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Twilight Inscription
I FOR ONE AM ALL IN ON TWILIGHT INSCRIPTION. Can't wait @FFGames and @JamesKniffen
imgur.com/N86VaK3
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All of that is to say is that I'm cautiously curious but not exactly hopeful on how this will turn out.
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Hadrian's Wall doesn't quite feel like a gimmick to me. It feels like the game is leveraging the roll and write framework to enhance the modern Euro strategic space, or at least accomplish something new that's in line with the typical strategic flow of needing to think a couple of turns ahead, and converting or chaining one resource into another. There's a strong system mastery element to it that's been devoid of other roll and write's I've played.
Similarly, my new favorite roll and write, Long Shot: The Dice Game, doesn't feel like a gimmick. It feels like a regular horse racing game that utilizes R&W mechanisms to facilitate nearly simultaneous action. It's about presenting everyone with a limited set of options, each of those options in service to manipulating the current status of the race or shift your bets. It doesn't feel like a roll & write because it doesn't have the same focal points that they tend to.
But this, I dunno. I obviously have no idea what it exactly is, but I'm imagining a 4x or area control game utilizing roll and write mechanisms. Again, I'm worried about it feeling like a gimmick. I don't want a lengthy roll and write for the sake of a lengthy roll and write. Just like I didn't want a horse racing roll and write for its sake.
Unlike Long Shot, I don't see how the roll and write structure or influence can enhance the underlying genre game.
This coalesces with some other thoughts I've had concerning Last Light which is currently on Kickstarter. That's a 4X, that by all accounts, actually accomplishes its stated mission goal of handling a large player count in 60 minutes.
What I think Last Light misses, and what I'm fearful Twilight Inscription does as well, is that a primary component of the 4X experience is its scope and epic nature. By shortening that experience down to a more miniscule length, you lose the impact and breadth that are key traits to the genre.
Let me put it another way - say Twilight Inscription provides a robust yet shortened 4X experience by using roll and write mechanisms. Why would I want to play a cut down TI4 instead of just playing a very good area control game that is of equal length? Like I could be playing Blood Rage or Cyclades, each bearing some crossover elements of 4X, if I have 90 minutes.
Maybe it's for people that really like the specific mechanisms of roll and write. The ticking of boxes, simultaneous play, and the craft-like nature of having your own sheet to doodle upon. OK, but are those the same people that love the TI4 property?
I'm failing to see an actual niche or creative stake for this title to claim. Of course, I'll be more than happy to give it a shot though.
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- ChristopherMD
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I’m intrigued by the cartographers one where you actually have a thematic purpose to the writing/drawing. There’s a niche Zombie apocalypse game called ‘Everything Lost’ where you draw and update a map as you play based on card draws although the latter and maybe both might be right on the edge of what we consider roll & write. A subset therein of map-drawing games? There’s a dungeon crawling one put there as well although the name escapes me at the moment.
I think you could call Treasure Island a game that uses drawing as an innovative element, although not the traditional ‘everyone write the same thing in your own way in your own space’ manner.
‘All on one card’ is a fun one, it’s more of a Yahtzee variant than anything else though. I think there are a few titles out there that are trying to either use R&W as a background mechanism or to do something different or thematic with the activity, but where it often fails for me is when it is presented as the core[\i] of a game.
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So I'm going to be scrawling on a notepad for six hours, while people try to convince me that "It's a Cold War 4X roll-and-write!" Sign me up for some of that!Ah_Pook wrote: I believe the quote from the Livestream was " Twilight Inscription is to other roll and writes what TI4 is to other boardgames", and the screenshot of the boards there certainly looks like a lot going on.
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mezike wrote: There’s a dungeon crawling one put there as well although the name escapes me at the moment.
You are probably thinking of Dungeon Scrawlers, the DnD one. It is a race between players to navigate a maze with little doodle obstacles that each character class can overcome in slightly different ways. Pretty fun with kids, but it lacks much depth beyond rapidly remembering how to get past each block. Has 10 mazes though so it has decent replayability.
I think there is a space for a complex dry erase/rolln'write game. There is a pleasing tactile component to it that can be exploited. But like a lot of solo games, it can easily become "accounting: the game" if it involves lots of charts, calculations, and background mechanics driven by the same player.
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The simultaneous play aspect and multiple players reacting to the same piece of randomized information (the roll or card draw) is the key aspect of a roll and write as seen in the fledgling hobbyist genre. I'd say Karuba is much more a roll and write than Dungeon Scrawlers for instance.
Cartographers is creative, but I never felt like I was actually making a map. There are no geographic considerations for the sake of geography, it's all just directed by point scoring cards which are somewhat random in terms of enforcing setting or world logic.
Additionally, maybe im just a lousy artist, but the end product of cartographers never actually looks remotely similar to a fantasy map. My 10 year old dungeon master self could make a better map in five minutes than I will produce in 30 minutes of cartographers.
I think Cartographers would be a much more interesting design if there were two phases, the standard game as it is now, and then some kind of travelling party aspect where a group of adventurers traverses your created map, with the incentives to create a map for this phase competing with the scoring goals of the first phase. That would scrape away the artificiality of the game's current setting.
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Sounds like you just want Galaxy Trucker.charlest wrote: I think Cartographers would be a much more interesting design if there were two phases, the standard game as it is now, and then some kind of travelling party aspect where a group of adventurers traverses your created map, with the incentives to create a map for this phase competing with the scoring goals of the first phase. That would scrape away the artificiality of the game's current setting.
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- Michael Barnes
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