Welcome to Cooperative Adventurers Month! This month, we take a look at a bunch of cooperative games in the fantasy sphere, where adventuring is a major element in the game! We’ll take a look at some dice games, card games, party games, and some interesting entries! We start the month with a game called Small-Time Heroes!
Small-Time Heroes: Sword and Shadow is a cooperative rogue-like deck builder for 1-2 players! It takes a lot of inspiration from Slay The Spire, the video game! This was on Gamefound back in January 2026. As you can see on the cover of the game, it was part of the Solo Game of the Month club!
This particular box is a reprint of the original version. I actually ordered and paid for the reprint AND the new one.
The other one “due any time” now is called Small-Time Heroes: Spirit and Spells. Right now, we can only look at the one we got: Small-Time Heroes: Sword and Shadow (which is a reprint). If we’re lucky, we may get the newer version before the end of the year!
Let’s take a look at just the reprint.
Unboxing and Gameplay
The box has a smaller, peculiar size. See Coke can above for scale.
Players choose one of two characters from this box: Lira the Rogue (see above) …
…or Joan The Warrior.
Each character has their own unique deck of unique cards that combo together.
This is a deck-builder*! Each turn, the hero(es) draw 5 cards and refresh to 3 energy. Each card has an energy cost (upper left corner) to play!
After defeating a “wave” of minions, you “usually” get to add some more cards to your deck. There’s a display of 4 cards that will be available! This is more deck-advancement than deck-building, as your deck upgrades between games not during games. We made this differentiation way back when we reviewed Adventure Tactics: that is a deck-advancement game for sure! What determines your upgrade path is the Wave Reward deck (you may draw, cull, or get potions). Strictly speaking, it’s a little more subtle than that, as you do upgrade your deck BETWEEN waves, but not DURING waves, but since the waves are part of the game, you could argue this is still deck-building. But not really: this is a deck-advancement game.
Another type of reward you can get (usually from beating up a minion) is a Potion! Potions are one-time things (usually per wave) that give you upgrades. See above.
During a normal short game (not the campaign), you fight three waves of harder and harder minions, each with their own deck.
There’s usually 3 minions per wave to fight: they each have a little hit point card underneath!
How do you know which minion attacks? There is an intent deck which “sorta” broadcasts who will be attacking this next time! It may the given symbol or maybe that and something else! The intent gives a “hint” of who will attack! The hint is never wrong, it just might be incomplete!
There’s also a card which shows “other” effects based on the intent card! Even if you can defeat the minion that WOULD have attacked, you still have to take the bad news of the card above! (Defenders of the Meadow for this boss). I mean, there always has to be bad news in a solo/co-op game, right?
After defeating three waves of minions, you must fight the big bad boss for that wave! See the Goblin King above!!! If you can defeat the big bad boss and stay alive, you win!
There’s more to it, but that’s the crux of the game! The components are cute and charming, if not extravagant.
Rulebook
The rulebook is .. fine. It’s get a C+ or B- on the Chair Test. Why the lesser grade? It does fit on the chair next to me (see above).
The problem is that it doesn’t really stay open! See above as I have to hold it open! The workaround in this situation is to bend back the rulebook and kinda “overly bend it”, which I don’t love. The font is nice and readable.
The Components page is nice; they are well notated, but the scale of the components is off, so it makes it a little harder to correlate pictures with components.
The Set-up is good too (modulo having to hold the rulebook open). See above.
I didn’t “love” this rulebook. There’s a lot of keywords and flavors, and you have to go hunting for things to find them. They seem to mostly be in there. I would love an Index for this game, but the rulebook just barely fits in the box right now.
The rulebook is fine.
Solo: Single Game
More than anything, this is a solo game! This is the rare case when the solo game is “obviously” the main way to play, and the cooperative mode is the add-on!! So, thanks to Small-Time Heroes for following Saunders’ Law, but it feels like an inversion of that!
I found myself drawn to Lira, the Rogue. See has this cool power to go to UNCONCEALED, which either enables some cool combos, or allows her to take half damage! The cards are easy to read and (for the most part) understand.
I have taken Lira through all 4 bosses, and they all played quite differently. Each boss has some unique aspects. But, the funnest part of the game was finding combos for Lira as I/we played!
The time guesstimate on the back of the box is about right for the single game: that 35 minutes feels about right.
At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of this little game, but I found myself getting into it! I really liked forming the combos for Lira: How can I CONCEAL so I can invoke a special? Should I be careful of the enemy coming? Can I take out the minion before he attacks me? What order should I take out the bad guys? What cards should I discard to power other cards?
I had fun playing! It was easy to get going (after that first game), and I had fun playing when I played. It’s easy to jump into a new game because the set-up is pretty quick, so if I want to play, I can!
What it boiled down to for me: this feels like a more thematic, more fun, less random game of Solitaire. It’s not too long, it doesn’t overstay its welcome! I just want a 30 minute little game, and this packs that for me! I found myself playing it solo a number of time because “hey, this is fun”.
The game against one boss is fun and easy. I played all 4 bosses (each separately) with Lira and had a ball.
Intent
I think one of the best parts of the game is the Intent deck (see above). The card with the Intent side shows you what “could” be on the other side. Then, when the minions/boss attacks, you flip it and THAT’s what determines the attack! This is HINT of what the upcoming attack is! And this gives you some ability to plan for it!
We saw something like this in Paleo, a cooperative adventuring game that won the Kinnerspiel Des Jahres: (see review here). The backs of the environment cards give “hints” as to what’s coming, so you can plan your next turn!
We’ve also seen this “hint” idea in Race To The Raft (see review here) and Weirdwood Manor (see review here). Honestly, I wish we’d see this hint mechanism more! It really helps cut down on the randomness, as it informs you to make better choices!
I’ll be honest, I think the Intent idea is one of the reasons I like Small-Time Heroes so much; it makes the game feel less random and more predictable so I can make smart choices.
Cooperative Mode
Cooperative mode is only two players. Each player operates one of the two characters in the box. (I assume that when my next box comes, I’ll be able to intermix those characters with these characters). I operated Lira, Teresa operated Joan.
I was a little worried about the cooperative mode, because of the extra rules on top of the solo game. (Remember, this game is solo first, cooperative second). Basically, the cooperative mode multiplies everything times two: all bad guys get their hit points multiplied by two (so they are twice as hard), and bad guys will activate TWICE as both characters get an INTENT card on their turn.
From a game length perspective, the game feels a little more than twice as long as the solo game, probably because there is a little more communication and resolution. But, frankly, each player turn is VERY much solitaire. This is a solitaire game for two players, with just a little bit of talk between players to “help take out” bad guys who might attack next.
Basically, each character takes their complete turn, one after the other. Then the INTENT cards are resolved, and the bad guys are activated by whomever resolved the INTENT card. So, basically, two activations.
Everything is very much in order: player 1 completely activates and finishes, player 2 complete activates and finishes, player 1 activates bad guys against her, player 2 activates bad guys against her, repeat. It worked fine; we played through a cooperative game and had a fine time.
I liked the cooperative game, but it was SO multiplayer solitaire. And that may be exactly what you want! No Alpha Player getting in way, and only I operate Lira and only Teresa operates Joan. That’s it! A little talk here and there; it’s mostly solitaire with two people.
I feel like something is missing from the cooperative game, at least for me. The game is so solitaire, I might as well just play alone! In fact, there’s no parallelism in the game, as we must wait for each player to completely finish their turn! So, I am sitting here waiting for my friend while they take their turn! That seems suboptimal to me.
I think this game would benefit from some simultaneous play! Why can’t we both take our turns at the same time? We saw how well this simultaneous play worked in Slay The Spire (see review here) and Invincible: The Hero-Building Game (see Season 1 review here, Season 2 review here). The way that simultaneous play worked in those games would work here! It would shorten the game (as players don’t have to wait for each other’s turns) and bring out more cooperation! Or at least it would force more interaction, as players HAVE to talk as each other as they are spackoing the enemies! Now, there are issues with simultaneous play (mostly coordination and possible race conditions), but I think we’ve seen that these issues aren’t problematic in Slay The Spire and Invincible. So why not here?
I liked the cooperative game, I would recommend the cooperative game, especially for people (like my friend Kurt) who like multiplayer solitaire cooperative games. I think the cooperative game could be much better with the simultaneous play: it would shorten the game, and make it more interactive (but perhaps at the risk of some weird race conditions/interactions).
Campaign Mode
There is a campaign mode included. Basically, you choose 3 different bosses to fight in a row (for the campaign); the campaign is 3 days. (A normal one-shot game is considered “one day”).
Day 1 is essentially a normal fight (3 wave of minions, then boss) with 3 normal waves. As you start Day 2, you add CHALLENGES which makes all the minions stronger and more buff: see above as you may add hit points, shield, or strength. Day 3, you get TWO CHALLENGE cards!
The bosses themselves become stronger as well as they get +10 hit points on Day 2 and +20 hit points on Day 3.
As you get the next Days, you get treasure and KNOWLEDGE cards. The KNOWLEDGE cards give you some nice buffs, and the treasures are usually one-shots that may help you a little bit.
The best part is just getting more and more cards as you go through the campaign! Your deck can be full of great stuff! See above as Joan has a TON of equipment that makes her so buff!
Honestly, the campaign is just an excuse to play a few games in a row. The deck you build gets pretty cool (and pretty big), which starts to really explore the deck-advancement in this game!
I freely admit that I wasn’t “really” into trying the campaign, but after playing it all the way through, it was pretty cool to see the KNOWLEDGE cards come out, the player deck get really big and interesting, and some neat Treasure! Now, whereas the one-shot game is really over in about 30-35 minutes, the campaign doesn’t scale linearly! Day 1 is is 30-35 minutes, because it’s a “normal” game, but as the Hero(es) get KNOWLEDGE and the minions get buffed and the Big Bad Boss gets more hit points, Day 2 takes at least another 15 minutes, and Day 3 takes another 20-30 minutes? By the time you are done, a full campaign is about 2.5 hours?
I didn’t think I’d like the campaign, but I did. The campaign especially let Joan shine: her getting new Equipment makes her pretty awesome! The main complaint of Joan is that it can be hard to get Equipment in a one-shot game: In a campaign, she shines! I still like Lira for the one-shot better, but Joan is better for the campaign!
One note: I suggest you play the Big Bad Bosses each in one-shot mode at least once before you attempt to fight them in a campaign. Each boss is different enough and has enough rules that’s it better to know what you are getting into because there will be a lot of new rules per boss. Caveat Emptor.
Conclusion
I really did not think I’d like Small-Time Heroes: Sword and Shadow as much as I did! Every game I played made me like the game just a little more!
I think this is strongest as a solo one-shot game: If I want to play a quick game like “Solitaire”, this game is easy to set-up, fun and quick to play, and easy to tear-down. It started as a 6.5, then went to a 7, then 7.5, and now I think I am at an 8/10! Every time I played, I realized how fun I was having! 30 minutes for a fun solo game? Yes please!
The INTENT cards are one of the things that really make this game stand out! Rather than being “stuck” with random attack from the bad guys, you have a hint as to what’s coming! I really liked how this made the game feel much less random!
The best part of the game are the combos you can create! As your deck gets better and better, there’s some pretty neat things you can set up! I have played a little more Lira than Joan, but I have seen some neat and different combos in both decks!
The 2-Player cooperative mode is probably the weakest part of the game. It works, but it feels like it really needs to embrace some simultaneous play to make it more dynamic and interactive. Still, if you want to avoid Alpha Player Syndrome and play multiplayer solitaire, the 2-Player cooperative mode does embrace that multiplayer solitaire ethic. Maybe 6.5/10 or 7/10, depending on where you fall on the need for simultaneous play.
I am also surprised I liked the Campaign mode! At first I was annoyed at it, but then I saw Joan shine as her deck really improved. Those of you who like Slay The Spire will probably really like the campaign.
This is a reprint, but it’s new for me. And I liked it! I suspect this will make my Top 10 Solo Games of 2026! (It might have be Honorable Mention since it came out earlier … even though this is a reprint and I just got it)
