Lands of Galzyr: The best bimble boardgame?

 

Mor the frilled lizard makes his way towards
the small town of Chabahr, and the two quests available there.

A slow walk in spring

I previously shared some early thoughts about Lands of Galzyr, a narrative driven open-world adventure game featuring anthropomorphised characters. I've recently been playing the game more (solo) and stumbled across a term that I think perfectly describes the experience:

bimble (verb)

[intransitive] (British English, informal) 

to walk or travel without hurrying

• We spent the morning bimbling around the market.
• I bimbled into town.

(Oxford Learners Dictionaries dot com)

In L.o.G. your character will 'bimble' around the world and experience small stories. Called 'scenes' in the game and the (webapp) storybook, these are often stand alone, but they may also be small chains as part of a quest. These are available for any character to choose and pick up from a 'noticeboard' of random quests next to the board once they visit the town where the quest is located. Over the course of a single game you'll measure your success on how much prestige you gain by completing scenes.

Track your prestige over the course of your adventure.

Does this sound like the kind of experience you want? 

For many boardgamers, the answer is a firm 'no'. 

They want the excitement and motivation of a story driven by a strong and obvious goal, such as discovering (and ultimately fighting) a great evil. In L.o.G the pleasure to be had from the game comes from the world unfolding (and changing over time) before you as you 'bimble around', the characters and situations you encounter, and the ongoing and self-contained nature of the experience. To use another term that is common, it is a very 'cosy' game.

Personally, bimbling around in L.o.G is an experience that makes a nice break from many of the other games that I enjoy. I like the well-written scenes, the generally low stakes (although there are some quests dealing with morality), the quick pace (as a solo player, about an hour), and the simplicity of the mechanisms. Compare this with a game like Hexplore It: Valley of the Dead King, which I also really enjoy! A race against time where the whole focus of the game is levelling up to face a final climactic battle against a deadly foe.

The appventure continues

Yes, L.o.G uses a web app. I think it is handled well and is an essential component of the success of the game (the included sountrack really adds to the experience IMHO). If nothing else, the massive amount of text in the game seems unfeasible to have as a printed book. I also noticed after coming back to the game that the downloadable website had been updated - another benefit. 

For more info about apps in boardgames, Daniel over at the Dungeon Dive on YouTube posted a good comparison of three of his favorites that use apps to great effect:

• Lands of Galzyr
• Mansions of Madness 2e
• Freelancers

Video below and on YouTube. If you are even remotely interested in thoughtful takes on Dungeon crawl and adventure boardgames you should subscribe!

Thanks for reading!