Intro and Character Selection
Hi everyone!
This blog will follow a couple’s playthrough of Gloomhaven. We snagged the second version after its official launch date in January 2018!
Neither of us knew much about the game going in but have enjoyed prior legacy games (Pandemic Legacy) and RPGs (Numenera, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, etc.). This seemed like a mix of the two. It’s also tough to find two player games with a cooperative aspect!
The box was… pretty big.
The stuff inside looked like a nightmare to sort (spoiler: it was!) but also like it was made with a lot of love. The cardboard punchouts punched out like punchouts should! We hardly ripped any of them…
Character selection was a little challenging given our lack of background. Alana grabbed two boxes based on their symbols: a starbursty (likely squishy) mage box which she kept for herself and a gear icon (likely a technical/combo-type of character) for me.
We’ve never painted minis, but these are pretty unattractive in “factory grey”, so we might have to find a way to give them a once over…
Alana ended up with Flower (Nickname: Flow) the Orchid Spellweaver, and I pulled GREM the Tinkerer. With their powers combined, we’re almost certain that this squishy mage and miniature gremlin will be nigh unstoppable.
We started with the standard gear. Eagle Eye Goggles for GREM. Invisibility Cloak and Stamina Potion for Flow. We also pulled our personal quest cards. When these are completed, our characters will “retire” — which will unlock new content and grant us perks on future characters. GREM’s (Zealot of the Blood God) seems a lot easier than Flow’s. Die 12 times? He’s definitely up to the challenge.
Each personal goal unlocks something different. Flow’s unlocks a character who apparently struggles to draw circles. GREM’s seems to unlock Thor, himself. Or Zeus. Or an electrician.
Before leaving Gloomhaven, we pulled a city event card (#25) — wherein an old valrath (pseudo-demon) drops a vase and we were too slow to catch it. Not a great way to start off the campaign…
Now it’s off to the Black Barrow (Scenario 1)!
