20 Strong: Tainted Grail (Deck Only)

In Tainted Grail 20 Strong, you will choose your path as four enemy types confront you, each one with a different level of difficulty and different rewards for taking them down. Shift between foes to build a well-rounded hero for a final fight against the boss. Combos in combat are critical as the dial severely limits the dice you can apply to enemies, but you can get around those restrictions by playing combat cards to unlock more options. The deck-building and combat card combinations change your strategy each time you engage an enemy! If you don’t want to face a certain enemy or are scouting for a different one further down in its deck, cast it aside into the Menhir Stack at the end of an engagement. After eight turns, you will face off against an extremely difficult boss, who will bring one or more Menhir Stack minions along for the fight. If you defeat it, you’ve won the game!

Must have the 20 Strong Core Set to use this Deck

20 Strong is a new deck-based game system from Chip Theory Games, capable of being played in about 30 minutes or less. We say “game system” because the idea behind 20 Strong is a small nucleus of simple, adaptable rules that can then be applied to a variety of unique decks, each with their own set of mechanics. We are launching 20 Strong with three such decks – one set in the world of Too Many Bones, one set in Hoplomachus: Victorum, and one in the new universe of the space-faring Solar Sentinels. We have more decks in development and plan to release them regularly if our customers are excited by them. For now, 20 Strong is a solo-only game, but even that could differ in future decks using the ruleset.

The object of a game of 20 Strong is to progress through a shuffled deck of cards, each card bearing a unique challenge. This challenge could be in the form of an enemy, a unique scenario, or some other requirement (for example, players of the Too Many Bones deck might expect to see a Lockpicking challenge or two). Challenges usually require a certain number of successes to complete, which you earn by rolling a set of 17 dice with different odds for a hit (these dice, along with three adjustable stat dice, make up the “20” in 20 Strong).

If you roll enough successes, you complete a card’s challenge and gain its rewards. If you don’t, you take damage and move on to the next card – unless, of course, your HP stat is reduced to 0, costing you the game. If you manage to make it through an entire deck, you take on one of the deck’s final bosses, attempting to score enough hits against this powerful enemy to claim ultimate victory.

Of course, it’s never so easy that you’d want to spend all of your dice on a single card. In addition to your HP Stat, you’re also keeping track of your Strategy (which controls how many rerolls and items you have) and your Recovery, which controls how many dice return to your pool after taking on a challenge. If you roll more dice than your Recovery, those dice are exhausted, lowering your pool for your subsequent challenges. It’s a game of pressing your luck, strategic decision-making, and resource management. We think you’re going to love it!

In Tainted Grail, you will choose your path as four enemy types confront you, each one with a different level of difficulty and different rewards for taking them down. Shift between foes to build a well-rounded hero for a final fight against the boss. Combos in combat are critical as the dial severely limits the dice you can apply to enemies, but you can get around those restrictions by playing combat cards to unlock more options. The deck-building and combat card combinations change your strategy each time you engage an enemy! If you don’t want to face a certain enemy or are scouting for a different one further down in its deck, cast it aside into the Menhir Stack at the end of an engagement. After eight turns, you will face off against an extremely difficult boss, who will bring one or more Menhir Stack minions along for the fight. If you defeat it, you’ve won the game!