Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread Review

"As I've written before, my first gaming love was RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, and I rediscovered board games as another way to experience that type of exploration and adventure. Many RPG-adjacent dungeon crawlers are crowdfunded, and while these games were nailing combat-heavy dungeon crawling and leveling up, other RPG-elements were often missing. Crowdfunded board games are also best known for being over-produced games that often miss their delivery date."

"Each player will select a character path, which is their profession or class, and a race. Each path has its own pre-painted miniature, and each race has a different head along with player boards that hold all of your active skills and carried equipment. The story of the game is that you and your fellow players are Exiles looking to earn Squills by helping others to rejoin society, and you'll learn a bit about your personal background as the game progresses."

"You travel between regions on an overland map where you flip hexagon tiles to show the new location, which may be empty or have a town or some other interaction. As you adventure, you'll explore more areas, find quests, battle enemies, and continue to level up until you finish the campaign. Sometimes, you'll be on a map tile showing a town or other location and can interact with NPCs, icons, and locations."

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is a crowdfunded board game that blends lavish production values with semi-open-world RPG elements and delayed delivery. Players choose a character path and race, each with unique pre-painted miniatures, interchangeable heads, and player boards for skills and equipment. Players act as Exiles earning Squills by completing quests and helping NPCs to rejoin society while uncovering personal backgrounds. Exploration occurs on an overland hex map with tile flipping, towns, points of interest, quests, combat, leveling, and a campaign structure. Dialog choices encourage roleplaying and grant RP points usable for attribute checks, supporting emergent narrative gameplay.

Read at Board Game Quest