Brotherwise Games, LLC

Call to Adventure

Epic Origins Returns the Game to its Roots

By Chris and Johnny O’Neal, Brotherwise Games

Brotherwise Games launched the original Call to Adventure in 2018. The hero-crafting game was an immediate hit, providing a gaming experience that was part engine builder, part story game, and part RPG. Since then, the series has explored other literary fantasy worlds with its Stormlight Archive and Name of the Wind expansions, but the next offering in this series returns the game to its roots. Call to Adventure: Epic Origins leans heavily into the RPG-inspired adventure that brought many gamers into the hobby in the first place, and it adds some unique mechanics to the game to do so.

Heritages

Call to Adventure heroes have always started the game with an Origin, a Motivation, and a Hidden Destiny. Epic Origins adds a Heritage card to that mix. Now, you can begin the game as a dwarf, an elf, or a halfling, or even a construct or dragon-kin. Heritage cards flesh out your hero’s story in a way that feels right for RPG-style heroes, but they don’t hold you back. Each provides unique abilities, but no single Heritage is better than another in Epic Origins.

Class cards

Class cards provide a 5E-flavored alternative to the “Motivations” of the base game. Now your hero can begin the game as a Barbarian, Ranger, or any number of other classes. Classes start without any abilities, but by investing experience points, you can level them up and gain new abilities over the course of the game, getting more powerful as you do so.

All new, dynamic Adversaries

While you can play Epic Origins competitively, it’s been fine-tuned as a cooperative experience where the players face off against the Adversary as a party of adventurers. And the Adversaries themselves have evolved. Now you’ll face the Adversary’s Champion in Acts 1 and 2, before the Final Adversary reveals themself in Act 3. And unlike previous editions, Epic Origins Adversaries have a set of insidious abilities and a dedicated deck of feat cards they constantly deploy to trouble your heroes.

The Ultimate Session Zero

And since Epic Origins is the natural start to character building for an RPG campaign, we’ve also issued a Conversion Guide to take your hero into a 5E setting. There’s even a specially designed Character Sheet to make the experience complete; all available at brotherwisegames.com.

Whether you choose to treat your game of Epic Origins as the start of an inspired 5E campaign, or just want to have a contained hero-crafting experience where you take your character from humble beginnings to a heroic destiny, Epic Origins is magic on the table. How will you answer the Call to Adventure during your next game night?