Second Draft: Our Steel, King's Law [was Steel on Steel]

[Linnaeus]

I really like Our Steel, The King's Law. Clean gamism with a fun concept. I also find the idea of cooperative simultaneous action selection (SAS) as an RPG resolution mechanic interesting. It's a really original way of encouraging teamwork.

I think the game needs one more core mechanical idea, though. I've played a lot of SAS games on Brettspielwelt, and the idea of doing little except that for 30-40 minutes makes me a bit hesitant. It's certainly possible that, with the tactical elements added through the situational appropriateness of the maneuvers may keep it engaging, but I'm worried that there isn't enough else in the game to stave off burnout.

Also, is there anything in the rules to prevent the active player from simply announcing "I'm using maneuver X"? A straight prohibition on doing so could work, but what about having the Sentry also play a maneuver card during a Guard's turn, and if the Sentry correctly guesses the active player's maneuver, the active player will suffer a penalty.

These comments aside, I'm very enthusiastic about the potential for this game. Well, done, Joshua.

EDIT: fixed the link

[Joshua BishopRoby]

Thanks Gerald!

To address your last question first: when it's your turn, you do not say anything, you put down a card, the other players try to match it and then and only then do you start narrating. Which is, yes, kind of backwards from a lot of games. There's nothing to prevent you from saying in Turn 3 what you expect to be doing in Turn 4 ("I'll get the one with the funny hat!") but by the time it rolls around to your turn again, the situation may have changed rather drastically.

I'm also pretty intrigued by the "SAS" resolution. In the original Entry thread, I tossed it out as a sort of optional modifier to a "real roll" but then scrapped the roll and made it all teamwork all the time. We'll see if it works when I actually give the thing a spin. :)

As far as the other core idea -- take another look at Descriptors. These are your sort of your safety net if you do something unexpected, but then since you'll want that safety net in place, you'll be making choices that would be appropriate, and since most of your Descriptors were given to you by your team, they'll know what would be appropriate for your character and so will be anticipating that kind of action. Descriptors don't take up a lot of real estate on the page, but I think they're probably a powerful element in actual play.

[Linnaeus]

[Joshua BishopRoby]

[Eric J. Boyd]

[Linnaeus]

D'oh! Yes, I was referring to Eric's review.