Destinies

Destinies Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Destinies

Reviewers across channels line up on one point almost without exception: the companion app is the star of the show. BoardGameBollocks called it "very very clear, very very concise in a way it operates," Peaky Boardgamer described it as an "intelligent app" that guides the whole setup process, and The Broken Meeple went further, arguing the app is "a step up from Chronicles of Crime," Lucky Duck Games's earlier scan-and-play title. Meeple Mountain, ranking its top games of the year, singled out the same thing: "the thing that just blows things away from me is the app and how well it's done in Destinies."

That agreement does not extend to how the game plays best. The Dungeon Dive skipped the solo mode entirely and found the payoff in a four-person group, calling the session "a fantastic time" after sharing one character between spouses while two friends each controlled their own. Board Games UnLocked takes the opposite position, arguing Destinies is "better as a solo game than it is as a multiplayer game" because opponents can wander into your storyline and steal a discovery before you reach it yourself. BoardGameBollocks flags that exact issue as a design flaw rather than a feature, since the app "isn't intelligent enough to know whose turn it is" when a location gets revealed. Meeple University splits the difference inside a single review: one host, a self-described Eurogamer, withholds judgment on the narrative style, while the other host calls the skill-upgrade system "really smart" and would happily see it reused in a heavier engine-building game.

Story depth draws a similar split. Board Game Hangover rates the writing as "pretty good," "interesting," and "involving," while The Broken Meeple, despite praising almost everything else about the production, notes the scenarios "are not the most... in-depth stories ever" for a two-and-a-half-hour time investment.

Core Mechanics That Define Destinies

Skill Checks and the Track System

Every meaningful action in Destinies runs through the same skill-check loop. Characters carry three stats, described variously by reviewers as intelligence, dexterity, and strength (Peaky Boardgamer) or as a red, green, and blue track (BoardGameBollocks). Board Game Hangover called this the most distinctive mechanism in the box: players roll two dice, add the total, then count how many of the small wooden pucks sit below that number on their track. Success totals move a puck further down the track, which lowers the number needed to score again later, so investing experience points in a skill has a lasting payoff. Effort dice add a push-your-luck layer on top: BoardGameBollocks explained that spending extra effort dice on a check can turn a likely failure into a success, but every effort die used is exhausted until refreshed at the start of a following turn, so players have to decide in advance which checks are worth the risk.

The App-Guided World

The board itself only exists because the app tells players what to place on it. Peaky Boardgamer's rules walkthrough shows the pattern clearly: the app instructs players to place a specific map tile, then any points of interest and figures that belong on it, and players flip new tiles face down as they explore outward from the starting square. The Dungeon Dive noted that tiles connect into a larger map as the scenario progresses, but that a first scenario map stayed a manageable size rather than sprawling across the table. Item cards and points of interest each carry a QR code that gets scanned into the app, which then narrates the outcome, tracks reputation with non-player characters, and remembers earlier choices; Board Game Hangover pointed out that the app "remembers what were your choices, what you did, what you didn't do, what did you steal" and can make a later interaction with the same character harder as a result.

The Destinies Experience

Story-Driven Discovery

Reviewers describe the moment-to-moment feel as reading and reacting rather than optimizing a board state. The Dungeon Dive described choosing which of two secret destinies to pursue as central to the experience, since only the clue on the back of a character card is hidden information while everything else gets read aloud at the table. That same reviewer highlighted using items in unexpected ways as a highlight, saying the game "seems to allow for a little bit of experimentation" rather than demanding the exact item a scenario expects. Meeple University's hosts framed it as an adventuring game built around building up a character through clues, encouraging players to listen closely even when it is not their turn, since another player's discoveries can hint at a path forward.

Solo vs. Multiplayer Play

The two solo modes change the pacing considerably compared to the multiplayer game. Board Games UnLocked broke down both: Explorer mode removes any time pressure so players can wander at their own pace, while Challenger mode imposes a day limit per scenario and gives a "groundhog day" feel reminiscent of Time Stories, since a first attempt is unlikely to succeed until the player has learned where the useful items and characters are located. The Broken Meeple ran through an entire solo campaign faster than a single multiplayer scenario, timing a solo scenario at around thirty minutes once map exploration and miniature placement became unnecessary, since "everything is handled on that app."

What Makes Destinies Stand Out

Secret Destinies and Competitive Storytelling

Board Game Hangover was surprised the format works at all, admitting the competitive framing sounded implausible on a first read of the rules and concluding "it actually works very well." Each character carries two possible destinies and can commit to either one, which The Dungeon Dive treated as license for a looser, sandbox-style approach, describing a fellow player who ignored winning entirely and instead spent the session "trying to steal as much stuff as she could" and "having an absolute blast."

Tone and Content

BoardGameBollocks praised the willingness to depict a genuinely dark medieval-fantasy setting, noting "the story does actually take a few risks with its content" and that there is "a lot of blood and guts in this." Board Game Hangover reached a similar verdict from a family-play angle, calling the theme "very grim" without being "overly bloody," and reporting that playing it with children still produced "no nightmares, no screaming during the night."

Potential Drawbacks

The Miniatures

Complaints about the miniatures come up in nearly every review that discusses components. BoardGameBollocks called the minis "too small" and "really really hard to tell apart," while The Dungeon Dive went further, arguing the game "could have been an incredible small box game" if the plastic figures were replaced with tokens, since "there are no tactical decisions in this game" that depend on miniature placement. Board Game Hangover echoed the same frustration from the table, unable to distinguish which figures were "players and NPCs" even after playing all the way through the game.

Replayability and Blind Reveals

Because each scenario is written to be played once, several reviewers flagged limited replay value. Board Game Hangover noted a returning player "will enjoy this game like ten percent more" than a newcomer since map knowledge removes the sense of discovery. BoardGameBollocks separately criticized how exploration interacts with other players in multiplayer games: revealing a location can hand an opponent exactly what they need, since "the app isn't intelligent enough to know whose turn it is" and offers no way to hide that information from the table. Board Games UnLocked added that once a player has mapped out the optimal route through a Challenger mode scenario, the mode devolves into repeating "a bunch of fetch quests" rather than encouraging further exploration.

If You Enjoy Destinies

The Broken Meeple and Meeple University both draw a direct line back to Chronicles of Crime, Lucky Duck Games's earlier scan-and-play detective game, with The Broken Meeple arguing Destinies improves on that app's presentation. Board Game Hangover recommends The Seventh Continent as the closest cooperative alternative, noting it shares similar map tiles but drops the competitive angle, and BoardGameBollocks makes the same comparison in the opposite direction, suggesting Destinies is "what The Seventh Continent should have been." The Broken Meeple also compares the Challenger solo mode's trial-and-error structure to Time Stories, calling it close enough to be "a direct module that could be plugged into Time Stories," and separately likens the tight day limits to piecing together clues like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. Board Games UnLocked names Mansions of Madness, Tainted Grail, and Fallout as games doing something similar at a higher price point, and describes the branching narrative ambition as smaller in scope than Detroit: Become Human.