A Wild Venture – A Little Rivalry Never Hurt Anyone

Every spring, the villages come together for a friendly rivalry, the annual competition for the Community Cup. In A Wild Venture, two young adventurers set out to show who gives the most back to their community. You’ll win the goodwill of villagers, craft and lend useful gear, invest in local businesses, and travel across the land in search of treasures and recognition. It’s a story about generosity, small-town spirit, and the adventures that come with both.

👥 2 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 40-60 minutes
📝 Designer: Iain Everett
🎨 Artwork: Pennie Jo Everett

🏢 Publisher: PIKA Games (review copy provided)

Gameplay Overview

A Wild Venture is a two-player game where both players are trying to earn the Community Cup. To do that, you recruit villagers, craft gear, invest in buildings, and set off on adventures. The game continues until the shared deck of cards runs out, and then players compare their achievements to see who takes the victory.

Each turn, you take two main actions and any number of free actions. The two main actions are to play a card or to activate a card. Playing a card means spending coins to place a villager, piece of gear, or building into your play area. Villagers and gear come into play with supplies that show how many times they can be used. Buildings stay in play for the rest of the game and often provide effects when certain things happen.

Activating a card lets you use the ability of one of your villagers or starter cards. This can earn you coins, draw cards, let you invest in buildings, or send your adventurer out on a journey.

Free actions make turns a bit more flexible. Some villagers can perform free actions when you remove one of their supplies. You can also use enchantment tokens to upgrade your buildings, giving them extra benefits that can be either immediate or ongoing.

Adventuring is one of the main ways to gain momentum. When your adventurer moves along the paths on the board, you collect rewards such as coins, cards, starter upgrades, or treasure chest bonuses. On the autumn side of the board, some routes cost coins or cards to travel. When your adventurer reaches the end of a path, they return home at the end of your turn, ready to set out again later.

Gear and building cards bring extra interaction. Gear cards stay in play with supplies and trigger automatically when certain conditions are met, sometimes during your opponent’s turn. Each time they trigger, a supply is removed, and the player whose action caused the trigger gains a coin from the reserve. When a gear card runs out of supplies, it gives a relic effect before being tucked for scoring. Buildings don’t use supplies but can be invested in with coins, which stay there and count for points at the end of the game.

At the end of your turn, any villagers or gear that have no supplies left are tucked under your score card.

When the deck is empty, each player finishes their turn and takes one final turn. Then it’s time to score. Villagers score by multiplying the number of cards in your smallest species group by the number in your largest. Buildings score one point for each coin invested on them. Gear scores by multiplying the number of tucked gear cards by the number of enchanted buildings. The player with the highest total wins the Community Cup and the pride of their village.

Game Info

A Wild Venture is published by PIKA Games and designed by Iain Everett, a Scottish creator. The artwork is by Pennie Jo Everett, his wife, and together they’ve made something that feels very much like a family project, a small team with one shared vision. It’s hard not to smile at that. The game is for two players, plays in about 40 to 60 minutes, and is suitable for ages 10 and up.

Components and Artwork

The art in A Wild Venture feels welcoming right from the start. Pennie Jo Everett’s illustrations have a calm, storybook feel that makes every card feel alive. Each of the three species, crows, frogs, and rabbits, has its own little world, with colours, expressions, and details that build a sense of place. One moment you’ll see a frog wizard, the next a rabbit planting flowers or a crow sorting letters. It’s full of small, playful scenes that make you want to look twice.

The deck system mixes a core deck with one of two themed decks, the academy or the tidings, and each brings its own flavour without changing the core game. The adventure board continues that hand-drawn look, showing winding paths through woods, rivers, and tiny inns. The spring side looks bright and green, while the autumn side has warmer tones and adds small costs to certain routes.

The components are nicely put together. Each species has its own wooden adventurer meeple, printed with its character, which adds a bit of personality as you move across the board. The cards have a smooth linen finish and clear colours that make them easy to read. The coins and supply tokens are practical and well-marked, and there’s even a tidy insert with a lid that keeps everything in its place. The whole production feels consistent and thought-through, modest in scale but full of warmth.

The design also helps with clarity. The three main card types, villagers, gear, and buildings, are easy to tell apart at a glance, and symbols are clear and intuitive. Even the board leaves space to breathe, with clear routes and rewards. It’s a layout that feels simple to read without losing its charm.

Rulebook

The rulebook is clear and well structured. It begins with a short introduction that sets the scene for the Community Cup, followed by a clean overview of components and setup. From there, it moves naturally through the turn structure, card effects, adventuring, and the specific rules for gear and buildings. Examples are placed right where you need them, especially in trickier sections such as the adventure board or triggered effects.

Everything is laid out with good spacing and a logical order. Setup instructions are numbered, matching the visual example, and there’s a compact summary at the end that works well as a quick reference once you’ve started playing. It’s a rulebook that helps you learn quickly, then quietly supports you when you need to double-check something later.

Gameplay Feel

A Wild Venture sits in the midweight range. It’s quick to learn but has enough layers to keep you thinking. The game flow feels calm but engaging, with two players trading turns, watching each other’s cards, and trying to time their actions just right.

At its heart, it’s a game of building and rebuilding. Villagers and gear cards only last a few uses before they’re tucked for points, so your village is always changing. It creates a nice flow of building things up, using them, tucking them away, and starting again. That movement gives the game a pleasant sense of momentum.

Because gear cards can trigger from either player’s actions, there’s always something happening. Even when it’s not your turn, you stay alert, hoping a move will set off one of your effects. It’s lightly interactive without ever feeling confrontational.

Card Synergies and Variety

The real depth comes from the way cards connect. Villagers generate actions and resources, gear reacts to specific triggers, and buildings provide long-term benefits or investment spots. Because villagers and gear don’t stay forever, you’re always adjusting, searching for new combinations that work together for a few strong rounds before fading away.

The core and themed decks give A Wild Venture a good bit of replay value. You always use the core deck, then add either the academy or the tidings to change the tone. Each brings its own mix of villagers, gear, and buildings, so the experience shifts slightly every time.

Because cards are drawn from a shared deck, you’ll never see the same mix twice. The result is a game that stays familiar yet unpredictable. After a few plays, you start spotting strategies you hadn’t tried before, small patterns hidden between the cards.

Scoring and Balance

Scoring focuses on balance rather than pure quantity. When the game ends, you separate your villagers by species and multiply your smallest group by your largest. A mixed village earns more than a one-sided one, which ties beautifully into the theme of community.

Buildings and gear score in different ways. Coins invested in buildings turn into points, while gear rewards you for linking them with enchanted structures. It’s a system that encourages you to spread your attention instead of chasing a single route to victory.

Small Touches

The design has plenty of small touches that make play feel smoother. You begin with three starter cards, the Nest, Lilypad, and Warren, that can be upgraded as you explore. Coins and supplies share double-sided tokens, so the same pieces switch between currency and energy depending on where they’re placed. It keeps the table clean and easy to manage.

The adventure board also changes slightly each game. Tokens like nests and coins are placed in new spots, shaping different routes. The autumn side adds a few extra costs, giving you more to think about.

The rulebook includes an optional “no memory” variant. By default, once a card is tucked for scoring, you can’t look at it again. If you prefer, both players can agree to keep tucked cards face up, removing the memory element. It’s a gentle rule that helps when you’re still learning how scoring connects to your choices.

Final Thoughts

Everything in A Wild Venture feels designed with two players in mind. The shared deck, the interactive triggers, and the constant shifting of cards all support that idea. It’s competitive but never sharp-edged, more about smart planning and timing than blocking or disruption.

It’s easy to teach, clear once it’s on the table, and still rewarding after a few plays. It suits couples or friends who like building small engines, testing new combinations, and seeing how ideas unfold from one game to the next.

Scoring encourages balance, the mechanics reward good timing, and the art makes you want to stay in that world a bit longer. The cycle of villagers and gear wearing out keeps the game feeling alive, with new choices appearing every few turns.

And as a personal note, being a mailman myself, I couldn’t help but grin at all the postal references scattered through the cards: a rabbit postmaster, a sorting room, even a paperboy. I might be biased, but that hit close to home in the best way.

A Wild Venture is a game about community, planning, and small moments of satisfaction. It has that calm, steady rhythm that makes you forget time for a bit. It’s not about big gestures or long strategies, but about keeping your little village ticking along and finding joy in how it all fits together.

👉 If you’re heading to SPIEL later this month, you can try or buy the game at the PIKA Games booth in Hall 3, 3Q315. Or f you’d like to preorder A Wild Venture, you can find it on Gamefound.

📝 We received a review copy from PIKA Games.