“Uh, we can’t be arsed to read the emails our customers send us, so if you’re reading this, maybe try our voicemail or the shitty integrated chat on our web browser?”
Like I said, I don’t buy games from GMT. : )
Did anyone take the plunge on Chip Theory’s Elder Scrolls game
I was kind of keen and had it pledged for a couple weeks but ended up cancelling it a few days back.
Mainly because of the cost, combined with Hoplomachus Victorum still not delivering here yet, and on top of that Victorum apparently had a lot of chip quality control issues too.
Chip Theory isn’t for me, but excited to hear how it plays when it delivers
I backed, of course.
From what I understand, the “lot” of chip quality control issues with Victorum was that some of the premium health chips were a little bent for a small but noticeable number of people. And those are a separate (if nice) addon, not anything critical. I definitely didn’t have any issues.
Yeah, I’m in too.
Never played a Chip Theory game before, but the gameplay videos convinced me (the free shipping to NZ didn’t hurt either!).
I pledged for this, too. I’ve considered playing Too Many Bones in the past, but heard mixed things about what expansions and whatnot make the game worth it. This seems to be an iteration of that design in a more self-contained package (whose theme I also dig!)
I just pledged for the core game and upgraded health chips. Now I only have to wait 18 months!
Hmm, I’m not sure how big that white box is supposed to be. Could you put a dime in the picture for scale? :)
What is that even? The Isofarian Guard? The what now and the who? And is the size of the box because of minis or because it’s that much game?
On the one hand, yay this video looks cool and the games look great! On the other hand boo, I have no business buying more solo games or space-themed games and most definitely not any more solo space-themed games.
Any you care to mention? Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I’m not interested in watching a video. I am, however, interested to know what solo games you’re drawn toward. Heck, I might even know some of 'em and be able to comment!
OK sure, let me summarize. The video has four different games that are covered:
SpaceShipped, which is kind of a card game with a wallet for holding your hand. Partly notable for having 18 cards, kind of like how Land, Air and Sea was a very low card-count game that I enjoyed. Efka, the reviewer, mentions that it’s kind of a simple game, boiling its gameplay down to ‘buy low, sell high.’
Next is Rove, which is also a card game with a wallet for holding cards. He mentions it’s a complex game where you play a Mars rover robot. Putting cards in certain positions “programs” the robot to perform actions - so maybe more like a puzzle game. Sounds cool, but I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy it.
Then there’s Notorious - not based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie, but instead a kind of book-based solo RPG where you play a space bounty hunter, so more like playing The Mandalorian (which the reviewer points out himself). He mentions the rules are somewhat obtuse, but the artwork in the book looks really nice. Yes I know, not a good enough reason to buy it in itself.
Last is One Deck Galaxy, which I remember pondering over during its Kickstarter run. It looks enjoyable but the reviewer mentions the rule book is terrible, and having to watch Youtube videos of the creator explaining the game in order to fully grasp it. Not my idea of a good time.
So … played any of those?
I’ve played One Deck Galaxy. It’s significantly more complicated than One Deck Dungeon, if you’re familiar with that. Still not enormously complex, but it takes a bit of effort to wrap your head around. To me, it felt like a whole lot of dice manipulation with very little connection to its theme.
Not a one, but I’m familiar One Deck Dungeon. I took a brief look at how he was developing it into One Deck Galaxy a while back, but I don’t recall discovering anything that piqued my interest. And I agree with @AWS260 about how the system eventually feels like a mess of arbitrary dice puzzles instead of a dungeon crawl.
But thanks for the breakdown on the other three. Those are all new to me, but I think I’m as whelmed by them as you are. :)
Oh, Notorious is one of those solo-journaling-RPG things I’m into. I remember it crowdfunding last summer during the weird, out-of-season Zine Quest thing KS tried to do, but I ultimately didn’t back it. Perhaps I’ll pick up the pdf now that it’s out.
Aeon Trespass is slightly over two feet long and a foot wide, like 7 inches high. Isofarian Guard is probably around a foot (give or take a few inches) in all three dimensions.
Isofarian Guard is a semi-sandbox 1-2 player RPG-style campaign game where you control various members of the titular guard, 2 at a time, through a world map with sidequests and crafting and whatnot. Combat is done via a combination of card abilities on your character and drawing (premium poker) chips out of a bag to spend to activate them (this is also where status effects etc come in). My understanding is that each character has a pretty different mix of abilities and they get supernatural powers from…magic stones? I dunno, I watched some gameplay back when I was considering late backing but it’s been years. And it’s that big (and heavy, boy is it heavy) because it’s that much game. I think (I haven’t opened up everything yet) there are a couple minis in there somewhere but it’s mostly carefully organized boxes that describe exactly what goes in there on the lid (cards, spiral-bound books for campaign stuff, rulebooks, boards, etc), trays of poker chips, and player/enemy trays for organizing all your stuff during combat.
I got it mostly on the strength of certain people on a coop boardgaming Discord being extremely hyped for it (people who had actually played it during development) and it being like $84 at original (and initial late pledge) KS prices. They’re very clear that that was a massive underestimate, because…I mean, look at it.
Mine arrives tomorrow - looking forward to it! I thought it’d be a great one to play through with my wife, given the emphasis on the storytelling.
