Stopped playing around level 4, rather disappointed

[BlackswordSteve]

I've always been a huge fan of Flying Frog. I fell in love with the company's dedication to an immersive, thematic, adventure in a box and my group still enjoys bringing their games to the table even after years of play. I was a bit apprehensive about SoB at first, but decided to give it a try as by that time the hype had been going on for quite awhile. I was impressed that Flying Frog was trying something daring and new, and that they were finally getting some of the spotlight in a crowded, competitive hobby, but ultimately, I felt the end result left much to be desired and hardly encouraged investing in other expansions. I'm half wondering if we were reading some rules wrong, because many aspects of the game felt rather vague and incomplete. I hate to say it, but to our group it felt as if we were playing a prototype almost.

Did any of your guys' possees find themselves with hundreds and hundreds of dollars left over even after spending a lot, for example? Our group seemed to run out of useful things to buy once we hit level 3 as we've already looted most of the good stuff in the base game. We ended up always just buying the usual buffs for the next adventure, not really needing a reason to do much else. And what was with the hotel? What was it, $5 or $10 to stay the night? Why on Earth would you not pay that small amount and risk sleeping at the camp? Did my posse just get lucky a lot or read the rules wrong, or are other people's groups experiencing similar issues even at low levels?

My main complaint, though, would have to be the absence of any kind of narrative that ties the campaign together. And that feels weird to say, considering Flying Frog's games usually can weave an interesting story of their own through the card play and character abilities. With SoB however, the players are told, suggestively and even outright in the rules, to "imagine a narrative that connects the missions". That would make sense with any of their other one-shot, scenario based games, but with a game like SoB that is clearly meant to be a campaign with persisting player characters, it feels as if there is a whole chunk of the game that is missing. It comes off even stranger when you look at the whole bsckstory to Brimstone, it's map, and NPC bios in the rule books. What are all these towns? Are we supposed to feel like we're traversing this map? Who are these characters we never get to meet? Are we supposed to roleplay the whole, connecting story outside of what little narrative we're given with the missions? Like....I feel like I have to take on the role of Game Master and add a whole bunch of custom missions and rules to make the game actually make sense as a campaign beyond " you failed this one mission, so a building is destroyed the next time you go to whatever town you want to pretend you're visiting on the map". I enjoy adding custom content to flying frog games and imagining the bigger picture behind the other games' cards, but it feels wrong here, like it's expected of you.... Like I have to do the work of bridging the gap between dungeon crawl and pseudo-RPG. For $100, and possibly more with expansions, that seems especially disappointing.

But I'm just venting, I suppose. I just feel a little baffled. The game feels so....empty, for being a flying frog title. But like I said, maybe I'm over thinking things or reading some rules wrong somewhere.

What are your guys' experiences with this?