Preview: Pocket Book Adventures

Hold in the palm of your hand a world of adventures and hours of entertainment. The adventures within Pocket Book Adventures designed by David David and published by Grumpy Spider Games will have your adventuring for many an hour in any location (except maybe the pool).

Pocket Book Adventures is a small book full of adventures. The rules for Pocket Book Adventures are easy to understand and wont easily be forgotten between times you open it to adventure. The basics of Pocket Book Adventures are that a player will navigate through many areas fighting monsters and collecting treasure along the way. At the very end of the book you will fight a boss. Along the way you will collect stars for meeting conditions of each map and there is a scale at the end to tell you how awesome or not so awesome you did.

First part of having a game that fits into your pocket and is great to play on the move, is to have a game that does not have extra stuff like dice and tokens that need to be brought along with. Pocket Book Adventures really fits the bill. The only thing you need to play is the small format notebook that is Pocket Book Adventures and a pen or a pencil depending on how you roll. I am an engineer so its a mechanical pencil every time.

The only thing you need to play is the small format notebook that is Pocket Book Adventures and a pen or a pencil

The unique combat system is a dexterity based system that is elegantly deployed. I really do not enjoy most dexterity games, however the system here was pleasuring to me and I really started to get into it after the first time i tried it out. What is the system? Well each foe in the game has a small target with several rings and some areas of those rings are shaded. Then there is the attack bar. This is a line above the foe that has a dot along it. To participate in the battle the player puts the tip of their writing instrument on the dot and then closes their eyes and picks the pen or pencil up and tries to put it back down in the middle of the target. Depending on where the pen or pencil lands determines the outcome of the battle.

The boss battles in the game have some unique surprises in store for players

Most often getting in the center of the target results in losing 0 HP and defeating the foe. I had mentioned the shaded areas on the target earlier, if a player land on them it will activate the foe's special ability. The special abilities will have a singular effect or a long lasting affect that a player will have to get removed. The method used for battles is used throughout the game for other game functions like getting treasure from the chests on the board. The boss battles in the game have some unique surprises in store for players as far as the battle method goes.

To get to the point where you will fight all these foes that I have been talking about you will move according to the area's rules. This gives the levels a fun puzzle solving feel as you try to maximize the amount of foes you defeat and the treasures that you pickup, while minimizing the steps you take. The way you score is by the amount of spaces you move through, the amount of damage dealt to you and the amount of foes defeated. you will get a rating on each level and at the end of the game you can get your rating to see how amazing you did.

Pocket Book Adventures is a fun game to play on your lunch hour or even on your commute (if someone else is driving). I am really excited to get through the whole campaign myself. The unique point and write system is designed well and makes the game approachable to most and feels very natural. This game is only on Kickstarter for a short while longer so I recommend you go check it out and for 12$USD you cant go wrong with this one.

Players: 1

Year Published: 2022

Recommended Ages: 14+

Time to Play: 5-10 minutes per level

A prototype copy of Pocket Book Adventures was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for review purposes by Grumpy Spider Games. This is not the final version of the game and may change in final production.