Review: That Oh So Little Death
Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:03 pmREVIEWER NAME: Joshua BishopRoby
Capsule Description: This is an RPG about sex, where you take characters from other games (specifically other games in the sequence of games of which this one is a part) and play through a sex scene, attempting to achieve perfect 10s in your emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.
1) CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INCORPORATION OF RULES (1-10): 6
Feedback: Naming each rule of the game, and having some of those names incorporate the ingredients, was an interesting tack to take, and in most cases I think it worked pretty well. This also seemed to give the game a sort of mythic feel to it, and I suspect the Law of Blank would give players some tools where they would otherwise be a little fumbly given the subject matter.
The time constraint seemed a little tacked on, however, and in fact is not mentioned anywhere outside of the part explaining how the entry works for Game Chef.
2) CLARITY (1-10): 3
Feedback: The editorial structure of the game was lacking, and most of the segments would have been clearer had they appeared in a different order. Leaping right into an example of play, referencing the archetypes and laws and dice and everything else -- before even explaining the object of the game -- was incredibly confusing. All of which was very unfortunate considering that all of the segments in and of themselves were written clearly (although a copyedit is in order) and nearly all of the confusion would be resolved if the order of segments was put into something more straightforward.
3) COMPLETENESS (1-10): 8
Feedback: As far as the completeness of the game elements, this game is pretty solidly built; however the ordering and copyediting I mentioned above make this not publishable in its present form.
4) ESTIMATED EFFECTIVENESS IN PLAY (1-10): 4
Feedback: While I am certain that this would provide a very interesting exercise (as I will elaborate under Swing Vote) this seems to be more of a framework for narration rather than a true roleplaying game. Specifically, the game aspect is missing -- there are very few meaningful choices to be made in the course of the game. When it's my turn, I choose what my character is doing and which cascade of dice to use, and maybe key into a turn-on. However, there is no strong connection between what my character is doing and which dice I select, which means that the quality or focus of my narration is effectively meaningless to the scoring of the game. But then on the other hand, I'm actually kind of annoyed at all the fiddly bits cause I'm supposed to apparently narrate some hot-sensual-sexy-kinky sex scene action here, and then I'm supposed to roll dice and count points, which... leaves me at a loss why I'm doing both at the same time; they seem to be more enjoyable as separate experiences.
5) SWING VOTE (1-10) : 7
Final Feedback: The premise, especially "sex is a metaphor for other things, other things are metaphors for sex, now pick a character that you've played doing other things and play them having the sex that is a metaphor for what was happening, or the other stuff was a metaphor for the sex" ... that's some fabulous shit, right there. At the same time, it hits my funnybone because Mendel has essentially created an RPG slashfic game. Taking my character that I've just been doing something big and epic and weighty and then transplanting them to an extended sex scene amuses me to no end (in a good way, trust me).
TOTAL SCORE (add items 1 through 5, above): 6 + 3 + 8 + 4 + 7 = 28
Final special note: I'm interested in reading the rest of Mendel's set of games, and especially curious to see if they interrelate in interesting ways, but such an interrelation seems beyond the scope of this review. The entire 'set' might have been a better single entry than separate entries, but that's hardly my call to make.
Capsule Description: This is an RPG about sex, where you take characters from other games (specifically other games in the sequence of games of which this one is a part) and play through a sex scene, attempting to achieve perfect 10s in your emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.
1) CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INCORPORATION OF RULES (1-10): 6
Feedback: Naming each rule of the game, and having some of those names incorporate the ingredients, was an interesting tack to take, and in most cases I think it worked pretty well. This also seemed to give the game a sort of mythic feel to it, and I suspect the Law of Blank would give players some tools where they would otherwise be a little fumbly given the subject matter.
The time constraint seemed a little tacked on, however, and in fact is not mentioned anywhere outside of the part explaining how the entry works for Game Chef.
2) CLARITY (1-10): 3
Feedback: The editorial structure of the game was lacking, and most of the segments would have been clearer had they appeared in a different order. Leaping right into an example of play, referencing the archetypes and laws and dice and everything else -- before even explaining the object of the game -- was incredibly confusing. All of which was very unfortunate considering that all of the segments in and of themselves were written clearly (although a copyedit is in order) and nearly all of the confusion would be resolved if the order of segments was put into something more straightforward.
3) COMPLETENESS (1-10): 8
Feedback: As far as the completeness of the game elements, this game is pretty solidly built; however the ordering and copyediting I mentioned above make this not publishable in its present form.
4) ESTIMATED EFFECTIVENESS IN PLAY (1-10): 4
Feedback: While I am certain that this would provide a very interesting exercise (as I will elaborate under Swing Vote) this seems to be more of a framework for narration rather than a true roleplaying game. Specifically, the game aspect is missing -- there are very few meaningful choices to be made in the course of the game. When it's my turn, I choose what my character is doing and which cascade of dice to use, and maybe key into a turn-on. However, there is no strong connection between what my character is doing and which dice I select, which means that the quality or focus of my narration is effectively meaningless to the scoring of the game. But then on the other hand, I'm actually kind of annoyed at all the fiddly bits cause I'm supposed to apparently narrate some hot-sensual-sexy-kinky sex scene action here, and then I'm supposed to roll dice and count points, which... leaves me at a loss why I'm doing both at the same time; they seem to be more enjoyable as separate experiences.
5) SWING VOTE (1-10) : 7
Final Feedback: The premise, especially "sex is a metaphor for other things, other things are metaphors for sex, now pick a character that you've played doing other things and play them having the sex that is a metaphor for what was happening, or the other stuff was a metaphor for the sex" ... that's some fabulous shit, right there. At the same time, it hits my funnybone because Mendel has essentially created an RPG slashfic game. Taking my character that I've just been doing something big and epic and weighty and then transplanting them to an extended sex scene amuses me to no end (in a good way, trust me).
TOTAL SCORE (add items 1 through 5, above): 6 + 3 + 8 + 4 + 7 = 28
Final special note: I'm interested in reading the rest of Mendel's set of games, and especially curious to see if they interrelate in interesting ways, but such an interrelation seems beyond the scope of this review. The entire 'set' might have been a better single entry than separate entries, but that's hardly my call to make.