Shadows of Malice

Tabletop Game
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Shadows of Malice

2014 | Adventure | Fantasy

Shadows of Malice is a cooperative game in which 1-8 player(s) work to unseal hidden Wells of Light to prevent the shadow demon Xulthûl from gaining a physical form and overrunning the Realm of Aethos.

The Wells are located in strongholds scattered throughout the Realm and defended by powerful Guardians. Over the centuries, many of the Wells have fallen Dark, but if the players can find and unseal the remaining Light Wells they prevent Xulthûl from gaining substance and win the game. If Xulthûl’s Shadows, however, manage to defile a single Light Well, the demon will gain a body and enter the Realm. If this happens, the players must defeat Xulthûl in battle to save the Realm.

Players control avatars, heroic champions imbued with unique masteries over Light. Each turn, the players move through the Realm, confronting their fate, battling creatures with deadly abilities, and engaging the services of cities and mystics in order to gather the potions, treasure, and soulshards they will need to defeat the stronghold Guardians and unseal the Wells they protect. The Light or Dark nature of each Well is revealed only when its Guardian is defeated.

Meanwhile, Xulthûl’s Shadows are thickening in the Shadow Realm and will enter the game at random times in random locations, seeking the one Well that will bring about the entrance of their master.



No. of Players 1-8
Playing Time 120-240 min
Age 14+
Mechanics Action Point Allowance System, Area Movement, Co-operative Play, Dice Rolling, Role Playing, Storytelling, Variable Player Powers
Designer Jim Felli
Artist Jim Felli
Publisher Devious Weasel Games

Images And Data Courtesy Of: Devious Weasel Games.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance with Fair Use.

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Paul Kellett

Added this item on Mar 6, 2018

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Paul Kellett (118 KP) rated

May 8, 2019  
Shadows of Malice
Shadows of Malice
2014 | Adventure, Fantasy
Great framework for narrating an adventure (2 more)
Good solo game
Interesting mechanisms
A lot of fiddly tokens (1 more)
Slightly heavy rules
A different take on the adventure board game
Shadows of Malice is an interesting take on the adventure game. Aside from the introduction explaining that you are heroes on a quest to find and activate mystical light wells and defeat the demon and his shadows before they can break through from the shadow realm and capture the wells for evil, there is no fancy artwork, immersive flavour text or even the well known fantasy monsters.


Instead, you get plain cards with simple line art and either just an icon/dice modifier or a short line of text explaining the effect. These cards are items of armour, weapons or other loot, potions, skill masteries, fate effects or abilities. A selection of these make up your character. Again, there are no defined heroes, you can be whatever you fancy being.

When you encounter a monster you roll 3d6 against a chart which will define the creature's species and its strength. Creature types are things like "Avian" and "Reptilian" so you can imagine fighting a dinosaur, a giant eagle or whatever fantastic creature you desire.

This makes the game a great framework to roleplay in. You are never stuck encountering the same things again and again. On the minus side, if you don't have a good imagination, it boils down to just rolling dice and beating target numbers. If you want a game to give you a story to follow, SoM is not that game.

The rules are good, if a little heavy but after a game or two it should soon click and it's mostly straight forward. The designer has recently just uploaded a revised rulebook to BGG which streamlines a number of things.

SoM comes with 4 large landscape hex tiles plus a shadow realm tile and you can choose any number of tiles to arrange in any position around the shadow realm tile. Each tile is divided into a number of smaller hexes with varying terrain and locations printed on them. This is the world you will be exploring and, despite being tiny compared to other game boards, each tile adds about an hour to the play time.

Gameplay involves exploring the land fighting creatures, gaining loot, visiting cities to trade goods or mystic seers to buy potions while searching for the special light wells that you must take control of.

In between player turns, the shadows act. They begin confined to the shadow realm but as the rounds progress, barriers fall and the shadows are more likely to find a way out to manifest in the land. Once there they start searching for the light wells and it's game over if they get to them first .

This makes for a tense cat and mouse with your heroes racing to either get to a well or intercept the demons on route.
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