Peer pressure

Last Sunday I got a phone call from the bosses. Hey, how did they even get my cell phone number?

"Hey Zerbique, we need to talk."

"Okay."

"You're on vacation now, right?"

"Hmm, no. Still working."

"Come on, it's Summer. You should be."

"Well I'm not."

"Hm, anyway, there are not so many KS launching these days. So you should definitely manage to get the extra-work done."

"Wait, what extra-work?"

"The one we're giving you now. See, you still only play Puzzle Dungeon. Well, a bit of Bullet lately, but that's not much. It's getting embarrassing."

"Hm, okay, what do you want me to do then exactly?"

"Go play better games for a change. Start with Friday - we really should have made it a requirement when we opened the position. Next a little bit of Elder Sign - Lovecraft Mythos and all, it's good for your culture."

"Er, okay, that can be arranged."

"And don't forget Hallertau. It's on sale on your French retail website thing. So you'd better grab it."

And here I was, playing Friday for the first time during my next lunch break.

Actually I had the feeling I had already played this game. I have indeed played two games that drew heavy inspiration for it, Heroes of Tenefyr (on my Top 5 list of solo games) and Karen and the Pirate Island, and the latter is actually really, really close. You start with 20 hp and a bunch of crappy cards, reveal two encounters, decide which one to face, then draw cards, and either win and add the encounter to your deck (to make it better), or you lose as much HP as the difference between the power you needed to beat and the total power of your hand. It's almost the same game. In Karen, you lose 2HP each time you re-shuffle the encounter deck, in Friday the encounters become more perilous. In Karen, you want to cycle your own deck like crazy, in Friday this comes with a penalty (but I suspect it's a penalty you should be willing to endure).

Anyway, I love the core mechanics. It's fun, it's clever, it's easy to play, it's hard to get good at it. I'm not disappointed with the "forefather" of this very niche genre. I still prefer Heroes of Tenefyr though because, dungeons, monsters, Fantasy. And the gameplay is more chill.

Tonight I played Elder Sign. Or tried to at least. Against Azatoth or whoever. An ugly baddie. I was the scientist because I drew her randomly.

As with all FFG games, it feels that there is way too much stuff. Four decks of perks. Too many tokens. Two decks of encounter cards. Monsters in a "cup". Event cards. Dice. Different kind of dice. Plenty of characters to chose from. A cardboard clock. It sure is a full small box.

It was 9 pm. At 11:30 pm, I gave up. I had dealt 5 (out of 14) damages to the boss and was at 8 on the Threat Track (out of 16). I realized too late in the game that if you go to Other World adventures, you may be sure to have an Elder Sign (= boss damage) on the card, but it pushes the Threat Track forward (at least all cards I saw had both effects). So you really need to capitalize on "Trophies" to turn it for Elder Sign at the museum without pushing the Track further. Or I don't know. It just felt very messy at this point. And the shadow of the Great Old One was looming too large over the game already.

Still a fun game. Could have been better if my son hadn't got up three times during the game, then the machine cycle got over, then my wife woke up because she couldn't go back to sleep after the third time my son got up... So, when you interrupt the flow of the game with singing lullabies, playing with a Duplo train, singing lullabies again, and hanging out the laundry, it certainly feels disjointed and remote. I don't quite care: in five years, I will look back at the forever gone opportunities of singing lullaby to the little Mogwai in my arms with dear regret, and I'll still be able to throw dice repeatedly to try to beat Azatoth.

Anyway, my bosses can be pleased now. And Hallertau is already on its way. To the trash bin, that is. What were they thinking?

Disclaimer: If it's not obvious enough, I'm joking of course...

- All this phone call and its contents are clearly 100% made up. I have yet to see the bossy mode of Athena and JW!

- I had both Friday and Elder Sign in my "to play soon" dedicated box (located at a reachable layer of the dungeon) months before being hired by Solitaire Times.

- I would never, never, never throw away a board game in good condition in a trash bin. I'm not Tom Vasel.