First off: let me explain to you guys what Card Hunter is and how it got into my overall DnD and card virgin hands.

It was the November of 1984... I had just gotten back to my country from war and- Just kidding, lol. @drakkomaximo1234 recommended this game to me over at @steemgc 's discord server. He was looking for games which were easy and fun to play with other people in a cooperative mode, but BOOHOO I'm an outcast and I like experiencing things on my own because I have social anxiety (?) So yeah, we'll be taking a look at this game's single-player mode, everybody! Hop on because we're going on an RPG ride!

From my own perception of the game, Card Hunter is a game that tries to be a virtual tabletop RPG you can play on your own or with your friends. So yeah, if you ever wanted to play something akin to tabletop RPG's like DnD and others but on your own, here it is, waiting for you!

What I meant by "Akin to DnD" is that this game is not Dungeons and Dragons nor does it try to be, it is its own experience with its own setting, humor and artistic attraction, setting a clear difference over most card games and other RPG's.

But I've mentioned cards a lot and I haven't talked about they work or connect into this game, right? Well, instead of you speaking or acting in the name of your characters like you would normally do in a DnD session, you are presented with the idea that every character you bring into your party has a set of cards that act as their possible actions. These actions can range from walking, dashing, slamming a mace onto a goblin's face, casting lightning bolts and teleportation! Each card or action in this case is attached to your character's race, class, weapons and equipment, so you could have a party of 3 different warriors who play fairly different from each other, especially if you know how to work around different races. But let's get on with what the game offers in its first minutes of introduction!

The Intro

As soon as we're done creating our account so we can start hunting for cards and E P I C L O O T, we're presented with a character who is going to accompany us on our hunt almost everytime we play, we're presented to our Dungeon Master, GARY. He’s gonna be in charge of getting the game moving with each and every action we take.This means that he's the one who's going to get the dices rolling and playing the role of the enemies and overall nature and flow of the game as we move on.

Gary introduces us to the party and almost as fast as fire bolt, tells us about how amazing the "Greenfang Campaign" is and how excited he is to play it because his brother has been hyping it up for him for a while now.

After a very brief explanation of what we're getting into, we are already into our first Card Hunter session. That didn't take too long, right?

We start Greenfang's campaign almost at its conclusion. Yes we do start to play with other people's characters but this is just an intro so who cares!

As Gary says, we're closing in on Greenfang's temple, which is said to hold 3 legendary weapons, 1 for each and every (Borrowed) party member we have, so great!

After searching the marshes for months, we've finally come across the entrance of the temple.

We take a cautious and slow approach to it. We're glad to have finally found it but we're also desperate to take the goods and get out of here. We've been enduring weird giant flies, ugly and disgusting slugs for weeks. Don't even get me started on the mosquitoes! So we're all nervous on how this is all going to turn out but either way, the only option we have is to press on. As soon as we place a step inside the mossy and powdery cobblestone tiles of the temple's floor, we're ambushed by spear-wielding lizardmen. These fiends want to stop us from getting deeper into the temple but we're more than ready to take that epic loot and get out of here!

After a harsh battle against the lizardmen, our team is tired but glad to be done with the dirty work. What seemed like years of searching for the temple have finally come to an end. We rush to the inner sanctum of the temple, looking at every nook and cranny for what could be traps, puzzles or even more lizardmen! But we finally come across what we're here for. The chest containing our hopes and dreams is right in front of us.

As the warrior of the team, Borgo Stoneheart rushed to open the chest as blunt as he is, the floor starts to rumble. The cobblestone tiles sliding against each other produce a horrific sound, giving us the feel that even our bones are rumbling as well. But what really was horrendous is the fact that the shaking of the temple wasn't being produced by an earthquake or something alike, it was being produced by the big wings of something that was coming for us. It was being produced by Greenfang himself, who had gotten there to protect it's powerful and unique e p i c l o o t And it's up to Father Ordos: The Human Priest, Idris: The Elf Wizard and Borgo Stoneheart: The Dwarf Warrior to finally bring an end to Greenfang: The Viridian Dragon and take his loot once and for all!

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Just as we were close to obtaining a Victory! Greenfang's hide and his loot was already on our avaricious adventurer fingers!

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Woosh! After some smart card managing skills were implemented, we managed to defeat Greenfang without any casualties! Everyone's happy we survived but they're also more concerned about what loot they're gonna grab! We get our first boss Victory screen and we head on to the chest to see what we got! The chest contain-... Wait what? Someone is arguing with our Dungeon Master?

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Great... Easy come easy go I guess...

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Beat it, kid. You made me get all hype about that e p i c l o o t.

And we're back to square one... After Gary's brother took our victory over Greenfang away from us, all that's left is to go to the nearest tavern, The Orc's Head Tavern. As soon as we're setting into our tools and grabbing some mead to cure our ailments, an event kicks in.

An old man staggers through the door, blood streaming from his side.

This is where the game (our session, more so.) really begins. As soon as we acknowledge the event, we're prompted to choose our first character since we can't actually create one from scratch like we'd normally do on DnD and other RPGs! Our choice is not limited, rather simple. We're bound to choose a warrior as our first character, but it's up to us to choose the race of our new acquisition.

This game doesn't get too deep into character traits or creation, it boldly tells you how Human characters are bound to be more strategy oriented and all around characters, a sort of Jack of all trades, while instead, Elven characters prioritize movement over all other actions and are a little fragile but overall very quick and versatile. And finally, we're introduced to the Dwarf characters, who are specialized to be hardened and tough fighters who can last without much trouble but lack movement options.

I went with a human warrior as my first character, I named him Sebin because that's what a local police force is called in Venezuela and my friends and I use it as a common joke between us. So anyways, Sebin steps up to the task and pledges to help the old man avenge his village which was overrun by kobolds. The old and fragile man points us in the direction where his village is with his last breath. It's up to Sebin to grow a nut sack and end the kobold's reign!

After going on a lone Berserker run on the Kobolds who had overrun the village, we get a direct continuation to this adventure. Gary prompts us to not only get even more revenge on the kobolds by ridiculing them, but also mentions that we have acquired sight of a near Kobold encampment. He asks us if we decide to go after them but the choice is already made because we got some loot and we want M O R E, so we head on to the encampment next.

Once we reach their camp, Gary mentions these kobolds are implementing strategized moves, something that shouldn't even be conceived because they're actually not that smart, they're quite dumb! After a little planning and surveillance, Sebin knows right where to jump at and get the upper hand on the fight! So he jumps into the fray, maybe not that well prepared but ready to give it all he got!

After annihilating the lower IQ'd beasts and claiming victory, Sebin goes over the bodies to search for that e p i c l o o t, and he notices that the Kobold's strategist is nowhere to be found. He then notices an entrance to a dark cave... Maybe this is where Kobold's have been coming out from... But before we decide to delve in deeper into this plot-line Gary mentions we should go back to the tavern to see if we can find someone who can aid Sebin in here.

Enter our first mage! This time I chose to go with an elven mage who I called Sheogorath. because her white hair reminded me of the Daedric prince but going back to our setting and as I said earlier, Elves are inclined to be swift, agile and fast! In the case of mages, specifically specializing on attacking from afar just as their profile says! It's a shame you can't edit their appearance, though...

Once we had recruited our elven mage, we set a course for that curious cave Sebin had seen earlier. Once we start delving in, we get ambushed by even more Kobolds, but more importantly, we get to see the Kobold who has been organizing and strategizing his comrades. A Sinister High Priest who has no mercy for human or other races villages, rampaging and raiding wherever he set his sights on. It's finally time to stop this evil once and for all.

The fight is not that hard. Our party has gained a fair bit of advantage with our new addition, now being able to attack from afar is just the help we needed for Sebin to brutally run over the lower leveled mobs. Once the priest was left without any more minions to summon, Sebin was too tired to attack, so he commanded Sheogorath to run up to the priest (who was cornered) and simply put, bluntly wack her wand against the Kobold's ugly face, therefore completing our adventure and introductory tutorial while gaining some extra special and really needed E P I C L O O T.

Here's Sheogorath leveling up after her first adventure!

That concludes my first experiences with the game. Without me having to add a lot to the overall plot, humor and setting, I think it really does what it was made to do. It's a virtual tabletop RPG. With an included Dungeon master and everything! As of me writing this post, I only wanted to go back and play one more raid, one more dungeon the game had to offer, it's just that addictive! There's something about mixing RPG Mechanics with deck building and many other things that make this game something unique that I hadn't seen before. It's just really, really fun to play and get immersed into. I'll be stretching this article a little bit more with my personal opinion about other aspects of the game before I finally close this out and you guys can be free again! Yay!

Sound Design

First off: The game does a darn marvelous job of getting you immersed into the campaign you're playing. When I was playing around the first few levels, I could hear the people screaming, the overall sound of fire, wood cracking, horses running around aimlessly, etc. The ambientation sounds are just really damn thick and entertaining. But when it comes to the actual sound effects, I find them to be a little annoying, more so by the fact that they're normally pretty dang loud, so whenever you or your enemy cast any spell or swing a hunk of metal towards you, it's gonna hurt your ears as well, so I highly recommend lowering the volume levels on this one...

Overall Humor

The game has a very marked and characteristic humor. It shows it in how its characters interact, specially Gary! The way the plot sets itself up, the card descriptions and just everything has a slight tint of hilariousness that'll crack you up more than one time, guaranteed! It's also one of those things that won't get old as you progress through the game, it's a part of it and it won't let go until you're accustomed to it and expect it at every turn! Here's some examples!

Conclusion

Card hunter is a game anyone can play if i'm being honest. I have never ever in my life touched a Dungeons and Dragons board or guidebook or whatever it needs to be played. So it speaks miles about it when a noob like me can get into it so easily and just after the first few levels, and still want to play more and more with every free minute I can get on my hands!

The game just has a certain magic that makes you want to go back, It's got so many different ways you can go around it and play it the way you want! You want, 3 warriors on your party? Do so! 3 mages that don't give a chance for enemies to come close? Do that too! The board is there to serve at your will and ready to test whatever you come up with! Because the game does get a little bit harder as you progress but that's only natural.

So, to finally finish this writing odyssey, let me just say: If you want an experience akin to dungeons and dragons, mixed with card mechanics, deck building and so on and forth, just try the game! It's only about 300 Mb worth of memory so it will not occupy that much space for what it has to offer. It's fun, it's entertaining and it won't require you to put hours in for every campaign you decide to start. It's just a lot of fun! And you can get it right now at The Steam store for Free!

DISCLAIMER: All of these images except the thumbnail (Which I edited) were taken as screenshots from my own playthrough of the game, I do not own or claim to be the owner of any of these images which are sourced and used in this post.

Also extra thanks to @cancermage for proofreading! Love ya, buddy!

Volderhein Signing out!

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