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p_h_lee#2 of my voluntary gamechef reviews.
Capsule: This game has a seriously great amount of charisma, but needs a touch more work before I can figure out how to play it.
Summary of the game: A vaguely fiascoish game wherein you play idealistic time travel agents trying to fix history while being foiled by the actions of their embittered future selves.
Man, I like everything about this game. I like time travel stories. I like the implications of burn-out and betrayal by your future self. I like the butchered backronyms. I like role playing games with board-gamey mechanics. I like that it uses Coyote as a keyword without being racist about it.
As I was reading it, I was planning out how I was going to get some folks together to play it. This is how much I seriously like this game.
I say all this because I want you to understand how sad I am that I can't actually figure out how this game works.
Basic mechanics I get:
Movement from time-location to time-location.
Use of objects
The BEAR pool vs. Zero Hour pool
Winning and Losing (I think)
Basic mechanics I don't get:
Set the scene
Modifications and modification stems
Splitting the timeline
Creating new anchorpoints
Destruction of objects
So basically, I get the set-up and the mechanical interactions. What I don't get is how to actually do things.
I think part of my problem is that the modifications are such weaksauce, and framed in a very narrator-centric, rather than character-centric, way. So if someone has set up "and Nobunaga is about to give the order to burn the monastery ..." and then I show up with a "yes, but..." what does that mean? That my character is interfering somehow? That "circumstances" are interfering, whether or not its due to my characters action? If it is my character's action, how do I cope with "had a side effect" or whatever. In short, the list is much more of a bunch of improv narration tricks than anything that a character might do. In some cases, such as "side effect ... " they are explicitly anti-character. This makes it very hard to engage with, or understand how it's supposed to work in play. I would love to see a more refined set of items, specifically about character actions.
Split timelines are completely nuts to me. I can't figure out how they work, both in terms of physical arrangement of the play space (where does the card go relative to the others?) and in terms of play (does a split timeline mean new anchor points? If not, how do we deal with it? Maintain ambiguity?)
When I create new anchorpoints, do those become new things I have to fix before winning?
When objects are destroyed, how do we demarcate the anchorpoints where that object is still available?
I would also love to see some interplay between BEAR agents and COYOTE agents at a personal level. I mean, these are our future selves, right? What does it mean, that we're all going to turn? When will that happen and why? I'd love to be able to play with this, but I don't see how, given the present structure, I could go there.
Anyway, I really love this game, and hope it sees further development. If anyone can explain the issues I mentioned to me, I'd love to play it. Regardless, it's worth checking out for anyone.
Capsule: This game has a seriously great amount of charisma, but needs a touch more work before I can figure out how to play it.
Summary of the game: A vaguely fiascoish game wherein you play idealistic time travel agents trying to fix history while being foiled by the actions of their embittered future selves.
Man, I like everything about this game. I like time travel stories. I like the implications of burn-out and betrayal by your future self. I like the butchered backronyms. I like role playing games with board-gamey mechanics. I like that it uses Coyote as a keyword without being racist about it.
As I was reading it, I was planning out how I was going to get some folks together to play it. This is how much I seriously like this game.
I say all this because I want you to understand how sad I am that I can't actually figure out how this game works.
Basic mechanics I get:
Movement from time-location to time-location.
Use of objects
The BEAR pool vs. Zero Hour pool
Winning and Losing (I think)
Basic mechanics I don't get:
Set the scene
Modifications and modification stems
Splitting the timeline
Creating new anchorpoints
Destruction of objects
So basically, I get the set-up and the mechanical interactions. What I don't get is how to actually do things.
I think part of my problem is that the modifications are such weaksauce, and framed in a very narrator-centric, rather than character-centric, way. So if someone has set up "and Nobunaga is about to give the order to burn the monastery ..." and then I show up with a "yes, but..." what does that mean? That my character is interfering somehow? That "circumstances" are interfering, whether or not its due to my characters action? If it is my character's action, how do I cope with "had a side effect" or whatever. In short, the list is much more of a bunch of improv narration tricks than anything that a character might do. In some cases, such as "side effect ... " they are explicitly anti-character. This makes it very hard to engage with, or understand how it's supposed to work in play. I would love to see a more refined set of items, specifically about character actions.
Split timelines are completely nuts to me. I can't figure out how they work, both in terms of physical arrangement of the play space (where does the card go relative to the others?) and in terms of play (does a split timeline mean new anchor points? If not, how do we deal with it? Maintain ambiguity?)
When I create new anchorpoints, do those become new things I have to fix before winning?
When objects are destroyed, how do we demarcate the anchorpoints where that object is still available?
I would also love to see some interplay between BEAR agents and COYOTE agents at a personal level. I mean, these are our future selves, right? What does it mean, that we're all going to turn? When will that happen and why? I'd love to be able to play with this, but I don't see how, given the present structure, I could go there.
Anyway, I really love this game, and hope it sees further development. If anyone can explain the issues I mentioned to me, I'd love to play it. Regardless, it's worth checking out for anyone.
