By Chris Renshaw

When Fantasy Flight Games announced Secrets of the Crucible, a sourcebook for the Genesys RPG system set in the world of Keyforge, I was a little taken aback - largely because I still want there to be an official sourcebook set in the Arkham Horror universe. The other reason is that while Keyforge seems to be a game with a bunch of lore in it, it was lore that hadn’t been fully fleshed out at all. I couldn’t understand why a person would want to play a RPG in the Keyforge universe, because I didn’t fully understand what the Keyforge universe *was*. Unlike the rest of FFG’s card games, there weren’t any fiction inserts in any of the packs. (EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s always weird calling myself the editor, but regardless as I was going back through this, I checked the Keyforge page and actually found several bits of fiction for the game. My bad.)

Flying into the Fantasy

Enter Aconyte Books, a division of Asmodee devoted to making novels of the board game companies properties. The first wave of these books consists of 2 books: Wrath of N’Kai, an Arkham Horror tale, and Tales from the Crucible, a series of stories set in the world of Keyforge. These were originally supposed to hit in the May/June 2020 timeframe, although I’m not sure where that stands given our current COVID-19 environment. As of right now, their website says September 2020. It is currently April 2020 when I’m writing this, so if things have changed drastically, that is why.

With Arkham Horror the Card Game being my favorite game of all time, I am still chomping at the bit to dive into the review copy of Wrath of N’Kai. However, given the unfamiliarity of the Keyforge universe as I stated above, I opened up Tales from the Crucible first. The novel consists of 9 short stories that each look at a different portion of “The Crucible”, the world on which the game Keyforge takes place. Not that all of that introduction is out of the way, let’s get into this review of Tales from the Crucible.

Tales from the Crucible
Edited by Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells
Stories from David Guymer, M K Hutchins, Cath Lauria, Robbie MacNiven, Tristan Palmgren, Thomas Parrott, M Darusha Wehm, C L Werner, Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells
Published by Aconyte Books

The First Rule of the Crucible

The first thing that you notice when reading through the different short stories is how different each story is from each other. Normally, this might be a knock against the book, but “The Crucible” is a missmashed world where many different civilizations were teleported against their will and combined together. So the inconsistencies between the different stories works to the setting’s favor, as it gives you a feeling of what this world might be like. Many of the stories revolve around similar locations, like “Hub City”, but each one views the setting through a different “faction” of Keyforge.

The second thing you notice about Tales is that while the book brings some context to the “Archon Matches” that are simulated in the card game Keyforge, not much of the book is spent on the actual matches. In fact, the only two stories that feature an Archon match are the two stories that bookend the novel. This makes logical sense, as I, like many fans, are coming into this universe from the card game perspective. The first story, Contract, takes this familiar perspective and uses it to show us how these Archon battles are only a fraction of what life on the Crucible is like. 

On the flipside, Vaultheads, the last story in the book, feels like the conclusion of an essay. If this was turned into a movie, I could see the last couple of scenes playing out like the ending of a movie: a slowly panning out shot that starts with an Archon match and pans out to reveal all of the crucible that we’ve been shown over the course of the book. These beginning and ending stories almost seem like they were designed from the beginning to be the bookends of this novel.

Heads over Tales

It might seem like I’m panning over the other 7 stories, but that’s because I want to preserve as much of the story for those that are interested in reading the book. I found each of the stories in this book to be an easy and delightful read. Each story has its own twists and turns, character moments and surprises. Even when I thought I knew where one of the stories was going, the author pulls the rug out from under me by saying “Yeah, you were on the right page, but here’s this extra bit you didn’t see coming”.

When it was announced that Aconyte Books would be printing novels about Fantasy Flight’s properties, everyone knew that the reason was to get more people interested in the games that the books are based on. Tales From The Crucible succeeds in that endeavour, even for a game that I already enjoy playing. I’m really itching to get Keyforge back to the table soon. Not only that, but when I do play again, I feel as if I’ll be paying more attention to each card I play. Looking for references and bits of lore that tie back to the fiction I read, creating a deeper connection between the game and myself. Honestly, those are the games that I tend to enjoy the most, the ones that form a bond with me.

Are you excited to read this book? Let me know in the comments. Make sure if you are interested to go preorder it wherever you get your books. Also, if you want to talk about more Keyforge, make sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you share this post and tag/let me know, you’ll get entered to win a free set of dice!