath a particular stat (which is how all rolls in
Corunea are done) after which their opponents make a defense roll. If the attack roll fails or the defense roll succeeds the attack itself fails. If the attack hits, players make a damage roll and their opponents make a roll to both reduce that damage, and “sustain” it or cut it by half. (Both these rolls are made with combinations of d6s and d10s) The remainder ends up as damage of a particular type (ranging from physical to fire and acid) to your opponent. Then the opponent does the same. Players can also score critical hits or critical defenses by rolling remarkably well on any roll. Critical hits that aren't critically defended do double damage.
Though the quick effect, buff, and debuff cards in
Corunea are varied and many, the system by which you use them is actually quite simple. If you can pay the cost of a card, you can play it whenever it would sensibly take place. For example substance cards are poisons and whatnot that you coat your blade with. You can play them when you deal damage. Master Attacks are hard to avoid maneuvers, and you play them before you roll your attack. Battle States are particular positions characters have taken up in battle and you play them after an attack hits but before damage. Anything that boosts a skill or roll is played whenever that skill or roll is relevant. Though there are a lot of rules, the
Corunea design team did a great job in making them all easy to understand. In addition, only one card can be played on an opponent per turn, and although they stick around, you can't heap massive amounts of negative effects on a player at once. To show this you place your played card over the opponent's character card and then move it off into an effect area after the turn is over. Once again this is a simple innovation to make a more complicated rule easier to understand.
Other than cards, damage, dice and whatnot there is another resource in
Corunea called Faharn. Faharn can be spent at any time to re-roll any die roll (only one attempt at a re-roll is allowed and the second result must stick). Faharn is essentially your character's ability to shape the world around him with his willpower, and can also be spent via auction to win initiative, effect the climate, hinder your opponent, and produce many other effects. (Faharn is also a cost for many abilities) Both Faharn and your character's life are represented with face down cards from your deck so as you take damage and lose Faharn you actually regain cards to use against your opponent.
The official
Corunea rules suggest that you try out arena combat (basic 1v1 fighting, and the closest thing to a traditional TCG) before trying out adventures and they are right. Arena combat, though reduced in complexity, is incredibly fun and teaches you exactly how the bulk of
Corunea is played. You get to learn the basic rules of deck building, equipment, quick effects and much else simply by facing off against a friend. However, the real depth of the game comes in the adventures, which in my opinion is the reason you should purchase
Corunea in the first place.
Adventures are a lot like Arena combat, except now players are making rolls with their stats to uncover specific adventure piles. Each card in an adventure pile is another piece to the story you are playing. If a character dies in an adventure, they go back to their sanctuary to recover. If all of your characters sanctuaries are taken over or destroyed, they permanently die (you have to destroy one sanctuary each time you regenerate). Characters will also move and escape from combat by using their move stat, find new equipment in treasure chests, and fight enemies from the most harmless of jackrabbits, to the most sinister demon spawn. They continue doing this until the original objective of the adventure is complete.
Each pile in an adventure is shuffled before the adventure begins, so one adventure pack is actually several different types of stories depending on how the packs were shuffled. In addition, creative GMs can put together their own adventures with cards they have collected to make the story yet more unique. Flavor narration (or true pencil and paper GMing) actually isn't required or even requested by the rules, and in fact it is a little hard to come up with an interesting story to revolve around some random pack distribution (especially if you haven't set up the order ahead of time, another GM house rule). This is probably the biggest qualm I have with
Corunea. For a role-playing game,
Corunea actually makes it a little hard to role-play, but as a TCG it's definitely very fun.
My greatest likes about
Corunea? Well there are two. First of all, the art is absolutely beautiful. No, you don't understand, I mean absolutely jaw dropping gorgeous. In fact if it weren't for a bit of unfortunate cludge in how abilities are worded, I would have given
Corunea a perfect ten in presentation.
Secondly, the developers seem to have thought of everything. Cards are used to keep track of Life and Faharn, and represent several hindrances. The included Tutorial, as well as the website tutorial, turns a very complicated game into a simple one. Heck the sides of a d10 and d6 are even printed on the bottom of the
Corunea instruction manual, so you can play the game in a pinch by randomly opening up the manual to a page if you suddenly find yourself without dice or if you aren't a hardcore pencil and paper gamer that has more dice than god like myself.
My biggest disappointments? Well one, there is a gigantic learning curve. I had to study all of the manuals for the game for several weeks before I could even think about starting my first game up. Though the tutorial and the game system itself are both pretty self explanatory, the initial “Read the Manual” stage of reckoning takes forever.
Corunea is DEFINATLEY a game you want to learn from a veteran and not by yourself, and the fact that the English translation has some very glaring translation errors doesn't really help.
My second disappointment is that I really wish there was more role-playing in this role-playing card game. Perhaps it's just my pretentious nature of having role-played since I was in middle school, but the actual amount of role-playing in
Corunea is not what I am used to. Don't get me wrong
Corunea easily recreates the amount of role-playing you would see in your standard average dungeon roaming role-playing game campaign, but
Corunea actually doesn't have a whole lot of room for social interaction or dramatics, which is something that has become standard in my expectations for a new RPG. Random Joe Schmoe run of the mill role-player will love
Corunea, but anyone looking for something more cinematic will have to supplement the included rules with several house rules and lots of narration.
This one disappointment however actually hides the fact that
Corunea has a wonderful back-story. Very few details have been revealed through the website and most of what you have to go on is revealed via the instruction manuals. One of the things role-players traditionally look for in a new role-playing game is back-story and metaplot and
Corunea is absolutely soaking in it. In this aspect it actually outdoes most all other TCGs as well. I'm going to continue playing
Corunea after this review, however it is not the wide and varied game play which turned me into a
Corunea junky it was the beautiful
Corunea world.
So is
Corunea a good game? Yes, most definitely, but it's not the game for everyone.
Corunea is specifically a game for people with patience. The learning curve is high and the system is complicated, but the game play is deep and the flavor is… well… delicious. I was looking forward to
Corunea for a while, and it didn't disappoint me and considering that they are promising yet more adventures and even more expansions I will probably have fun with
Corunea for several months to come.
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Presentation Rating = 9.0
The art is beautiful. Period. I shouldn't have to say anything else. Invest in the prints and posters available at the website. You won't be disappointed.
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Gameplay Rating = 7.6
The game play of Corunea is definitely interesting. It's vast and expansive, with its only real downfall being the learning curve.
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Support Rating = 6.8
Site updates happen slower than I would like them to, but otherwise the support is ok. As to be expected there is more support for the French side of the site than the English but updates always catch up.
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Innovation Rating = 8.2
The idea of mixing a TCG and a P&PRPG is pretty innovative and something I was looking forward to for some time. It wasn't exactly what I hyped myself up for but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
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