Senators - First Playtest

Putting an idea to the test is a scary, daunting prospect. You invest hours of your time into an idea all while the spectre of collapse and failure looms ever present. You won't know if your newly hand crafted chair will work until you sit on it. You won't know if your book is any good until someone reads it.

You don't know if your game works until someone plays it. Even then, it's not even just someone, it needs to be a whole group of people. The wheels can fall off of even the best sounding ideas and concepts once they've been exposed to actual people; Thinking, unpredictable people.

Last week our regular gaming group played the very first iteration of my card game Senators (a placeholder name until a better one comes along). The primary goal of this playtest was to determine whether there was any mileage to the concept; Was there any fun to be had? Can the game actually be played?

I explained to the gang that the version we'd be playing was as basic as it could get; a sponge cake with no flavouring, no icing, no jam and definitely none of those wonderfully colourful sprinkle things.

This is not the cake you'll be eating.

Senators is a game about passing laws. Each player is randomly assigned a 'State Card' which lets them know what their voters like and dislike from an array of 25 different political topics. These topics range from 'Art & Culture' through to 'Religion' and 'Education'.

Each turn the controlling player, the 'Sponsor', randomly selects 5 topics from which they choose 3 to draft a 'bill'. The draft bill is then discussed with the other players: depending on the topics chosen (and their colour) players will either lose or gain voter confidence (the game's currency for winning) according to their 'State Card'.

In addition to this, each player is also issued a secret 'Corporate Card' each turn which, if a vote successfully passes, can generate 'Funding Tokens'. Funding Tokens can be used to bribe other players or make them lose or gain voter confidence.

Once the Sponsor has locked in the bill players vote to pass or reject it, and subsequently work out any gain or loss in funding or voter confidence. Play continues for 10 turns, at which point the player with the highest voter confidence wins.

There are a few more nuances to the rules but the preceding breakdown provides a simplified overview of the game.

So, did it work?

I'm pleased to say that for the most part it did. Play generally proceeded as I expected it would. After a couple of turns the general play procedure had sunk in and interesting things started to occur (which is exactly what I wanted!); Players would pool resources to gang up on a winning player, draft bills that would try to appease as many players as possible and sometimes draft bills that would screw as many players as possible.

What lessons did I take away from the playtest session?

• Turns became stagnant after a while - every turn followed the same cycle: there was no random element. I have already figured out the solution for this - it should make the game more fun and less repetitive whilst also massively increasing the flavour element.
• Spending Funding Tokens should be done at the start of the turn rather than the end. This is especially relevant for the last turn since it alleviates the situation we ran into; The player with the most Funding Tokens could effectively 'buy' the win at the end of the last turn.
• A cap on Funding Tokens may be necessary, or perhaps a penalty for hoarding too much. Currently it is almost nonsensical not to sit on a massive pile of Funding Tokens.
• Change State Cards so that it possible to lose Funding Tokens from them as well as gain them.
• Rework the way in which the colour of a topic affects loss or gain of Voter Confidence. 

With these lessons in mind I am currently working on putting together the second playtest iteration of Senators, ready for another playtest session (ideally with at least one person who wasn't present for this one).

Who said politics was boring?

I Went To - Grand Prix London 2016 (Magic: The Gathering)

Last weekend (7th-9th October) the ExCeL Centre in London Docklands hosted Grand Prix London, one of the largest Magic: The Gathering (Magic) tournaments in the country (main event capacity peaked at 2800 people).

Alongside the three day main event (sealed format using the new set, Kaladesh) were numerous side events covering all sorts of formats, from the typical Standard, Modern and Legacy, to more crazy formats like 'One Box' sealed (in which players use 36 booster packs to build a single deck).

Despite the best efforts of London Transport to prevent me, I spent Saturday afternoon at the GP.

"What format did you play Owen?" I hear you ask. Well my answer to that? I didn't.

"But Owen, you can't go a game tournament and not play any games!" I hear you cry.

Allow me to explain.

I like to play competitive Magic, I don't like to play competitive Magic. That is to say I enjoy playing games of Magic against competent opponents who provide a tactical, thoughtful, exciting game, ideally where both of us are playing with comparable levels of skill. I however do not enjoy playing Magic in a competitive setting. Small scale tournaments with a handful of people is fine; playing in a packed out tournament hall with 2000 plus people is a different matter. Playing a series of games against random opponents over a number of hours is not how I find fulfilment from the game; it is essentially divorced from the aspects of the game I find fun.

I admit this dislike of large scale tournaments likely stems from my very introverted personality: being surrounded by hundreds of people, being forced to interact with said people and experiencing audio-visual overload results in me getting fatigued, tired and grumpy pretty quickly. Enduring extended, repeated interaction with other humans is certainly a skill I'm lacking in.

So what did I do while I was there? I made the trip up to London on Saturday with Rich and met up with Aaron, Elliot and Saf who we're playing in the Modern side event that day. I managed to get a picture of Aaron looking the most intense I've ever seen him:

Playing Merfolk is serious business you know. He later went on to win this game with a double Gut Shot to the face. This pleased him no end.

Rich and I had a wander around the trade stands - the densest concentration of expensive bits of cardboard I've ever seen. It was nice to get a good look at the Kaladesh Masterpiece series in person; It's unlikely I'll ever own one of these Magic 'Ferraris'.

The prize wall had some uncut foil sheets on display - only a few of these are ever made available for public ownership. The gentleman on the stand gave us some interesting factoids regarding the cutting and randomisation process these sheets undergo following their printing.

The art of Magic: The Gathering is in my opinion one of the best aspects of the game, so I would be remiss not to visit the Artist stands. Mark Tedin, one of my favourite Magic artists, was in attendance; We had a little chat with him and I picked up a print of 'Primal Beyond'. One realises how much the cards crop the artwork when compared with the original.

All in all I had a fun afternoon, despite not actually playing any games. The company of good friends and the immersion in some Magic: The Gathering culture is more than enough for me.

Comic Book Comments - August & September 2016

It's time for another bi-monthly comic book round up! Here's what I've read over the last two months. This time we've an odd mix of fairy tales and dystopias.

Empty Zone - Volume One: Conversations with the Dead (Image)

One hundred years in the future Earth is recovering from a long period of blackout caused by massive solar flares. Due to the chaos caused by the death of all electronics, technology has only marginally advanced over the last century.

Corinne is an ex-soldier plagued by regret, bad dreams, nightmares. Afflicted by visions of her fallen comrades, drink and drugs provide a temporary reprieve to her psychological pain. Corinne is a data courier; the only secure way to transfer important data in this future is to do so physically - electronic means are too vulnerable. Her unique nanomachine enhancements afford the ability to transfer data from other 'mules' to herself simply via touch; an ability highly prized by the black market. Corinne's nightmares become all too real when she encounters a mechanically reanimated corpse, seemingly possessed by the soul of one of her former comrades. The ghosts of her dead friends deliver a message to Corinne's data core that turns her onto the path to redemption.

Empty Zone is a gory exploration of guilt in a dark dystopian sci-fi future, cleverly entwined with supernatural themes. The distinct art style helps bring across the bleakness of both the characters and the world (though that is not to say it isn't colourful) while visually emphasising the moments of violence. If you are a fan of Deus Ex, Blade Runner or Cyberpunk in general, this is well worth picking up.


Disenchanted - Volume One (Avatar)

Where do the glamoured go when mankind forgets about them? Goblins, Faeries, Leprechauns, Boggarts, Brownies and Kobolds; all end up in Vermintown. A sprawling, bustling metropolis constructed from cans, bottles, cardboard packets and pipes. Driven from their ancestral homelands by the Vastfolk's (mankind's) relentless expansion into and destruction of forests and woodlands, many fey folk have migrated to Vermintown on promises of an easy life away from the old ways. In the slums of Vermintown the ancient traditional ways of magic have given way to vice, violence, drugs and sleaze.

Stote, newly elected as Wayfinder (community leader) struggles to provide for his two sons, Fig and Tael, following the death of his wife. Born into Vermintown, Fig and Stote have never known life in the outside world, learning about their people's traditions from the elders Tibitha and Noro (who have themselves now become cynical). Stote's troubles can only worsen when Fig is lured away into working for the Spinners gang, the gang responsible for distributing the dangerous new drug 'Whine' onto the streets of Vermintown.

Disenchanted is an interesting re imagining of the fairytale mythos, bringing them into the modern age and successfully mirroring a range of real world issues and themes. Identity, drug abuse, gangs, racism, poverty and family are all explored here. Under the outlandish setting is a story that could just as easily work in a more mundane setting; the magic and fantastic elements simply build on the solid narrative foundation.

As an aside, the setting of Vermintown would make a fantastic Necromunda-esque gang centric wargame. The opportunity to build some terrain out of old bean cans and cola bottles is really quite unique. Playing games between the Vermintown Police and street gangs would be fun to play and would definitely look unique! Sometime in the future I'd like to attempt at turning this setting into a game.



I Hate Fairyland - Volume One: Madly Ever After (Image)

I Hate Fairyland is what you get if you take an axe to Alice in Wonderland. Fairyland is a fantastic realm, full of cuddly creatures, talking stars and colourful landscapes, ruled over by the friendly, caring Queen Cloudia. Fairyland readily accepted a little girl named Gertrude as their guest.

Fairyland wasn't ready for Gertrude.

What started as a simple fun adventure (that should have taken a couple of days at most) to find the magical key that would lead Gertrude back home again has turned into a 27 year long nightmare (both for Gertrude and the inhabitants of Fairyland). Gertrude now murders her way across Fairyland, violently dealing with anything blocking her path towards her goal of finding the key. Queen Cloudia has finally had enough of Gertrude terrorising Fairyland and now desperately seeks an answer to the child's rampage.

Fairyland is a funny, witty and colourful distortion of all the fairy-tale and fantasy tropes we know and love. The visual gags are plentiful and clever, many panels contain humorous background elements or are just so overtly gory as to be funny. The change of Gertrude's guide, Larrigon Wentsworth III (or Larry to his friends), from a bright eyed enthusiastic fairy to a chain smoking depressed wreck is tragically amusing.

If there's one thing I've learnt about Fairyland, it's that you really don't want to be a narrator.


Tokyo Ghost - Volume One: Atomic Garden (Image)

Debbie Decay and Led Dent are Constables (private corporate enforcers) in Los Angeles, 2089. Nano-tech is omnipresent; almost the entire populace is addicted to technology. The 'Net is beamed directly into people's heads: adverts, shows, video games, pornography, even spam is all transmitted through their 'nano-pacs'. Pumped up on mind altering chemicals, many become entirely oblivious to the world around them, forgetting the violence, decay and hedonism surrounding them, lost in an artificial cyber reality.

Debbie, like her father was, is one of the few tech-free individuals - free to see the world for what it really is. Having witnessed her partner Led fall deeper and deeper into tech addiction, she is determined to bring back the man she once knew. When the pair are sent to Tokyo by Mr Flak of FlakPlanet to disable the EMP device shielding the city (to enable the subsequent plunder of its resources) they discover a utopia. Tokyo is overgrown, its inhabitants returned to the old ways of Bushido, living free of technology, respecting the earth rather than exploiting it. Living among this community Led begins to recover his identity, rekindling his relationship with Debbie. Inevitably such a paradise cannot last - the world they left will always catch up with them.

Tokyo Ghost is a poignant allegory to the modern development of 'screen addiction' our society is currently undergoing, if taken to an extreme. Many of us are indeed addicted to our smart phones, computers and tablets, spending hours per day glued to a screen feeding our brains with extraneous garbage. Comparison can be made to the Pixar film 'WALL-E', both share share some similar themes; criticism of capitalism, addiction to and reliance upon technology and the loss of humanity as a result. Both narratives deal with recovering from such addiction and the rediscovery of the outside world.

I just compared a hyper violent dystopian mature science fiction comic to a Pixar movie. You don't get to do that very often!