Charterstone is a unique title by Jamey Stegmaier (of Stonemaier Games). In this worker placement game you take on the roles of candidates in charge of your own charter within the kingdom of Greengully, looking to impress the Forever King. But Charterstone is not just another ‘put your workers here to gain this action/resource’ kind of worker placement game.
It’s a legacy game, meaning your decisions can and will permanently impact and evolve the main board itself, game-to-game. The board begins rather empty, with only a handful of places to visit. Why is it empty? Well, because you and your opponents are going to gradually build this kingdom together. We’re not going to give away any spoilers here, but we will tell you this much – there are ‘crates’ that can be opened, which unlock various rules, cards, characters and more, and there are stickers involved!
In fact, there are stickers-galore. No two boards of Charterstone will end up being the same, meaning you are guaranteed to have a superb, personal experience playing it, with plenty of surprises along the way.
Up to six players can play (and you can chose to add ‘automa’ players, who can stand in for human players). Because you are playing a legacy campaign that lasts 12 individual games, you’ll want to play this with the same people each time, so you can enjoy and experience the charming continuity as the board transforms. Each player will have their own tuckbox stash to manage too, throughout the 12 games. You’ll write on cards, and on the board. You even start with a half-empty rulebook, with there being rules you’ll unlock later on!
The ultimate winner of Charterstone will be determined at the end of game 12, meaning it’s a marathon, not a sprint. And, unlike other legacy games of a similar fashion – such as Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, for example – the game isn’t redundant once you finish the campaign. Here you can carry on playing with your very own version of the finished game, afterwards.
As we’ve come to expect from Stonemaier Games, the component quality here is excellent. If you’ve played the likes of Scythe, Viticulture: Essential Edition and Euphoria, you’ll know what we’re talking about. The artwork is gorgeous and colourful and the game actually comes with metal coins as standard. This adds that extra percentage of investment towards gameplay, which allows you to fully immerse yourself into the land of – well, whatever you decide to name your own charter! Just make sure you find a pen that doesn’t smudge…
Still looking for more crate-opening action? The board’s double-sided, meaning you can start over and play the campaign from the beginning again. All you’ll need is the Charterstone Recharge Pack – which includes the components required (the same set of cards/stickers, another semi-empty rulebook). What will you do differently, second time around?