Defenders of the Realm 2022 Expansion Sets

Pete: Alright, Rick, try this.

Rick: Hey buddy, whatcha got?

Pete: Imagine a sprawling sandbox-style, high-fantasy tabletop game world.

Rick: Alright.

Pete: With both fully cooperative and semi-cooperative game modes where you and your fellow players each take on a fantasy hero of the standard-class fare.

Rick: I like options as well as traditions.

Pete: You and your fellow heroes are essentially playing cleanup as you fight against four different overpowered generals and their hordes of acolytes as they come steamrolling in from all four corners of the map. You must battle back against them to save the world.

Rick: Aw, you’re talking about Defenders of the Realm (2010), aren’t you?

Pete: Yes, yes I am, but I’m talking specifically about the Defenders of the Realm: 2022 Release Bundle published by Eagle-Gryphon Games.

Rick: Defenders of the Realm. Highly thematic. Sloppy rules.

Pete: This bundle is packed with four expansions.

Rick: The fate of the world based entirely on the shuffled deck of cards.

Pete: It includes The Hero’s Calling (2021) expansion, a create-a-hero engine that allows players to forge their own hero out of over 1,000 ability card combinations.

Rick: It’s really just a fantasy overlay superimposed on a Pandemic-style board game.

Pete:The Quest of the Realm (2014) deck, featuring 84 standard-sized quest cards, including 52 that are brand new to the game; the Tainted Rose mini-expansion; and Companions & Catacombs (2022), the final expansion in the Defenders of the Realm series, which features new dungeons for players to explore and acquire powerful treasures. Oh, and there’s a revised game board—you know, in case you spilled coffee on the old one.

Rick: I could get behind new and full-sized quest cards.

Pete: Exactly. New ways to distract you as players go after their own thing, screwing over their compatriots and laughing all the way, while putting the fate of the entire realm in jeopardy.

Rick: I love it. When do we play?

Pete: Well, I have to do the unboxing first.

Rick: Alright. But let’s get the gang together. You do the unboxing, I’ll call Keegan, Sarah, Sarah, and Christina and we’ll get this to the table.

Pete: Wait, really?

Rick: Yup.

Pete: No pushback? No faux interpersonal conflict to drive the tension of the dialogue narrative forward?

Rick: Nope.

Pete: But I was expecting a fight. Now I have all of this nervous energy, and I’m not sure what to do with it. 

Rick: It’ll work out. You set up the unboxing and I’ll send out some texts to the group. Then you and I can talk secret alliances to gang up against the rest of our friends in the game.

Pete: Okay—hang on. While I’m doing the unboxing, you will be sending out all of the text messages alone? And then you say that you and I are gonna talk about secret alliances? I get the feeling I’m getting screwed over here.

Rick: You got me in a box.