Game Chef - 66 through 70

Kobold Engineer by Laura Simpson

The Good: You may have heard that I have a soft spot for Kobolds, at least the ones in Critical!: Go Westerly.  I like this game in that you've got a dungeon that you have to try to have other players to escape. It's a really good concept.

The Bad: It's really light?  Sounds odd, and I know that you don't have all that much time when making a game chef game ... I just ... kinda wanted more options for traps.  More, "this is what you can do" which might have run Laura up against the word count faster but ... doesn't mean I don't want it.

The Other: I love how you get to pick your character, and what character you pick will have some sort of bonus and penalty at different times in the game.  It's just a lot of fun really.

Would I play it? St'eve and Yok are most certainly down, just leave the kobolds alone!

Young Turks at the Cafe by Zachary Donovan

The Good: Out of all the sitting around and talking games, this one I think does it the best so far.  It surprised me because after reading the little blurb about it, I was all set to dislike it.  The defined roles for the Doctor and the Coyote are great for moving the conversation, and wonderfully not appropriative.

The Bad: The die mechanic.  It almost feels like it gets in the way of what's going on.  I think there should be more of a "we choose which die gets lowered" rather than rolling at the end.  Also, maybe saving the roll for the end to determine the fate of the players might have been an option.

The Other: Again, just wanted to point out how pleasantly surprised I was with this game.  

Would I play it? Over coffee perhaps?

Walk Through The Forge by Dev Purkayastha / FGJ Games

The Good: I like how there's a lot of shared elements, and that these shared elements will get modified over the course of the game.  The fact that the Cartographer doesn't have to be accurate also makes for an interesting game.

The Bad: There's a lot of moving parts, and the game seems a bit clunky in regards to all the moving parts.  Again, that's something that's going to happen when you only have about 9 days to get the whole thing together.

The Other: Some games that do that whole splitting of responsibilities tends to kinda leave it a little to generic, or really give one role way more power than the others.  I think this game does a good job of giving everyone something interesting to do.

Would I play it? Yes, though I'd want to sit down and modify it afterwards though and probably would for a while.  Curse you moving parts!

The Words by greyorm

The Good: The opening of the game had me hooked, I was interested to see what the words were going to be and how they were going to be used.  The font at the bottom, that I had to decipher was even a part of that.  It was all in, right from the get go ...

The Bad: ... which unfortunately petered out when you actually got into the game.  For a game called The Words there seemed to be a lot more cards in the mechanic than words.  Just might point that out.

The Other: I think it would be a great game if it delivered on what it sets up.

Would I play it? No, too disappointed with the lack of follow through.

The Terminal Hours by Jonathan Bolding

The Good: The time mechanic is the most interesting one I've seen so far.  With the high values being the thing that slowly brings you to your death.  I might like a little less of a curve on how many hours you have left because a bad roll at the beginning means very little time for you.

The Bad: Really, a lot of it for me is the skin.  The mechanic is okay, other than the time stealing part which is excellent, and the tone of the game is fine it's just ... the whole spirit world thing that throws me off a lot.

The Other: Sometimes I think it's really a case of not understanding what people are referencing.  I know I'm guilty of it sometimes when I say something, or do something just kind of offhand.  It's all really ignorance, sad, shoulder slumping ignorance.  The kind where you have to point out that Judeo/Christian Trickets != First Nation Trickster, but despite the trapping that's always kind of where the base is even if the author tends to try to modify that notion .... it's still pretty much right there.

Would I play it? No, not even if I only had 4d6 hours left.