Today we are excited to release the rulebook to Fray: Champions of the Every-verse. The game has been in development for several years now and we have gone through various iterations of the core rules. The rulebook as presented we believe is the best version of rules that allows for both balance and strategy while still staying light and fast, as the game design intended. We are very excited for everyone to see it!
As part of the gaming community for many years now we made a game that we love and that we think you will love too. It’s important to note, however, that this version of the rulebook may not be the final version that goes to print after the Kickstarter campaign concludes. We take feedback from our community very seriously. If there are any changes that you recommend or features, you’d like to see, if it doesn’t make it into this version of the rules, we will absolutely consider it for the future.
We plan on supporting the development of Fray: Champions of the Every-verse far beyond the ending of the campaign, and new rules and scenarios may be added and available for download in the future. We want you to love this game and what you think about it matters to us. So please take a look at the rules and let us know what you think! We can’t wait to see who among you will assume the role of the Watchers and rise above the Fray!
Today in the Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse preview series, we are going to take a look at Champion cards. Fray: Champions of the Every-verse is a skirmish combat game, where you as the player choose your Champion from across different fictions and histories to pit in combat against your opponent. Each playable Champion has a corresponding Champion card that acts as a player board for managing the Champion during the game. It has spaces to place a Hit Point die and Battle Tokens as well as a list of all Champion abilities and resource costs. Each Champion is rendered in beautiful artwork and each card contains a little background on the Champion’s motivations and desire to win the Watcher’s contest.
Fray: Champions of the Every-verse has two play modes, Single and Team. The Single mode abilities differ from the Team mode abilities and are printed on separate sides of the double-sided card. The gold colored side denotes Single mode and the Crimson colored side denotes Team mode. Players should make sure they are using the appropriate side of the card depending on the game mode they are playing. Today we will be looking at our first Champion Card, Mitsu the Samurai.
The left side of the card is the gorgeously rendered artwork for each character and their inspiration for fighting and winning the Watcher’s brutal games. Apart from representing the character, the Champion artwork space may also be used to stack item cards as they are acquired if the player so wishes.
At the top right of Mitsu’s Champion Card is a space to place his hit point dice, represented as a 20-sided die (All Champions start with 20 Hit Points). Next to the Hit Dice are the Token spaces where stored resources gathered from rolling the Battle Dice are represented by placing the corresponding Battle Token. Each round up to two Battle tokens can be stored but they must be used by the end of the next round, at which point they can be replaced with new tokens from that round’s battle dice roll.
Battle Tokens which can be stored on the Champion card to be used in the following turn - allowing a player to save resources to perform more powerful abilities.
Below the token space is a list of Mitsu’s primary stats: His initiative modifier, armor or dodge save, and movement characteristic. Mitsu is a Samurai of the highest order, skilled in the art of defense and attack. He can brutally assault multiple opponents and can more easily defend himself than many of the other Champions he faces. As a tradeoff, what he gains in attack prowess and defense he loses in speed and initiative. His initiative modifier (0) does not grant him a bonus during the initiative phase, so frequently other Champions will have their chance to act before him. Weighted down by his armor plating (represented by both is 3+ armor save and 4 movement characteristic) he able to take blow after blow from the enemy but can be outmaneuvered by a faster opponent or become susceptible to opponents with long range attacks that can stay away from his deadly katana.
Below the stat line is Mitsu’s once per game ability. Whirling Blades is a devastating flurry of attacks that Mitsu can make against enemies he moved past in the movement phase. The cost of resolving each attack is listed as one Attack icon per attack. No additional resources (other than those listed) are needed to resolve a once per game ability.
Example: In a 3-player game with 3 Champions per player, Mitsu may find himself in the thick of combat with several other melee-based enemies, all trying to overwhelm his stalwart armor and defeat him through unique attacks of their own. In the movement phase Mitsu may use his movement to move past 3 different Champions all crowded around him (though he may be subject to Press the Advantage attacks). If he has two stored attack tokens and rolls at least one attack icon on the battle dice (represented by the Axe) he may spend up to 3 of those attack icons to deliver one attack each, resolved as normal with any applied modifiers, against all of the opponents he moved past.
Below the Once Per Game ability are the set of unique abilities that Mitsu may use each turn if he has enough resources. There are two unique abilities in Single mode and three in Team mode. Each ability gives a description of its effects with the resource cost to use that ability listed to the left of it.
Example: Mitsu used Slashing Strike on Golga. He pays two attack icons and one defense icon then resolves his attack. A token is then placed on the board next to Golga indicating that he is now at half movement during his next movement phase. There are 3 status tokens which can be applied to champions.
Status marker tokens to easily indicate any effects that a champion may have applied to them.
We will be previewing each of the 12 Champion cards in the coming days. Keep an eye out on social media to see the rest of the Champions before the Kickstarter launches May 26.
Earlier, we covered the Champion card layout and reviewed our first Champion, Mitsu. Now, we are going to take a look at our next Champion card, Erabeth the Vampire, Dark Queen of Arkenstadt.
Gadget the Tinkerer, from the Steampunk world of Cogshire has her own unique abilities that show off her skills with machinery coupled with her wily combat prowess.
Gadget the Tinkerer, from the Steampunk world of Cogshire has her own unique abilities that show off her skills with machinery coupled with her wily combat prowess.
Gadget uses her knowledge of the clockwork machinery that powers her city and repurposes it for combat. The pinnacle of her work is her trusty Gatling Turret. Made of cog parts and fashioned into a deadly weapon, her Gatling Turret is controlled by Gadget and is used to protect her from harm. The Gatling Turret represents the first Companion Character of the game.
During the Companion Phase the turret may act by moving independently and may also resolve its ability using the battle tokens the player may have stored on Gadget from the previous round. Similar to the Character cards, the Companion Card has a place for Hit Dice (Companions have 6 Hit Points and the die tracker is naturally a D6), the movement characteristic of the Companion and the Companion’s save.
Golga the Gladiator fights day and night in the Colosseum of the city of Tordan where he honed his skills for combat in the Arena.
Unleash Hell– Golga is a seasoned warrior and has lived as a gladiator for most of his life, making him perhaps the best prepared for combat in the Arena. This ability lets Golga make a devastating attack with his trident and net that forces a -1 save modifier on the opponent. Against an opponent with a modest armor that could mean very little chance of them avoiding the attack. Coupled with items he may have drawn using his Give Them What They Want ability this attack, which requires only two resources to use, could be deadly.
Back Breaker – As he wears down his opponent, like a savage wrestler, Golga uses this ability to manhandle and fling a target enemy across the arena. Target enemy is thrown and scattered (similar to the movement of the loot token in the loot phase) and must roll for save to avoid damage. Whether or not the enemy champion is wounded, they are still dazed and the impact of being tossed forces one of their items to drop back into the arena. The player loses a random item card.
Myrina the High Priestess from the Jungles of Amazonia uses her spiritual powers to defend herself and her teammates from the onslaught of the enemy.
Sacred Shield – Myrina uses her powers for defense as well as attack. This ability lets Myrina or a friendly Champion near her to get a +1 save bonus, and if the attack does manage to get through, the damage is resolved at half of the dice roll, as a result of the blessing the shield bestows. Sometimes the best offense is a good defense and this can come in handy when getting ganged up on by more than one champion or when you may need to escape or weather multiple attacks.
Guiding Light – Myrina uses her spiritual energy to shine a light on her foe, like a marker, so that they become easier to hurt as they move around the arena. After her attack resolves the following attacks against the target by friendly champions get the benefit of a -1 save modifier. This ability is best used strategically when Myrina gets to act earlier in the phase then the rest of her team so that they can benefit from the applied -1 save and potentially stack their advantage with their own ability or item modifiers.
Trilug, the Warchief of the Gundar Orc Tribe, who roam the Black Lands in search of conquest, is one of the fiercest warriors in all of the realms.
Sheriff West, the Gunslinger of Desolation Valley, is the quickest draw in the land. Armed with the Big Guns he seeks to mete out justice to those who don’t respect the law.
The Big Gun – Sheriff West’s revolvers are legendary in Desolation Valley. Hard steel adorned with smooth wooden handles, his main weapon is simply known as the Big Gun. To represent the power of the Big Gun and his precision in using it, this ability allows for a long ranged attack against an enemy champion at -1 save. With a low resource cost, this is a go-to ability that should be relied on frequently during combat.
Bullseye – Sheriff West is as accurate on the draw as he is quick, easily finding holes in the opponent’s defenses he can slip a shot through. When using this ability, after a successful attack the opponent has to re-roll their first save attempt and keep the lowest roll. This ability, especially when coupled with a well-timed item card, can ensure a high rate of success when attacking, putting opponents on their heels.
Captain Redbeard the Pirate, Scourge of the Shrouded Isles is the most dangerous scoundrel to ever have sailed the seas. Armed with tricks and cunning, he plunders his way to victory and loot.
Dirty Tricks – Captain Redbeard is a scrappy fighter, elegant and savage in equal measure. He uses any weapons or adornment he carries in a fight to give him an advantage. When fighting with his sword and cutlass he can both attack and defend with expert skill. This ability allows Redbeard to make a melee attack while also adding +1 to his own save. A low resource cost makes this an attractive ability to use on any turn.
Pickpocket – A thief at heart, Captain Redbeard can use his cunning in combat to also pick a pocket. With this ability, when an opponent takes damage from his attack he may immediately draw an item card to line his pockets. This is an especially useful ability as it allows Redbeard to pull item cards without having to rely on the loot chest, or as a bonus to whatever he pulls from the loot, helping him create a formidable inventory of items to use strategically.
Baldren the Smith of Khaz-Abad in the Underground Empire is the best craftsman and weapon smith in all of the realms. As hard and unforgiving as the steel he forges his iron will helps him prevail in the Watcher’s game.
Hearth and Home – As a Master Smith, Baldren uses his abilities to sharply hone his weapons to give him an advantage in combat. This once per game ability allows Baldren and any allies (regardless of their location on the battlefield) to get their weapons tended to in the midst of combat, giving his team a -1 save modifier to all attacks during the round. This ability is best used at the start of a turn so that any allies Baldren is fighting with can benefit from this ability.
Forged Iron – Baldren’s hammer is imbued with powerful runes, craftwork that Baldren himself inscribed over long hours in the hot forges in the heart of Khaz-Abad. As a result, his weapon strikes true and can bang through any defenses. This is represented by a -1 save modifier to his attack roll. With a low resource cost this is an ability that players will frequently rely on as Baldren trudges his way through the battlefield.
Dwarven Stubbornness – The Dwarven race is known throughout the realms for their stubborn and steely resolve. This ability allows Baldren to dig deep and not only attack but increase his defenses, attributing a +1 to any save rolls he needs to make against melee attacks until his next turn. Already protected with runic armor (boasting a very impressive 3+ save to start with!), this ability can make him a virtual tank in the center of the conflict. Since Baldren moves slowly (movement 4) and can’t easily escape combat, he needs to rely on his ability to withstand the enemies onslaught in order to win the contest.
Harald, the Viking prince of the Valkenkirk, is one of the most fearsome opponents ever summoned to the arena. Steeped in the blood of his enemies, Harald’s blind rage is so legendary that foes cower at the sound of his name.
For the Good of Valken – Harald is driven by the red rage of battle and the glory of his people, seeking to conqueror lands both near and far in the name of the Valkenkirk. When he is in the heat of battle he attacks with a ferocity that scares even the toughest foes, knowing that meeting his axe could mean their death. This once per game ability allows Harald to resolve an attack at -1 save and when the opponent rolls for damage they must roll twice and keep the higher result, ensuring that they are sustaining as much damage as possible.
Heavy Swing – Harald swings his axe with reckless abandon, causing crushing damage when he connects with the defenses of his foes. This ability allows him to resolve a melee attack at -1 save and costing only 2 attack icons, this gives Harald a way to increase his odds of damage without potentially needing to spend all of his resources so he can store them for the upcoming round.
No Escape – Once engaged Harald doesn’t allow his opponents to easily escape. He has been known to throw his axes at an oncoming or fleeing opponent. His skill with the axe is legendary, so legendary in fact that if he hits the enemy with his axe, even if they survive they are stunned and drop one of their valuable items. This ability allows Harald to make a short ranged attack, and if the opponent takes damage they must discard a random item card, hampering their ability to respond to his threat.
Blood Rage – When his blood is up and the scent of the battle takes him, all Harald can see is the red streaks of blood about to be spilled. Once he feels the blood rage he starts recklessly lashing out at any and all opponents near him. This ability allows him to make an attack against every enemy champion within one square. Positioning himself in the thick of battle and maximizing the number of enemies he is in contact with can make this an absolutely devastating and potentially arena-clearing attack.
Brint the Elven Ranger of Lorhaven Forest, is the silent death that stalks the woods, protecting the magic of the forest from invaders. With their companion Grizendl the mighty bear they are a difficult team for any foe to face.
Call of the Wild – This once per turn ability allows Brint to summon the great bear Grizendl to the arena without having to pay a resource cost to do so and without sacrificing a combat or defense action. Players may want to do this on the first turn or wait until they are in danger so that they may deflect attacks from Brint to Grizendl.
Grizendl – This ability allows Brint to summon Grizendl to the arena at any time. If Grizendl is already in play but has suffered wounds this ability can be used to heal them. If the player uses the Call of the Wild action early in the match this ability allows them to continue to summon Grizendl even if they were slain in a previous round.
Master of the Bow – Brint is a master archer, deadly with the bow over long distances. This ability allows Brint to make a long range attack at -1 save, allowing Brint to keep their distance from their opponent while making a powerful attack that the target champion will be hard pressed to save.
Swift Shot – Brint is deadly fast and can snap off bow shots in quick succession. This ability allows Brint to attack two separate champions at one time, one at long range and one at short. This is an especially useful ability once Grizendl has been summoned, as the bear can absorb the enemies attacks while Brint presses the victory against multiple enemies.
For many years the bear known as Grizendl, spirit animal of the forest of Lorhaven, has traveled at the side of the mighty Ranger. When together in the arena, the ferocity of these two is unmatched, as they work in perfect synchronization, slaying foe after foe. Grizendl represents the second companion character in the game.
During the Companion Phase Grizendl may act by moving independently and may also resolve it's ability using the battle tokens the player may have stored with Brint from the previous round. Similar to the Character cards, the Companion Card has a place for Hit Dice (Companions have 6 Hit Points and the die tracker is naturally a D6), the movement characteristic of the Companion and the Companion’s save.
In our Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse preview series post found here, we spoke a bit about Item Cards, their inspiration and their effects in game. We also took a look at Sheriff West’s revolver card. Now we are going to take a closer look at the other item cards. This post will be updated daily until the remaining 14 item cards are all shown.
Some of the Champions from Fray are lucky enough to get two item cards themed after them. Earlier we saw Sheriff West and his revolver. Now, lets take a look at Golga, our gladiator and his items. These two item cards are both focused on the armor save mechanic in Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse.
Golga’s Trident – Enemy Champion is at -1 to the next save roll they make. This item, as it is not an instant is played in the Item Phase, and works as a debuff on an enemy champion, reducing their survivability against the next attack. Apply this to a champion you plan to focus on, and combine it with special attacks to reduce armor save even further for devastating effects.
Golga’s Helm – Instant – Play this card to reroll a failed save roll. This item, is an instant, which means it can be played outside of the Item Phase as a reaction to what is going on in the game. In this case, when you fail an armor save, use the card to allow a reroll.
Our resident steampunk tinkerer Gadget is another champion who received two item cards themed around her. Her wrench is just too much of a focal point of her model to not use, and her goggles are so iconic with the archetype we had to…
Gadget’s Wrench – Instant - Use this card to reroll the Battle Dice this turn. You must keep the second roll. This card is an instant, which means you can use it at any appropriate time (after you roll the battle dice). Sometimes in the game you are going to NEED to see certain resources in order to pull off your plan. Gadget’s Wrench fixes things… like a bad roll at a bad time.
Gadget’s Goggles – Instant – Use this when attacked but before rolling to save. Automatically save against a ranged attack. This card is amazing. It is one of the rarer cards to get, and it doesn’t work if your enemy is using a melee character, but we have seen this card come through at key points in games. Guess the goggles really do help to see it coming.
Baldren and Sethrious each get one item, so they are sharing this segment of the post. What is more iconic to a Dwarven Smith than their hammer? Nothing! It is goes together like a Wizard and their spellbook…
Baldren’s Hammer – Instant – Reroll a non (Axe) battle die this turn. Played after you roll the battle dice, this card helps ensure that you are ready to press the attack when the time is right.
Sethrious’s Spellbook – Instant – Use this card to reroll any 1 die. This is another rare card to draw, but it has power. This card can help you change your fates and a key time in the match. Any fates too, attacks, save, battle dice etc. The only question about this card is WHEN is the right time to use it?
Brint is another who gets two themed card. I think our artist really enjoyed Brint and it shows. All of the artwork surrounding Brint is amazing, their item cards being no exception.
Brint’s Cloak – Instant – Reduce damage of an attack against your champion by half - This needs very little explanation and goes a long way to preserving your champion, cutting incoming damage way down.
Brint’s Boots – Add 2 to the movement value of one champion this turn. – Your opponent have a champion that you can’t quite catch? Need to make a mad dash to get across the arena to get to the Loot Token for more items? This card has tons of practical applications.
Erabeth and Myrina each have an item themed after them, both of which can be incredibly powerful in the right circumstances, at times turning the tide of a match at a key moment. Plus, they are personal favorites of the team, because the artwork is amazing.
Erabeth’s Chalice – Instant – Use to restore 3 Hit Points to a friendly Champion – This seems pretty straight forward, it is the ‘healing potion’ or ‘med kit’ of the game. It is also the only way for 11 of the characters to heal at any point in the game. The only exception to the rule is Erabeth herself. (You’ll see when we do Champion Card features soon)
Myrina’s Staff – Instant – Add 2 to your initiative roll this turn – We have found in Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse that despite all of the rolling and modifiers in the initiative phase (discussed in preview series post #2 here), for the most part the turn order goes predictably back and forth. There are upsets, and they are always exciting when they happen. This card, helps them happen. It is another fairly rare card, but can give you the opportunity to really press your opponent.
Mitsu is another champion that ended up with two themed item cards. In fairness, his artwork and model are amazing, so we think he deserves them.
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Mitsu’s Armor - This card gives your champion +1 to the next save roll they are forced to make. This is played in the item phase and buffs your character against the next incoming attack. A powerful buff for any champion. Use it to make a champion with an already high save even stronger, or use it to cover a champion with a weaker save.
Mitsu’s Mask – Instant – Force an opponent to reroll the damage die for an attack. The second result must be taken – We have seen this change Critical Damage rolls into low damage rolls more times than I can count. This can be an absolute Champion saver, at least once.
With Captain Redbeard we really wanted to have some fun with the archetype, and what better to use than a treasure map for a pirate? For Harald, his model has one glaring item that we think is just amazing.
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Redbeard’s Map – When you use this card, you may draw two item cards. Ok, at first, you may say “ That item card just turns one item card into two”. Yes, that is indeed what it does, but can be clutch. Item cards are powerful in the game, and getting 2 instead of one is a great benefit. But WAIT! There is more! There is a hand limit to the amount of cards you can have in Fray. Get this card, and you have access to help refill your hand as soon as other cards are played.
Harald’s Axe – Instant – Force an opponent to reroll a successful save roll this turn. This can turn almost into absolutely for you in an instant. A key card that keeps pressure on your opponent and has a huge resource value in that you may turn a wasted attack into a key bit of damage.
Thank you for looking through these items. We look forward to getting them in your hands, along with all of the other amazing components we have been working so hard on. The Kickstarter is coming soon, so make sure you keep an eye out and we thank you in advance for even considering to support us. The next series, we will go through all of the Champion Cards and see the Champion’s special abilities and stats.
Today in the Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse preview series, we are going to take a look at item cards. Over the next week, we will be showing off the item cards, the amazing artwork and their effects in game. A deck of 60 item cards, consisting of 15 unique items will be one of the many components of the game. We had a lot of fun with these cards. First off, the artwork is fantastic. We picked pieces of equipment that the champions would have brought with them to the arena rather than just generic items.
Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse is an skirmish combat game, where you as a player choose your Champion form across different fictions and histories to pit in combat against your opponent. Using a dice system to generate combat resources, the choice on how to manage them belongs to you. A series of standard abilities are available to every champion, as well as a series of abilities unique to each champion, and a one per match ability.
The enigmatic Watchers, who have plucked the Champions from across all of time and space, have also made available a series of powerful items to aid their champions. Fate, however, is fickle and in order to take advantage of these items, a champion must secure them. In game this is represented by a Loot Token that grants any player with a champion within 3 squares an item card each round, but then the token is scattered before the round’s end.
These powerful items are made available to you in order to buff your own champions, debuff your opponent, or change the fates. Each player begins the match with a handful of these items, and there is an opportunity every round to acquire another. A pile of loot roams the battlefield along with the champions, and you will definitely want to keep close enough to gain more cards as the game goes on.
The item cards in Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse are one use only and take the form of either an instant which can be played at any time in response to the situation in the game, or during the item phase, giving a bonus or penalty to the next occurrence of an event.
In this example, we used Sheriff West’s gun as an item card allowing you to reroll damage. Let’s face it, big guns seem offensive and we thought it fit the theme perfectly. Besides, the artwork for Sheriff West really showcases the revolver, and we were happy to be able to showcase it even more.
Make sure to keep an eye on our social media accounts over the next week as we feature the item cards to give a better look at each of them and what they do, and keep checking on the blog as we continue the preview series leading up to the Kickstarter in a few weeks!
Each Champion comes with a standard set of abilities for attack, defense and movement. On the Champion Card there is a list of special abilities that are unique to that Champion and are resolved during the active player’s turn, using resources gathered from rolling the battle dice. Thematically, this turns into Captain Redbeard the pirate using his flintlock pistol and rapier to both press the attack and defend himself at the same time. Mechanically, this leads to a one Axe, one Shield move that allows Redbeard to attack an enemy champion and improve his own save for the following round. Otherwise, you could store some of those resources and go for a more powerful attack in the following round or even do a combination of both.
Each Champion also has several unique abilities listed on their Champion card. Next to each ability there is either a set of Attack or Defense icon or a combination of both. This is the ‘cost’ to activating that ability. These abilities represent the powerful, and sometimes vicious or devious, things the Champions can do. Unique abilities can provide various bonuses to the Champion themselves or friendly Champions as well as additional attack penalties against their enemies.
Each Champion has 1 once per game ability and 2 unique abilities in Single Mode play. Champions gain 3 unique abilities in Team Mode. The last Team Mode ability the Brain Sandwich team likes to refer to internally as their ‘Ultimate Form’, as each one is very powerful and usually affects multiple Champions. When my Champion uses their last ability against an opponent I like to think of it as Goku from Dragon Ball Z going Super Saiyan. These abilities are only available in Team Mode since many times they are designed to resolve multiple effects against potentially more than one Champion.
When resolving an attack of any kind the player whose Champion is the target of the attack rolls a D6. If the score is equal to or greater than the Champion’s save value represented on their Champion card (including any modifiers) the Champion's armor deflects the attack, or they are able to safely dodge out of the way and no damage is taken. If the Champion is unsuccessful in their Save roll against the attack, the attacking player then rolls for damage. The damage die has the following damage values on it: 4, 6, 8 and Critical Hit (8 plus the Axe icon). The damaged player subtracts the value of the roll from their Champion’s Hit Points. A Critical Hit, in addition to doing 8 damage, also adds a -1 modifier to the affected Champions save for the remainder of the round. Champions start with 20 hit points each (though Hit Points can be modified through item cards). Once a Champion’s hit points are reduced to 0 the Champion has been killed and is removed from the Board for the remainder of the game. If a Champion has a Companion in play at the time of their tragic demise, then the Companion is also removed as if it had been slain.
Fray: Champions of the Every-verse is a winner take all game. A player wins once their opponents have no more champions left in play and they are the last ones standing. The Watcher’s run a brutal contest and it must always be decided in blood. Join us next time as we take a deep dive into the item cards, tokens and components that make up the game and discuss what each does and why.
In the last post we discussed choosing your champions and how to deploy them at the start of the game. In this post we will discuss beginning the game using initiative, how that affects each round of play and how to move your Champions in the combat arena.
The game is structured in a series of rounds, each round with several phases. The first phase is the Initiative Phase. In this phase each player designates one of their champions to lead the round. Each player then rolls a six-sided die (D6) and adds the initiative modifier of the Champion leading the round to the roll.
The initiative modifier, which can be found on their Champion Card, is unique to each Champion and reflects whether one Champion is quicker to act then their opponent. For instance, you would expect Sheriff West, the quickest draw in Desolation Valley, to be faster to act than Baldren, the stubborn and slower moving dwarf.
The same Champion cannot be selected to lead the round two turns in a row. The player needs to consider what modifier they want to use in this round and which to use in the next. In Single Mode the Champion initiative is used every other round. For instance, in the first round each player adds the initiative modifier of their champion to their dice roll. In the next round, no Initiative Modifier is used and players simply use the result of their dice roll. In the following round the players again add their champions modifier and so on.
Champions can move up to their full movement value (adding any modifiers), moving one square at a time as they go. Champions may not move through the square or end their movement on the square of another Champion.
Movement comes into play in other ways as well. While in combat sometimes the best offense is a good defense. It may make sense for a Champion to disengage in combat, but it can leave the Champion open to attacks from the opposing players, known as Press the Advantage attacks. In that case, a Champion may use a movement icon (boot) to do a Guarded Withdraw, which allows the Champion to safely disengage and prevents the Champion from taking further attacks as a result of escaping close quarters combat. Depending on the Champion’s combat type (melee, short range, or long range) the player must strategically decide where and how to move to maximize what each Champion can do.
For instance, Brint the Ranger is deadly at long range but doesn’t want to get caught taking melee attacks from Harald the Raider. Conversely Trilug will be smelling blood and rushing at foes from across the battlefield while Erabeth will be using her abilities to escape combat unscathed after a few bites to his neck.
These are strange times we are living in. Staying safe means staying away from most of the people we regularly see. When it comes to board games that might mean taking a hiatus from our favorite hobby until everyone can get together around a table for a night of games and fun. As soon as the social distancing guidelines went into effect, I started looking at ways to continue enjoying my hobby without putting myself and others at risk. What I found has been a kind of weird (at first) and wonderful new way to play a lot of games I already loved: Solo gaming. Over the past month or so I’ve tried solo or “automa” modes that are either possible by virtue of the games design (pretty much all co-ops can be played solo) or designed specifically for solo gaming and the results have been…well, astounding. Apparently, I love playing games solo.
If you’ve played board games for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with Fantasy Flights’ Lovecraftian horror games. Thematically beautiful, with fun and challenging gameplay and enough variety to never get stale, I find Eldritch Horror to be among my favorite all time games. The game is narrative driven, set up with a Clue-like discovery system that sees your investigators travel the global solving ancient mysteries to stop the rise of an eldritch god intent of bringing about the Apocalypse. Yup, it’s cool. My wife and I have played Eldritch Horror at least once a week while we’ve quarantined, and the game always finds ways to challenge us and each play through feels varied enough that it doesn’t get stale if you’re into the story.
Like most co-op games, you can play single player simply by controlling 2 or more characters in the story. Sometimes that can feel artificial but in this game it’s a natural experience because the goal of the game is to solve the mysteries not to have the characters survive. If one investigator dies you can pass what they’ve learned to another, so the game becomes more about entrenching yourself in the goal and less about keeping your characters alive. Perfect for solo play!
My Dungeons and Dragons group has moved from playing around the table to playing online, and while I like that, my RPG/Dungeon crawling itch is never fully satisfied. Enter One Deck Dungeon. It’s a card game designed for 1-2 players and a challenging yet rewarding single player experience. Using a deck of cards to represent monsters or obstacles, the player advances through each floor of a 3-floor dungeon on their way to a final boss battle. Burning through the dungeon deck acts as the advance mechanism and you have to balance how fast you get through a floor with how much leveling up you’ll need to do to tackle the next floor. The game features a neat linear leveling system and some truly epic boss fights.
It even has a campaign mode with an interesting progression system where your characters can play through multiple dungeons and level up with special abilities in the process that carry over to future playthroughs. One of the first truly solo experiences I’ve tried, and it still keeps me coming back for more.
Everdell can be described in a single word: Masterpiece. From the gorgeous artwork, to the elegant combination of worker placement and engine building mechanics, this is a must have for, well, basically anyone who plays board games. The theme of a woodland wonderland where critters gather resources to build cities is tight and represented beautifully throughout the game. Everdell is also interesting in that it has a dedicated solo mode, or Automa (a game with a dedicated AI opponent), where the player plays against Rugwort, a rat who is trying to duplicitously undermine your efforts while building his own city in Everdell. Playing against Rugwort has 3 different difficulty options that lets you ease into the necessary strategies to beat him. I recently played 10 test games against Rugwort, going 5-5 on the easiest mode, so he’s no slouch to beat.
Furthermore, the tactics to win differ a bit from the standard multiplayer mode, emphasizing special event achievements over standard event achievements, which adds a new wrinkle to the game if you’re already familiar with it. Overall, I consider this a must play.
Even just a few years ago solo gaming was either non-existent or a niche feature set buried within popular games. All of that has changed and the number of games you can play solo continues to grow new release after release. Since I can’t cover them all, here are some honorable mentions I suggest you put on your list:
● Scythe - a complex engine building game set in an alternate history 1920s Europe that has a sophisticated and downright vicious Automa mode for single play. A fun and interesting challenge for those familiar with the game, as the solo mode slightly shifts focus from building to conquering.
● Salvation Road - a post-apocalypse resource gathering co-op adventure with a deep theme and interesting mechanics for surviving the end of the world alone or with friends. As a fan of the Mad Max meets the Days Gone-inspired post-apocalyptic aesthetic I really love this one for the clever ways it ties in the theme, down to the polaroid picture location cards.
● Onirim – an abstract solitaire card game that looks like a drug-induced fever dream where the player is trapped in a dreamworld and must escape by unlocking doors before they are permanently waylaid by nightmare monsters. It’s fast and fun solo play and though it has a 2-player mode I found that the single player experience was actually more fun.
● Legacy of Dragonholt – Not really a “board” game per se so much as a story-based experience a la Dungeons and Dragons without a Dungeon Master driving the narrative. Instead players read through a “chose your own adventure” style storybook that rolls out a campaign that can last upward of 40 hours. Definitely worth a look if you’re missing your D&D group.
That about sums up my odyssey into the world of solo gaming and its many rewards. Hopefully everyone has a game they love that they can safely play during this time. If I didn’t cover any of your favorites please mention them in the comments section!
If you like what you read, or simply trust our opinions and want to pick up one of the games discussed today. Here are the Amazon Links.
Fray: Champions of the Every-verse steeps its combat in the lore of its Champions and their place in the grand schemes of the all-powerful Watchers who choose them. Each playable Champion comes from a different realm, place, and point in time and space and reflects either a historical fiction or fantasy archetype that the player may be familiar with. These archetypes, paired with the individual Champions backstories, create a narrative tapestry that the player, assuming the role of the Watcher, can use to decide whom to select and for what reasons, either personal or tactical.
At the start of the game the players agree on a game size which ranges from selecting 1 – 3 Champions per player. The game size is determined before Champion selection and each player chooses the equivalent number of champions to their opponents. There are two game types to choose from:
Once the game mode and size are selected players roll off using a six-sided dice (D6) to determine who goes first. Starting in descending order, the highest roll going first, each player chooses a single champion from the pool of available champions. If each player will be fielding more than one Champion, continue on in the same order, choosing one Champion at a time until all the champions are selected. Once all the champions are selected the players then decide amongst themselves which side of the arena their champions will be deployed from. There are four separate deployment zones on the main game board and four squares in each zone. Once the start zones are selected players may place each champion on any of the four squares in their zone. Then the game begins.
Each Champion is powerful and dangerous in the arena, so deciding which to choose comes down to a few factors. What is your play style? If you like slipping in and out of combat maybe Gadget or Erabeth would be best. If you like playing the tank, trudging along into battle with your weapon and armor and facing opponents head on, maybe Mitsu or Baldren would be best. If you prefer staying back at range and slowly dismantling your opponents from the perimeter maybe Brint or Sethrious would be your choice. What genre do you prefer? If you are a fan of Kurosawa films, then Mitsu is your boy. If you love spaghetti westerns then maybe you’d want to play as Sheriff West. Fray: Champions of the Every-verse was designed so that each player can find a character they love, one that reminds them of a story they liked as a child or maybe a movie or show they still like.
Wow, Kickstarter is great! Wow, Kickstarter is stressful! Wow, Kickstarter is REALLY stressful! But yeah, it’s also really great!
A year ago, I was almost entirely unfamiliar with the Kickstarter community, understanding only in basic premise what it was and how it worked but I had more questions than answers. Are you selling products? Are you raising capital? Are you basically GoFundMe-ing your business with random strangers? What I have come to realize through the process of starting this endeavor and launching our first campaign is that Kickstarter is a beautiful, and at times brutal, network for bringing your creative visions to life by getting people who either care about you or your product to pledge support so that said product can become reality.
It’s almost criminally simplistic in what it offers to creators but at the same time navigating its world to success has layers of complication that I hadn’t even dreamed of. Things like backer momentum, stretch goal incentives, add-ons, product reviews, quality campaign layouts, video content, and more all add (or potentially subtract) from your odds of successful. When we started, I hadn’t even heard of a stretch goal. Now, 2 months from the launch of our 2nd Kickstarter, having an optimized stretch goal strategy takes up way more real estate in my brain then one would imagine.
Having now run a successful campaign (thank you backers!) what did we learn? Well, since we are sitting here awaiting the first production run of Per My Last Email, made possible by our backers, I think we probably did more things right than wrong. Still, the things we did wrong haunt me a bit as we prepare for our next campaign. So, without further ado, here’s what I think we did wrong:
The Casual Party Game for Disgruntled Office Workers
Per My Last Email is a card game which translates essentially to this: making a minimum run of the game was relatively cheap. We were trying not to just raise the funds to make the game, but we were trying to recoup some sunken costs and in retrospect that was a mistake. A higher goal meant it negatively stretched out our funding percentage analytics, possibly giving potential on-the-fence backers pause, as there was a real threat we wouldn’t fund. It seems that backers are drawn to projects where they have some level of expectation that the project will fund and they will ultimately get the product.
I’m sure we lost some backers because our campaign dragged out (we hit funding with 8 hours to go, phew!). Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games writes a great blog about this which you can read here: https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-7-the-funding-goal/
In fact, read everything Jamey blogs about regarding his Kickstarter experience. (the full list is here) https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter/full-list-chronological/
No one provides better in-depth analysis of the entire Kickstarter process than Jamey (plus he makes great games). His view on assessing how much risk you can tolerate rings true now as I reflect back. We should have taken a little more risk. Too much of Kickstarter relies on momentum and a lower funding goal would have helped that.
One of the concerns that looms large for us as we approach the next Kickstarter is: Do we have a large enough community of people following us? The answer to that at the time of this writing is probably not, but during the Per My Last Email campaign it was patently NO, NO WE DON’T. In hindsight it’s amazing we did fund Per My Last Email given the truncated prep time we gave ourselves in lead up to the campaign. We will discuss this more in a blog about the development of PMLE down the road but the bottom line was we would have benefitted from more time to build up interest.
Per My Last Email is a very good game (I’m sure this is true, my mom said so and I believe her) but it didn’t lend itself to some of the important aspects of Kickstarter. It wasn’t a game designed for a lot of visuals or artwork that would act as sort of set pieces. The graphic work that our designer Tori Snyder did was amazing and the primary piece of artwork (the frantic and funny office scene) is still one of my favorite pieces we’ve made to date, but it’s still not a “visual” game and that hurt us. It also wasn’t a game that lent itself well to stretch goals. We only had one, it was set far too high and it wasn’t unlocked. The add-ons were pretty good. We had a great commercial made for it we still use and the campaign itself looks professional (in our opinion at least). Still, we didn’t know what we didn’t know, and if we decide to launch an expansion of PMLE on Kickstarter in the future our focus will be building a campaign that plays better to the Kickstarter community.
Making any product requires a lot of effort, focused in a lot of areas, from a lot of people. We understood this was work and we put the work in. We did all the research we could on manufacturing and fulfilment and spent considerable time putting together our distribution network. We had a thoroughly researched marketing plan. We got playtest copies out to reviewers. We had our whole delivery strategy set to go before the bell rung. We worked hard to make sure we were READY to make a product and I think that helped us quite a bit when we realized we actually WERE going to be making this product.
Leading up to and every day during the campaign we posted on social media, reached out to people in our personal networks and looked for ways to connect with our target audience. We posted 11 updates during the campaign (maybe even too many) to constantly thank our backers and let them know where we stood every step of the way. Whenever we received a comment we replied quickly and thoroughly. Whenever we were tagged somewhere we made sure to comment or to engage in the conversation. Backers in the Kickstarter community enjoy connecting with the creators they back and we enjoyed connecting with them. It’s a crucial and enjoyable step in the process and proved to be very important.
Kickstarter is a rare beast in the world of product creation. It has unique abilities and requires special weapons to hunt, so to speak. You’re creating a project, you want to bring it to life, you want to raise the funds to make it real, not all the funds you raise translate to copies of your product, but most do, so it’s kind of like selling a product, but not really at all, etc, etc, etc. Some Kickstarter gurus will probably disagree with this but you need to advertise, at least a little. If you don’t have the community (see Things Wrong #2) you need to get eyeballs on your campaign. You need to draw people in and that breaks down into converting views to pledges. It’s different than traditional product marketing but the same as well. Luckily this isn’t our first rodeo and we understood the importance of good digitals ads and where to place them to get efficiency and we did it on a relatively small budget. My partner Brian worked in sales and advertising for a long time successfully and for some pretty big businesses. So, we definitely weren’t noobs. I let Brian do his thing and watched and watched to his annoyance, threw in my two cents everywhere I could, driving him crazy I’m sure. But the end result was we had hundreds of strangers pledge their money for our product and we hit our goal. We got the eyeballs on it that we needed.
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In these uncertain times, as social distancing becomes more prevalent, curfews are mandated, and more and more we get to spend time with those we are closest to, the inevitable is bound to happen. We are going to get bored and want to occupy and entertain ourselves. So, I figured what better time to discuss some of the amazing games out there for 2 players.
So, if you are laying low and looking for something to do with your partner in the coming days or weeks, may I suggest that you mix up a batch of Quarantini’s and give one of these a try.
Before I get too far into it, I want to address the elephant in the room. Pandemic. Pandemic is an amazing game. It is incredibly popular for a reason and I have personally sunk countless hours into it without regret. I highly recommend it for anyone and it plays very well with 2 players. The game is for 2-4 players and plays in about half an hour. It is co-op, which I think may be a valuable trait if you are isolated with someone for the foreseeable future. It may; however; hit a little too close to home right now. The premise of the game is that viruses have broken out and are wreaking havoc across the globe. Your job is to stop them. You each assume the role of a different specialist and work together. Communication and strategy are key in order to succeed. The replay value is extremely high as well with plenty of randomness.
Patchwork is amazing. Seriously. I was really resistant to it at first, because the theme is… quilt crafting. Yep. The truth; however; is even more bizarre. Patchwork is an absolutely amazing and well done polymomino game. In short, you have to draft pieces of your quilt which vary in time and resources (buttons) to place. There are only two options for actions on your turn, but the game has a lot of depth for its simplicity. You can either move your token up past the other player and collect a payload of buttons, or you can pay buttons and time to draft and place a patch tile on your quilt. It is also an extremely easy game to learn. It is simple enough that a younger audience (recommended 8+) or a player that is not into heavier games can easily enjoy it. Patchwork has been on a lot of lists as a great board game, and will be a great way to kill some time.
This game has been around for a while and is immensely popular. If you are reading this and haven’t already played Ticket to Ride. Follow the link, order a copy, and welcome to board gaming! All kidding aside though, Ticket to Ride has everything you want in a fun way to kill time. It is competitive, but not too competitive. You focus on building Train Routes across North America, connecting cities. You score points for the routes that you place and for special mission cities you are tasked with connecting. You have choices to make. Do you connect smaller, quicker routes to put points in the bank easily, or do you go for longer complicated routes for a bigger payday. There are limited amounts of space on the board to place the routes, so it is definitely an option to block your opponent(s) from getting where they are trying to go. This game has layers and is a lot of fun. It is also pretty straightforward, easy to set up and fun to play. I personally consider it one of the founders of a new generation of board games and recommend it for anyone.
Ok, ok, this is turning into a “start your collection” post as much as it is a 2 player post. Dominion scales really well at two players. It is a deck building game that I personally love. It is also a great game to pick up as it can handle your friends coming over once we can all head out into the world again. Dominion is like the “grandad” of deck building games. It set the trend, and is still relevant enough to do it as well or better than any other deck building game out there. The replay value is high, and there are a ton of expansions available in case you decide you want to mix it up even more.
The object of the game is to score the most points. Every player starts with a small hand of cards, and then draft cards from a pool into their deck. Cards come in the form of currency, actions and victory points and you are striving for a balance between currency and actions in the early stages. Then in the late stages of the game, everyone makes a mad rush to fill up their hand with victory point cards. Let a player develop for too long, you have problems. Start going for victory point cards too early, and you will bog down your draw.
Brain Sandwich Games is proud to announce that Fray: Champions of the Every-Verse is coming to Kickstarter in May of 2020. Fray is a light, action packed skirmish miniature game of gladiatorial combat. It pulls figures from different histories and fictional genres so that 2-4 players with a strong inner child (make sure your actual children or inner children are all 14+) can finally answer pressing questions like “Who would win in a fight, a Samurai or a Gladiator.” With a 30-60 minute playtime, it is a fast game, but we are proud of the layers of complexity in it.
Game play is light, fast and meant to help facilitate our imaginations when answering those pressing questions. From Golga the gladiator, with his trident and net, to Captain Redbeard, the pirate captain with his flintlock pistol and rapier; each of the Champions have unique abilities that help them on their quest to become the last champion standing in the arena.
In the World of the Every-verse, there are all powerful beings known simply as The Watchers; these mystical beings hold the arena contests for unknown reasons. As we were designing the backstory to Fray, I simply imagined my friends and I, in my room at 14 years old, heatedly debating all of the reasons that our chosen one would win in a fight. We were the Watchers, we just didn’t have the ability to pull an actual wild west gunslinger into an arena. But now we can, and Sheriff West can be your Champion, with his 6 shooters and his grit. Don’t debate how deadly he can be, prove it or perhaps you would rather choose Myrina, our Amazonian priestess.
In all there are 12 separate Champions included in Fray, each represented by their own 42mm model. Two of the Champions even have a companion character that fights alongside them. Gadget the Tinkerer brings her Gatling turret, while Brint the Ranger brings a bear, Grizendl.
We have tried to keep game play as simple as possible, while keeping layers of strategy involved to make the game exciting, refreshing and challenging. Movement is done in a grid system on the arena board. Each of the Champions has a series of abilities and statistics; their movement value, their armor save, a flavored once per game ability, a set of standard actions available to all Champions and a series of abilities specific to each Champion. These abilities are powered by battle dice, which are rolled every turn for each champion giving them a pool of attack, defense and movement points that they can spend (or store for later rounds) on their own abilities.
Play can be done in single mode, with one on one matches or in team mode, where as a player you can choose a set of two or three champions, to fight against your opponent. The Champions can assist each other, buff their allies, debuff the enemy and prove their worth.
Finally, the watchers have made available to the Champions a series of powerful items that each player can use to enhance their Champion(s), reroll dice, restore health, or debuff their opponents.
Originally conceptualized by Mat Weymouth, Fray has been a project of passion for years and we couldn’t be more proud of the gameplay, the artwork, the models and the project overall. We are looking forward to releasing this on Kickstarter, in order to help make it a reality. Keep an eye on our social media pages, sign up for the newsletter or look for updates here, on our website, and make certain you are one of the first to know more about Fray as we release more and more details.
Remember. The Watchers see all!
I was asked why I decided to get involved with a project like Brain Sandwich Games, the answer is simple… “Bullshit” I remember the first time that I called “bullshit” on my mother-in-law. Every year my wife’s family does a get together vacation somewhere in the mountains. They are fantastic times, filled with great food, a lot of alcohol and family. The mornings are spent hiking, the afternoons sampling local vineyards, breweries and distilleries and the evenings sitting around drinking that day’s haul, talking and playing games. The first time I called “bullshit” was during a game of Sheriff of Nottingham. (A great game by the way that can be somewhat aggressive in a mostly good way). It is a fond memory of mine and like many of them, has its roots in board games. Board games seem to be the setting for so many great memories.
The first time I opened Robinson Crusoe, never having played a co-op game before, uncertain of a game that I couldn’t “win”. My wife and I spent 4 hours that night watching ourselves starve to death on a deserted island, eaten by tigers, watching the ship that was meant to be our salvation pass us by. It was an amazing night of just us, together.
There are so many games over the years that form the anchor of so many great memories. Times spent with old friends and new ones or with family. I have been gaming in one form or another my entire life. I never grew up. When one speaks of someone with Peter Pan syndrome, they are talking about me. I have a group of close friends who I have known virtually my entire life and the one thing that we have always gathered to do, is sit around and immerse ourselves in a tabletop game of one form or another. Those friendships have survived decades, adulthood, long distance, and yes, Catan.
Mat Weymouth approached us about an idea for a game called Fray that he had been developing for some time. The concept was great, the potential was great. He was full of ideas and excitement. Mark and I were full of both experience and excitement. Mark and I are serial entrepreneurs. Our risk tolerance is freakishly high. He is also my “all but in blood brother”. When we first discussed the idea of “making games” for a living, I was skeptical. Between the two of us we have worked to open, or opened for ourselves a dozen or more businesses/start-ups. We love games. Could we really marry the two? Should we?
I thought about it for a long time. What if all of those times that one of us had said “There should be a game where…. “, could be the start of something instead of the end of it. What if WE, could create those anchors that would allow others to sit around and enjoy their friends and family. What if WE could facilitate laughter… fun… excitement… memories. It didn’t take long before we were both sold on the idea… we didn’t know it yet, but Brain Sandwich was born.
There were plenty of things that we didn’t know enough about yet. As it turned out, that was almost everything to do with board games from the creator side of things. Kickstarter would turn out to be an unforgiving mistress, but we did it. In 2019, Per My Last Email (an office themed card game) successfully launched on Kickstarter. We dragged that game across the finish line… but we crossed the finish line. Despite years of experience, researching everything we could, and a great concept, we struggled. The 28 days that Per My Last Email was on Kickstarter were stressful, sleepless, frustrating, exciting and all of the things that you could possibly imagine. I swore to myself that this was all a horrible mistake. Then day 29 showed up. We were funded, we were making our first game. We were no longer aspiring publishers, we were publishers. We had learned so many lessons, and most importantly… I couldn’t wait to do it again.
Next up will be the game that Mat originally approached us with – Fray. At the time I am writing this, we are closing in on Fray’s Kickstarter (May of 2020). We have sworn to do everything better, to apply the lessons we learned the first time around. We have amazing artwork, playtested rules, beautiful miniatures. We made a game that we would (and do) love to play. Hopefully, Fray is #2 of as far as the eye can see on the list of Brain Sandwich’s catalog. Hopefully everyone else loves Fray as much as we do. Hopefully, I can get just a little bit more sleep in the 28 days that are rapidly approaching, than the 28 days that seem so far behind us now.
A game from Portal Games
Available on Amazon
A game from Catan Studios
Available on Amazon
For most of my career I worked in telecommunications; designing, building and deploying fiber and wireless networks for high capacity internet access. I now make Board and Card games. Doesn’t exactly sound like an A to B career path and looking from the outside I certainly can’t argue that point, nor do I have any particular desire to. Not all career changes are obvious from the outside. Once upon a time I was the CEO of a publicly traded telecom and worried about things like corporate filings, investor outreach, revenue projections, positive EBITDA, future growth and expansion.
I still sit on the Board of the company I founded, and in that capacity, I still worry about those things. But my 9 to 5 has changed a bit. Now I worry about making deadlines with artists, sculptors, animators, setting up a distribution network, closing out a game loop, meeting fulfilment obligations, planning a product release schedule for games 3 and 4 while we have yet to launch game 2, and so on. So not much has actually changed. Sure, the product is different, success is measured in units instead of subscribers, and the people I deal with on a daily basis have changed faces and places, but the goal remains the same. Make great products and get people interested in buying them.
People in my orbit have found my change of career to be…eh hem…interesting. Many have said “hey, it’s great, you’re doing what you love”. Well, I certainly love games and I absolutely love making them but what I do now compared to what I did before has very little to do with “doing what you love”. It’s more about applying the same level of discipline, work ethic, hopes and dreams to anything you do which falls a bit more into the “loving what you do” category than anything else, or to paraphrase Dr. Strangelove “How I learned that I’ll never ever stop worrying about things but I still love the grind”. It’s funny because making games is in fact a strange love. You have to take everything you want to see as a game player and analyze it for all the things you need as a game maker. You have to view all the things you love about games through the deconstructing lens of a manufacturer or producer. I imagine it’s a bit like how actors feel when they started out as little kids that loved movies but now, they are behind the scenes starring in one. It’s like the Wizard of Oz moment when you peek behind the curtain of something you really love but instead of taking the magic away, it becomes all the more magical.
When comparing how one industry operates to another it’s comforting to know that the basic principles of business translate more or less across industries and product lines. Marketing metrics are marketing metrics and those statistics are essentially the same whether you’re selling furniture, widgets, internet service or games. This is true of brands, too. Of course, there are many intricate and subtle differences industry to industry that can vastly impact outcomes and those shouldn’t be overlooked, but all the broad strokes are relative. You work hard, you make things, you sell them and that allows you to make more things and sell them, rinse, repeat.
When you build a fiber network you have to concern yourself with things like latency, or the delay that occurs before data can be transferred. Latency, in physical terms, is how the velocity of your system is limited by physical interactions, or friction. Nothing is done in a vacuum and when you deal with anything in reality, there is friction, and friction slows things down. Considering that we are experiencing shipment delays on our first manufactured game due to a virus outbreak, coupled with the fact it takes months or years to successfully develop and market a game people want to play, latency is a part of game-making as much as it is a part of data networks. You’re working within a friction-laden system. All the rules apply.
The similarities don’t stop there. You can draw these types of parallels between any two points if you really want to. Regardless of what it looks like on the outside, what it takes to do something worthwhile, whatever that may be, is more or less the same on the inside. So, if you want to make games, you should make games. If you want to build rockets or design the next generation 5G radio system, you should do that. Either way, if you work at it, it can be awesome.
That said, if you can make games, you should totally make games. I’m glad that I do.
So now, I get to watch as some of my oldest and dearest friends develop products that they like. No, that they love. I watch from the sidelines and listen in as they make decisions on everything from artwork, to game mechanics, to production factories. I hear them weigh pros and cons on every little decision, and realize now, how in depth their process is. What material should this item be? Is it worth making it heavier or bigger? Will those benefits out weight the additional production and shipping costs? They stress over it. They want to deliver a great product, but they are also running a business, sometimes sacrifices have to be made on one side or the other. They hate to sacrifice. But it is a necessary evil. But then I get to play their games with them. And that, my friends, is where the “Love” truly comes in. They have an idea, they run with it, they play, they adjust, they play it with friends, they adjust it again. Over and Over again. Though it may seem to some to be a bit more work than it’s worth, I can tell you, that those times are truly fun. These are creative people at heart. Years of working in corporate cultures may have hardened some of their business skills and soured their opinions of some corporate stringencies (in case you couldn’t tell from their first release: Per My Last Email), but now they are truly free to use those business skills to do something they love. Honestly, I’m proud of them.
I am fortunate to be close enough to the inner circle that I often get to play test with them. I have done run throughs of FRAY and Per my last Email and have seen prototypes for the next two games. (Sorry, I cannot disclose any additional information about them!) I am amazed at these games. One of the things that has kept us friends for so long is that we love playing games. Always have. Of course we all have different types of games that we enjoy, but when push comes to shove any chance to sit around, have fun and BS is really what its all about. So, we’ll play anything. And we do. On any given Friday you can find some of us together, playing something. It impresses me beyond all sentiment that our year years of playing games together has turned a hobby into a business, and one that I am certainly excited to watch develop and grow.
You may be asking yourself, “So, why this post?” Well, this is simply my way of supporting my friends, of relaying to others how incredible this venture is really going to be. In my opinion, for what it’s worth, Brain Sandwich Games is going to be a success, they are making terrific games, that are fun and entertaining and it is my believe that because of the combination of skills and passion that this team has brought together there is simply no telling where this company will go and I for one am looking forward to watching their continued growth.
So, for all of those reasons, I want to take this moment to congratulate my friends for they will one day sit atop a throne of game boxes as the members of the board game elite.
Plus, I can’t wait to play the final versions of some of these games!