When the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy was replaced with the Age of Sigmar, I, like a lot of people, wasn't a fan. I hadn't really followed any of the changes to wargame or to the setting in the years since that happened. However, when I saw the first previews for Soulbound I was intrigued by the idea of playing over the top heroic characters, similar to those in the likes of Exalted. I did some reading up on the setting and finally accepted Age of Sigmar on its own merits- it's a fairly cool setting.

Soulbound does live up to the promise those initial previews gave. Even with starting characters the players find themselves smashing their way through hordes of skaven and nighthaunts, and standing toe to toe with powerful Chaos champions. Although the system is fairly simple, there's enough depth that your party can have a variety of characters, each feeling quite different. I love to build RPG characters, and Soulbound has enough options that I can keep coming up with new ideas, whilst also providing solid guidance to newer rpg players via the Archetype system. Mettle and Soulfire as mechanics give players a lot of control over their actions in a turn, helping mitigate bad rolls and allow for desperate pushes when the odds are against the players in the bigger fights. The Ladder for determining what you need to roll in combat looks a bit complicated, but once you actually use it you'll find that combat flows fast and there's not a lot of math involved.

I do have concerns about the limited "loot" available to players and about power levels as players get higher in XP, but I'll definitely be picking up future books for the system so I imagine both of those issues will be addressed in upcoming content.

I strongly recommend this game for people interested in high powered heroes actively getting to make a difference in their world right from the start.