Publisher: Osprey Games
Release Date (US): June 29, 2017
Price: $26.00
Game Designer: Joseph A. McCullough
Format: Card
Number of Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Age Rating: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4728-2400-4
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
The fun feature that sets Frostgrave apart from most tabletop miniatures games is the way it embraces elements common to role playing games: characters develop over a series of games, increasing and expanding in power as they learn new abilities, acquire exotic new gear, and suffer transformative setbacks. This role playing aspect of the game gets a big boost from the upcoming Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives expansion. But is it just a gimmick, or a worthwhile addition to the game?
Summary: Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives is a deck of 40 cards, each describing a unique individual mission for the player who draws it. Competitors are no longer focused exclusively on the same objectives. Instead, each player has their own, often hidden, motivation in the game, which provides them with an exclusive opportunity to earn experience for their wizard, or rare and wondrous treasures to make them the envy of their rivals.
The cards offer a broad assortment of mission types, some revealed at the moment the game begins and others concealed until resolved. Missions can involve the hostile denizens of the ruined city which must be killed, captured, or harvested, statues of forgotten heroes that must be manipulated, or a variety of other artifacts and curious sites that one might expect to find in a ruined fantasy city.
Originality: Individual winning conditions for tabletop miniatures games aren’t anything new. Even printing them on a deck of cards isn’t particularly innovative. But McCullough has done an admirable job of providing a lot of variety and variability to the deck. These objectives are not the ho-hum “seize that hill” or “kill the enemy leader” kind of mission. Instead, each card offers a mini-storyline, complete with background, plotline, and (hopefully for the player) a climax at the conclusion of the tale.
Presentation: The compact and sturdy Ulterior Motives box is exactly big enough to hold the cards: no wasted space or empty air here. The artwork has the same chilled fantasy style that has been consistent across the Frostgrave line. The title is easy to read, and the back of the box has a good description of the expansion and what it adds to the game.
However, the packaging is quite small, which may make it easy to overlook, and which does not “fit nicely” on the shelf with the other titles in the line. A minor quibble, to be sure, but some care must be taken when merchandizing this.
Quality: The game cards are almost Tarot-sized, thick and sturdy and well-coated. Shuffling is rarely needed, so these cards should stand up to long-term play very well. The writing is fun and engaging, and does a great job of building on the Frostgrave storyline. Having 40 cards in the set means that players could enjoy many, many games before they ever see a story repeated, which greatly improves the base game’s replayability.
Marketability: Expansions are, by definition, dependent on the popularity of the base game that they expand, and Ulterior Motives is no exception. While it may be possible to convert the deck to another fantasy table-top game, it’s quite unlikely that a player would do so. And considering the pricepoint, which is tad high for a deck of cards, it’s unlikely that this is going to be an impulse buy for somebody who’s just thinking about checking out a new game. As a result, this product is really only suitable for markets that have already embraced Frostgrave (which is unfortunate because the rest of you are missing out).
Overall: Ulterior Motives takes the thing that really makes Frostgrave cool and enhances it in new and interesting ways. Using this deck of cards, there is no reason why every game of Frostgrave shouldn’t be a unique and exciting experience for the players. It ratchets up the replayability and the variability of the basic game to a new level, and enhances the story-like role playing side of the game.
Ulterior Motives expands Frostgrave in a way that makes it even more fun to play, without bogging down the game with a lot of fiddly new rules, and without undermining the core elements that make the game unique. For that reason, I give this expansion 4 out of 5.
-- William Niebling
