/pic8784523.jpg)
Patrol the streets, alleys and markets of Traitor’s Toll. Chase down and arrest the rogues, cheats and cutthroats that prey on the unwary, ensure the citizens don’t get too rebellious and uncover deeper plots that threaten the city…
The bustling city of Traitor’s Toll is home to a multitude of merchants and travellers, buskers and charlatans, sorcerers and scholars, not to mention – hidden among them – pickpockets, thieves, smugglers and worse! The task of keeping the citizens safe, catching wrongdoers and dealing out justice falls to the city guard.
Gameplay is semi-cooperative. Both players control a Guard Captain and patrol of 5 guardsmen, who must deal with the many challenges hidden among the crowds. Such tasks might be capturing an escaped prisoner, battling a crazed wizard, locating a lost child, taking down a smuggling gang or investigating a mystery. While they have the same goals, each side is trying to make the most arrests, grab the glory and win recognition (and reward) from their superiors. Gain experience, recruit allies and locate useful items – the odd bribe will be useful too. A degree of violence will be necessary but killing suspects will upset the populace. If there is too much discontent, the people riot and rebel – the city lords will be furious (and both players lose)! The game has a strong narrative, legacy element as your guards develop new skills and learn secrets that impact subsequent tasks as well as later games.
- Unlike anything played before
- Outside the box and a lot of fun
- Tremendous rulebook
- Lots of figures (36+) in the box
- Beautiful figures
- Unique trait system that affects stats
- Insane plot twists
- Deep and smart gameplay
- Full of different scenarios
- Not repetitive like other skirmish games
- Beautifully told story
- Magnificent game
- Great for a group
- Something different and unique
- A masterpiece
- Arguably the rulebook is needed (implied)
- Apprehending suspects is difficult
- Things can go wrong very quickly
- Maintaining order in a populace
- Storytelling through gameplay events and consequences
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Bag Building/Token Drawing — Drawing chits from a bag to start the turn sequence.
- Card Play — Used for plot twists, special abilities, and potentially for managing suspects or events.
- Chit Draw — Used in the turn sequence to determine guard actions.
- Dice Rolling — Used for movement, determining actions, and identifying suspects.
- Event management — Dealing with various situations like 'violent suspects,' 'fleeing suspects,' 'muggings,' and 'brawls,' and managing 'discontent' among the populace.
- Variable Player Powers/Traits — Players pick a guard and then a trait which can affect their stats.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is unlike anything I've ever played in quite some time.
- Graham Davis is a brilliant, brilliant man.
- The plot twists are just insane.
- This is tremendous.
- I love this game.
- So outside the box, so different, so unique, so fantastic.
- A tremendous, tremendous game.
- Guards of Trader Toll. Go check it out. You are not going to be disappointed.