GamesRPGFantasy RPG Sunderfolk’s weapon-wielding animals and phone integration welcome veterans and newbies to tabletop-style tacticsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGFantasy RPG Sunderfolk’s weapon-wielding animals and phone integration welcome veterans and newbies to tabletop-style tacticsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
Any fan of tabletop gaming knows the struggle of getting new people to sit down around a table and listen while you tell them about the complex, arcane rules that take almost as long to explain as it takes to play the actual game. It’s tons of fun once you’re all caught up and playing, deep into the weeds of a game likeGloomhaven, but the barrier for entry is high.
“They’re very different experiences. We’re trying to get into that deeper thing where you’re puzzling something out together that takes tactical, strategic time,” Sigaty says, adding that Sunderfolk is more of a tactical RPG experience than a role-playing game like D&D. So, while D&D meets Jackbox is an easy elevator pitch, it’s one Secret Door is trying to move away from.
Hex of a good time
(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
In the world of Sunderfolk, a distant catastrophe has driven anthropomorphic animals underground, living in cozy harmony with a subterranean life-giving tree. When evil forces like monstrous ogres attack, a team of adventurers must gear up to save the day and unveil secrets across its 20-30-hour story.
Sitting down to begin a session, we’re presented with six character options. We can’t say no to embodying a big ax-wielding polar bear, a berserker who fulfils the typical tank role. A pyromaniac salamander sorcerer, and a batty bard round out the party into a merry band of three. Narrator Anjali Bhimani (best known as the voice behind Overwatch’s Symmetra), sets the stage – and voices every single NPC, using a different voice for each critter. It’s a deliberate choice, the developers explain, to evoke the feeling of a Game Master running a traditional tabletop game. It’s a charming touch.
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(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
When making an attack, you select a ‘Fate’ card – Sunderfolk’s equivalent of a twenty-sided die. A third of your cards are positive (think +1 or +2 to damage), a third are negative (so -1 or even a straight-up miss), and a third are neutral. While we love the feel of throwing down dice, cards suit the phone-to-TV set-up seamlessly.
As you level up, you’ll gain new action cards and new fate cards, though you can only have so many in your virtual deck so you’ll have to pick, choose, and customize your kit. I swapped a card that let me throw enemies or allies around the map (situationally handy but I wasn’t using it much) for one that let me incite foes and allowed me to counterattack on their turns. Fate cards get more complex, too. Swapping a +1 for another +2 is an obvious move, but you also gain other sorts of modifiers, like a card with a -1 (bad) that also decreases that enemy’s attack (good!). The basics of the gameplay are simple; the possibilities vast.
Systems are go
(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
“Instead of having lots of complex systems, let’s have a few systems that are really core to the game and go deep with the content,” Erin Marek, Sunderfolk’s game director, says of the design philosophy. “It’s very easy to onboard folks with content and add more complex things over time, versus having a ton of complex systems you have to teach them all up front.”
True to the developers’ word, my party quickly finds our rhythm. The little screen feels intuitive to use for sorting through our own information, while real-life communication comes to the fore, talking through our options for where to head on the big screen and what abilities we might want to throw out and when.
(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
A different party composition – or even the same characters with different action cards – can approach the same situation in a totally different way. Nobody in my party was one of the other three characters, a rogue weasel, ranger elk, or wizard raven. (There is no monk class, but additional classes and the possible animals that best suited them are topics of conversation among the developers when it comes to possible DLC – not to get ahead of themselves.)
Animal style
(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
“Animals can help you understand an archetype before you know anything about the archetype,” she says. And indeed, one look at the big polar bear I played as says a lot about his gameplay niche. “They also are a lot more accessible when it comes to gender projection or roleplaying.”
(Image credit: Dreamhaven)
“We’ve worked hard to create an experience that has depth. You have to be strategic and tactical in your battles and if you’re not successful, you may not be able to pass certain missions until you can find out ways to get it done,” Sigaty says. “That’s the exciting thing, we hope, for the group. It needs to appeal to core gamers, and I think it does have that appeal and that depth as somebody who has played a lot of these games before while simultaneously bringing in loved ones and friends who have never done this before.”
I left the preview still thinking about some of the tactics I might be able to unleash on Sunderfolk’s hexagonal grids. It’s still early to say ‘mission accomplished’ – Sunderfolk doesn’t have a price or a specific release date beyond 2025 – but those are promising signs.
Sunderfolk releases in 2025 for PC and major consoles. In the meantime, want some physical recommendations?Check out our list of the current best tabletop RPGs!
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