Parker, Shea (September 12, 2017). "3 Games That Bring Choose Your Own Adventure Stories To The Tabletop". Nerdist . Retrieved September 15, 2017.

Duffy, Owen (January 27, 2018). "Review: Near and Far, a story-driven board game that almost works". Ars Technica . Retrieved February 22, 2018. Near and Far: Amber Mines is the first expansion to Near and Far. It includes modules that you can add or remove according to your preferences. The modules are detailed below. Thrower, Matt (December 20, 2017). "Board masters: the 11 best board games of 2017". Stuff . Retrieved March 1, 2018. In a two player game, only seven adventures are placed on the map, resulting in roughly 3 per player per game. This results in, much like Above and Below, a management game with some storytelling thrown in. With more players, one player could monopolize these roleplaying opportunities, so there is some competition there. Resources include banners, food, money and gems. The game can be played as an ongoing, 10 game campaign, with each session being played on a different map. [5]To find out about duelling go to chapter five. To find out about fighting go to chapter five (b). Chapter Five What is this Questing thing? For each game session you will have a certain number of quest tokens based on the number of players. These will usually be fairly randomly placed across the map (there are a very few minor restrictions). When you reach a quest location you will have the relevant quest read out to you along with two choices of action. An example of this might be Near and Far is a sequel to Above and Below and comes with a book of encounters. This time players read over 10 game sessions to get to the end of the story. Each chapter is played on a totally new map with adventures and unique art.

If you are in the market for a ruthlessly opportunistic route-building game, better options are available. Via Nebula and Yamataï both cover similar ground in interesting ways and, while they don’t have anything approaching Near and Far’s narrative appeal, are both fantastic games in their own right. In addition, if a player stops on a location with a book icon, the indicated adventure is read from the Adventure Book which presents a light roleplaying encounter to the active player. This usually involves a player making a roll against their “skill” or “combat” score to determine success with the hopes of gaining resources and reputation. In Near and Far, you and up to three friends explore many different maps while looking for the Last Ruin, recruiting adventurers, hunting for treasure, and competing to be the most storied traveler. You must gather food and equipment in town for long journeys to mysterious locales, making sure to get enough weapons to fight off bandits, living statues, and rusty robots! Sometimes in your journeys you'll run into something unique and one of your friends will read what happens to you from a book of stories, giving you the option on how to react, creating a new and memorable tale each time you play. On one side of the coin, Near and Far is a game about equipping an adventuring party by visiting various buildings in town. On the other side, players make choices about which locations outside of town to visit and, possibly, have adventures requiring heroic choices. The results of these and the placement of camps deliver journey points, the victory currency of the game. Characters available on the main board can join your party for a price. You roll a D6, add to this the total number of swords you have in your adventure party and on Treasure or Artefact cards for combat, or hands for skills and hey presto if your total is higher than that of the target you win.Krause, Daniel (April 26, 2016). "Was ist „Near and Far" von Red Raven Games für ein Spiel?". Brettspiel News . Retrieved September 21, 2017. Both the Campaign mode and the Character mode have their own set of rules on how to play, and their own set of quests to read from the book. The quest book is big, clearly laid out and intelligently they have spiral bound it. Making it easy to read. The Arcade mode has adventure cardsinstead of using the quest book. This helps stop you accidentally learning spoilers to the main through arcade play. It all feels a lot like playing an old Fighting Fantasy game book, and Near and Far does a decent job of maintaining interest in the campaign from one game to the next. But it also highlights what, for me, was the game’s greatest flaw. While the unfolding narrative is a lot of fun, it doesn’t quite sit comfortably with the route-building, stat-boosting, more mechanical aspects that make up the bulk of the game. Actual in-character plot decisions are the highlights of every session, but opportunities to enjoy them are sparse. Everything else feels slightly muted by comparison, like having to finish your homework before you’re allowed to play video games. Just as Dungeons & Dragons derives success from the ground level view of an adventuring group, so does Near and Far benefit from zooming out one level. It simulates an entire adventuring campaign in one game, offering glimpses of the same types of management decisions while offering a paucity of the personal roleplaying decisions. Alongside the Atlas you have a Town Board which is double-sided with one as dusk and one as day. Here you farm, mine, trade, recruit adventurers and gain treasure to aide you. The Town Board is the only place that player interaction really takes place. This is because usually no two players can occupy the same town location without duelling first (except for the Saloon, everyone is friendly there).

In Near and Far, gamers looking for a strong storytelling element will find it here, but must also wade through repetitive games of management of resources. The differences between plays are highlighted mostly in the stories and rarely in other game content. While it’s gorgeous and offers excitement with hearing a new adventure, Near and Far also somewhat disappoints on a mechanical level. This module includes a new General Store tile which you place over the top of the General Store on the town board. It has slightly altered actions and gives players another way to place camps.This is also the case when it comes to player interaction. Near and Far tells personal stories, and as such, there’s not much that players will do with each other. Even the duels in town that occur when one player wishes to visit a location occupied by another are not really filled with drama. The real element of tension between players mostly comes from competition over limited game resources.

Four wanderers search for the Last Ruin, a city that legends say holds an artifact that will grant the greatest desires of the heart. A lost love, redemption, acceptance, a family rejoined-- these are the fires that fuel the wanderers' journeys, but can they overcome their own inner demons and greed along the way? Will you be competing against other adventurers to secure that quest, recruit that mercenary from the saloon or dig up riches from the mines? You will laugh at some of the stories and find yourself reading them in character as you become more immersed with every play. Having a high score at the end almost feels secondary as the whole point of this game is going on quests and experiencing the stories that unfold.

Overview:

I’ve appreciated that sandbox sense of freedom in games ever since, and it’s something that Near And Far, a campaign-driven board game from designer Ryan Laukat, strives to emulate. A sequel to his 2015 release Above and Below, Near and Far casts players as heroes embarking on perilous quests across a series of fantasy realms. While that might sound like the premise for at least a million other tabletop adventure games, Near and Far comes with a level of style, imagination, and originality that elevates it above the generic orc-stomping titles on the market. What is this about an Atlas you ask? Ingeniously to aid in the immersion of the story based aspect of the game. Instead of just having one game board which would mean visiting the same locations again and again and again….add infinitum. You stumble through the undergrowth into a clearing. You spot a child crying on a tree stump. There appears to be a faint glow around him”