First Look - Charterstone

By: Dozer

Editor's Note: This post has been a yo-yo, going up and down over and over again. This may not be the first time you've seen this come up. Sorry for any confusion. - Dozer

I can now say that Stonemaier Games makes some of my favorite boardgames since I've played my first game of Charterstone. They are also the designers and makers of Scythe and the two expansions (with a third to drop soon).

Charterstone is a legacy style format village building game. Each game builds towards the completion of a campaign. Right now I am playing a two player campaign with Shonty. We've played our first game last weekend and it was awesome. I handle the various boxes while Shonty reads outloud the cards and new rules.

I want to blitz through the rules but that does two things. Firstly I fuck up the rules all the time. Plenty of folks have to correct my initial reading of the rules. Secondly Shonty is a visual learner and me reading through them quickly just gets her confused and lost. So I have to hold back and listen and it's a better experience for everyone involved.

To get a good idea of what the game is about without spoilers check out the video below. If you don't mind some minor hints of what's to come, the rest of the post on just the first game is after the break below the video.

Charterstone so far has been a great game and very interesting and I've just wanted to keep playing.

Some of the mechanics were a little wonky to understand at first but by slowing down and some help by the interactive FQA (which is broken down so they don't spoil the game) we were able to figure them out.

Last bit of advice before the break - Do Not Open the Re-Charge pack. It has spoilers and when I got the game, my brother Nate who bought both the game and a re-charge pack unwrapped both boxes. I took a look inside and I regret doing it. There is a single item that I won't mention and I wonder where it is in the game but I can't wait to find out why said random item is in the game.

Now lets talk about game one...

Our board ready for game two. Note the charter boxes and the map getting filled out.

The game mechanic that made me think and solves so many problems in influence. It's finite (so far) and every player get's 12 influence. Every time you ship material back to the homeland you must spend an influence, which gets used to take up a spot on the scoring zone.


Reputation also is another use for influence. When you earn reputation you take one of your influence and use it to mark your gained reputation. Influence is used to pay for major upgrades, crates, and material from advanced structures. Lastly when you score objectives you must pay for those scores with influence. When you run out of influence the game clock advances on each of your turns instead of when two other specific actions occur.

This means the game will level itself out with actions, eventually you will run out of influence and once you do the clock starts to tick faster.

I do like that the game counter only moves forward when three things happen; building a structure, opening a crate, or when a player with no influence gets their turn. The games wont drag on and it moves at a good pace. Once me and Shonty figured out the rules the game started to fly - a feeling I've also had with Scythe.

Note that a lot happens in the first game. Rules are slowly added and introduced to the rule book and players are gently brought into the game mechanics. The games does tell you that the second game will have more restrictions when it comes to what you carry over between games and the campaign suddenly feels finite as you ready yourself for the second game.

Right away I wanted to play the next game, and the game reminds you over and over again that the campaign is the goal not just winning each game. There is value in thinking in the long term and the rewards are right there on the box.

Showing off the content of my box:
Influence tokens (x12), scoring marker (x1), my available personas (x2)
Includes resources (x2 workers, x4 bricks, x2 allies, and x2 crates) I was able to carry over at the end of the first game.

Speaking of boxes there are a few boxes. Boxes with stuff to unlock, boxes with cards, boxes to hold the game pieces, and your box. This box hold your campaign scoring and the material you bring from one game to another. Note that after your first game a limit of what you can bring over from game to game kicks in but you can upgrade that limit throughout the campaign.

I'm looking forward to my next game with Shonty. Last Saturday for her birthday we played three  games of Charterstone. 

For me a big take away from this game is what you unlock and what you don't unlock. I've heard and read that up to 2/3rds of the deck can stay in the index (the card catalog with all the stuff you unlock). The main game comes with a double sided board so that means with a simple re-charge pack you can play through two games with two different experiences.

It's a smart design choice and it means that once Shonty and I finish our game the experience will be different when we play with other folks. I'd really like to play a larger game with family and friends and try out new things that will unlock the stuff I've not yet seen.

That and the thing I can't mention - the fire. If you've seen it then you know what I'm talking about. Can't wait to figure out why it's in the game.

First looks, Charterstone is great and I can't wait to play again.

- Cheers