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John Paul Messerly
United States
Sherman Oaks
California
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Last year I found myself overwhelmed with excitement for all the new games. I bought more new games last year then I have in the last 10 years but I quickly realized none of them were worth keeping, none of them would last the test of time. As a result Ive begun taking a journey back through the history of game design, focused primarily on story driven solitaire games.
This journey has lead me to track down many old, out of print classics. These are all games I've never played before but seem to have a very small but passionate following.
Why do this now? I'm so unhappy with all the shiny, soulless new games that I'm determined to make my ideal game and stop waiting for someone else to make it for me. Through these games I've learned a lot about what's important to me. I can really only handle about one deck builder, traitor, or economy building game session a year. My first love is games about surviving in hostile environments..
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Ambush - I bought this game last year but never found the time to even finish reading the rules. This year I decided to just start playing and figure out rules as needed. Wow, just wow! I immediately cared about my squad and was nervous about ever step they took. I was sure the games fatal flaw would be its lack of re playability but no, I played through the same mission several time and each time it surprised me!
I love games about navigating across a map and watching your team develop. This game captures the best aspects of Ranger and Bloodbowl but offers more tactical choices and surprises.
How is my game influenced by Ambush? Well Touchstone Oubliette has a simple character advancement system contrasted with a high mortality rate of characters. I'm still searching for the perfect balance of advancement and mortality but its getting there.
Outdoor survival - Ok I can't say this game is perfect but I find it very immersive. The basic struggle to survive in a hostile environment coupled with gambling on your chances to make it to the next resource is exciting even if there is a little too much "roll and move" in the base game.
What have I learned from this one? Well once again I never get bored of navigating through a hostile environment but also that seeing your character weaken throughout the process makes it more real and desperate. The game has a large stack of counter to track your characters damage state, each showing your characters silhouette weaker and weaker till he is crawling. This is probably the best health system I've ever seen in a game before! Touchstone Oubliette is a wonderfully hostile environment. A living labyrinth that is actively trying to trap you is no vacation spot, it's the perfect hostile environment. If anything I'd like to make it more dangerous or at least find more ways to express that the dangers are being controlled by the Oubliette's consciousness.
Kobayashi Maru - I've always found the idea of the "no win scenario" intriguing so the option to take on the challenge for myself was irresistible. I never expected to find such a wondrous gem! This game perfectly captures the mystery of the Kobayashi maru, with the tension of Das Boot and the final battle in the wrath of Kahn. On top of that it requires very difficult decisions between the safety of your crew and the need to repair your damaged ship.
This game really stood out as once again being about survival in a harsh environment but also for the difficult choices to sacrifice crew members to keep your ship operational. This theme of sacrifice is very important to maintaining tension and making the overall story events matter. I recently added some new events/powers to Touchstone Oubliette that allow you to sacrifice players on your bench to give your characters in the Oubliette an advantage but I'd like to delve deeper into the theme of sacrifice. While working on a mod of ZedDeck I found that by simply changing the resource you gambled with throughout the game from "supplies" to "survivors" each challenge you faced had greater significance.
Wiz war - This is a game I've always wanted to try because it is very thematically similar to Touchstone Oubliette. I have held off on buying a copy for the new FFG release but have actually been most interested in seeing the discussion about what aspects of the game design worked better in each edition. Its very easy to over design and a game with this many editions and rabid fans is bound to create some interesting dialogs.
So far I have to say I'm not impressed. It has lots of chaos and potential for fun combination of silly events but I feel no connection with the magic, characters, or world? kuhrusty has a great review where he talked in depth about the usability of the spell cards.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/768436/get-off-my-lawn-a-bit...
The new cards have 2 to 3 times as much text and large images that result in cards that are hard to read, The original cards look more like prototypes than a published game components but they are far more functional. This is something I have always struggled with... I always want to add more art to my games but it always gets in the way! Last post I showed my prototype spell/event cards but now I'm determined to keep them this clean and simple even in the final versions.
http://mermuse.jmwebdesigns.com/post/EVENTS.jpg
A few weeks ago a fan created a mod of Touchstone Oubliette where he redesigned the cards to be square tiles. I've been interested in this design idea for a while so I did a quick study to try it out. The results are interesting but feel too crowded and busy...
so I've decided to stick with my original layouts. I really think the play of negative space can capture both the inviting feeling of a open pathway and the claustrophobic feel the walls closing in around you. If you have any thoughts, let me know.
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