Portal Games is happy to announce Thorgal: The Board Game, a new cooperative adventure game set in the Thorgal universe. Thorgal is a critically acclaimed major European comic book series, which has been published in 21 languages and sold over 14 million books worldwide in the last four decades. The series has 39 books in the main storyline and 24 books in three spin-off series that tell stories about fans’ beloved characters.

Thorgal: The Board Game takes players to the fictional world incorporating elements of Norse mythology, the legend of Atlantis, science fiction, and horror. It tells a heroic story of a mysterious warrior possessing supernatural powers that came from the outer world and who after being raised by the Vikings strives to find a place for his family to live in peace while fending off enemies.

Thorgal: The Board Game with cover art by Frédéric Vignaux, the original illustrator of the comic book series, is coming to Gamefound crowdfunding site in May 2022 and will be released in retail in 2023.

ABOUT THORGAL: THE BOARD GAME

Thorgal: The Board Game is a cooperative storybook adventure game for 1-4 players aged 14+ designed by Joanna Kijanka, Jan Maurycy, and Rafał Szyma. Players take on the roles of Thorgal, his wife Aaricia, their son Jolan, and Kriss – a deadly female warrior, and go on a series of adventures.

The game consists of 10 stand-alone scenarios, each taking roughly 90-120 minutes of play. Scenarios do NOT form a campaign nor have any legacy features, so they can be played by different playgroups and over an extended period of time. 

Thorgal: The Board Game comes with a book of maps. Each scenario is played on a different map that players explore while fulfilling scenario goals and promises completely different adventures, hidden opportunities, and vivid characters.  Players are free to choose whether they travel in one group or split to cover more areas at the same time. They also perform side quests that might help them win a scenario.

Another important feature in the game is the storybook containing narrative descriptions of the encounters that Characters make in each scenario. The adventures described in the book are specific to each scenario and Character, yet a lot of them are randomized within a scenario, offering higher replayability and allowing for repeated play. Characters’ morality and past decisions all play an important role in how the encounters are resolved.

Thorgal: The Board Game, while having a strong narrative element, offers a fan-favorite action selection mechanic. Similar to great games like Puerto Rico or Race for the Galaxy, in every turn an active player chooses an action to be performed by the entire group, an active player executes its full version, and all passive players perform its weaker version, regardless of their location on the map. This creates an interesting decision space and makes each turn important for everyone at the table.

Another important mechanic involves Character development. The abilities are upgraded during gameplay, and negatively affected by wounds suffered in fighting. Characters gather resources and craft objects to help them survive in the dangerous world and gain companions they meet on the way.

ABOUT PORTAL GAMES

Founded in 1999 as a tabletop RPG publisher, Portal Games began to produce high-quality board games in 2007 and soon became one of the major tabletop game publishers in the world with award-winning titles like Detective, Empires of the North, Imperial Settlers, Robinson Crusoe, and Stronghold in their esteemed catalog. Over the past decade, our game design team lead by Ignacy Trzewiczek has won more than 100 industry awards and nominations, including Kenner Spiel des Jahres, Golden Geek, International Gamers Award, The Dice Tower Award, and multiple Game of the Year awards across the globe.

ABOUT THORGAL

Thorgal is a fantasy adventure Franco-Belgian comics series by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. It has incorporated elements of Norse mythology, the legend of Atlantis as well as science fiction and horror.

The comic first appeared in serial form in Tintin magazine in 1977, with the story La Magicienne Trahie. Originally a stand-alone 30-page project, its easly success encouraged turning it into a longer series.

Thorgal is critically acclaimed and one of the most popular French language comics, with more than 11 million Thorgal books in print. It has been called the most popular series published by Le Lombard. D. Aviva Rothschild in his 1995 book Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-length Comics praised the series, stating that it is “better than an American swords-and-sorcery comic” when it comes to both art and stories. Commenting on The Archers volume, Rothschild described it as “one of the finest pieces of heroic fantasy I have ever set my eyes on”.

ABOUT MEDIATOON DISTRIBUTION

Mediatoon Licensing develops and promotes a portfolio of more than fifty well-known brands, mainly from the major series of comics and cartoons of the Média-Participations’ Group. The agency is a major player in Japanese animation in Europe, representing derivative rights to Naruto, Boruto, Fairy Tail, Assassination Classroom, HunterXHunter and many other great Japanese series. With more than 400 active license contracts and around fifteen agents around the world, Mediatoon Licensing has been a major player in the licensing market for more than 10 years.