Vantage: S1E1

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Welcome to episode one of me playing Vantage and then writing about it for nobody to read.

The first part of the game is always the same; the ship is en-route to some planet, things mysteriously go wrong, we crash land on the planet.

I randomly assigned myself characters and skills, and ended up playing as Emelien, The Scholar, which means I gained an engage skill token.

Then I rolled two more dice to see what skills and mission I got, they were a move and a take skill, and I therefore gained mission 1593

Then I rolled yet another die and got a help skill token, which pointed me towards escape pod 005.

Then rolled an overpower and an engage.

The Stinky Lotus

STATS: 4 health | 4 morale | 4 time

SKILLS: 2 engage | 1 move | 1 take | 1 overpower | 1 help

So, what now? Guess I’ll look around a bit. The obvious things that stand out to me are the giant stinky white flower, referred to in the text as the “big lotus”, the giant red flag, and some kind of pillar things in the background.

Considering the designers went through the hassle of putting references to the lotus on the card description, it is probably a good bet that there was some story elements associated with it that are worth exploring.

I decided to PLUCK said lotus, because who doesn’t like a flower that smells of rotten eggs. This was a four(!) cost action, which is ridiculous for plucking a flower, but there you go.

I spend my token and roll three challenge dice.

Lucky for me I can put one the morale die on my character, and the setback one is fine. Unfortunately I lose one time down to 3.

However I do gain cards 1159 and 1387

Great. A skanky looking flower and a goddamn curse. Wish I didn’t bother now.

Well, time to move on. Heading West as North is a depart action that I do not want to pay for, and East looks like climbing is involved. Can’t even see what I’m doing if I go South, so West is the only choice.

I spend my move token and go to location 189.

The Vast Wetlands

STATS: 4 health | 4 morale | 3 time

SKILLS: 2 engage | 1 take | 1 help

What do we have here? Is it the same card? No, I appear to have moved pretty far to the west as that mountain in the distance looks the same, but from a different angle. Red flags are poking out of the ground again, there is some kind of gas venting from the side of the mountain ahead, and some I am surrounded marshland looking stuff.

I decide that I must smell pretty gross, notwithstanding the fact that I just escaped from a malfunctioning spaceship and crash landed on this planet, but I also have a fugly rotten-egg lotus in my pocket, so I should probably bathe.

Only a one cost action too. I was expecting it would take all my remaining strength to sit in the water.

MFing leeches. I get to continue milling around this awful marsh for another turn. What would someone do in my position? Probably see if someone is around, so I HAIL into the void.

Ok well I guess I am hailing a ferry that isn’t shown on the card. For another stupidly high cost.

I do not want to insta-die from waving my arm so I spend my two engage skill tokens and only roll two challenge dice: setback and blank.

I am broke, so can’t pay the captain even if I wanted to.

Lol. Because there are leeches in there, right? Still, nice to get a boost, but I guess the ferry just drifts off somewhere else and leaves me stranded, soggy, stinking of eggs, and covered in leeches. All self-inflicted. No wonder the captain thought it best to GTFO.

Moving on further west to location 188 and rolling a blank for the effort.

The Rusty Turbine

STATS: 3 health | 6 morale | 3 time

SKILLS: 1 take | 1 help

A rusty broken down old wind turbine that no longer turns but just creaks.

Was this Earth all along? Have I made my way back to the UK?

No. This is a windy area (so I have to be aware of that curse from earlier), with flags all over the place. No red ones though, just white this time. There is a flock of birds that are very interested in something or other to the north.

But wouldn’t it be cool to fix this turbine? Surely someone would be thankful for me doing that, and perhaps establish some diplomatic relations with me in the process.

Also a creaking turbine would drive me mad. It’ll probably kill me in the process, as hailing a ferry and plucking a flower have cursed me and pushed me close to exhaustion.

Yep, 5, pretty much what I expected. Oh well, I spend my help skill token and roll four challenge dice: blank blank health time.

I spend a boost re-roll a time and get another time, but gain an engage token because of my character’s ability.

Then I spend another boost re-roll a health and get a blank 👍.

I absolutely cannot be bothered to go questing for any kind of horn so I’ll have that gem, thanks 1168.

Looks pretty swish actually. It’s worth seven coins and can hold some bad dice too.

Oh well, no diplomatic relations established here. Guess I’ll move south for a change and avoid this horn.

I roll a die and get yet another time which pushes me down to just one time left. All this faffing about and I haven’t even achieved anything.

The Rhythmic Twirler

STATS: 3 health | 6 morale | 1 time

SKILLS: 1 engage | 1 take

A sentient is doing some kind of … thing. I feel like I should talk to this being, so that’s what I will attempt. Gathering all my remaining strength, I open my mouth and …

… it looks like it may be the last thing I do. 5 cost to speak to something! Do I have something wrong with me?

Oh well, keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin'.

morale morale health health blank

I spend a boost re-roll a health and get a setback. Unfortunately the curse of the eggplant means I lose health anyway. Boost wasted.

I place one morale on my character, and then another morale on the character to gain the boost. Boost retrieved.

I put one health on my gem card and gain a boost for that too.

A thoroughly boostful turn. Time to stop dicking about with this sentient and move on. To the west, naturally, as I am not interested in Trials of Life to the east. Sounds like I’ll just expire on the walk over there.

I roll a blank and move on to location 182

The Lunging Sentient

STATS: 2 health | 6 morale | 1 time

SKILLS: 1 engage | 1 take

This is my first visit here, so I immediately lose a morale as I am lunged at and fall backwards.

I notice a lot of engage icons on the flags, so I decide I’ll TAUNT this guy.

A one-cost action. I decide that I don’t want to risk losing any more health, morale, or time, and instead spend a engage skill token.

Ok cool so that sentient decides to tag along. Still no diplomatic relations though.

I decide to keep on moving west and spend two boost cubes for a move skill token, which I then immediately spend to move to location 181.

The Sentient Guards

STATS: 2 health | 5 morale | 1 time

SKILLS: 1 take

More wind sentients, and these ones are guarding a chest. It seems pretty stupid to try and swindle or attack them, so I guess with my new best friend Storm, the Spormonger, I should be safe enough to approach. I decide to spend two more boost cubes to gain a move skill to help with this upcoming test.

I spend my move skill and roll two dice: morale and setback

This gotdam curse gets me again and I lose another health. Thanks a lot stinky lotus, you have been nothing but trouble.

I am presented with a choice to make:

Naturally I am going to heed their warning, as they are guards and I am some almost-dead nobody.

It’s always nice to receive a token of a people.

Oh. It’s some jars of air. Thanks guys.

I decide that I am sick of this lotus flower and try to brew it into some kind of drink. This is a two cost action and I roll a morale and a health

Mistake. The effort kills me.

I don’t feel as though I’ve had a fair go at things so I decide to refresh all the challenge dice and gain the icons.

I manage to roll:

• 6 x blank
• 1 x setback
• 1 x time
• 1 x morale
• 1 x health

Classic me-luck with the dice.

So after all this I have gained one to each of health, morale, and time, leaving me at four morale, two time, and one health. Not great. I guess I failed at brewing some kind of drink from this lotus flower. Perhaps rather than pouring some hot water into a cup I stabbed myself in the eye.

I keep moving on to location 180, rolling a blank.

The Tuneful Sentient

STATS: 1 health | 4 morale | 2 time

SKILLS: 1 take

What I am getting from these location cards is that moving west of location 397, that leech-infested wetland, leads to some windy open plains. I might try to map out these location cards in a grid as part of these playthroughs.

I also notice that if I move west one more time I go to locations starting in the 400 regions. Maybe I am at the extreme left-edge of the map? Obviously the map wraps around but perhaps this is somewhere near the top left of a potential grid. Hmm but then if I go north the location numbers increase. Ah I don’t know, who cares, I’ll just keep exploring. Maybe the layout will make sense as I discover more places.

Anyway I decide to greet this old sentient.

Again, talking in this game seems like an absolutely massive effort. I have no idea why it takes nearly half the dice pool to do this. It seems safer to just be a mute.

Maybe I am some kind of sociopath, and greeting someone with respect and reverence does actually require a lot of effort.

Maybe I just hate old people. Who knows.

I roll five dice and get three setback, one blank, and one health.

I then place one health on the gem and gain a boost and a health and mission 1669.

A new quest that involves schlepping across the world planting flags for some old guy.

Yeah, sure, why not. It’s not like I’m going to live much longer anyway.

Time to move north to plant these flags, rolling a time

The Ancient Structure

STATS: 2 health | 4 morale | 1 time

SKILLS: 1 take

Well, here I am, at some crumbling old structure with a massive dragon flying in the distance. Probably want to avoid that.

I have a go at placing the flag.

Well. Here we go. Rolling two dice.

setback and time.

I lose a health due to that perennial plant curse, and that is my last time.

YOU HAVE DIED OF LATENESS

And that’s it, I have run out of time.

I am not sure what the time represents exactly, considering I have crash-landed on a planet and didn’t exactly have a deadline, but I did not have enough of it regardless.

So what have I learned from this playthrough? And what do I think of the game?

I have not been asked either of these questions and no one is interested in the answers, but I will write them out regardless.

What have I learned?

From this playthough I have learned that interacting with sentients requires a lot of effort. I assume it is because these interactions push the narrative along and therefore you need to represent that by potentially losing health, time, or morale.

I also realised that it is maybe not a good idea to just tear living beings out of the ground, especially if they reek.

What do I think?

I think I like this game. I enjoy the artwork on the cards, and the way you always succeed at an action, suffering potential penalties along the way. I like the exploration aspect, and the way most of the time you only take a single action at a location before you must move locations again. This should allow each location six separate ways of interacting with it, and as there are a lot of cards, this should lead to a lot of replayability.

It is not a perfect game though, despite what some on BoardGameGeek say. I’ve personally rated it a 7/10. It’s good, but I cannot recommend it to people as it so different to “normal” board games. I know a lot of people are not interested in the sandbox-interpret-your-own-story theme, and for me, while I hope I retain an interest in it long-term, I also like achieving tangible goals when I play games.

Having said that, there is room in my collection for this interesting game, and I will not be getting rid of it any time soon. I already feel like having another go and seeing what other locations there are to explore.

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3rd September 2025