Quickie Game Review: The Shotgun Diaries
I really need to get a few more of these written...but today's entry involves a willing step past my usual comfort zone. (I've also left a similar message on the appropriate game forums at housesoftheblooded.net so pardon me for any semblance of plagiarism.)
One of the downsides of the hobby is the impulse to try new and unusual systems: it can get expensive, and there's already the problem of 'too many cool ideas, too few players, too little time'. Still, sometimes it's worth the trouble. My current fave designer is John Wick*, for various reasons, and today's game is about something called The Shotgun Diaries.
Before I go any further, I need to make one thing crystal clear: I do not like zombie games. I do not like zombie movies. I did not laugh at Shaun of the Dead, and only enjoyed Zombieland because of Bill Murray's brief cameo (I'll take ironic death for $800, please, Alex). I would rather saw off a limb and go to a job interview paneled by Genghis Khan, Cao Cao, and Great Cthulhu than sit through anything that involves the living impaired. The only cliche monster I detest and loathe more than zombies is vampires, sparkly or otherwise.
That said...
There are now two zombie games that don't suck. Two days ago, before I made this impulsive acquisition, there was one**. That should give you a fair idea of how well this one reads. I won't do it justice by trying to summarize it without spoilers, but it captures the essence of the genre beautifully. I trusted Mister Wick to turn a genre I normally avoid like the plague into something I'd be willing to run, and he did. (My tabletop group, knowing my opinions on the living impaired as they do, will probably flinch if they read this, if not quake in fear and loathing.)
Not bad for an eighteen page game written as a birthday present for a friend. (Rumor has it that Mr. Wick will be integrating this into something called the Big Book of Little Games, so I may end up buying it twice, but what the heck.)
* Not because he wrote 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings, neither of which I've read or played, but because of something called Houses of the Blooded, which is either a) Diplomacy, the RPG or b) Amber, without shadow and Pattern, with dice, and with a cast that aren't all related...only cooler. I'll have a review of this up sometime soonish, once my copy of Coronets But Never Crowns arrives.
Check it out here:
http://housesoftheblooded.net/
and buy it here, if you dare
http://johnwickpresents.com/market/pdfgame.html
** That would be Two Hour Wargames' All Things Zombie, designed by the mighty, mighty Ed Texiera. Found here...http://twohourwargames.com/horror1.html
(Updated 3/18/2012 to fix an outdated URL.)
One of the downsides of the hobby is the impulse to try new and unusual systems: it can get expensive, and there's already the problem of 'too many cool ideas, too few players, too little time'. Still, sometimes it's worth the trouble. My current fave designer is John Wick*, for various reasons, and today's game is about something called The Shotgun Diaries.
Before I go any further, I need to make one thing crystal clear: I do not like zombie games. I do not like zombie movies. I did not laugh at Shaun of the Dead, and only enjoyed Zombieland because of Bill Murray's brief cameo (I'll take ironic death for $800, please, Alex). I would rather saw off a limb and go to a job interview paneled by Genghis Khan, Cao Cao, and Great Cthulhu than sit through anything that involves the living impaired. The only cliche monster I detest and loathe more than zombies is vampires, sparkly or otherwise.
That said...
There are now two zombie games that don't suck. Two days ago, before I made this impulsive acquisition, there was one**. That should give you a fair idea of how well this one reads. I won't do it justice by trying to summarize it without spoilers, but it captures the essence of the genre beautifully. I trusted Mister Wick to turn a genre I normally avoid like the plague into something I'd be willing to run, and he did. (My tabletop group, knowing my opinions on the living impaired as they do, will probably flinch if they read this, if not quake in fear and loathing.)
Not bad for an eighteen page game written as a birthday present for a friend. (Rumor has it that Mr. Wick will be integrating this into something called the Big Book of Little Games, so I may end up buying it twice, but what the heck.)
* Not because he wrote 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings, neither of which I've read or played, but because of something called Houses of the Blooded, which is either a) Diplomacy, the RPG or b) Amber, without shadow and Pattern, with dice, and with a cast that aren't all related...only cooler. I'll have a review of this up sometime soonish, once my copy of Coronets But Never Crowns arrives.
Check it out here:
http://housesoftheblooded.net/
and buy it here, if you dare
http://johnwickpresents.com/market/pdfgame.html
** That would be Two Hour Wargames' All Things Zombie, designed by the mighty, mighty Ed Texiera. Found here...http://twohourwargames.com/horror1.html
(Updated 3/18/2012 to fix an outdated URL.)