The Zombie Clock is ticking... yea!

The word that came to my mind after reading John Wick’s The Shotgun Diaries was desperation.

I’m not a big zombie fan. It feels like, too often, the default theme is humans are the real monsters overlapping with who we really are without society’s rules. Powerful themes but it gets repetitive. And too often, the zombie genre can become some kind of escapist fantasy, that a zombie apocalypse beats the nine-to-five job.

The Shotgun Diaries doesn’t come up with a new theme for zombies. Instead, it strips the zombie genre down to almost the most basic level. You play almost helpless survivors struggling to stay alive with minimal, dwindling resources. 

Seriously, characters are basically one-hit-point wonders who each have one meaningful skill. If that skill doesn’t apply to a situation, you are helpless. You do have access to a group pool of dice but that is hard to replenish and using it increases the overall danger level.

But the hook, the something special that makes The Shotgun Diaries something worth playing, is the Zombie Clock.

Every ten minutes _real_ time, the Zombie Clock goes forward one tick (indicated by adding some sort of token in front of the GM, glass stones or plastic zombies or mouse skulls or whatever) When that happens, a day goes by, the player’s dice pool loses a die and things get more dangerous.

The GM can trade one of the tokens in to do bad stuff. And if the Zombie Clock gets too far, the characters’ shelter get overrun and really bad things happen. 

The Zombie Clock is great because it creates a real time mechanic for ratcheting up tension and danger. I remember when I first played Dread (the one that used a Jenga glee) how having a physical structure that was inevitably going to collapse and cause catastrophic failure added a visceral level of fear and tension. In that first game, we the players started hugging the wall to keep away from the Jenga tower.

The Zombie Clock isn’t quite that extreme but it makes the game more real. You can’t sit back and make detailed plans while the game world is on hold. No, you are literally on the clock.

As I’ve said, I’m not big on zombie games. And there are other zombie games I’d played before The Shotgun Diaries (Like All Flesh Must Be Eaten or Zombie Cinema) However, the potential of the Zombie Clock does make me want to try The Shotgun Diaries.

Itty bitty game about dreams

Once Upon A Dream, part of the Indie Megamix Mixtape, is a whimsical little activity that barely qualifies as a game, let alone an RPG. However, I find it a charming exploration of minimalism.

In a sentence, you sit around discussing dreams and then roll some dice to determine who the ‘winner’ is. That’s really all there is to Once Upon A Dream, although I have to also note that the layout is built around two pretty paintings.

This is a tiny little game. If you just typed it out, I don’t think it would take up a quarter of a page. But it doesn’t seem incomplete. It doesn’t feel like it has to be any more than that.

Over the last few years, for a wide variety of reasons, I have become very interested in short form games and game poems. I’m not sure if I will ever be in a groups where that is something where they can really get played, particularly game poems. (One-shots resigned for two to four hours, that I can see)

However, they are still interesting concepts. They need to be tightly focused, like Spider Jerusalem’s gun with only one bullet, shooting your expectations in the knee cap.

I had problems with the game/track right before Once Upon A Dream, Howls in the Half-Light, because the idea and the potential were too big for the format. On the other hand, Once Upon A Dream is a tiny game for a tiny idea. It’s just big enough for its size.

It is silly and whimsical and probably takes a half an hour at best. If I did end up with a group who wants to play a game like this, it’s probably get two plays tops. But I think it would be fun that one or two times.

First acquisitions of 2018

I’ve given myself permission to buy games in 2018 and, over the last couple weeks, I have gotten a couple of games. Albeit in ways that wouldn’t have counted against the rules I set for myself to not buy games last year. (And doesn't count Print-and-Play, which I’ve made about forty, so far. I may have a problem)

I got a used copy of Impulse... basically because it is a Carl Chudyk design and I was able to buy it for store credit. Hilariously, it’s not even the next Chudyk design I’m hoping to get to the table. (That’s Uchronia because I think it will be a gently introduction to his work and easy to play on a work night)

However, based on Glory to Rome and Innovation, I think Impulse has a really good chance at being a game I will enjoy.

 And the other night, Carrie surprised me by bringing home a copy of Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game. (So I technically didn’t buy it myself but that’s definitely a technicality)

It’s been on my interest list since it sounds like it is a tribute to Bob Ross that still manages to be a real game. (To be brutally honest, I’ve never watched much of his stuff but I really like the _idea_ of Bob Ross) Plus, I know that family weight games that can be played on a week night is my current Platonic ideal.

And Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game, with a decent helping of Ticket to Ride but also with a Bob Ross timer and some different forms of bonuses, looks like a good family game. It might be light and a bit random for ‘serious’ gaming but I think we will have a lot of fun with it.

This isn’t how I saw my game acquisition for the year starting off this way but I think it’s a good start.

Another tiny RPG that I want to be bigger

Micro RPGs, particularly in this day and age, are odd beasts. Unlike micro games where you are dealing with physical components, there isn’t a functional reason to have it be small. An ebook on my phone takes up the same physical space for playing purposes. And, unless you’re using miniatures, most RPGs take up the same physical space to play. You know, a table.

Howl in the Half-Light is a two-page RPG from the Indie Megamix Mixtape and is a good example of how the micro RPG form doesn’t always really serve the game. 

It is about werewolves or maybe wolves who can turn into humans. Characters consist of an origin, a power and some bennies. Conflicts are resolved by rolling one die and there is a table for creating scenes, as well as a sample adventure.

Howl has some the start of some ideas but being only two pages absolutely kills them. It needs to be at least twenty times that length. I was left with a lot of mechanical questions, including if the game was supposed to have a GM or not!

More than that, while there are some lines about corrupting demons and different ways of becoming werewolves, there seems like there is a setting in mind but there’s clearly no room for it. I think it was John Wick who said that people can like mechanics but they fall in love with settings. Let’s be honest, werewolves aren’t under represented in RPGs. For Howl to work for me, it needs a setting for me to fall in love with. 

To be brutally honest, I am not being fair. Howl in the Half-Light was written as part of a charity collection with specific parameters. I just think it has some real potential and I wouldn’t mind seeing it expanded. The mythology that it hints at is interesting and I like the idea of a scene generator. If I found out there was an expanded version, I’d definitely look into it.

Micro Rome - it’s a dandy little game

Okay. Let’s talk about Micro Rome.

I’ve been exploring PnP solitaire games this winter. Could end up being this year but let’s see how the year goes :D And so far, I’ve been focusing on very short, simple ones. Games I don’t have to plan ahead for but just play when the opportunity comes.

Micro Rome, being just sixteen and a half cards, is still pretty short. However, it’s a definite step up in complexity from other tile-laying games I’ve been playing like Ambagibus.

Micro Game came out of a contest back in 2014 and I looked at it a bit back then. However, being a solitaire game, Micro Rome didn’t interest me. (And now I’m working on making copies of Do Not Forsake Me and Maid in the Forest from the same contest :D) However, it is something I’m looking for.

Here’s the elevator pitch. Micro Rome is a tile-laying game where you are trying to score points with symbols of Ancient Rome. (I like the game but I can’t really call it a city-building game. The end result doesn’t look like a city) 

The cards are double-sided and you get to pick which side you use (you draw from the bottom of the deck) but you must always cover at least three squares already on the board. There are other restrictions. You can’t cover water or barbarians (who are worth negative points) and if you cover architecture, you have totally cover it.

After you place the last card, which is always the Coliseum, you figure out your score. There are seven different ways of scoring points and one way of losing points with a score of 41 or better being a winning score.

And let me tell you, it’s hard to get a winning score. Michael Bevilacqua did a good job designing the tiles so that you have to make some tough choices. And you will be cursing out the water areas by the time you are done.

The biggest quibble that I have with the game is that, while there are seven different ways of getting points, there are only two, runs of senators and temples with lots of Romans, that will get you big points. So you have to focus on making those work while trying to keep the barbarians under control and picking up other points when the opportunity arises.

Still, if there is a magical, repetitive pattern to make senators or temples work every time, I haven’t figured it out. 

Sometimes, I play solitaire games to get my mind in a zen-like place. Micro Rome, though, is a game I play to do some thinking. It’s become one of my go-to games to reach for when I have a few minutes. Even if I quit and never play again if I break 41 points, Micro Rome will have done good by me.

Micro Rome is a game with simple mechanics and _relatively_ complicated scoring. It has definitely made me think. It’s also a free print-and-play that fairly simple to make. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to make a little solitaire.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171721/micro-rome

Learning Mystic Vale on Yucata

Okay. So Mystic Vale is now on Yucata. My only problem is I have no idea how to play. So one of my friends from back East who is also on Yucata and owns the physical version of Mystic Vale says let’s get on Skype and I’ll walk you through the game.

In other words, I ended up learning the game on an online face-to-face game. And I still don’t know what it’s like to play the game physically, interacting with the clear cards and sleeves.

Okay, everyone who is reading this has almost assuredly played more Mystic Vale than me and has a better idea of how it works. But here are my initial thoughts.

Mystic Vale is a deck builder where you use sleeves and clear cards to build cards (meaning that you don’t add more cards to your deck, you just make the cards you already have more interesting) with a push your luck mechanic for drawing cards. And having played a decent number of deck builders and push your luck games, what surprised me is that, mechanically, Mystic Vale seems simple.

Not that means light or bad or that you get to be an expert right off the bat, just that the process of how you get the moving parts moving is easy to learn. The individual pieces are not complex. But just because I know what a gear is doesn’t mean I can make a good clock without experience.

Mystic Vale has also made me think about Hecatomb, a weird little collectible card game that also used transparent cards. While I know that I played some demos of it and got some some starter decks when it first came out, I have almost no memories of what it was like to play. My only two memories are that it felt overly complicated and that there was an undead house cat card that disturbed my cat-loving self.

I do remember that you created layers of cards and I am absolutely convinced that Mystic Vale takes that idea and streamlines it, simplifies it and just makes it better.

I don’t know how good Mystic Vale will be in the long run. I do know that I had fun with my learning game and that I am going to be playing it again in the future.

Gaming at the local store

I’ve been meaning to go to our friendly local gaming shop for open gaming and I finally got around to it. 

One of the dangers with going to an open gaming event is actually finding an open game. A couple folks remembered me from RinCon, the friendly local gaming convention, so I got a spot at that table when one opened up. 

The game I sat down to, and my big game for the day, was Colosseum, which I haven’t played since it first game out. It always struck me as having a similar feel to Princes of Florence but I’ve barely played that game too.

The weirdest thing about the game is the score isn’t cumulative. Five rounds and you don’t add the points up. Whichever round you score the most points, that’s your score. Period. I can’t think of another game like that. But it does allow for some crazy, come-from-behind comebacks.

After that, I pulled out my copy of For Sale and we got in a few games of it before it was time for me to go. 

You know, I have two go-to quick auction games (three, if you count GEM from Pack O Games but I tend to just bring the whole box along): For Sale and High Society. And they have such different feels. For Sale, everyone gets something every round. Happy times. High Society, you try and skin each other alive.

My current way of thinking is take For Sale to get to know people. It a great game, easy to teach and everyone has fun. When you know them, _then_ pull out High Society >:)

Anyway, good times and I met some folks who I want to play with again.