Endless Destinies: The Clockwork City Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Endless Destinies: The Clockwork City, a solo choose-your-own adventure type game published by Arcturus Publishing Ltd.

I love big narrative adventure games. Do you know what I don’t have space for anymore? Big narrative adventure games. I also don’t have a lot of time so quick-playing games are more likely to hit the table than the big sprawling games. Endless Destinies comes in a box the size of a medium paperback book that is a narrative adventure book/game.

I read a lot of Choose Your Own Adventure books growing up. Both the white covered ones with various themes and some D&D themed ones. I had heard about the Fighting Fantasy books but had never played them. Overall, I love the idea of CYOA mixed with a game mechanism compared to the “You died!” that plagued the old paperbacks. How does Endless Destinies stack up?

For a gameplay overview: Go to Gameplay Overview
For my thoughts on the game: Go to Game Experience
Go to Final Thoughts for the rousing conclusion

First thing you’ll need to do is either accept writing in your book or print out a character sheet and the maps you’ll use. You’ll create a character by picking two items from a selected list and start with some health and gold. It’s a typical choose-your-own adventure format of read and make choice. Sometimes there will be puzzles to solve or trinkets to use that will have you counting forwards or backward from your current entry if you have a specific item.

There are two main game elements to cover that justify this section over trying to explain how to read a book. The first is Feat checks and the second is combat.

Feat checks have you drawing two cards and checking the icons on either the top or bottom side of the card. Successes usually require two of a specific icon representing strength, skill, or spirit. A single icon grants the success entry with some minor penalty and failing to draw any results in a negative result.

Combat has you lay out three cards for your Wildling Hex Knight and