Centuries ago, an unprecedented event drastically changed life on Earth. The event brought beings, characters and elements from stories, legends and myths (back) to life, but Earth as we have got to know it perished. Together with our new storytelling friends, we formed alliances to rebuild civilization. You could say that life on earth was “Altered”. In the TCG – quite appropriately called – Altered, is set in this world and players take on the role of a hero who explores this new world with his companion.
2024 seems to be the year of TCGs. Magic The Gathering seems more popular than ever and interesting sets including crossovers with Fallout, among others, were released in 2024. I don’t follow the news around MTG very closely, but I caught rumors of a Final Fantasy set in 2025. Maybe the perfect time to get back into it? In 2024, Disney Lorcana was running overtime and got record sales, and Asmodee introduced Star Wars Unlimited. Star Wars and cardboard you can collect? Like Lorcana, it was bound to be a success.
Also in 2024, Altered was released as a new TCG with its own IP. Whereas Magic, on the contrary, seeks cooperation with existing IPs more often and Lorcana and Unlimited are built on existing IPs, the creators of Altered built their own world. In addition to its own world, Altered has other unique elements: each card has a unique QR code that gives you instant access to its digital ownership. In other TCGs, your digital collection and physical collection are often separate, but in Altered there is synergy in your collection.
Collecting might be your only goal, but for me the gameplay is more important. Altered is fairly simple in gameplay, but offers interesting twists compared to other TCGs.
Altered takes place over several days (rounds) just until a player’s hero and ally have reached each other on their expedition. The hero and ally are represented by two tokens the regions of the expedition that lays on the table in between players. During the day, several phases take place and players start playing cards to support their expedition. Players play cards for the hero’s or companion’s expedition and if the cards in an expedition are more strongly represented in one of the elements (shown on the current region of that token) that player may move his token.
A day consists of the following phases:
- Morning: Players draw two cards and may add one of their hand cards to their mana pile. Each card can be used as mana, and mana players use to pay cards to play from their hand or reserve.
- Noon: All cards with relevant effects are activated.
- Day: players take turns playing cards until both players have passed.
- Dusk: players possibly move forward on the expedition.
- Night: cards played in expedition that are not “fleeting” are placed into reserve to possibly be played again later during the game at a reduced rate.
Altered offers a surprising twist on gameplay and is easy to learn for new players, but challenging enough for seasoned TCG players.
