Rallytaire is Formula De built in a cave with a box of scraps

Rallytaire is:

A game from the first Solitaire Design Contest

A Roll and Write game

A Roll and Move game

The closest thing I’ve seen to a one-page Formula De

Honestly, Rallytaire feels like a game that designed on a bet. Can you make a race car game that just uses a piece of paper, a pencil and some dice? Oh, can you make it for one person and make it interesting?

(While I have also seen people compare Rallytaire to Rallyman, I haven’t played that game. (But it is available on Board Game Arena so now I’m interested) So Formula De is really what Rallytaire reminds me of and what I’ll keep referencing) 

There are three different sets of race tracks, each with three to four individual tracks. The number of turns it takes, plus how fast you go through the finish line, determine your time and the only challenge is beating your old times. 

There are advanced rules where you manage brakes and tires and engine. Effectively ways of fine tuning your play. These are simple enough additions that you should really just play use them.

Okay, like Formula De, Rallytaire is all about managing gears and corners. In Formula De, each gear is a different speciality die and each corner has a set number of times you have to stop on it. 

In Rallytaire, each gear has an automatic distance you move and a number of standard six-sided dice you roll. You get an extra space of movement for each 4, 5 or 6 you roll. As for corners, each corner has a maximum gear you can be in. You can drift to be in one higher gear but corners are grouped together and you can only drift once per group.

It has been a long time since I’ve played Formula De or any of its descendants. I understand there are groups that would actually not just play it but run tournaments or seasons or whatever you would call a whole bunch of races in a row. I still keep a copy of Formula De Mini in the closet. The formula of Formula De is a solid one. You don’t push your luck or hope that you have luck. You manage your luck.

And while Rallytaire doesn’t perfectly capture that, it does a remarkably good job of it with a minimalist production. (In fact, I wonder if you could use its rules on a Formula De track. Fan made tracks are out there and this might work if you don’t have the speciality dice. Which I do so I don’t have any reason to try it)

Which actually highlights the biggest drawback of Rallytaire. A race with no competition lacks something. I’ve played a lot of solitaire games at this point and I’m no stranger to trying to beat your own score. But games about race cars cry out for competition and interaction.

Rallytaire is not a substitute or replacement for Formula De. It is methadone for Formula De.

I am going to note that, while I appreciate how little ink the minimalist line art uses, you could skip a copy of the game into a business report and no one would notice. Published racing games tend to be flashy and Rallytaire is anything but. I’m fine with that but I can see that being an issue.

Rallytaire isn’t a game I’m gojng to play dozens of times. The lack of competition and interaction takes the edge off the genre. But I think the game does an amazing job mechanically and I’m sure it will get at least  _a_ dozen plays out of me. If you have any interest in racing games, you shoud make the tiny ink investment and try it out.

Stone Fox - it’s like Hemingway wrote childrens lit

 In my search for ‘books high schoolers pick for bill reports’, I found out about Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. I thought it was a Newberry award winner (but it’s not) and it’s really more of a fifth grade or middle school book. But I read it anyway.

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Okay. It’s a famous childrens book with a dog on cover. It’s better than even money that the dog is going to die. And she does. So, since you can automatically guess how it ends, is it worth reading?

Short answer, more than I expected.

Synopsis: Willy and his grandfather will lose the farm if they don’t pay off the back taxes. The only way Willy can earn the money is by winning a dogsled race. His beloved dog Search Light dies right at the finish line. However, the titular Stone Fox, legend of dog sled races, holds off the other racers so Willy can carry the late Search Light over the finish line.

First of all, this is a short and Hemingway minimalist book. It is 90% show and only 10% tell. It is impressively razer focused. While there are things Willy struggles to understand, it doesn’t talk down to the readers. 

Second, it is very grounded. The story lays out the situation so we can actually buy an 11-year-old boy winning a dog-sled race with one dog. It’s not a thosand mile Iditarod. It’s ten-mile race and one Willy and Search Ligjt ran on a daily basis and already knew well. And Willy’s big trick of crossing a frozen pond as a short cut is believable and something he cleared with the officials first.

Third, man, does Gardiner develop the relationship between boy and dog well. And almost entirely through showing. He describes Willy and Search Light working and playing together constantly.

So, the ending hits hard. And there’s no falling action. The last sentence is Willy carrying Search Light over the finish line. Razer thin minimalism.

The question I kept asking is why the book isn’t named Search Light? Stone Fox is Willy’s main competition, a neigh mythic sled dog driver- oh. That’s the answer.

Stone Fox, a Native American who is using prize money from races to buy back land treaties took away and is undefeated, is a legendary figure. He is larger than life, outside the scope of Willy and Search Light’s world. And he can be mean, punching Willy hard enough to close his eye for getting too close to his dogs.

So, when this mythic figure not only helps Willy but also honors Search Light’s sacrifice, it elevates both of them. Stone Fox is the gate keeper who lets them become legends as well. Cool trick when the book is so grounded.

Stone Fox is a tiny little book that has an old chestnut for a plot. But it is written so well that it works. 

Happy thoughts about what I think is ‘Ameritrash’

As I’ve mentioned, I was surprised (but not disappointed) to find that I had a number of games that fell into the Ameritrash camp in long term storage. Basically light war games with big maps and lots of dice chucking.

I’m not sure if the term Ameritrash is still used. If it is, it doesn’t seem to be used either as a pejorative or as a rallying cry. (And, no, I don’t miss those days. And, as my gray hairs indicate, I remember back when the term got started being used) If it is still in any use, it’s probably because no one has found a catchier term.

I credit Kickstarter for fewer faction wars in the board game world. Kickstarter created a marketplace for more diverse games that could pick and choose from different schools of game design. Warring camps just aren’t as interesting in that environment.

I have read (and I agree with this) that the defining characteristic of Ameritrash is theme. (Direct conflict is a close second) Narrative and identity are a big part of it. Changing the theme of an Ameritrash game changes the experience. Rex might use the same mechanics as Dune but it’s not the same experience.

I also feel like Ameritrash is the junction point of a lot of different design schools. The influence of war games is obvious, since so many Ameritrash games are war games with more focus on gonzo than simulation. But the narrative structure of RPGs is there are well. And I feel like I’ve seen elements of German Family gaming with economic and infrastructure building.

But not abstracts. Abstract games are about as far from Ameritrash as you can get. Go and Axis and Allies don’t talk to each other.

And, honestly, Ameritrash may be the most vague school of game design. Is Muchkin Ameritrash? It doesn’t have dice or a board but it has theme and conflict. Is Britiania Ameritrash or just a light historical war game?

I have a lot of happy memories for these big, crazy games. There really is a Hunter Thompson gonzo level of craziness and gusto baked into so many of them. But I also know why it’s been so long since I’ve played one. They take a whole evening to play :D

Come to think of it, I usually played them with my D&D groups. I guess we were looking for games that were the length of a D&D session! 

It takes time to be immersed in a theme. Shorter play times don’t work as well for the big gooey games that I’m looking at. Not entirely impossible. The Awful Green Things From Outer Space proves that. But that’s an exception, not the rule.

I’d like to revisit this kind of gameplay some time. I just hope I can stay awake to the end :D

Visiting games in storage

During my travels, I got a chance to look at games that I had put into storage at my parents’ house. Honestly, our move to Arizona had been so crazy, I was shocked to learn years later that I had actually done that.

I went more carefully through the fifty or so games in storage. Here are some thoughts. 

First of all, I can tell why most of these games went into storage. The vast majority of the games are longer games, at least by my standards. Games I knew I wouldn’t have the time for with a newborn. Two to six hours. Since 45 minutes is my current golden time for games, I still don’t have that time lol.

Second, there are games I thought I had gotten rid of that were just in storage. Games I’m glad I still own. Games I want to play again. I was shocked to learn I still own Wallamoppi, a dexterity game where the novelty is good enough to justify the game.

And third, I was surprised to find ten or so light war games that fit the Ameritrash category there were. (Is that term even used anymore?) It has been a very long time since I last played a game like Risk 2210 or Monsters Menace America but they are a definite part of my gaming history. And I’m glad I’ve still got some serious Beer and Pretzel games.

The games are going to stay in storage but it was cool to see them, remember them and catalog them.

What makes the Great Gatsby great?

 As part of my decision to read more books that lazy high schoolers use for book reports, I reread The Great Gatsby which I’m not sure I’ve read since college.

And doing some side research about the book,

I realize that trying to write about the Great Gatsby is like trying to write about Hamlet. There is practically a cottage industry for analyzing the book.

When I was younger, my biggest impression of the Great Gatsby was that it was held up as the shortest a book could be and still considered a novel. Reading it as a grown up, I was surprised at how, well, readable it was.

It was a little like finally seeing Citizen Kane. I knew that it was a classic movie and all that but no one had actually told me it was good. And that the sled is really more of a little aside than the point of the movie.

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Most (certainly not all) interpretations of The Great Gatsby seem to be that it’s a scathing critique of the American Dream. Everyone is obsessed with fame and money and is everyone is miserable.

One of the things that is fun to argue about is what is the real nature of any given character. 

Is Jay Gatsby a Byronesque hero who is too good for a corrupt world? Is he a creepy stalker? Is he a delusional hypocritical man child ? Is he just a larger than life figure who reveals how crummy everyone around him is? Is he even the main character?

(I found myself thinking that Jay Gatsby isn’t the protagonist and that Nick Carraway, the narrator is. He is the one who really changes over the course of the book. His relationship with Gatsby takes him from mild disillusionment to complete and utter disillusionment)

I don’t think that the theme of the Great Gatsby is its selling point. The human race is a bunch of rotters is an old, old theme. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald created a classic by exploring that theme with interesting  enough characters that we can argue about who they really are. 

And, quite frankly, by not being _too_ depressing.  You can argue that Fitzgerald’s friend Nathan West wrote an even more brutal and brilliant deconstruction of the American Dream with the The Day of the Locust but, boy, is  that book is bleak. 

I’ve read people calling The Great Gatsby as the Great American Novel. I can’t say that myself (I’d put the Catcher in the Rye before it among others) but it is a great novel about Americans.

Tempus Quest and airplane travel

Part of my preparation for a trip, I printed off the first few episodes of Tempus Quest. It uses the same Tempus System as Tempus Imperium, where the time and date are used to set up the board and actions. 

I’d already played episode 0, the tutorial, but I decided to play it again so I could embrace the whole business of Tempus Quest being a campaign.

I had been playing Tempus Infinitum, a prototype for another Tempus system game. And that gave me appreciation for a couple of design choices on Tempus Quest.  One, the Tempus Quest games are more goal focused. That means fewer paths to victory but you know exactly what to plan for if you get a bad number string. And the Tempus Quest game gives you more starting  ‘money’ resource to change actions, which also helps compensate for a bad number.

Okay, here’s some more specific thoughts:

Episode 0 - Some Re-Assembly Required

Where you rebuild the spaceship Tempus.

My original impression was Episode 0 was that it was a tutorial that was so basic that it would be hard to fail. The ‘money’ is such a big supply, you can do any action at will. More than that, the Use action is very minimal, installing components as opposed to doing something.

Still, all it is is a tutorial. It teaches you how the date stamp mechanic works. But if this was it, Tempus Quest would get boring quick.

Episode 1 - Uninvited Guests

Where you fight robots and recharge the Tempus engine

And, bam, things get interesting. 

It uses a hex grid. The use action makes the things you build actually do something. You have to actually manage the money resource and make more of it. There’s a form of combat.

Episode 0, you had to actually have to intentionally make bad choices to lose. Episode 1 isn’t that hard but you have to put in some effort to play.

I played it and knew I was going to keep going.

Episode 2 - The Dust Farmers

Where you help irrigate farms.

Episode Two breaks less new ground. It’s all about infrastructure development. I still liked it and you actually have to generate two resources, water AND food. (Are these farmers doing anything?)

I also like that it offers two paths. If you can expand lakes, you build pumps and get tons of water. If you don’t get the lake expansion option, you can dig wells. Not as efficient but a viable option. And you aren’t gojng to mix and max those options.

Episode 2 is the closest thing to Tempus Imperium and a Euro game. Not sure why some mercenaries are better at agriculture than farmers though.

Episode 3 - Decision at Degma

Where you you use social networking to get a job

Episode 3 is where I feel Tempus Quest stepped away from from Tempus Imperium and did it’s own thing. Changing to developing social networks and connections isn’t mechanically different than other resources but it felt like it.

And the enemy action, instead of hitting your money resources, is enemies spreading over the board. That is a lot more aggressive. The challenge was definitely there.

This is also where the campaign feel for stronger since it sets up the next episode.

Episode 4 - The Degma Job

Where you actually do the job 

While you could pick any of the three jobs, if you are playing the game as a campaign, you use the one you gained in the last episode. It is your choice if you want to treat the series as a campaign but it is a choice.

This was fun. It took the elements that made Episode 3 interesting and harder and made it even more difficult. In particular, there wasn’t any kind of attack action so you just had to manage the enemy spread as best you could. (Of course, you also had to use the enemy as a resource lol)

I actually had to use every turn to complete Episode 4.

Conclusions

I kept hoping that someone would ask me on the airplane what I was doing so I could tell them it was a cross between Catan and a Crossword Puzzle. And that really does describe the experience.

There are definitely better R&Ws that use dice or cards. They just provide a wider range of options. But Tempus Quest was very good for the limited space of an airplane.

The fascinating but flawed Tempus Infinitum

 Last year, I finally tried out Tempus Imperium. It is a Roll and Write that doesn’t actually use dice or even cards. Instead, it uses a date stamp.

You create a ten-digit number with the year-month-day-hour-minute. You use that number to set up the board and it then serves as the order of actions for the actual game play. Said gameplay is building up a generic  medieval kingdom.

I like Tempus Imperium but there are some limitations baked into the core concept. After you generate the ten-digit number, the game is a perfect information solitaire. I don’t think that’s a flaw but that is a core element of the game.

I also became aware that the designer had refined the concept in Tempus Quest and Tempus Infinitum, which is a more streamlined and refined version of Tempus Imperium.

The biggest difference between Imperium and Infinitum  is that, like Tempus Quest, you only create a six-digit number using the day, hour and minute. This doesn’t mean just fewer actions per turn. It also means a less static number. 

In Tempus Imperium, the first two numbers were going to be the for an entire year and each month would be the same. Removing them means a lot more variety in a game whose only ‘random’ element is the setup.

And after the or six plays, I can see how this is both cool and bad. On the one hand, between multiple seed maps and the higher variance in the digits, there is a lot more variety compared to Tempus Imperium. 

On the other hand, you can generate games that, as near as I can tell, aren’t viable. Players have to help balance the game but I am pretty sure some setups are too unbalanced to ‘work’.

There are four actions: build roads, expand lakes, build buildings and use buildings. You can spend two gold to do a different action than the one assigned by the number. There are also enemies that steal gold until you destroy them with a specific building action.

So this is what I ran into: almost all the buildings require gold and the only way to generate gold is through building actions. I’ve had number strings with no use actions and my economy completely dried up. Almost immediately. Once I was able to compensate by making a huge lake for points but when I haven’t had that action either, I was left drawing roads and skipping turns.

And, yes, the easy answer is to fudge the digit, either by waiting a few minutes or just fudging the number. Which feels like cheating but it might just be balancing the game.

I have notified that Tempus Infinitum seems to no longer being tested. Instead, there is now a game called Tempus Imperium Aeternum which looks more intricate. I’ll have to try it out.

(I’ve also been playing through Tempus Quest. A couple of design choices help deal with some of my issues. But that will be another blog)