[Review] Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries...

[nyarly]

[MikeSands]

[Graham Walmsley]

[MikeSands]

[Eric J. Boyd]

[Eric J. Boyd]

[MikeSands]

[nyarly]

[blankshield]

REVIEWER NAME: James Brown

1) CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INCORPORATION OF RULES 1-10): 7
Feedback: Time was used here to sort of mixed effect. The overall structure feels forced to me, but at the same time, the hourglass and the turn time limit was a solid and central use of time as a theme. So, mixed. Ingredients were pretty well used; Committee is a bit weak, being effectively just flavour, but Ancient and Glass are both well-used and fit naturally.

2) CLARITY (1-10): 6
Feedback: The rules are all there, and all explained, but the ordering and phrasing could use some work. Many of the rules are explained more than once and often two different areas need to be read before some component of play is understood. Also, I found the rules flopped back and forth between straight up explanation and 'in the style of' narration, especially in the earlier half, and the wobble between them was off-putting for me. Generally quite well written, and the grammer is solid, but it needs a strong workover to bring it to a consistent style.

3) COMPLETENESS (1-10): 9
Feedback: The game is definately all here, and is at least as playable in it's current form as most RPG's on the market. The examples need some fleshing out, but really, that's about all the game is lacking from this catagory.

4)ESTIMATED EFFECTIVENESS IN PLAY (1-10): 5
Feedback: This game SCREAMS 'playtest!' to me. As noted in the previous catagory, it doesn't feel at all unfinished, but it definately feels untried. There are a lot of places where the rules amount to, essentially. 'brainstorm for a while, and stop when you're done', and I can't get any clear picture of how the acquiring of Acclaim is going to fall out. There's a couple of places where the end result doesn't seem to easily follow from what's written - one that made my eyes pop briefly was Hazard Creation - two different lists of 20 or so items is huge. There's a very solid foundation to playtest here, but I would expect the game to emerge from that testing to look very different under the hood.

5) SWING VOTE (1-10): 7
Final Feedback: Damn damn damn damn damn. I really WANT to love this game. It steals liberally from some of my favorite games, and over-the-top narration is a blast to play, but right now it's not there yet. If this game was an ex-girlfriend, it would be the one I still lie awake and wonder about 10 years later. My recommendation: Work with a patient set of locals to test the hell out of this. The body is awesome, but I think the engine isn't going to run off the test track for a while yet. Also take a look at some of the other games out there that use narration and story blocking mechanically - Baron Munchausen and City of Brass are a couple I would particularly suggest off the top.


TOTAL SCORE (add items 1 through 5, above): 34

[Eric J. Boyd]