Bôken

About this board game

Bôken is a solo or cooperative adventure game for 1–2 players, offering an approximately 1,800-minute campaign inspired by Japanese RPGs of the 1980s and 1990s.

Set in the open-world kingdom of Lanoth, the game invites you to explore varied lands, villages, and dungeons while discovering the story of your heroes. Hostile creatures stand in your way, and the inhabitants of Lanoth may entrust you with quests that shape how your destiny unfolds.

Bôken aims to recreate the feel of a console JRPG while adapting its ideas to the dynamics of a board game. Across a campaign lasting around 15 to 30 hours, you can expect a broad adventure featuring:

• Exploration across the kingdom of Lanoth
• Combat against hostile creatures
• Loot, villages, and shops
• NPCs, quests, dungeons, and bosses

Each player takes the role of a hero. In a two-player game, players must collaborate to overcome the challenges together. When playing solo, you can control one hero or manage both heroes, using the same overall format as a two-player game.

The campaign is designed to unfold over several sessions, making it a substantial adventure rather than a single sitting. To support that long-form experience, an instant save system lets you stop, store, and bring out the game in about a minute. Magnetized character sheets and a magnetized game board help preserve your progress between sessions.

With exploration, quests, battles, and a developing adventure throughout Lanoth, Bôken offers a focused board game interpretation of classic Japanese role-playing game experiences for solo players and small cooperative groups.