October 31, 2025
Pair A Dice Games Corner
November 2025- Earthborne Rangers
We don't know what happened to the world. All that is left of cities are ruins. Nature has spread back over the land. And massive biomechanical things wander the land, performing the last commands they were given in the past. Your job is to explore the land, help those that live in the valley, and maybe discover what are the biomelds purpose. I'm not talking about Horizon Zero Dawn. I'm talking about the newest card game from former FFG employees, Earthborne Rangers.
In Earthborne Rangers, you play as brand new full fledged Rangers, the group of people that protect the valley and help all of those who need help. Building a deck feels like making a TTRPG character, choosing your background, specialty, personality traits, and your aspect.
Your background represents the formative years of your Ranger’s life: where they grew up, their occupation, and how they spent their time before they took on greater responsibilities in the Valley. Your Ranger’s specialty represents their recent past and the occupation to which they’ve dedicated themselves prior to joining the Rangers. Your personality cards repersent how you deal with conflicts. The four approaches are conflict, connection, exploration, and reason. The mix of approach icons in your deck will represent your Ranger’s proclivities. Your aspect is what you do well, whether your ranger likes hiking through the valley and goes with a high Fitness, you want to converse with people and nature, going with a high Spirit, you want to avoid the dangers of the valley with a high Awareness, or you want to think your way through the problem and go with a high Focus.
Playing the game has you exploring the valley, travelling from Pivitol Locations where NPCs are known to be at, or to the smaller locations where you never know what you might find. You can explore as much as you want in a play session. You can play until you decide you have played enough for the day, you can play until your deck is out of cards, or someone is too injured to continue. Complete missions to unlock reward cards to modify your deck, converse with the NPCs of the valley to make permanent changes to your deck with cards you would not normally be able to play, and discover the mysteries of the valley.
If you are a fan of Arkham Horror LCG or The Lord of the Rings LCG from Fantasy Flight Games, this game is a wonderful blend of what those makes those games amazing. Explore a rich and vibrant world, and complete some extremely difficult missions that make you question whether you should have taken it in the first place. Become the next Ranger and protect the Valley.
