Expansions

Frequently Asked Questions

~ Expansions, Promos, and Publishing

• How can I get the promotional Spirits from the Kickstarters? <i>(Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island and Heart of the Wildfire)</i>
  The promotional spirits from the core-game Kickstarter (Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island and Heart of the Wildfire) and from the Jagged Earth Kickstarter (Downpour Drenches the World and Finder of Paths Unseen), along with the rest of the promotional items from Jagged Earth, are now packaged as part of the Feather and Flame boxed set.

  In addition, images of the promo spirit panels and their Power Cards from the first KS have been uploaded to BoardGameGeek here, so even if you can't get hold of physical copies you can still print-and-play them. (The cards are never shuffled into any decks, so don't need to match backs or cardstock.)
  Tags: Expansions, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, Heart of the Wildfire, Downpour Drenches the World, 1 more...
• What Spirit Island games / expansions exist? Is there any required order to the expansions?
  The Spirit Island Wiki has this information in both list and graphical form, along with recommendations for frequently asked purchasing questions at the bottom. You can also click through to see the contents of different expansions.

  Retail and crowdfunding versions of Spirit Island products are equivalent; there is no exclusive content.

  Tags: Printings and Editions, Expansions
• What happens if you just add some of the Branch & Claw expansion cards / elements to the game? Do you think you could play with everything from the expansion but the Event Cards?
  Many expansion elements rely on each other to a greater or lesser extent. Mixing in some without others won't break the game, but may skew it.

  Going item-by-item:

  • Scenarios: Are fine to use. Most of these are in the expansion purely because they use the expansion's Scenario Tokens.
  • Adversary: France can be used at Level 1 and below without any trouble. Level 2+ will be harder without Strife tokens and the Event Deck. (Though you can fix the latter by just resolving Slave Rebellion every 4 turns.)
  • Events: Most of them should be usable by skipping the token Event... but this will make the game harder. However, if you look up the Jagged Earth rulebook online, it has rules for playing without Event Cards (without kneecapping Beasts-using Spirits like Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves).
  • New Fear Cards: There are about half a dozen fear cards that don't reference tokens. (They're in the expansion because of new rules, or just to keep effect distribution even.) Including just those 6 will slightly skew the effects of the fear deck, but not in any way that you're apt to notice unless you're a very experienced player.
  • New Blight Cards: The expansion Blight cards don't have a negative ongoing effect, because the Event deck handles that: About 1/3 of the Event cards involve adding Blight / destroying Presence if the island is Blighted. So using the new Blight cards without the Event deck lowers the incentive to keep the Blight Card from flipping early, which in turn slightly lowers difficulty / early-game tension. Doing so also makes the small-pool Blight cards better (especially "Back Against the Wall" / "Aid from Lesser Spirits") because they're less risky.
  • Spirits: Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds needs Wilds tokens. It may have a slightly harder time of it without the possibility of players gaining Minor/Major Powers that add Wilds, but is probably fine. Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves needs Beasts tokens to function well, and Beasts need Event Cards to be good; without Events, Sharp Fangs is almost certainly underpowered unless you use the "Play Without Event" rules from Jagged Earth.
  • New Power Cards: Adding only a subset of new Power Cards is likely to change the distribution of different types of effects, and near-certain to change the elemental distribution (both how often each element appears, and how often each pair of elements appears). The game will absolutely still work, but some Spirits will be invisibly penalized / rewarded (because Power Card draws will on average be lousier/better for their elements), and it may skew strategy depending on what types of effects get added to the deck. This isn't apt to be a big deal if you're just adding a few cards, but if you're adding half the new cards it could be more pronounced. Also, some Major Powers are in the expansion because they shouldn't be part of a small Major Power deck.

  And finally, "Everything except the Event Cards": If you omit the starting Disease from each board, and don't use the "Aid from Lesser Spirits" / "Back Against the Wall" Blight cards, my educated guess is that using everything but the Event Cards wouldn't mess with game difficulty too much - Beast tokens will be much worse (mild difficulty boost), and the Blight Card changes will make things slightly easier. (You could also use Event Cards for token Events only, in which case you're probably making your game easier by 1 or 2 Difficulty?) It's totally untested that way, but if you want to give it a shot, please go for it - and if you have a chance, post to BGG or the >G forums to let me know how it went!
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Events, Learning, Difficulty, Expansions, 0 more...
• What game items have been retired or replaced in expansions?
  Replaced with new cards:

  • Sea Monsters (Major Power in B&C) – new version in JE (capping Fear)
  • Draw Towards a Consuming Void (Major Power in JE) – new version in NI (wording – no functional changes)
  • Growth Through Sacrifice (Minor Power in B&C) – replacement Minor in NI (Roiling Bog and Snagging Thorn)

  Retired:

  • Outpaced (Event in B&C) – retired as of NI
  • War Touches the Island's Shores (Event in B&C) – retired as of NI (which has a new Event with similar theme)
  • A Strange Madness Among the Beasts (Event in B&C) – retired as of JE/NI
  • Tipping Point (Blighted Island Card in B&C) – retired as of NI

  Farmers Seek the Dahan for Aid has not yet been replaced, because that replacement would best be done as part of a Dahan-centric expansion.

  It's fine – but not required – to retire game items "early" (i.e., without buying the expansion which officially says they're retired). That's awkward for replacing game items - since you need the replacement - though some players opt to omit Growth Through Sacrifice, finding the elemental distortion from its absence to be less impactful than it seeing use in play.

  Outpaced, War Touches, Strange Madness, and Tipping Point were all retired for an overly swingy play experience. Original Sea Monsters was so good with Many Minds that it trivialized the game. Growth Through Sacrifice was nearly always game-warpingly good. Draw Towards a Consuming Void was one of the very few things that moves other Spirits' Presence without explicitly stating so, and Nature Incarnate had space on the card sheet, so we printed a replacement.
  Tags: Retired or Replaced Game Items, Expansions, Sea Monsters, Draw Towards a Consuming Void, 6 more...
• When is a good time to add expansion materials from Branch & Claw or Jagged Earth to the core game?
  The only firm recommendation is "not right away!" - they add extra complexity while you're learning the core rules, make some core Invader dynamics more variable (and thus harder to learn), and the awesome variety they offer isn't nearly so awesome without understanding the core game. That said, some players disagree, and you should play however you like!

  As a rough gauge, the more of the below questions you'd say "yes" to, the more natural it'd be to start using the expansion:

  • Are you comfortable with the core game's mechanics? (No longer need to use the player aid cards / look up basic rules in the rulebook while playing, though you might consult the FAQ for edge cases. This question is the most important of the lot.)
  • Have you seen much of the core game's diversity? (Played many of the Spirits / played alongside all of them; taken or considered-taking all of the Minor Powers and many of the Major Powers.)
  • Are you winning games with Difficulty higher than 0? (Playing against Adversaries, or the more difficult Scenarios.)
  • Have you played some of the Medium/High-complexity Spirits?
  • Do you REALLY REALLY like new stuff and want to add the expansion materials as soon as possible?
  • Are there more-experienced players in the game with you? (Particularly if they're already familiar with the expansion materials.)
  • Are you able to predict victory more than a turn in advance? (With the only Invader randomness being the new Explore card, seasoned players can reach a point where they foresee victory multiple turns ahead of time, even when playing on a good difficulty level for them. If you've hit this point, I actively recommend breaking out the expansion, as its Event deck returns an edge of uncertainty - and thus, tension - to such situations.)

  If you can say "yes" to at least 2-3 of these - definitely including the first one - then it's a fine time to add expansion materials. If you can say "yes" to 4 or more of them, no need to keep waiting! You don't need to play through literally everything in the core game's box first. (Though of course if you want to, great, do that!)

  Another reasonable POV someone expressed: "Events - added in the expansion - are best when you have enough of the game system internalized that it's easy to predict what the Invaders will do. The Event Deck combats this by adding some randomness. But if you're not yet at the stage where you feel like you can picture the board 1 or 2 turns in advance, adding Events will just make it harder to do that. So waiting on the expansion until then isn't a bad idea." Though some folks like the Events more for their theme and occasional hard choices than their effects on the Invaders per se, so this may not be universal.
  (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Learning, Expansions