
The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure-inspired board game - Tomte
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/the-7th-continent-review-a-board-game-unlike-anything-youve-ever-played/
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tom_usher
Ambitious is definitely the right word for this game. I've put about 7 hours
in to it so far and can definitely say I've not played anything quite like it.
It's huge, full of unique art and writing, and has managed to surprise me
quite a few times.

I can see it getting repetitive, particularly as there's not a huge amount of
storytelling - and from what I've heard, some people aren't enjoying the need
to replay hours of content when you die - but so far, I'm impressed.

The second printing (+ expansion) Kickstarter is live at the moment
([https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926712971/the-7th-
cont...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926712971/the-7th-continent-
what-goes-up-must-come-down)) which seems like it's adding a lot more content.
I'm in, but whether I'll still be interested in playing more when it ships in
October 2018 is another question...

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cialowicz
Is it available from a more traditional online retailer (I'd rather avoid
Kickstarter)?

~~~
Impossible
With tabletop games kickstarter is effectively an outsourced preorder system.
The game is finished but they can judge how large this print run needs to be
and collect money for it early, you are basically guaranteed a product. This
assumes your reason for avoiding kickstarter is that you'll get scammed or not
receive a product do to incompetence (which has happened to me with videogames
and hardware products). Otherwise its likely you'll have to wait until late
2018 or early 2019 to buy this game or try to find a copy of the first run of
the base game somewhere.

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UweSchmidt
As with many games of this type, epic gameplay comes with complexity, a
learning curve and long play sessions. Anyone know of boardgames that deliver
something big from a minimal set of rules and items? I wouldn't mind exploring
a dungeon in 10-15 minutes with a random stranger on a train.

~~~
adamredwoods
If you're looking for a "dungeon crawler" that plays quickly, check out:
Dungeon Roll [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138788/dungeon-
roll](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138788/dungeon-roll)

Dungeon Dice [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136192/dungeon-
dice](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136192/dungeon-dice)

5-minute Dungeon [https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207830/5-minute-
dung...](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207830/5-minute-dungeon)

Pathfinder: The Card Game (although a bit long)
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/133038/pathfinder-
advent...](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/133038/pathfinder-adventure-
card-game-rise-runelords-base)

Shadowscape
[https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200359/shadowscape](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200359/shadowscape)

Dungeon Twister [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144525/dungeon-
twister-c...](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144525/dungeon-twister-card-
game)

~~~
JoshTriplett
Seconding Dungeon Roll. It can be played solo, but it's a lot of fun with 2-3
people. (With more, it gets rather boring for anyone not either playing or
running the dungeon.)

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larkeith
I've not played The 7th Continent, but from the description, it sounds rather
similar in style to the video game Sunless Sea (and the currently-in-beta
sequel, Sunless Skies) - exploration-driven, deeply unforgiving survival and
resource management, although 7th Continent sounds more art focused as opposed
to Sunless Sea's writing-centric approach.

If 7th Continent is anywhere near as enjoyable, I may have to give it a try -
if it manages to recapture the feelings from first time you happen across the
deadly elysium of Aestival, or the creeping dread as your crippled ship burns
through your last barrel of fuel in the deep Eastern Unterzee, it will be well
worth the $80.

~~~
batmansmk
Compared to sunless sea, the 7th continent is less text driven and has more
environmental narration through illustrations. The 7th continent has puzzles
like Myst and emergent story telling ("We killed my poisonous frog companion
and spread its venom on our arrows. We had a good hunt and offered some of the
food we caught to the Gods of Frogs in memory of Froggy.").

I enjoyed both, and they may address the same crowd, but in very different
ways.

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PhasmaFelis
> _It’s 1907, you’re an explorer, and you feel like crap. Several weeks ago,
> you were part of an expedition to the 7th continent, a mysterious and newly
> discovered land off the coast of Antarctica._

This confused me until I remembered that some countries count either
North+South America, or else Europe and Asia, as a single continent, for a
total of six. Not a great choice of name for the English-language release.

~~~
otabdeveloper1
Every country considers Europe and Asia a single continent. (Because they
literally are.)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _Every country considers Europe and Asia a single continent._

I'm afraid not. "Continent" is a surprisingly poorly-defined concept.
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Continent](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Continent)

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mcphage
I’m definitely feeling some #fomo with this game. It sounds great, but is it
really worth the $80/$130+ investment to me? I’m not sure.

~~~
batmansmk
If you look at it from an investment point of view, it was very easy to sell
at full price after the first Kickstarter so... Try the print n play version!

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arkenflame
I recently released an audio-based choose-your-own-adventure inspired game for
playing in the car called Road Trip Adventures. If 7th Continent appeals to
you then you should check it out!

[https://playroadtripadventures.com](https://playroadtripadventures.com)

~~~
diN0bot
fun game! i love the audio aspect. how hard would it be to use volume buttons
to rotate through and select actions? so no reading required?

