Folklore: The Affliction. Problems and solutions (part 2.)

 

Folklore on the table

So what is Folklore like to play?

For me...

...fantastic, but with one or two caveats.

Overall though the game has definitely given me what I wanted:

• A game with lots of 'theme'.
• Opportunities for roleplaying.
• Captures the feeling of an 'RPG', with a story you can move through with characters.
• Dice chucking, combat, and character management (lots of stat management on character sheets!)
• No model painting (a second printing comes complete with standees.)

I've also enjoyed:

• Overland movement, transitioning to really nice maps for adventures.
• Making decisions in the story, and not knowing how they will play out until later.
• Interesting pre-prepared character types.
• Standees - they really look better than I thought.
• Skirmishes - an alternative combat mode for quick fights when you are on the road.

No game is perfect though, and the more I played the more some issues other players and reviewers noted did become apparent. However I did find some answers that work for me, giving me a balance between the level of challenge and enjoyment I want. None of the ideas below are mine!

Swingy D100 system

This game uses D100...a lot! That means that your rolls can be very swingy, and an emotional rollercoaster. I don't think there is an easy answer to this, but levelling up does help, as does having access to equipment bonuses (see 'Tiny market' below.) There are fans who have moved the whole system to D20, which probably would work better if D100 gets you down.

'Dicefest' combat 

If you play the game with the normal (base game) rules, combat doesn't feel tactical. You'll end up with a big cluster of standees in a one part of the adventure map, simply taking turns rolling D100. At the lower levels, that means you will miss - a lot, so combat can really drag on, and on...and on! Also, turn order can mean that an enemy can go first, rush in, and back you into a corner that you can't get out from. 

To deal with this, checkout the 'advanced rules' from the expansions, as well as 'Encounter Tactical variants' house rules that you can find on Board Game geek. This made the game much more fun for me. These add rules to allow you to expend power points to push an enemy back or force your way past an enemy. They also add bonuses based on facing, outnumbering the enemy, moving out of an enemy's threat area, and more. This not only gives you a better chance of hitting but brings combat to a much swifter conclusion after you have whittled down your enemies to a last one or two.

For additional options, the initiative track mechanism introduced in Fall of the Spire really helped make combat more interesting. It does make combat longer to setup, but for me the pay off was worth it. I liked never knowing who would end up with initiative at the start, and also the little element of tactics introduced by the 'Tactics cards' that provide bonuses. These don't usually make a huge difference, but they an give you (and your enemies) small bonuses that gives you something extra to think about.

You can see this system in the image below. The track is at left, with a mix of standees and tokens to represent where combatants are on the track, and tactics cards (the blue and red arrows) being available.

Folklore: The Affliction combat and initiative track.

Punishing overland travel

The very well-realised world you travel through is a big plus of the game for me. It is dark and dangerous, and so it can also be incredibly punishing. As you travel you will have road or off-road encounters. Many of these lead to 'Skirmishes'. Usually quick to resolve they don't involve any setup or standees - a lovely system. BUT, these can happen way too often, and if you have bad rolls they end up really stomping you. Especially if you play the core rules, you have limited options to rest, making these skirmishes particularly deadly.

On the road again. The white party marker is at Waylin Point.

The best way to mitigate this I found was including a 'cautious travel/ fast travel' mechanic. Full credit to William Shaffer, who outlined this and other ideas on this thread.

When traveling on road, the party can travel cautiously or hastily. When traveling cautiously, you only draw an event of a result of 1-5 on a d10. When traveling hastily, you always draw an event, but you add +2 to your movement (+3 with a carriage). This allows the party to better control the flow of travel depending on how prepared they feel. You always draw an event when traveling off-road, and cannot travel hastily. I like this house rule because I don't want to burn through all the road event cards too fast, and it avoids the tedium of getting too many skirmish battles.

A detailed world: Just add two drops of depth

As you travel the world presented, the theme here really shines through. One example is visiting one of the three towns on the map. Each is of a different size and when you arrive, the game provides you with different locations (market, stables, chapel, alchemist, gypsy encampment, tinker etc.) Depending on the character you have chosen, you may get different bonuses or access to different services or things to buy. This is really great, as it helps you feel that you character is different. One issue however is that in the core game, the marketplace is quite sterile - in fact barren! Very few items are available to purchase by default. William Shaffer (see link above) offers a variant marketplace that makes the market...feel like a market!

'When shopping at a marketplace, you can draw either 5/10/15 consumables to buy from and 3/5/9 weapons/armor/enhancements per visit to the city (the slashes denote the size of the city).'

With this simple change (provided you have the money) you have some difficult decisions to make and levelling up feels like a real opportunity to spend your newfound wealth. It may make the game a little easier, by having more items available in town, but if that worries you make the market 'dynamic': Every time you visit shuffle the marketplace cards, and remove 2-3 at random - dwindling supplies are an every day occurrence for the citizenry of Kremel...

The change above is easy to make, but the second is part of one of the expansions: the 'Rumor' system. This was introduced in the 'Dark Tales' expansion of 2017. In this, you always have the chance to visit one of the local pubs in town, and once there you can pick up a 'rumor' to follow. Essentially this is a side-quest. 

You can see an example rumor card here:

Image: Boardgamegeekstore.com

Each rumor offers you a chance to pick up lore and coins (or other rewards) by completing the side quest. I really have been enjoying these because they help you level up and pick up coin that you can spend at the marketplace. They are also a nice diversion from the main story that can be played separately.

Busy bookkeeping - Folklore; the Affliction Assistant

Depending on what you are looking for in a game, the amount of bookkeeping in F:TA can be a plus or a minus. On the positive side it really gives you an old-school RPG feeling. You have a character sheet (or several) with a range of stats that change as you adventure and also contribute to your dice rolls. That pen-and-paper RPG feel is a plus for me, but it can get REALLY busy, even when using a fan-made PDF (see BGG files for more info.) This can be particularly true when playing solo with more than a single character.

The answer to this issue for me was to use the fan-made app on my Android phone. 'Folklore Assistant' is on Google Play (I don't think it is available for Apple devices but please check.). Kudos to the developer for their work on this. They are responsive to issues and the updates have been really useful to me. 

Eryalana, the Druidess

All cards and tokens are included

Stats are easy to track

Combat can be done in app

The app allows you to do all the bookkeeping that you normally need, just as if you were using a printed character sheet. As you add equipment and level up, your stats automatically adjust. However it ALSO allows you to manage combat in the app, export your characters, and play background music!

So that is how I've been enjoying Folklore! The core experience is really solid, but to get the right blend of challenge and fun (for me) it needed a few easy house rules. Adventuring in this world has brought me lots of really enjoyable hours at the kitchen table - with many more to come.