Week 19 (10th - 16th March 2014): The Call of Cthulhu RPG - Alone With My Appendage.

So, to continue celebrating the month of H.P. Lovecraft's death, this week's offering (and marking the 77th year since HPL's shuffling off this mortal coil on March 15th 1937) is a game that surely needs no introduction: The Call of Cthulhu rpg. The first and - surely the best - horror rpg. Over the years, a few solitaire scenarios have been produced for CoC:

On this occasion, I chose a personal favourite: Alone Against the Wendigo. This takes the now classic Fighting Fantasy/Choose-Your-Own-Adventure approach of numbered paragraphs leading you through the scenario's multiple narratives, whilst using the CoC percentile-based rules to resolve conflicts.

This particular scenario places the player in charge of a small expedition in the wilds of Canada, wherein an encounter with the Great Old One Ithaqua (the Wendigo in question) potentially plays a prominent part. For my part, after managing to avoid a group of Mi-go, losing the better part of my expedition, and killing a sasquatch (taking its head as a trophy), I managed to survive my travels through the northern wilds without losing any sanity (a rare event indeedn in CoC!). Helpfully, the Wendigo was avoided in this regard. Nice.

Great fun, and a nostalgic blast from the past. Happy Death Day, HPL!

Week 18 (3rd - 9th March 2014): Arkham Investigator - Futilely Tugging My Tentacle

Not an auspicious start to the month of Lovecraft. I've some choice items lined up, but decided to start with another as-yet unplayed item: the free online print-and-play game Arkham Investigator. Based on the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective game engine (another unplayed game I own), Arkham Investigator is a (seemingly) free-form game of Cthulhu mythos investigation which I was very much anticipating. Not so much a game in and of itself, but rather a system supported by multiple scenarios, the Arkham Investigator sets up a situation, and then allows the players relative free reign to discover a solution by following up clues - provided by the initial set up and various other documents supplied at the beginning of the game - to said mystery. In this case, the attack upon a young woman in Arkham. To this end, one is provided with a map of Arkham detailing the city's environs, a list of helpful contacts, and a directory of the city which includes links to locations in the scenario book. By following up these leads (i.e. checking their locations in the scenario book), players are able to to tie together the various elements of the plot and arrive at a satisfactory solution. Having done so, players answer a series of questions at the back of the scenario book, and assess their success according to how accurately they are able to respond.

All in all, this seems to be the ideal format for Lovecraftian game playing, which is not dependent on the artificiality of a combat system (largely irrelevant where the Lovecraft Mythos is involved, as inevitably you will die) and a sanity system (also largely irrelevant where the Lovecraft Mythos is involved, as inevitably you will be sent mad); as such, the relatively free-form investigative nature of the game very much suits the Lovecraftian oeuvre.

In practice, however, things took anotherr turn during my play session: everything was progressing nicely during the first three quarters of the game, until suddenly I encountered a metaphoric brick wall. In brief, many of the clues I had encountered were directing me to the Miskatonic University Exhibition Hall, but I could find no reference to this anywhere in the directory, or any hint as to which page number to which I needed to turn in the scenario book. Looking in the city directory, I did discover that the said Exhibition Hall did have an entry both on the map and in the scenario  book, but I was not able to explicitly find the numbered location in any of the documents available. Ultimately, the only way I could solve the scenario was to 'cheat' by turning to the relevant entry in the scenario book.

With no other options seemingly available, this was a disappointing end to the game. Whilst intriguing, Arkham Investigator thus proved to be ultimately frustrating due to what seem to be inherent design problems. That said, a second edition of this has been put online - hopefully one that resolves the seeming mistake in this iteration which prevented me from a staisfatory conculsion. Overall, this has the potential to be an outstanding game, but needs further development.

6/10 on the Gaming Self-Abuse Gauge (tm).

Week 17 (February 24th - March 2nd 2014): Castle Ravenloft - Vigorously Sharpening My Stake

Now just under a third of the way through this year of ludic self-abuse.  Anyway, continuing with the fantasy theme, this week I've had a crack at the D&D dungeoncrawl boardgame Castle Ravenloft. This is based on the classic and eponymous D&D module which pits the players against the spooky realm of the vampire Count Strahd von Starovich - so lots of Hammer Horror stakey anti-vampire action involved.

In theory the game ticks all the boxes that would normally satisfy my gaming requirements: a solitaire/co-operative dungenoncrawl, an undead/horror theme, and miniatures (which, I spent a shitload of time painting up in anticipation of the ultimate D&D boardgame experience). But sadly the game itself disappoints - at least as a solitaire experience: the rules are over-simplified, lack tactical depth, and overall it feels like Wizards of the Coast have tried unsuccessfully to package D&D in a manner that would appeal to a disparate audience of 7 year olds on the one hand, and adult gamers looking for the ultimate boardgame-based dungeoncrawler on the other.  That said, I've played this once before as a multiplayer co-operative, and it was a blast. Though perhaps my reasons for enjoying the game on that occasion was due to the fact that a) it was played in a pub and b) it was played in a pub. Otherwise, playing this sober in solitaire mode, my overall assessment is the following: this is a shit game.

 

This game is as shit as this picture. I spent a fucking shitload of time painting these miniatures, but couldn't be arsed setting them up so you could see them properly because the game is so shit.

On the Gaming Self-Abuse Gauge (tm), this scores a lowly 4/10.

Up next is the month of Lovecraft. March being the month during which all good gamers celebrate H.P. Lovecraft's Deathday (March 15th). So a bunch of Lovecraftian solitaire games to look forward to.

Nice