by Bvggy
You know, I pledged good bucks on the Reaper Bones kickstarter: I expect some high quality plastic figs to hit the French shores about Christmas. I know what I've bet my money on: game material.Descent is not a bunch of figs and chits. It's a game. And as such, its main component is its rules, the way everything works together and creates brain tickling challenges, intense player interactions, hours of fun and jewel-memories to cherish until Alzeimher strikes.
Moreover, when I invite my friends over for a gaming night, once every two months at best - grown-up life is a bitch, I expect right out-of-the-box gameplay. My friends don't have time to spend on game design - that's a whole different beast that only I care to love.
And finally, Descent is supposed to be a competitive game. It doesn't fit very well with on-the-fly cooperative ruling. Not that my friends and I are dead serious competitors, but we are the sort of people that usually discuss for hours on peculiar details in a spectacular display of tedious arguments - we've been known to spend hours around the pool table judging whether one should be allowed to play with only one foot flat on the ground or not… I love them, they can trash-talk their way through any fuzzy game situation, knowing that once the game is over, no hard feeling ever remains. We are not fair players, but we are players still. But at least the backbone of the game needs to be rock solid to bear the weight of a night session.
So, yes, to me the rules are very important. I can cope with a poorly written rulebook if the system itself turns out to run smoothly once clarified… but that usually requires a good FAQ and some serious rule lawyering prior to the game session.
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Buggy