Far Away and an Ongoing Tale of Space-Faring Blunders
Uncover an intertwined ecosystem of alien creatures as explorers complete a vital mission on a new planet in Far Away.
Such a wonderful storyline! I knew that Far Away was based on completing missions, but it didn’t dawn on me that this was an inter-connected campaign until things started to fall into place. The second mission proved to have plenty of challenges and surprises ahead, yet I couldn’t help but laugh at the absolutely perfect narrative that was developing!
Spoiler Alert
The real surprises come from uncovering the various contigencies, and there are a couple of spoilers mentioned below. I don’t go through all of the options and choices in-depth, yet I recommend skipping over this post if you want to make sure that everything for mission 02 is a surprise! My experience didn’t exactly play out as I originally expected it to…
Game Overview
Game Name: Far Away
Publication Year: 2020
Designer: Alexander Jerabek
Artist: Jake Breish
Publisher: Cherry Picked Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game (Cooperative)
A mission creates the objectives and branching narrative for a pair of explorers. Despite the focus on advancing this story, the real heart of gameplay comes from roleplaying the ecosystem and the creatures that inhabit the planet. Things are often never as expected with these aliens!
First Play
January 28, 2023
Complexity
3
Latest Play
February 25, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
2 Hours
High Score
N/A
Game Area
50" x 26"
Low Score
N/A
Guiltier Than ANyone
Samuel. SAMUEL! He wouldn’t even look at me because he knew this mission stemmed entirely from him. What did you do?! Recall how he ended the last mission…
He was bitten by an alien dinosaur and picked up a bloodborne pathogen. Well, well, well. Look who brought it back and infected all of the colonies. Samuel, come on!
That injury was completely randomized, but provided the greatest storyline. I couldn’t have picked it better myself.
And so Captain Katherine had to duck her head in shame as she prepared for another mission with Ensign Samuel!
Alien Elephant?
Now, I knew when I drew this creature card during setup that it more closely resembled a tapir. But don’t try to tell me that’s not an alien Stealthy Elephant! I found one!
It was lovely to stumble across this interesting behavior, too. As I would eventually find out, offering up resource cubes as gifts was to be a main way this creature survived.
The ecosystem usually starts to take shape during setup, which makes it a wonderful time of initial discoveries.
Unused creature cards are kept facedown, and I’ve left the deck alone on purpose so there are always surprises.
Giant, Flying Insects
This was a generally pleasant area with tons of resource production areas near the crash site. Definitely helpful!
Yet Katherine and Samuel needed to run out of there, thanks to the lone den creature. At size 3, it was huge, and it was an aggressive, carniverous flying insect. Run away!
It’s never wise to stay within a single hex of a predator, for a single injury can create the worst challenges. Instant death happens with a second injury. So… Run away!
Luckily, there were plenty of new hexes to explore in order to start gathering the needed resources for buildings.
Vaccine Test Trials
When faced with a major choice early on in this search for a vaccine, Katherine made the executive call to jump into human testing. Or Calico Critter testing? Close enough!
Unfortunately, this led to both explorers receiving an injury that seriously jeopardized their planning. So many new challenges and problems to work through!
Progress was slow-going, even amidst some extreme activity between the local creatures. Yet they were busy.
It was only through some luck that Katherine and Samuel survived through these problematic weeks of testing.
Crash Site Danger
Of course, the creatures took center stage while the explorers sort of muddled about! Their only major interaction was receiving gifts, which they had to accept.
Meanwhile, everything happened at the crash site. Its heat and energy drew the attention of large creatures who burrowed beneath it, damaging it considerably.
Without a crash site, the mission would end. Yet before it could be destroyed, those giant insect predators arrived!
They wiped out the threat, but not before picking up the familiar parasitic fungus. All in the cycle of life!
Objectively Roleplaying an Ecosystem
In all fairness, the destruction of the crash site was a possible conclusion. After all, no one did a particularly good job of securing the area and protecting it from danger! Yet this was all about finding the most logical and realistic interactions between the creatures. With their kin under attack, the rest of the burrowing creatures traveled to another building.
When most of the creatures had been revealed, I got into more of a rhythm with how the creatures interacted. But random dice rolls brought in new ones here and there, upsetting the balance just enough to keep everything rolling.
Remember, too, that these ecosystems can vary considerably in terms of how dangerous they are. Passive herbivores might create a world devoid of any immediate threats, where the mission creates the challenges. Most of the time, though, aggressive predators or creatures with uniquely threatening behaviors will add constant problems to solve.
Had there not been so many large predators to sweep across this area, Katherine and Samuel probably would have been prime targets! Fortunately, they kept their distance and were able to complete a lot of tasks far from the action… Or right in the middle of it, courtesy of enormous stashes of meat to keep the predators occupied for a long time.
Dangers Untold
This was where the ecosystem stood near the end. Notice all of the giant carnivores with agressive behavior? With the fungus, that made 3 of 7 creatures super dangerous.
A pair of them damaged buildings, so this was a world where 5 of 7 creatures were direct threats. Goodness!
However, remember that these ecosystems existed before the explorers arrived. So although the explorers would make easy targets, the creatures were drawn to each other.
In this way, herds rose and fell, predators fought each other for territory, and the mission quietly proceeded.
Session Overview
Play Number: 5 and 6
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game (Cooperative)
Play Details: Mission 02
Outcome: Win
It was much too close for comfort with the vaccine injuries both sustained, but Katherine and Samuel delivered the vaccine! The latter spent a good amount of time in the medical bay just getting analyzed… Nearly fatal, but it was an ultimate success! This group of creatures posed so many new challenges, even if I had seen some of them before. Must prepare for the next mission, and survive!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
8
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- Even changing 1 creature out of a set of 8 can lead to a very different ecosystem with surprising interactions.
- The creatures feel very alien, with a lot of them acting in unique ways rather than all of them being aggressive.
- Although it’s still early, each mission feels very different and offers unique branching storylines with rewards.
- The overall narrative may not be strong from the cards, yet it develops from creature discoveries and exploration.
- Limited actions and specific needs create realistic constraints that make most rounds feel extremely important.
- An ongoing campaign provides special unlocks and unique mission-to-mission parameters based on events.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Roleplaying the creatures can add a lot of time, and each mission might be best by splitting it into 2-3 sessions.
- Luck can be a major element in determining how easily objectives are completed, but there is some control.
- Dice rolls are used for a lot of aspects, and with all of the bad results, the world can quickly become unbalanced.
- The card quality is rather disappointing for this price point, as they tend to warp and bend far too easily.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Mission
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete mission 00.
Complete mission 01.
Complete mission 02.
Complete mission 03.
Complete mission 04.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Far Away? Do you have any memorable stories or combinations of creatures? The campaign doesn’t go on forever, although this has been a delight to watch my explorers in new environments! An ongoing narrative has shot Samuel to infamous status, and I can’t wait to see what the next mission and ecosystem has in store for my story!
I love reading these adventures! Thanks for sharing them and your above-Federation-average-cuteness explorers. All the more tragic when they get various illnesses and pathogens…
I’m sorry to hear the card quality isn’t up to snuff. That’s a big surprise to me. If you wouldn’t mind following up with us over at Cherry Picked Games, I’d love to understand the problem. While our spaceships are low-quality, the constituent parts shouldn’t be.
Thanks for stopping by, Alex, and for this absolutely wonderful game! Samuel is still going strong, thankfully, although I am fully prepared for him to turn into the red shirt in the party. Ha! Still hoping to make it very far in the campaign with both of them, though.
I’ll definitely follow up with you about the card quality! I’m used to new components taking a little time to settle in with changes in humidity, but all of mine decided that warp speed just equals plain warp. I disguise it as well as I can in my photos, yet every card is noticeably warped on the diagonal with 2 corners sticking up. Not the end of the world, but I’ll be in touch to see if it’s a rare problem that only affects some copies. The Federation Alliance apparently picked me for their major budget cuts. Ha ha!
Love reading these play reports Jessica. I might have missed it in a previous post, but are you playing the first edition or the second?
Thank you! I have the second printing, which has some fixed errata, an insert, and more contrast on the creature cards and tokens. I don’t believe there are any other significant differences, though!