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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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For the first time in quite a long time indeed, my brother in law popped over for supper and some games. He tends to work umpteen jobs, at all hours, and has recently taken to helping out a pal with marshaling bicycle and running races (they have the timing systems).
He scoffed through the remains of a little barbecue supper while an insubstantial documentary about The Bermuda Triangle played out on the 'Demand Viewing' box - 90 minutes of lame, repetitive conjecture and looped archive footage and I managed to drop off for a 10 minute doze when they FINALLY got around to revealing their 'discovery' about it.
Loathe as I was to get into repeats of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, I suggested - more in hope than realistic expectation - that 'we have a game of something'.
Mrs Boydell, Bro James and eldest child were all in agreement and I duly retrieved The Black Overcoat Game from the archive shelf.
The Black Overcoat* is a cartoon character I developed while still a student - based loosely (in looks) from the lead character in Bill Sienkowicz's Stray Toasters but more akin to Blackadder in comedic leanings, this daft illustration dominated greetings cards, lecture notes and Christmas presents for many years. It was only natural, then, that when I had a proper job (with disposable income) and became exposed to regular gaming again (via weekly sessions of Magic: The Gathering) I would get around to making a GAME about him.
It's set in the Great House - ancestral home of the Overcoat family and location of the hidden legacy of Great Uncle Hesketh (the same setting would used for the lighter, quicker Bloody Legacy 10 years later) and is a little bit Murder By Death and a little bit Agatha Christie; it's driven by an enormous deck of cards (300+) of various types:
- Allies (members of the Overcoat family) with abilities
- Effects and abilities (one offs of the Allies re-usable effects)
- Objects (lots of stupid things that boost movement, damage, steal and/or break stuff, prevent things etc - also includes 12 Map Pieces - the key thing you need to win the game)
- Food (to boost your health)
- Traps (deal you damage) and
- Events: players moved around the building unless they can play an 'excuse'
The player turn structure is, naturally, influenced by the CCGs I was exposed to at the time, but the main aim is to wander about and search the house (draw cards) and use the things/people you have already collected to search (draw cards) some more! Searching involves 'using up' named spaces such as 'In The Maids Underwear Drawer', 'Amongst the Stiff Collars' or 'Under the Tiger Skin Rug'.
Card drawing is the key.
The goal? Collect three map piece objects to draw a room card and look at it secretly: that's where the fortune is hidden - you have a one-turn head start to get there (on your next turn you have to reveal the room to everyone).
Games play from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on how vindictive everyone is feeling at the time (and it supports up to 7 players - though the running time increases proportionately), and it's certainly a game WE all love because it's personal to us. I would imagine you lot, in the wider community, would miss the in-jokes and find it a little cliched (mechanically) and horrendously-unbalanced: huge, swingy effects, the luck of the draw and so on and so forth.
We played this game with friends in the mid-1990s, when my eldest (you'll remember she was playing this with us last night) was a newborn baby and being passed along the line of players to let people have their turns. It was illustrated 'on the fly', with new cards added as the whim took us and players contributed their own stylings for atmos. It had Diplomacy bullet pieces for player markers, tiny laminated magnifying glasses to mark used search points and a Stately Home depicted in all it's four-storey (and surrounding landscaped gardens) glory!
The joy, of course, is in the story-telling; the players are all familiar with the cartoons, so playing the game is living them out vicariously. Yes it's raw. Yes, it's rough. Yes, it's unsellable - but last night, a few fermented apples to the better, it was hilarious and stupid...again.
Game one, we ALL won simultaneously - summoned to The Boating Lake (its hiding place) for a Regatta (an Event). Game Two was a tie between the two girls when one had been stuck in the Picture Gallery (unable to move) and the other climbed up the outside wall (an ability) to join her - it seems that artistic representation of 'treasure' was made out of er, well, REAL treasure!
See? I knew you'd be less than impressed: it's one of those 'you should've been there' moments.
Anyway, its was a delight and a pleasure and a rarity - so why not sing about it?
Here's some piccies of the bits and pieces involved:
Perhaps, one day if I get around to scanning everything in, I'll post everything up as a Print 'n Play - then you can get in on some of the jokes too!
*Find him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/blackovercoat
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