A horror board game runs on a tightrope: we are talking about a product that, normally, should scare, but that hardly manages to do it while you are on a table, with other friends and the lights on. For this reason, many games try to somehow replicate that feeling within a mechanic, sometimes succeeding or at least getting close to it. For this when we have seen Tales of Evil the spark was immediately triggered: a particular game, an adventure (and not only) that mixes horror and those films made up of little heroes ready to solve problems. Tales of Evil is a game by Escape Studios, born from the mind of Antonio Ferrara, which offers some functional mechanics - one in particular really interesting - and a plot capable of capturing you from the first moment.
The packaging
The box we received is the one dedicated to Kickstarter and immediately shows a peculiar luminescence in the dark which, in addition to making it stand out with the lights out among your board games, still propose an original solution. Once opened, the game consists of some cards (standard size), of the map tiles that you will have to use to assemble the scenario during the adventure, of the manuals that you will need to advance the plot (to be exact one for that main and one with three mini-adventures) and some tokens that we will see later. The game also features well-detailed miniatures (for coloring), a strong knowledge of 80s and 90s pop culture and fluorescent dice which in the simplicity of being d6 perform many functions. The quality of the production is exceptional: the tokens are resistant, the cards are excellent workmanship and the coloring of the tiles is fantastic. Precisely these, which perhaps in similar games to give a touch of horror are lost in a slew of unclear details, here are bright and colorful, detailed and well structured, as if they had come out of one of those horror films a couple of decades ago. .
The mechanics
The first mechanic of the game is very close to the book-game: playing Tales of Evil and advancing in the plot, in fact, you will find yourself having to make choices. These, which will be decided democratically by pointing a finger (after counting up to three), will make you jump between the various pages of the main plot "The Mystery of the Demonic Puppeteer" changing the game based on what you do and choose. Assimilated this, the second thing to understand is the management of the character: from time to time, in fact, the actions will be chosen and carried out by the active player, or the one who holds the Walkie-Talkie token. By switching rooms, the token will turn and give the management to another player, advancing in this way and preventing the players from separating. On the other hand we are talking about a product that simulates children's adventures in a horror mystery, hardly in those types of content these young people find themselves separating, but more than anything else they tend to face the adventure together.
The character sheet (which on the back offers a background of the character) gives space to the status cards of the chosen boy: these, which will change according to the difficulty or if you run out of some tokens, will give different values going to scale. The three important values are Body, Mind and Fright: the first two will be removed respectively when you take physical or mental damage, while the third only when you lose Body or Mind points without having those relative tokens available. Once the scare tokens are finished, you will lose the status card by exchanging it for the next one.
The status card then has 6 values: Attack, Defense, Strength, Courage, Dexterity and Perception. The first two will come into play during the fights, while the other four during the challenge tests; regardless, the value will mark how many dice you need to roll. Speaking of dice, they will contain three values per face: a number, a symbol and an arrow. The symbols will create a very interesting success system, sometimes even giving you battery tokens, useful for activating special abilities (three different cards for each character). The other values instead will be used in specific cases that we do not want to ruin you, you will understand this by playing the plot.
Tales of Evil will also propose, as you advance in the game, random events generated by the homonymous cards that, magically, will intersect in the story in an exceptional way. Other cards in the game will be Equipment (useful for upgrading your character), Special cards, Discovery cards and Trauma cards. There will also be 6 chapter cards that will manage the progress of the main story, while the game will manage some of the objects you will find (useful for advancing). Finally, as far as these objects are concerned, the desire to pay homage to all the horror, nerd and 80s imagery with a series of references that will make more than a fan of the aforementioned genres smile. Obviously, don't expect everything to go smoothly: the events, the choices, the failed challenges and any possible unpredictability will aim to put a spoke in the wheel, even sometimes making you fail the missions in a miserable way.
Fusion System
The real pearl of this game, however, remains the Fusion System, a system more than a game mechanic, capable of making your life a hell (of laughter). What's interesting is the way it adds that horror touch that many games lack: without detracting from the narrative of Tales of Evil, or the rest of the mechanics, but this system adds fantastic unpredictability. Basically, sometimes it will happen that to be able to perform an action, you have to do something in the real world; we don't want to ruin the experience, but basically an hourglass will give time to a player who, in order to have a bonus / remove malus / succeed in a business, will have to take an object, or do something, or say something in real life. On top of everything, this Fusion System becomes an exceptional icebreaker, capable of bringing the atmosphere of the game down to the match.
The game is not difficult, on the contrary, you immediately understand the mechanism that moves it and, after the first half hour, you will be able to play everything else smoothly. However, we invite you not to rush, to enjoy all the adventure and every single reading. A chapter lasts about a couple of hours, so it's very manageable and in six sessions, hopefully, you'll close the main storyline. Finally, the editor of adventures is interesting, which will allow you to create your own (by downloading a simple software or using only your imagination).
