Fans of tabletop games have another crowdfunding project to keep an eye on. Portal Games, the same studio behind the crowdfunded project Eleven: Football Manager, have officially announced that will be making Thorgal: The Board Game.
For those not aware, Thorgal: The Board Game is an adaptation of the Franco-Belgian comic of the same name. Starting out as a small comic serial in Tintin magazine back in 1977, Thorgal quickly expanded into its own long-running heroic sci-fi fantasy comic series. It is one of the most popular French language comics published with over 11 million books sold, three spin-off series released, and it has been successfully translated and circulated across multiple languages.
The stories themselves follow the warrior Thorgal, an alien whose ship crash-lands on Earth during the time of vikings and is raised by them. While seen as different and alien to them, Thorgal possesses not just a compassionate heart, but great skill with a bow as well as some unexplained supernatural gift. What follows are a collection of heroic adventures mixing Norse mythology, sci-fi alien technology, elements of the supernatural, and even the lost city of Atlantis.
As for what exactly Thorgal: The Board Game will be, Portal Games' press release went into further detail. The game was designed by Joanna Kijanka, Jan Maurycy, and Rafał Szyma. It will be a cooperative board game for 1-4 players. You can play as either Thorgal, his wife Aaricia, their son Jolan, or the warrior Kriss. The scenarios will be presented in a storybook adventure format. There will be 10 scenarios total, each one roughly 90-120 minutes, and are all completely self-contained adventures.
These scenarios will have players going across multiple maps and will include hidden paths, unique characters to engage with, as well as side objectives to help with their ultimate goal. In addition, there will be replay value for these scenarios since the interactions will be different depending on what character you're playing as, not to mention what characters will show up in which scenario is randomized. Finally, there will be moral decisions you make as a group, which will determine character development throughout the events of each scenario.
Thorgal: The Board Game's crowdfunding campaign will be going live May 2022 on Gamefound (a platform that has recently received a partnership with Ravensburger) with a planned retail release sometime in 2023.
