#tabletop game review

[carlyraejepsans]

Do you think the skeleton brothers would enjoy playing chess together or is it like the junior jumble vs. crosswords where one is more partial to checkers than chess and vice versa

one game of chess following skelebros comedy rules would make a grown man insane before the third turn

[the-princeps]

Lancer review (kinda)

So most of you will have heard of lancer, it's a ttrpg made by Miguel Lopez and Tom Bloom. It's great, I adore it. Now Lancer is a combat-heavy (a grid is a necessity), primarily digital ttrpg, if that's not your jam, lancer won't be. Lancer has COMPCON, a site that helps with making characters, managing things, looking stuff up etc.

Visual design: So the visual design is stunning and has a strong identity. I don't have any images linked here but you should take a look at the images of the mechs, they are stunning and immediately show who they are, you can see that it's a fast combat mech, an odd pirate ttrpg or just a wall.

The illustrations are gorgeous and there's a lot of them.

Mechanical design:

Lancer has a robust design, for example: The hp-esque's, there's heat, structure and hp, heat is a intuitive risk vs reward system that let's you push beyond your limits, it's lovely but not particularly eventful. The hp and structure interaction however is fascinating, you see whenever your mech reaches 0hp you don't die, instead you lose 1 structure, when at 0 structure you die, whenever the structure is damaged you gain some detriments. This design allows both the GM and player to easily gain an overview how damaged characters are by how much structure they have.

Then there are the mounts, mounts are where the mech equips it's weapons, kinda like battletech (though only in that way). This limitation on the weapons you are carrying overcomes the option bloat that appears in the higher levels of many ttrpgs, without removing meaningful choice in both character creation and combat, I would almost go as far as to say it adds more meaningful choice, because it allows the creators to push the amount of stuff you can have, without bloating the options (in a fight) too much.

My mechanical gripes are small, but are there primarily it's stuns and scanning. I'll start with stuns, it's the same problem as always, stunning takes you out of the game, stunning a boss is annoying for the GM and is annoying and stunning a player means they'll be playing checkers in the background for the rest of the battle (or maybe just 1 or 2 rounds, which is more likely).

Lore design:

The lore is great, but it is necessary for the game. It is near enough impossible to play in any pre-existing setting with lancer, because you can't really port NHP's, Horus or so many other things into another setting as is and if you don't port them as is then things will be weird.

The lore in the book is also presented somewhat oddly, it gives you an overviews of the whole organisation, rather than the info the GM actually needs about the setting, but it's a small gripe.

Post Scriptum: Lancer's player rules are also just straight up free to look at on compcon, all of them. It's great, go read it, right now. Do it, right now.

[tabletopgayventures]

Any Requests?

Hey everyone! I have a full list of 150 games to review. I plan on reviewing the core system mechanics first before reviewing individual games. However, I wanted to ask, is there a game you want me to review first? Please know that I will not review Dungeons and Dragons 5e or Pathfinder 2e. There are plenty of other places to see reviews or learn about those games. If I know what people want to hear about first then I can plan games to learn the system. Feel free to send me an ask about this! Also please reblog!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Mint Reviews: Huckleberry

This is a review for Huckleberry, a Wyrd West RPG by Steven Alexander. I received a copy of the Early Access version of the game in exchange for a review.

Huckleberry is a game about the dark and weird parts of a fictional Wild West, in which gunslingers and outlaws roam freely, supernatural creatures haunt the desert, and gold is earned through feats of derring-do.

The Setting

The game begins with a legend that appears to be inspired by Navajo mythology, including a reference to the myth of Spider Woman and a world that exists beneath ours, closed 30 years ago forever to the inhabitants of the Fifth World, which appears to be the setting of the book. There is a supernatural force of nature called the Wyrd, touching everything around it and corrupting it. This dangerous element of the surrounding environment has made living difficult and dangerous, with palatable drinking water hard to come by, hoarded by water barons.

Your characters are occult bounty hunters called Mavericks, earning a living (and access to Cool Water) through hunting supernatural monsters. Because of the pervasiveness of the Wyrd, you characters might also be touched by the supernatural, giving them special abilities that help them survive in the harshness of the desert.

The Rules

Huckleberry uses a combination of dice and cards to represent obstacles and conflict resolution, as well as a player resource called Aces. The dice vary in size, and will increase or decrease to represent competency or difficulty. The cards are primarily used to determine the kind of challenge will face the player, but the suits of the deck are also thematically tied to character abilities, as well as potential effects from attacks coming from monsters.

Similar to what you might find in traditional roleplaying games, Huckleberry expects players to make both skill checks and attribute saves, representing a game that’s about combat and conflict with the world around you. Your character will have skills and attributes that can be mixed and combined however you like, reminiscent of the way you combine two stats in Chronicles of Darkness to give you a dice pool. Your character will also have a Wyrd die, a d10 that can be optionally reduced in size to re-roll checks or saves.

Additionally, characters have the ability to earn Aces, tokens or some other physical counter that can be spent in order to Sweeten the Pot (improving a potential success) or Sleeve the Ace (saved for later). A Sleeved Ace can be spent to add positive modifiers to your rolls, thus increasing your chances of success. Most of the time, in order to gain an Ace, your character will need to play according to type, but Aces can also be gained as bonuses when using certain abilities or special items.

Your character is built out of Attributes and Skills, but also a series of Traits that tell us something about their relationship to the occult, their personality, and their job. You also start with a special piece of equipment called a Big Iron, which is a legendary weapon with special abilities. You can modify your Big Iron over time, giving it mechanical bonuses that make them easier or more efficient to use, typically in combat. Your non-weapon items are represented by Kit, which is a limited inventory meant to represent the scarcity of the world you live in, and your wealth is abstracted to Wyrd-touched Chips, which also double as your XP.

The Gameplay

Huckleberry moves between two phases of the game, called Drives and Pastimes. Drives are investigative and action-heavy phases, often missions that the players will choose and then have to finish in order to get paid. Pastimes are moments of downtime, where players can heal and pursue advancements for both themselves and the town that they build as their home base.

One unique element of Huckleberry is the way the card deck is used in the Drive phase, especially during combat. When it is time for the GM to respond to the actions of the players, they do something called Ante Up, which involves drawing a card from the deck. The suit on the drawn card determines something about the upcoming obstacle, and also defines associated Attribute required for the challenge. Face cards are especially lethal, reflecting a consequence inflicted by the word. The Ace & Joker cards represent a moment of reprieve, with the Wyrd acting in the character’s favor, and dealing each player a Sleeved Ace or an increase to their Wyrd die.

Sensitivity

Thematically, the setting plays up the tropes of Western fiction while including specific references to groups of people who live in the areas that are often referenced in these events. This includes the Hopi, the Diné/Navajo, the Nʉmʉnʉʉ/Comanche, and the Gáuigú/Kiowa peoples. There are references in the book to creatures and imagery that may have originated in these people’s mythologies, although I think that many of the common names have been changed or replaced with autonyms in an effort to respect the people who claim these stories. I’m personally impressed that the author has made an effort to recognize the authority and autonomy of the peoples whose stories have often been mangled or poorly represented by Western media.

I do not know if the author is Indigenous nor, do I know if they have hired a sensitivity reader for the indigenous themes in this book; a sensitivity editor is named, although the specific areas that the editor was responsible for are not made clear. The book does come with a land acknowledgement of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Popeloutchom, where I assume the author resides, as well as a public acknowledgement of the harm the mythologizing of the American West has done to indigenous peoples and other people of colour. I’m not Indigenous myself, so I’m curious about how some of the subject matter within the book would be received by members of the Hopi and Diné tribes.

Summary

Huckleberry embraces the harshness and fickleness of the setting by using a randomizer like a card deck to determine the specific challenges and benefits that come the players’ way, while still ensuring that at some point, the players will come across a challenge that suits them. The book gives the reader a taste for the setting and then moves on to explaining how to play and how to build a character, leaving plenty of the story-crafting up to the group.

The playing cards are exceptionally thematic, as are the mechanical terms used to describe different actions in the book, such as Ante Up, Sweeten the Pot, and Sleeving an Ace. Combat is definitely the most fleshed-out part of the book, with various kinds of injuries and ailments that can negatively affect your character’s skills and abilities, and a drawn-out health track represented by Scars. I can see a lot of similarities between this game and Blades in the Dark, such as the phases of the game, the Deal with the Devil (free healing at the cost of agreeing to a bargain), and forcibly retiring your character should they take too many Scars.

That being said, I don’t think this a Forged in the Dark game in the slightest. The different dice sizes feel more akin to 24XX and the Wyrd die reminds me of the Plot Die in Rotted Capes. This game feels like the designer has taken some of his favourite pieces of various different games and combined them to deliver a Wild West experience that embraces unique, dynamic characters and dangerous bouts of conflict.

Pros

The game understands and resonates with much of it’s source material, and knows exactly what kind of experience it wants to deliver. Fans of the Wyrd West will probably find a lot to like about this game.

The game provides structure in the phases of play, which I find can make it more approachable to players who don’t know where to start. A straight-forward mission/downtime cycle can give the group a good idea of where the story is going next.

The Sleeved Aces give the players a unique resource to help them give them a better chance at rolls that mean a lot to them.

The card-drawing mechanic in conflicts changes the role of the GM a little bit; they are less of a movie director and more of a game facilitator. Adding a form of chance when it comes to determining what exactly is challenging the players means that the GM doesn’t have to plan quite as much, and also reinforces the wildness of the Wyrd.

Cons

There’s a lot to keep track of. The consequences that can be inflicted upon your characters all work slightly differently, and there’s different categories. I'm slightly worried that a lot of play time might be eaten up by having to reference the book multiple times to look up different ailments and how they affect your character.

The unique language also requires some acclimation to a new system, which (to be fair) is a common struggle for someone picking up a new game, but I found myself having to re-read special mechanics more than once to understand what they were used for.

My biggest struggle has to do with understanding a specific ruling in the part that talks about Sixes & Sevens, which is meant to be the combat part of play. Sixes & Sevens is meant to make the game-play feel “cinematic” and therefore is meant to streamline combat. However, in Ailments & Inflictions, the writer recommends that the game should remain in Sixes and Sevens while the Mavericks still have life-threatening ailments. I’m curious as to how you would narrate a play-by-play of someone struggling with an illness and still keep the gameplay ‘cinematic”.

If you want a game that demonstrates a lot of love for the Weird West genre, you enjoy games that can beat your character up a little bit, and you like the thrill of not knowing what’s coming up next, then you might like Huckleberry.

You can check out the early access version of Huckleberry on DrivethruRPG.

[goblincow]

GREEN MILK | #008 | save vs despair — mörk borg: a holistic retrospective

:// A little over a month & 14,000 edited & well-considered words later, SAVE VS DESPAIR is complete to read in its entirety.

If you have any interest in TTRPGs or ever wondered what Mörk Borg's whole deal is – this is for you.

I approached it as a writing exercise & design analysis to understand what's so special about this game and art object, and I'm really proud of both this piece and what I learned for my own practice.

If you're invested in the TTRPG scene I'd appreciate it if you shared this with anyone who might enjoy it.

Our artform deserves as much high-quality analysis as we can cultivate, and the fact that I stumbled into writing what is currently the most thorough analysis I could find (which still has huge gaps in its perspective & approach) of one of the most successful games to emerge from the scene in recent years indicates that there is a need to encourage more writing like this.

In a perpetually collapsing digital infrastructure where so much of our design writing is ephemeral and lost to time (I've heard ancient tales of The Forge & Google+ eras, Discord is an unreferencable void & I really hope someone wiser than me is archiving all these podcasts) I hope that longer form writing might represent an opportunity for the ideas we have now to still be accessible (in one form or another) in years to come.

—

Too much patting myself on the back? Maybe.

But it's good writing and I think you'll get something out of it.

Personally I learned that cross posting on multiple platforms is exactly as fun as it sounds (I thought the whole point of starting a newsletter was to avoid this crap in the first place) and by the end of the month I just wasn't posting the illustrations I was making or sharing the last 2 (?) individual parts here as they went up after burning myself out on instagram.

So for the sake of my poor microwaved brain, if any of this interests you:

[vikingschism]

Thoughts on the Stormlight TTRPG

This will be a fairly lengthy post detailing my impressions of the Stormlight Archives TTRPG by Brotherwise Games based on a session played with some other fans of Sanderson's works. Some general details of the scenario are discussed as well as the details of the pre-generated character I played, but is otherwise spoiler-free.

Background

I like Brandon Sanderson's books well enough so I was naturally interested in an RPG set in his most epic series (The Stormlight Archives). My tastes in TTRPGs generally tend towards the more narrative focused games - I enjoy PBTA, FitD and Resistance Engine games - so seeing that it was going to be a D20 system with a D&D 5e style character sheet had me a bit worried. I have enjoyed tactical combat before with systems like Draw Steel (having tried it out in a playtest - looking forward to another session soon) or even Pathfinder 2E (even if I find that system to be a bit much in other places), so there was still some hope.

I decided to take part as a player in an adventure making use of a prepared scenario using the freely available beta rules. This scenario was intended to show off the game and get new players, possibly new to TTRPGs as a whole, going. The basic premise is that the players are on an expedition towards some ancient ruins

The Character

There were multiple pre-generated characters available so I elected to play as Vedd - a disgraced Alethi soldier serving in the bridge crews. This was essentially the basic warrior class which suited me well enough, though in a full campaign there would be the option to have the character become a Radiant which would definitely give more opportunity to express the character through the powers selected. The character notes gave some good hooks to get the player into character; in the case of Vedd it was his connections to his bridge crew, his grizzled nature as one of the longest serving Bridgemen, and that he has attracted the attention of a spren who appears as a streak of light when he takes heroic or self sacrificing action.

The character sheet was serviceable, though it was sometimes hard to locate the skills I was looking for when making a test due to the amount present, so the organisation maybe could've been better. There's also just a lot of derived stats on the sheet - do we really need a carrying capacity for example? That seems a bit more simulationist than this game needs. I do like the idea of having Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual defences and them being placed between the two stats that determine the value is nice. It's also nice that the stats are just the bonus rather than needing to derive the bonus like in 5e. Skill modifiers also made sense since you just add the points in that skill to the relevant stat to calculate the modifier.

In the scenario my character's skills were mostly in athletics, perception, and heavy weaponry. The social skills weren't too high, although intimidation was definitely on the table. This spread of skills suggested a character who was taciturn in social settings but excelled when it came time to put himself into the thick of the action.

Combat

Overall it felt good to play, the combat system allowed for a lot of flexibility and I appreciated its action economy. Players can choose to take a fast or slow turn - a fast turn grants 2 actions, a slow turn grants 3. Fast players go first, then fast enemies, then slow players, then slow enemies - within each category there is no set initiative order, players can work it out themselves). On a turn you have a number of actions you can take, and some will cost more action points (for example a recovery costs two points - however you may want to do this on a fast turn if you think an enemy will attack first). This draws on both Pathfinder 2e (with the action point system) and Shadow of the Demon Lord with the fast/slow turns.

In each round everyone gets a single reaction too. Most of these reactions require spending a point of focus, but they give good options for mitigating damage or assisting in the fight (for example Reactive Strike is the Opportunity Attack equivalent, however it requires a focus point to use - these are limited and can be recovered or are regained fully on a long rest). In our fights in the session I didn't remember that I could use the reaction to dodge which would've given the enemy disadvantage on their strike, leading to me taking a large amount of damage. Another reaction involves assisting an ally when they attempt a test in combat in order to grant them advantage on the roll. This combos quite nicely with an action that allows the player to attempt a skill test to gain advantage on their next roll.

The abilities that my character had weren't too flashy, though I should've remembered to enter vigilant stance at the start of combat - this grants advantage on perception, increases deflect, and causes enemies to require 2 actions to attack allies. Combat training also meant I could graze (upon missing, deal the value of the damage dice with no modifier) a single enemy per round for free - normally grazing would cost a focus point.

Exploration

Outside of combat I had more mixed opinions - mainly related to the plot die. This is intended to add more narrative twists to skill tests - the intention is that this is rolled for tests that are more high stakes (the process of asking for it to be rolled is called "raising the stakes"). This is a d6 (although a proprietary die with symbols is available), and rolling a 5 or 6 grants an Opportunity while a 1 or 2 imposes a Complication as well as granting a bonus of double the value on the die face to the roll (which could be enough to push a bad roll into a success). A result of 3 or 4 does nothing, and rolling a 20 or 1 on any test grants an Opportunity and a Complication respectively (this does mean they can stack when rolling the die).

Opportunities can be spent to regain a focus point, grant advantage to an ally on their next test, turn a hit into a critical hit (on attack tests in combat), or on a beneficial narrative event (which the GM must rubber stamp) - some abilities also interact with these. Complications are imposed by the GM and can essentially do the opposite of what an Opportunity can do.

So what's my issue with it? I personally found that having a null result on the die (3 and 4) meant that Opportunities and Complications felt a little rarer than I would've liked - if the roll matters enough to use the plot die then I feel like it should really have one result or the other.

This system also interacts with Events - these are similar to clocks in games like Blades in the Dark where they signal an impending event. These are ticked, depending on whether the event is positive or negative with an Opportunity or a Complication. This never came up in the scenario, however I think this is another reason I'd prefer the plot die to always produce an Opportunity or Complication; as is Opportunities and Complications just don't come up that often, so it might make Events a bit harder to use. In a system like Blades the clocks are constantly being ticked which really contributes to the sense of impending danger, or gives players a focus on an objective in the scene (eg: escaping from something chasing them).

Skill tests otherwise were straightforward, and advantage is a standard roll 2 dice and pick the higher result (although interestingly advantage can stack and be applied to multiple dice in the roll - which does mean you can give the plot die advantage as well as the d20 if you have two advantages on a roll).

The Scenario

I don't want to spoil the scenario, however I will say it was decently put together. There was a fair amount of railroading, however since we were all there for that adventure I think that was ok. There wasn't anything that stood at as being too egregious and there was some nice artwork along the way to help picture the events. It also gave some good opportunities to play into the pregen characters. All of the players came out being fairly satisfied with the adventure; it will be interesting to see how the game plays once Radiant powers are involved.

Conclusion

Overall I feel the game was competently put together and will be a fun way to explore the worlds of Sanderson. I don't think it's going to be replacing any of my favourite narrative systems, however, and some areas (like the plot die) left something to be desired. The combat was fun and will likely only get more fun once characters have access to Radiant powers, so I wouldn't be against playing again. I likely would not want to GM however, as there is a bit more crunch than I prefer in my systems. It does also remain to be seen how the game will adapt other worlds such as Scadrial from Mistborn given the different tone and nature of the world.

For those who have read all of this, thank you - I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the Stormlight TTRPG and I'm curious to know what other people think of it so far.

[crackerjackalopegames]

Jackalope Mail: The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts

I just released a review of The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts a book by Delyth Badder and Mark Norman full of ghost stories from my home country: Wales! I wrote about the book, how it is inspiring me as a game designer, and it ends with a sneak preview of my next game!

[literal-bot-account]

Scratching the Itch #3

Couple days have gone by but this project isn't dead. Today's target is Ex Novo, a 1-4 player leaderless tabletop game. The objective of the game is to collaboratively create a town or city, complete with its own history, political factions, natural resources, landmarks, and more. The game's creators suggest using the city you build in a later creative project, such as a setpiece for a TTRPG or other work of fiction.

Honestly, this is right up my alley. I love maps and cities, and this game proves simple enough to get started immediately but with enough breadth of play to make sure you're always entertained.

The game itself functions on pretty straightforward mechanics. A set of tables is used to set up the starting position of play, and then each player takes turn rolling dice and consulting more tables, which dictate what happens during their turn.

My rating for Ex Novo is a solid 9/10. There were a couple times where I wanted to (and on occasion, did) re-roll the turn. I understand it's just part of the game, but when the table commands I turn one district to ruin after a war in a town that only has two districts, I'm inclined to give the dice another shot.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Ex Novo, and the game allows you to extend your city's development almost indefinitely by just starting a new game using a city you already made. With all this in mind, I'm interested in Ex Umbra a similar game made by the same Sharkbomb Studios to create dungeons.

[neotula]

started warhammer: rogue trader and i am already infested with a warp entity help

[spewagepipe]

Dev Pipeline: Firmament and the Red Dragon's Tale

I had told my brother that the Lego Corporation would not get my money unless they took it from my corpse. For my birthday, he pooled budgets with a few other co-conspirators to buy me... not the official Lego product, but a virtually-identical, brick-for-brick knock-off of the kit made by a Chinese company (thus, in his view, satisfying my condition).

From a purely consumerist standpoint, this was an extremely good idea. Two of the 3700 bricks were misshapen, and several unique specialty parts (magic swords, armour, hairstyles, etc) were substituted with default alternatives – but at about 1/5th the price point (before shipping), it's still an overwhelmingly better purchase than the official Lego kit. I can't speak to the labour practices or other ethical concerns, but the knowledge that I might be able to cheaply obtain large quantities of nearly-perfect bricks will be important later in this story.

And yes, this post is something of a product review, but I promise all the details will also bear some relevance to the development process.

If you're into Lego-as-display-piece, it must be remarked that the kit looks amazing – but I'm not, and as a toy, it's quite underwhelming. Except for the largely empty meadow and the totally empty bridge, all of the playable spaces are extremely crowded, cramped, and awkward to manipulate. Only a few of them disassemble in ways that offer better access, and they are almost all constructed to be accessed from the side (like a dollhouse), which means that foreground objects obstruct background ones, and it's hard to apply the downward pressure needed to anchor a figure to the floor studs.

It's not an accident, apparently, that traditional dungeon crawl games used a top-down perspective for mapping. Thanks to gravity, most objects rest against the floor of a dungeon, and relatively few things are suspended in the air – so foreground occlusion is less frequent if you view the dungeon from above. Regardless, I also made note of the fact that spaces in a physical model need to be large enough to accommodate fingers and hands in between the walls, furniture, and figurines.

Finally, the kit also includes a disastrous, plot-hole-ridden, and debatably-broken D&D module authored by Chris Perkins that reads like a rushed first draft. In the process of completely rewriting it for my usual play group, I also converted it for use with Into the Odd, since I can't stand to play D&D anymore. If anyone is interested in that, send me an ask. The results of this little playtest were interesting: while the group agreed with my various criticisms above, they all felt that the physical interactivity of the dungeon module held incredible potential – and that a creating a purpose-built dungeon and system would be a very worthwhile endeavour.

I suddenly realized that the little game I had been designing for my niece actually had a much broader appeal.

[daniellethamasa]

WIP Wednesday - Aug 23

[legionofmyth]

Rifts Dimension Book #14: Thundercloud Galaxy: All the tech you’re NOT allowed!

🚀 Discover the advanced technology of the Thundercloud Galaxy in Rifts Dimension Book #14 by Palladium Books! From powerful spacecraft to innovative gadgets, explore the cutting-edge tech that defines this incredible galaxy. Watch now to delve into the futuristic world of Thundercloud Galaxy! #RiftsRPG #ThundercloudGalaxy #PalladiumBooks #TabletopRPG #SciFiFantasy #RPGTech #RolePlayingGames

Rifts Dimension Book #14: Thundercloud Galaxy Rifts Dimension Book 2: Phase World Explore the advanced and futuristic technology of the Thundercloud Galaxy from Rifts Dimension Book #14 by Palladium Books! 🚀 Discover the cutting-edge tech that powers this incredible dimension. Watch now to unlock the secrets of Thundercloud Galaxy’s technology! In this video, we delve into the sophisticated and…

[tgcnews]

Board Game Geek (BGG) is an amazing resource for both players and game designers. We highly recommend that all game designers submit listings on BGG so that their games can be found there. Gamers interested in your game can learn more about it and people who have played the game can leave reviews and feedback. So be sure to do this!

In this video, you'll learn how to submit your game listing to BGG.

[haveyouplayedthisboardgame-poll]

[theresattrpgforthat]

Review Two, Electric Boogaloo: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

This is my second review for Eureka, as the document has been majorly updated, and the designers are gearing up to fund it on Kickstarter from April 10 to May 10.

This game is an investigative game meant for mysteries that incorporate a large amount of action and horror. I’m going to break down some of the interesting things Eureka does, and talk about who I think would be a good audience for it.

Graded Success

Eureka uses 2d6 for pretty much every roll, with the possibility of ending up with a failure, a partial success, or a full success. You can add modifiers from various different places, such as your skills, your fear, and your player Truth. The breadth of this game and the game philosophy behind it means that it is not a Powered by the Apocalypse style game - Eureka is its own beast.

Investigation

There are two kinds of rolls in Eureka - investigative and non-investigative. When you are not investigating, success and failure will mostly be determined by what makes sense in the fiction. For investigative rolls, regardless of success or failure, your character will receive investigation points.

I really like this mechanic because even if you fail, your character makes progress - and in fact, since you gain more investigation points when you fail, this plays as if your character is able to use their failures to arrive at a conclusion later in the story.

This is a great time to talk about the Investigation Bar, which is the central focus of the game. When you fill the Investigation Bar, you get a Eureka! This could be a chance to get a vital piece of information, or to tip the narrative scales into your character’s favor.

Precious Information - Secretive Play

Secrets are important in Eureka. The Narrator has secrets of course - the answers to the mystery, the motives of the NPCs, the supernatural that is hiding around the corner - but the players do to. If you are a vampire, a werewolf, a psychic, etc., you are encouraged to wait until a dramatically appropriate moment in the game to reveal this information.

This presents a very specific style of play. Eureka is an ideal game for folks who want to procedurally uncover information, and game masters who like using pre-determined, pre-written mysteries, with motives, clues and events mapped out. How these mysteries are solved still depends on what happens in play, but as a GM, you’ll have plenty of sources to draw on when the characters ask questions.

Eureka also prepares players for messy relationships between their characters. If you want your characters to misunderstand each-other, compete with each-other, or even betray each-other, that is an option in this game. These complicated relationships might even give birth to a secondary plot line for the characters to follow as they try to solve the mystery, especially if they want to find the answers for different reasons. I think it has the potential to make Eureka a multi-layered storytelling experience.

Procedurals

This multi-layered experience is possible only if you have one or more members of the group who are dedicated to taking notes. Because the information being relayed to the characters is so important, it’s crucial that the players remember that information.

In some ways, this reminds me of games where players are expected to get inventive with the tools they have. Players are given pieces of information, and then asked to put the pieces together while in character. The handing out of this information is similar to what I’ve heard described in GUMSHOE - obvious clues will not require a roll - but what is done with that information is up to the players.

I think this might be why playing in longer games or campaigns might be a really good format for Eureka, because it allows characters to piece together a big mystery over a long period of time. This is a game that requires a large amount of investment from both players and game-master alike; this is procedural play in which the narrative emerges from the procedure.

Horror

Eureka thrives with horror, and while the game is meant to be compatible with adventures with various systems, that doesn’t mean that it is genre-agnostic. There are dark things in the corners of this world, whatever it may be, and those things will scare and stress out your characters. There are a number of mechanics that tie Eureka to horror really well.

First is Composure, which is a replacement for sanity mechanics of games like Call of Cthulhu. Your character can only take so much emotional stress before it starts to inhibit their ability to perform certain tasks. If you lose enough Composure, you’ll find yourself hindered in the amount of positive modifiers you can apply to any given action. I like how this replicates how stressors can inhibit it personal performance - and the fact that Composure can be regained means that you can moderate how gruelling the gameplay is.

There’s also character Truths, which aren’t necessarily horrific, but can give you a reason to take the less-than-optimal path in any given situation. Similar to Vice in World of Darkness, you can gain a modifier to a situation in which your character chooses to act in a way that is in line with their Truth, even if there is another option available. This is a mechanical reward for playing true to your character, flaws and all.

The game also asks you to personalize the fears associated with your character. These fears may trigger Composure Rolls, or apply modifiers to them to make them harder to pass. These fears may also be cues to give to your Narrator, indicating what kinds of things you want to inhibit your character, and what kinds of things you want your character to be able to face with little difficulty.

Toolbox

There are elements of Eureka that are optional, which are there to help tailor your game experience. For example, you can include a Ticking Clock to give your players a dead-line or heighten the suspense, which can focus the game and also make it feel more like a thriller.

You can also tailor the skills to make the game fit a certain setting, such as prioritizing horseback riding or driving cars - or perhaps increasing the medical skills to make this a mystery much more focused on biology and medical practises.

The game also has many nods to various forms of detective fiction, as well as supernatural mysteries, action pulp films, and film noir. You can see this primarily in character abilities, which come as a big list of things you can pick and choose and pair together for a unique character.

All in all, if you want a game where Columbo, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Indiana Jones can all be in the same adventuring party, you might want to check out Eureka.

You can find a free download version of Eureka here, and keep an eye out for the Kickstarter here!

[thenerdsupply-co]

Age of Civilization

Minimum Time: 30-45 minutes

Number of Players: 1-4

Replayability: 8/10

Complexity: 7/10

Click-clacks: 5/10

We both like Sid Meier’s Civilization series, so this compact game looked like it was right up our alley. We also scored it for less than $20.

The rules are a tad confusing on the first run through, which is why I have it a higher complexity rating. After playing through four times, we’re both comfortable with it. Creative concept, 4.5 stars from me.

The game is played in six rounds, with the first round being slightly different, then the five that follow all being the same. You pick a civilization to be your “main”, which determines how many meeples you’re allowed to use as workers. Your goal is earning the green star points, which can be done via actions, work, specific World Wonders can give points, and your tech tree. The technology tree is what I liked best about this because I haven’t played a game yet with one, plus the click clacks are fun.

The only downside is this game requires quite a bit of space to play, despite the tiny cards. Not an issue if you have a clear table, but it is something to take into account.

There is a solo mode for this game, which we haven’t tried yet. But bonus points for *having* a solo mode.

There are coins, meeples, and technology points click clacks, all wooden. I wouldn’t recommend eating them.

Clearly, a lot of research went into this and it’s a well-made game. I give it an overall rating of 7/10 and immediately found a place for it in our travel case.