Reflets d’Acide !

Game overview

JBX

Fabien Dalmasso, Fred Vigneau, Lunart Christophe Bastin, Jérémie Morand, Julien Escalas, Agathe Nazarenko.

Atalia / Maender-Alkoor

≃ $ 71

90 - 180 min

1 - 12 players - 14+

Download the rules - Competition mode (12 Mo) (French version)

Download the rules - Competitif mode (15 Mo) (French version)

Do you know Reflets d’Acide?

“Of course, what a question!”

Well, you’re in luck, because I myself didn’t know this universe.

“No, what is it?”

In that case, let me explain it to you in a few words thanks to my friend Google.

Reflets d’Acide is a humorous audio saga released in 2002 and created by JBX. This ” medieval-role-playing-fantasy” MP3 saga (as the author likes to mention it) is inspired by the role-playing game “Reflets d’Acier” and turns it into a parody.

If you want to know more about this wonderful saga, you will find all the necessary information to satisfy your curiosity by clicking here.

Well, that’s all well and good, but what about the board game?

After a successful crowdfunding campaign on Ulule in November 2018, the saga is now available as a board game after 9 years of development (2012-2021) to the great pleasure of fans; and to my great pleasure as well, because it is thanks to this game that I was able to discover this series.

The game offers 2 modes: :

Cooperative (1, 2 or 3 players) where you will have to accomplish a quest while fighting against the Avatar of the Void as well as the team of the viles.
But beware, you’ll have to be quick! If the Avatar of the Void catches up with you or if the team of villains completes their quest before you finish yours, you’ve lost.

Competitive (2 to 12 players) where the goal is to collect the most epic points to win the game.
This mode is also called :
- Dual for 2 players.
- Classic – from 3 to 6 players.
- Co-management – from 6 to 12 players (two players manage a team).

The game also mixes role playing and board game mechanics, but no need for a dungeon master, or anything of the kind. Instead, you’ll play as a narrator whose role will be to guide the team of heroes you’ve selected and narrate their adventure. Their destiny is in your hands, and it’s up to you to protect them or sacrifice them as you see fit.

So, are you interested in a humorous adventure in Maender-Alkoor? Would you like to complete an epic quest?

Then follow the guide!

What's in the box?

: Content of the box

: In the box you’ll find a nice poster with the names of Ulule campaign contributors on the back.

: At the beginning of the game, you pick a treasure card and a quest card.

: The zone cards represent the 6 places you will pass through before reaching the abyss

: The dice: including 1 golden one for the progression of the pawns, the tests or to select a hero in particular.

Board that represents your journey from the city of Maender-Alkoor to the gate of the Abyss

Individual double-sided trays for cooperative and competitive modes

Dice board that will be used to validate your individual or collective objectives

Case where you can keep your quest card and other cards during the game

Player aid cards that are very useful

Pawns representing the 8 teams as well as the avatar of the Void (cooperative mode) and the Dragoness (competitive mode)

Dice that will allow you to control the progression of the pawns and to test events

Tokens (mysteries, portal, divine hand, challenges, vitality markers...)

125

Gems that represent the game's currency

273

Cards (63 Heroes, 12 Quests, 9 Relics, 56 LOOT, 36 Zones, 6 Gates, 10 Rooms, 69 Events, 6 Chance, 6 Treasures)

Rules manuals (Cooperation, Competition, and Reference Guide)

And what about the rules?

In the gaming industry, writing rules is rarely fun.

They have to be clear, precise and must make players want to play, without losing them along the way.

In Reflets d’Acide, the author of the game has clearly realized this, and he has spoiled you because you have not 1, not 2, but 3 large rulebooks!

No, no! Don’t go away! Let me explain.

The game offers you 1 rulebook per game mode, namely :

One for the cooperative mode (for 1 to 3 players).
Another one for the competitive mode (for 2 to 12 players).

Each one is exactly 16 pages long, including 9 pages of explanations on the way to play a turn.

They follow the same guideline: that is, the author of the game takes you by the hand and explains step by step the events you will encounter. Everything will make sense as the game progresses. And as it is mentioned in the manual, read it thoroughly before playing. Everything will make sense as the game progresses.

Finally, the 3rd manual, consisting of 12 pages and called “reference manual”, contains many explanations on :

The symbols you will encounter in the game.
The structure of the different types of cards.
The use of the tokens.
How to organize your game.

As you can see, everything is well structured, well explained and explicit, with numerous examples.

Still not convinced?

What if I tell you about the NAIN?

No, I’m not talking about a grumpy little creature with a lot of hair (Nain meaning dwarf in French), but about the digital interactive narrator that you’ll find here.

As its name implies, it is an assistant who will guide you during your game to explain different rule points. Perfect for those who hate rule manuals and for those who want to start playing the game for the first time.

All right, and how does it play?

: Place a green mystery token between a gray and a red mystery token.

: During setup, randomly draw the zone cards and place them on their respective zones.

: Place a gate card face down just before the Abyss.

: Place randomly face down the 10 room cards in the Abyss.

: The Void follows its own track before catching up with you.

: The game will offer you different challenges: it’s up to you to choose which one before the game

: The boards of the cooperative mode as well as the board of the villains and the dice board

: As soon as you have cumulated 4 gems of the same color, you can use the associated power

: Event cards with dilemma can be placed in their respective slots for later use.

: During the blessing phase, you can choose 1 blessing on a blue background.

: To gain more epic points I decide to put a “good” hero as team leader.

: The currency of the game: gems

: In black : mystery tokens.
In blue: perilous shortcut.
In red: chance square.
In green: mystery token of your team.
In purple: empty square.

: Place the Avatar of the Void and the green pawn symbolizing your team of heroes on their respective squares.

In order to run I throw the white dice in addition to the yellow dice.

Even if I still have movement points, I will have to stop on a zone card.

In this example, I can :

Go to a chance square or a peril square.

Or an empty square

In this section, I will give you an overview of the cooperative mode (1 to 3 players) by explaining the main features of this mode. Thanks to this, I hope you will be able to form an opinion about it. :)

What is the purpose of the game?

You, the narrator, will put together a team of 6 heroes to complete your quest. Not only do you have to complete your quest before the team of villains, but also before the avatar of the Void catches up with you.

You win if you manage to complete your quest.

You lose if the Avatar of The Void catches up with you and/or if the team of villains complete their quest before yours.

The setting up

Unfold the board and place the 7 gray and red mystery tokens on their spaces.

The white pawn of the Avatar of the Void is placed on his square and the green pawn of your team on the city of Maender-Alkoor.

Place the Room, Zone and Gate cards randomly face down on their respective spaces.

Place the LOOT, Relic, Hero and Event cards, as well as the Vitality, Portal and Relic tokens, on the dedicated slots.

The following items are placed in plain sight:

The bag of gems, the dice, the Mystery Tokens, the player aid and the case.

The dice track, the villain board and the influence boards.

5 gems of different colors to place on each influence board and the villain board.

Randomly draw a quest card and place it face up ( it’s yours), as well as the opposite quest on the villain’s board.

We draw 6 heroes and place them face down on the villains’ board (your enemies). We do the same thing on our influence boards, leaving them face up. They will constitute your team.

Then we choose a Challenge, that is to say the difficulty of the game.

We place randomly (to go faster) the mystery tokens face down on the board.

And that’s it! As you can see, the set up is not very complicated. Everything finds its place naturally on the game board.

Playing the game

A game turn consists of 4 phases:

Blessing (optional).
Movement.
Resolution.
End of the turn.

I. Blessing phase

During this phase you can only use one skill from your hero cards, dilemma cards, or loot cards. They are indicated by a blue background.

II. Movement phase

Roll the yellow dice:

Move the Avatar of the Void (white pawn) forward as many squares as the result of the dice tells you to. You can slow down your enemy, so for each gem spent he will move back one square.
Note : The Avatar of the Void always progresses at least 1 square.

You now have the choice between :

Walking

You earn 1 gem from the bank and move your green pawn at least as many spaces as the result of the yellow dice.

Running

(Very useful if the Avatar of the Void is close to you). In exchange for a gem, you roll a white dice in addition to the yellow dice. Add up the two results to find out how many squares you can move forward from here.

There are a few rules for moving:

You must always stop on a zone card or a gate card, even if the maximum move result is not reached.
You can stop on a “?” token, chance square, or a peril square even if the maximum move result is not reached.
You can only stop on an empty square if the number of squares you have moved through corresponds exactly to the result of the dice.

III. Resolution phase

If you land on :

Empty square : nothing happens.

Green, red or gray mystery token with a golden background: use it immediately or put it on hold on one of your hero boards.

Green Mystery token with brown background: play it immediately and place it in your case.

Red or gray mystery token : use it immediately and place it on the Villains board.

Chance square: choose either a bonus among the 5 proposed (win gems, draw a hero…) or roll a dice and win all the bonuses of lower value than your result.

Peril square: if the yellow dice indicates a hero, this one must perform a vitality test

Whichever option you choose, your turn will end at the end of it.

If you come across a zone card

Reveal the zone card + the event cards and resolve them.

IV. End of turn phase

Just give the first player token to the person on your left.

How do we count the points?

If your heroes have successfully completed your quest, count the points as follows:

Count the epic points on your quest card.

Each hero brings a certain number of victory points written on his card.

Count all the points placed in your case (zone card, events won…).

Each set of 5 gems will give you + 5 points, no matter what color it is.

Do the same thing for the villains’ team, except that you will subtract of your score all the points obtained by the villains.

Depending on the challenge used, if the difference in points between your team and the villains’ team is greater than or equal to the target challenge you have won!

What about the game's mechanics ?

The game uses the codes of role-playing games. This means that each hero has unique attributes that can evolve during the game.

Among these characteristics we find :

Attack.
Perception.
Intelligence.
Agility.
Defense.

They will be very useful during the numerous individual or collective tests that you will encounter during your journey. These characteristics will determine if your hero will be able to succeed or not.

Explanation of an individual test.

Let’s take a look at the third picture:

Here, our hero Barney has been chosen by the yellow dice of destiny. He will have to pass an agility test, a characteristic he masters rather well with a value of 4. To pass this first test, he will have to collect a minimum of 2 stars.

To do this:

He rolls the 5 dice and places them on the dice board, comparing the results with his agility (of value 4).

This dice board is split in two, the upper part is for successes while the lower part is for failures. The result of the dice indicates on which square to place it. For example, if the result of the dice is lower than the hero’s characteristic, we place it at the top: it is a simple success.

Once the dice are placed, we can look at the result:

Dice with numbers 3 and 1 are simple successes and give him 1 star each.

Dice 4 is a critical success and gives him 1 gem and 2 stars.

Dice with a result of 6 is a critical failure, he will have to pay 1 gem to the bank and loses 1 star.

Dice 5 is a simple failure, nothing happens.

With a result of 3 stars Barney has passed the agility test and can proceed to the next test: an attack test.

What are LOOT cards?

When you say role-playing game, you think about LOOT (for the neophytes, it could be translated as a reward, or an object found in a chest, on a monster…).

These LOOT cards will modify the characteristics of the hero who will carry it. However, you have to be careful because some cards have a pre-requisite in order to use them (for example, an anti-elven axe cannot be used by a hero of elven race, that goes without saying).

: When I arrive on a zone I pay its cost, then I draw 2 event cards, then I draw 2 gems and place them on the board of the villains (in the case of an easy challenge).

: I put the gems on the board of the villains. If 4 gems of the same color appear on the board, I must use the associated power

: The resolution of an individual test

: You will have to classify the result of your dice according to the attribute of the tested hero

: When you win a LOOT card, you assign it to a hero. The previous characteristic is overwritten by the new one.

: Hero, LOOT, Relic and Event cards

How does the solo mode work?

The single-player mode is basically the same as the cooperative mode.

The only change is during the set up of the game.

Take the 2 influence boards with slots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and place them side by side. Take 3 white and 3 black dice and that’s it!

The rest of the game is played as usual.

Of course you will have to be organized to carry out the different vitality tests or collective objectives, but nothing too difficult.

What I liked... or not

Quality of the material

All the material offered in the game box is of high quality. The boards and cards have a "linen finish".

The dice are engraved and marbled, the boards of influence have indentations to place the gems, there is no stickers to stick on the pawns, these are also engraved.

And also a nice little purse to hold your 125 gems.

The game modes

The game offers you 2 game modes ( competitive and cooperative) of varying durations and according to the number of players.
Not to mention the possibility of playing solo ahhh! that's so great!

N.A.I.N : the virtual assistant

The game also offers a virtual assistant that will help you understand the rules step by step and will assist you in every action taken during the game.

However, although the website is responsive for tablets, computers and smartphones, I would have preferred a smartphone app, much easier to use and more convenient.

The Challenges

At the beginning of each game, you must choose the difficulty of the game in the form of a "challenge" .
If you succeed in one of them, you will be able to check one of the 5 boxes of the completed challenge in the manual.

Each box checked will bring you rewards that will be cumulated for the next games, which will give you an advantage at the beginning of the next game.

Complexity of the rules

Even if the rules are well explained and well structured, the game requires a minimum of involvement.

You have to accept not knowing everything and making many mistakes during your first game, which can be discouraging.

However this does not take away the fun that the game provides. So please keep at it, you won't be disappointed!

Conclusion

Score

Reflets d’Acide allows you to live an epic adventure by accomplishing different quests, in a medieval fantasy universe full of humor.

You don’t need to know the saga to fully enjoy the board game.

The game has benefited from a very long development and it shows!

The rules are well written with a few touches of humor. While reading these rules, I felt all the love that the author wished to transmit for his game.

Reflets d’Acide is a game that will grow in flavor over time, with a challenge system that not only allows you to customize the difficulty of the game but also gives it a certain amount of longevity.

The saga has a solid community that will be there to help you in case of questions or need for clarification of the rules, and will, I’m sure, make you discover this rich and funny universe with great pleasure.

For my part, I loved this game which will proudly stand among my best games of the moment.