The success of Disney villainous And Disney Lorcana showed how perfectly Disney’s stories fit into the board game format. And for the women who worked at Ravensburger, there was a clear contender to bring the next wave of characters into a game.
“(We) really wanted to see a game where you could embody some of our favorite characters, Disney princesses, and just be heroines and honestly see them being incredibly badass,” said Lysa Penrose, head of marketing for new games at Ravensburger North America, says Polygoon.
The new board game is a dream team featuring heroines from various Disney films working together in a way rarely shown in films. In Chronicles of Light: Darkness Fallsplayers can choose from Belle (Beauty and the beast), Moana (Moana), maid Marian (Robin Hood), and Violet Parr (The incredible ones). Up to four players work together to save the Realm of Light from the evil Vortex that threatens to take over the land with shadow villains.
In the beginning, players assemble a board full of card tiles that can be combined in different ways and select the quest cards (one of four individualized options for each character) that determine the winning conditions. The game is played in rounds, with players working together throughout the “day” to use a total of six actions. They can heal, move, or use any of the various individualized actions their character cards provide them. In the ‘night’ the Darkness spreads and the Vortex gets a turn. To win the game, players must complete all the quests, defeat all the shadow villains in dice battles, and meet at the Vortex to destroy it.
That’s a lot of moving parts, and how they come together is exactly what makes it Chronicles of Light fascinating. Although it is primarily a board game, Penrose says the cooperative elements and freedom of play make the game “TTRPG-lite.”
“For this latest game, the team has put together several game mechanics that begin to break away from what separates a board game from a more freeform storytelling experience,” she explains.
For example, the way the rounds are designed is not a traditional play order. Much emphasis is placed on cooperation and coordination.
“Everyone at the table needs to discuss this together,” says Penrose. “You have to coordinate, you have to negotiate as a team. Because there are many different priorities on the plate. And honestly, when you play and everyone treats it like: Okay, I choose my action, and then the next person chooses his or her actions, and you try to add a traditional play order to it… anything is possible (but it is) unlikely that the game will succeed. There’s shared decision-making and risk-taking that’s really essential for people to be able to achieve all the different goals that they need to achieve.
Additionally, each of the different character boards is given a number of individualized actions and skills. It’s simpler than dense and potentially intimidating character sheets, especially for younger players, but they all include hit point trackers, spaces for action tiles, and a description of what actions the character can do.
Take Belle for example. In addition to her basic actions of moving and healing, she also has the ability to use her mount, Phillipe, to travel across land spaces and bring companions with her. She has a catapult that she designed that can provide assistance in any battle across the board, as well as a magic book that can help reduce the power of the shadow villains. It’s very true to her character, which was purposeful on behalf of the designers, who really tried to show a wide range of character skills.
Image: Ravensberger and Disney
“A really big part of choosing this mix of characters was because there is so much diversity in Disney heroines,” says Penrose. “We wanted to show that, yes, they will all be incredibly tough in this game. But there are different ways to be tough. You can be cool with a book.”
The game will be available for pre-order on the Target website on July 7 for $29.99, and will hit Target and Hobby stores on July 21. Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls launching in the UK and Europe later this year, with localized German and French translations.