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| When in doubt set your display on watermelon print! |
There are games that you play and you think "Wow, that was nice", but for whatever reason that's where it stays. You forget about them and move on. They were fun, but they just don't stick with you. Other games, however, leave a fire in your gut. Burning Wheel. Bleak Spirit. Torchbearer. Mouse Guard. Three Dragon Ante. Tsuro. Bargain Quest. 4th edition DnD. This isn't something that happens immediately, by and large. The same excitement happens to you, but as it calms you realize that that experience was real. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, the experience you had with that game goes with you. It informs you as a person and makes an impact far larger than you ever expected.
Heroes of the Grid is fast turning into that type of game for me.
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| I eagerly await THESE rangers. |
At first I thought the game was only incredibly difficult, which is something that will draw me like a moth to a flame, of any size. I definitely thought it was nostalgia, given that I was watching Power Rangers when I was twelve years old, long after most sane children stopped watching it. I'll outright admit that it was the fact that Jonathan Ying, the creator of Bargain Quest, that drew my initial attention to it. There's a joy to Ying's designs that is impossible to deny and I wanted to see what he did with one of my favorite childhood franchises. And I'd be lying if the difficulty, which I've referred to quite a bit, wasn't something that initially intrigued me, all the way wondering how the heck anyone would keep playing the game with me.
But we got better, and as we did I found something about the game that I adore: the table conversation. I find that games that I really like provide interesting table talk between players, with the game providing the subject of that conversation. You stop talking about seemingly important things like work, school, or what-have-you, and get to something important: what to do in the face of adversity, whether that adversity be caused by the other players or something external, that you must team up with them to defeat. There, hidden in the cardboard and plastic, something very real is happening: a veritable sacrament of trial and travail. And these conversations, steeped in symbols and half-revealed myths, show a lot of things to people about each other, in a way that's safe and digestible. And I think the quality of the game is directly dependent upon the quality and type of conversation it produces. HotG produces some of the purest conversations I've ever seen in a table top game.
That above line probably doesn't make much sense, but here's what I mean. In Pandemic there's something structured that players have to work through. They talk about who should do what, and in what order, and then they have to play through the round structure, all the while hoping that what they had planned works, over an extended period of time. There's also a definite pecking order in Pandemic, where different class cards are obviously better than others, which means that those particular players are inherently more important than other players. The system constrains, rather than liberates. This isn't a knock on Pandemic, but I'd be lying if I said that games without the Medic were ones that I was pessimistic about winning. Why on earth the designer didn't just give the basic abilities of the Medic to everyone is beyond me. And, again, I love the game! But those issues are ones that I consistently find to be a very real thing when playing.
Heroes of the Grid completely sidesteps both of these problems very deftly, by having the problems you have to deal with in that round being known at the beginning of said round and having no structure for player resolution beyond "Figure it out guys!" The game drops all the threats before you, gives you a certain number of actions (usually three), and gets out of the way. The only limit on your group is the number of actions you have. This level of freedom either sinks the group or frees them. You can address your problems in any way you want! It's completely up to the group how to save Angel Grove... which means that your tactical errors are not on anyone but your group. There's no moment when you can blame the game for a tactical decision, because the game gets out of the way so completely that damage is dealt "to the group", who then have to decide who will take the hit!
I was a bit concerned. Having never played in such an open game before I wondered how on earth things would shake out. And the intimidating nature of monster deployments meant that either players would figure the game out in time or they wouldn't. And I was right. When people didn't know they had to take the initiative for beating the game for themselves the game was a slog. I have a pretty forceful personality, but even I found I couldn't carry literally everyone at the table. It was easier to play the game solo than to be peeking at everyone's hands all the time. I'm not there to baby-sit, I'm there to kick ass and drink milk and my house is literally out of milk (well, if you don't count Almond Milk, and I don't unless I must).
But when players were playing actively? Oh, the game sung. Combo after combo was poured into the unsuspecting monsters, wreaking a wide swath of death and destruction, preserving Angel Grove and the established order! The adrenaline that this game makes is incredible! When everyone is working together there's a high that I've only really seen happen in a really well run-4e DnD game. There's a camaraderie that happens during a good 4e game that I have never run into in another game, where you are all in it together, where it's you vs. the world and you all have your moves and it's not going to be easy but by God you are going to win, one way or another. And for years I really wanted to get back into 4e, although I didn't know it was to recapture this feeling. I love Burning Wheel and the rest, but they are not group games in the way that 4e is. But I couldn't bring myself to come back to the game, put off by a bunch of issues that I may or may not write about someday. Suffice it to say, HotG does not have any of the issues I have with 4e. HotG had all the fun 4e had, but sharpened, focused, and stuck into a stick of dynamite, for that extra POP.
The other reason why the game works as well as it does is the characters. To be able to facilitate the type of discussion that this game requires the characters need to be extremely focused. Everyone needs to have a different strength, so that way the conversation flows from person to person on a pretty regular basis. The characters must be relentlessly balanced against the monsters and each other so players are on even footing, while being unique and effective. It's a tall order and one that would drive any game designer mad in the attempt. The fact that Jonathan Ying can even fake being a put together human being after such an experience is nothing short of a miracle. I mean, these balancing issues can be touchy for players in co-op games and are almost entirely the reason why 4e DnD existed in the first place! The fact that there are very few balancing issues with the game, across over a dozen characters, with many more on the way, is incredible. Even if it means Mr. Ying has to snuggle a gigantic teddy bear to go to sleep at night.
A side note to Mr. Ying:
My children have a wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh bear, who is quite large, soft and cuddleable. He's been in my family a long time, as he was a gift from our uncle to my sister when she was a little girl. I bring this up because he cuddles quite well, even for a grown man. I speak from personal experience. He's helped me process some of my chief traumas in my life, such as the losses I've incurred playing your game. He does not judge. Should you need to borrow him I doubt my children would begrudge you, so long as the proper forms are filled out. The younger one in particular values his bureaucracy, God help us all.
Each one of these characters is legitimately awesome. I could go on, and on, and on about their design and how they interact at the table and how excited I am that they play the way they do... oh wait...
I have a blog.
I can just do that.
And I will.
Contain your excitement, please.
So, at intermittent points, I'm going to release another post about the amazing characters in Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid. I'm going to talk about their strengths, their weaknesses, and any anecdotes I have about these characters in play, along with random ideas I have for using them. It's going to be a wild ride. I will start with the rangers from the core set and will move onto the Kickstarter exclusive characters afterwards, and from there to further expansions, probably Shattered Grid, Bulk and Skull, and then onward. I hope you join in.
Heroes of the Grid completely sidesteps both of these problems very deftly, by having the problems you have to deal with in that round being known at the beginning of said round and having no structure for player resolution beyond "Figure it out guys!" The game drops all the threats before you, gives you a certain number of actions (usually three), and gets out of the way. The only limit on your group is the number of actions you have. This level of freedom either sinks the group or frees them. You can address your problems in any way you want! It's completely up to the group how to save Angel Grove... which means that your tactical errors are not on anyone but your group. There's no moment when you can blame the game for a tactical decision, because the game gets out of the way so completely that damage is dealt "to the group", who then have to decide who will take the hit!
I was a bit concerned. Having never played in such an open game before I wondered how on earth things would shake out. And the intimidating nature of monster deployments meant that either players would figure the game out in time or they wouldn't. And I was right. When people didn't know they had to take the initiative for beating the game for themselves the game was a slog. I have a pretty forceful personality, but even I found I couldn't carry literally everyone at the table. It was easier to play the game solo than to be peeking at everyone's hands all the time. I'm not there to baby-sit, I'm there to kick ass and drink milk and my house is literally out of milk (well, if you don't count Almond Milk, and I don't unless I must).
But when players were playing actively? Oh, the game sung. Combo after combo was poured into the unsuspecting monsters, wreaking a wide swath of death and destruction, preserving Angel Grove and the established order! The adrenaline that this game makes is incredible! When everyone is working together there's a high that I've only really seen happen in a really well run-4e DnD game. There's a camaraderie that happens during a good 4e game that I have never run into in another game, where you are all in it together, where it's you vs. the world and you all have your moves and it's not going to be easy but by God you are going to win, one way or another. And for years I really wanted to get back into 4e, although I didn't know it was to recapture this feeling. I love Burning Wheel and the rest, but they are not group games in the way that 4e is. But I couldn't bring myself to come back to the game, put off by a bunch of issues that I may or may not write about someday. Suffice it to say, HotG does not have any of the issues I have with 4e. HotG had all the fun 4e had, but sharpened, focused, and stuck into a stick of dynamite, for that extra POP.
A side note to Mr. Ying:
My children have a wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh bear, who is quite large, soft and cuddleable. He's been in my family a long time, as he was a gift from our uncle to my sister when she was a little girl. I bring this up because he cuddles quite well, even for a grown man. I speak from personal experience. He's helped me process some of my chief traumas in my life, such as the losses I've incurred playing your game. He does not judge. Should you need to borrow him I doubt my children would begrudge you, so long as the proper forms are filled out. The younger one in particular values his bureaucracy, God help us all.
Each one of these characters is legitimately awesome. I could go on, and on, and on about their design and how they interact at the table and how excited I am that they play the way they do... oh wait...
I have a blog.
I can just do that.
And I will.
Contain your excitement, please.
So, at intermittent points, I'm going to release another post about the amazing characters in Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid. I'm going to talk about their strengths, their weaknesses, and any anecdotes I have about these characters in play, along with random ideas I have for using them. It's going to be a wild ride. I will start with the rangers from the core set and will move onto the Kickstarter exclusive characters afterwards, and from there to further expansions, probably Shattered Grid, Bulk and Skull, and then onward. I hope you join in.
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| I wasn't kidding about the bear. |
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