Phil Gish wakes up one day to find a strange, green cat playing in his home. Not everything right with the cat—it's fur not seeming quite fur and its structure not quite bone, he nevertheless finds himself attracted to the cat. And when it walks out of his house, he follows it. The start of a wild adventure, it ain't no white rabbit, and Gish is no Alice. But what a wonderland it is.
The Crossing is the story of Billy Param. A sixteen year old young man growing up in the wilds of New Mexico, his story begins with he and his younger brother encountering a wandering Indian. The Indian demanding food, the two brothers feel they have no choice and take an offering from their parent's meager stores and give it to the man. It is an omen of things to come. Disaster striking the family, Billy is forced to cross the Mexican border to reclaim what he believes is his own. Fate dealing him another blow, Param grows up fast in the liminal zone between America and Mexico.
In Scotland Yard, one player takes on the role of Mr. X, and the other 1-5 players the roles of Scotland Yard detectives trying to capture Mr. X. The board a map of London featuring taxi, bus, and underground routes, players use the relevant tokens to maneuver around the board. Mr. X is trying to survive uncaptured for the number of rounds, all the while the detectives are trying to capture Mr. X before the rounds are up. Mr. X’s movements kept on a hidden notepad, every five rounds he must reveal himself to keep the chase hot. Depending on Mr. X’s evasive skills, a little luck, and the deductive abilities of the detectives, the chase can be over quickly or stretch all the way up to a tense couple of final rounds—Mr. X’s escape a matter of one or two spaces.
Hex is the story of members of Coyote's space force, including mother Andromeda Carson and son Sean, who have been given a mission to go to a danui world and there explore the place humans have theoretically been given in the Talus universe. Gearing up as any space crew does, they head off, and to their surprise discover not a planet but an unfathomably massive Dyson sphere. Sorting out where humanity fits in the sphere, however, is subject to some mother-son conflict, as well as some of the alien-human variety.
Little Bird, Big Hunger is a Haba children’s game for little people as young as 2 years old. Collecting food for your little hatching by rolling dice, kids feed their bird throughout a four-stage growth cycle—cracking its egg to flying. That’s it. But for as simple as it is, my children—my oldest at age 6—still enjoy playing. Somewhat cooperative, somewhat competitive, and overall relaxing, players work together feeding their birds. Roll the die. Check if your bird needs the food source showing on the die. If yes, take the appropriate token. Fill all the food requirements, and you're ready for the next stage in the cycle. The win condition is the first bird to fly—to reach the fourth stage, but, as the designers suggest, the better goal is to see all the birds through their full cycle of development. Putting this philosophy into play, my children have never been disappointed or sad their bird was not first to fly.
Culture and civilization have deteriorated to the point humanity is bored. And to cure its boredom, it has resorted to making humans the object of bloodsport. Manhhunts now legal. Called The Hunt, the story takes place on the Bahaman island of Esmeralda, a wild west place where violence on the streets is a national, televised event. Participate in person or watch on tv, it's up to you.
The collection kicks off with “Haunted Future”, which is in fact a series of vignettes that act as commentary on the degree and speed of change that technology’s evolution has brought to humanity, particularly its utopian drive. While this would perhaps be a more powerful story when unpacked to novella length, what exists effectively pushes and recognizes the human side of said change. Nicely understated. A story more obviously set in the world of The Big Time, “Damnation Morning” begins with a man awakening from a hangover to discover a woman, seeming from another time and place beckoning. He goes with her, and their learns about the Change War dimension. Curious how it relates to his real world, she shows him, and a deeper reality comes available, literally and figuratively. Given Leiber’s personal issues, one can’t help but feel strong autobiographical elements.
While the three-part campaign contained in the Arkham Horror base game gave players a taste of the horrors of the mythos, it was “The Dunwich Legacy” campaign which showed how a complete, eight-part chain of scenarios could manifest a full experience of the game. A sweet match of mechanisms to story, it was perhaps only the cheesiness of the story itself which left a little wanting. The second campaign, “The Path to Carcosa”, significantly tightens its hold on story, all the while maintaining the quality of complementary mechanisms and expanding the game further. It's the best yet.
Though also opening on the streets of Arkham, “The Path to Carcosa” departs from “The Dunwich Legacy” in its introduction. No casino or university, players instead have been invited to the opening night of The King in Yellow at the Ward Theater. The curtain rises, and the play begins. Everything seeming normal. But after the first act, uncanny events unfold, leaving the player unconscious. Waking in a quasi-dream, and with mysterious shadows moving on the periphery, it becomes the investigator’s responsibility to work out what’s going on, and why there is so much death around.
A Specter Is Haunting Texas is the bizarro story of Scully La Cruz, and his return to Earth to collect on his family’s mining holdings in Yellowknife. A lot having changed in their absence, Yellowknife is no longer Canada. Texas has asserted itself and taken over the majority of the western world, creating a pot-puffing, traditionalist, capitalist empire in the process. Mexicans provide cyborgized labor and leaders push women to the rear, sipping whiskey and puffing joints all their nepotistic way. Scully wears a large metal exoskeleton such that his frail body can survive Earth’s gravity. When landing in Texas, he is taken as a god by the locals, but a longhair, a hippy-esque space colonist by Texans. A tug of war over his political interests ensuing, it’s no guarantee Scully will ever find his way to Yellowknife and reclaim his holdings.
People Skills comes exactly as advertised. One-third psychology (emotions, self-actualization, needs, personal barriers, etc.) and two-thirds communication (listening, reflecting, direct and indirect speech, body language, tone, etc.), Bolton unpacks the approaches to human interaction that lead to varying results in practical detail. He starts by defining the blockers most of us use in our regular style of speaking and writing, then goes on to explain, using logical reasoning, emotions, and basic psychology why those forms of communication are more likely to generate negative outcomes. Yeah, I say that to my wife. Sometimes I do that. Definitely I’m guilty of using that tactic… And comparing to the results I get… For the person honest and aware of their thoughts, emotions, habits, and behaviors, this book can be a real eye opener.
In Seasons, two to four players take on the role of magicians competing to earn the most prestige. They do this by kicking, fighting, clawing, and clambering—with cards and dice—to the top of a points ladder. At the outset, a card draft is held to determine who gets which cards, after which players divide their cards into three piles/years. The first player kicks things off by rolling the first season’s dice (winter), and selecting the die they want . Not your grandpa’s dice, Seasons’ dice are six-sided but otherwise have nothing else in common—more in a moment. Each player thereafter selects one of the remaining available die. Play then returns to the first player to use their die as they see fit—play cards into their tableaux, draw cards, etc. This repeats itself through winter, spring, summer, and autumn for three years. Different seasons having different dice and different matrices for transmuting resources into prestige, the years constantly evolve. Fast-paced with tight decisions and a splash of luck, the seasons turn until the end of the third year, at which time prestige is added up, and the player with the most, wins.
Reading through his (I assume a gentleman, maybe I'm wrong) blog a few weeks ago, I encountered a re-read critique of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Wolfe's four-part novel is one I too hold in high regard, and having just finished a summer holiday, a time after which I typically re-read a book, I thought why not? It's been a decade since I last read New Sun. Let's give it another go and see how it compares to Bormgans' take. Maybe I can find a spot of energy for that...
So, what follows is a minor critique of a critique. As you will discover, a lot of the 'critique' is in fact a bolstering, an adding to, a crossbeam in support of Bormgans' view. I think he departs from several commonly held views of the book in quality, logical, defendable fashion. Nevertheless, there are a couple points I would alter, or add to—I hope with the respect and constructiveness that the original critique warrants. Here we go.
Remote Control is the story of Sankofar, a young woman in some future African timeline. Little to her knowledge, her life gets flipped upside down as a child when she comes into possession of an alien artifact she calls the seed. Granting powers the Ghanian girl would rather not have, she comes to have the nickname ‘Death’, as just a touch of her glance can wipe out entire villages. A tragic situation forcing Sankofar into exile, it becomes her own responsibility to re-find her “magic” in life.
Longer Review: There have been numerous dungeon crawlers published in the board game world throughout the past few decades. From classic fantasy rpg-style games to science fiction alien encounters, exploring the scary unknown with a powered-up hero has been a small but solid niche of gaming. Albi's Karak boils this niche down to its basic elements, and makes something fun for families and children.
Like its adult predecessors, Karak is an action-rpg that sees players choosing one of the six unique heroes to explore the modular corridors of a dungeon, find and destroy monsters, level up, and try to collect the most treasure. On their turn, players have four actions. They can pick a new tile from the pile and lay it so the corridors connect. This often results in drawing from the bag of tokens, tokens which can be various things, from skeleton warriors to monsters, mummies to treasure. Different types of enemies carrying different weapons, spells, and even treasure, defeating them allows the hero to flip over the token and add whatever item the enemy carried to their player board. This can be more powerful weapons which help the heroes’ dice rolls or one-off spells that can be used at specific moments. Some of the skeleton warriors carry keys, keys which are used to unlock the treasure chests players are trying to collect. A powerful dragon lurking in the draw bag, when it is finally defeated, players count their treasures, and the one with the most, wins.
Gather, Darkness! is the story of revolution in the city of Megatheopolis. Mankind having survived a nuclear holocaust, what remains has reverted to traditional religious and political power structures, using remnants of powerful technology to keep power. In this world lives Armon Jarles, a man who does not know which side or faction to join—and gets tossed around a fair bit by all. With visions of a revolution in mind, he sets about trying to rally the peasantry. While his success is debatable, one thing for sure is that Holy War is on the horizon.