Review: Super Motherload by Gavin Brown and Matt Tolman

Super Motherload[SIC] - Roxley Games

The ecofeminist in me hates that I love mining the heck out of Mars searching for a mother lode of minerals and fun! I'll live. Apparently there was a video game version of this, but I'm not much of a video gamer so I missed that. This game plays like a video game, but I mean that in a good way (not a 4th edition D&D way). Players take turns drilling and blasting their way through the mineral rich Martian planet, picking up awesome power-ups along the way and steadily improving their drilling team. The scrolling playing board just adds to the video game ambiance. This is Dig Dug for board gamers. The one daunting aspect of the game is that there is a lot to keep track of, so the game straddles that space between light gaming and serious strategy game - which actually works well with the theme. I discovered this game at the Geek Market (thanks Cardboard Kingdom!) and after a few plays it made my must buy list. Since I picked up a copy it hasn't made it to the collection room yet, just sits ready to play in a pile of favourites in my gaming room. I am in no hurry to find it a home on the shelves.

Likes: Rich theme, great strategy, great art. 

Dislikes: Box doesn't give you enough information to want to try the game (why is there no picture of the game on it?), 

Fun: There is something so satisfying to digging out the minerals, making that awesome combo move with the gem duplicator, and snagging the last fossil before your opponent does. This game is great fun.
Quality: All the components, from the box to the punch out pieces, are high quality. The game shipped with great plastic bags for organizing everything, nice touch.
(re)Playability: With double sided boards and four different work crews, the game offers lots of variety and replayability.

Review: Dread by Epidiah Ravachol and woodelf

Dread - The Impossible Dream

I'm a huge fan of the horror genre in gaming. Call of Cthulhu is a staple. But one thing that is hard to do in a horror game is get a consistent sense of tension. Dread does this brilliantly. Using a Jenga® tower (or reasonable facsimile) every risky move carries a huge amount of tension, and this tension builds with every twist and turn in the story.

I've had a chance to not only play the game, but to run a few games. Using the 13 scenario as well as one I've developed myself (Madame LouLou's Haunted Wax Museum) I've sent a couple different groups on terror romps. When running 13 I was amazed at how much fun the group of teens playing the game had being brutally slaughtered.

The character is all narrative, you simply answer up to 13 questions about yourself (the character self you want to play). Based on these questions, read by you and the GM, you have the parameters for engagement and integration into the story experience. The last question is always, what is your name? This approach should give you a hint that this is not a statistics based system. It runs more like a scripted Fiasco.

The game is broken into several acts. Each act contains its own set of dangers (where the players need to make pulls on the tower) and clues that move the story along. While there is a happy ending possible, it is not likely to happen for the bulk of your players. But that is what makes this game charming. Each act has scenes, basically set-ups for little story happenings. For example one of the scenes in the Madame LouLou's involves a description of a room (enough to make them want to look around) and then an event that can happen which puts one or more of them at risk. The final act usually has some sort of showdown with lots of danger but also a possible resolution.

The one drawback to this system is that it eliminates players. When you topple the tower your character is eliminated from the game in some way. A good storyteller will find ways to keep them engaged in the story until the end (especially whoever dies first). But this requires imagination and confidence. The book though is a veritable smorgasbord of tips to help run a great game - definitely worth the purchase even if you just steal the ideas for other games.

Likes: Best horror role playing experience ever. 

Dislikes: There are a lot of ways an inexperienced GM could create a less than satisfying game experience, this is probably not the game for every group. 

Fun: This is story telling indie role playing at its finest. With the right group the game is hugely fun and satisfying.
Quality: The rulebook is excellent, the game itself is simple and contained on a four page cheat sheet downloadable from the Dread site, but the rulebook gives you 92 more pages of pure role playing gold.
(re)Playability: The scenarios are not easily replay-able. There are only four official scenarios available. I've found a few online so they are out there, but this means creating your own scenarios. Fortunately, this is not that difficult. It requires a bit of work though - I aim for three hour one-shot sessions which is basically three acts. I wrote the bulk of Madam LouLou's in a day, but a full day. This game is not really conducive to campaign play.

Summer is Almost Here

Yeah, I know it is summer already. But I have one more week of lectures to deliver and then I will be on my break. We are hoping to rent a cottage to have friends up and  play games, games, and more games!

I've been a bit too busy to post here, but some of that busyness has been gaming. I've had a chance to play Betrayal at House on the Hill for the first time. The games plays quite nicely, I need to play a bunch more before I can review it though. That's been on my boardgame bucket list forever.

For my birthday this year we kept things quiet, had a few friends over (our regular small group from church) and played an oldie - Ticket to Ride. That game still holds up, it was one of our first eurogames and the first one that the whole family came to love. It still hits the table a couple times a year which is a lot of mileage.

This weekend I'll be trying out the Gumshoe RPG for the first time. I'll be a player for a change and we are playing a Trail of Cthulhu one shot via the Ottawa Pen and Paper Gamers group. Should be a lot of fun.

So what are your summer gaming plans?