Love, Hate, & Survival II

If you have been wondering about the crew and passengers of HMS Arden, cast adrift in a lifeboat in the Atlantic Ocean in 1913, then doubtless you have been playing too much Lifeboat. Published by Gorilla Games, best known for the rare combination of light roleplaying and space combat against a Star Trek-like background that has a darker side to it than is usually hinted at in Gene Roddenberry style setting that is BattleStations—just finishing up its Kickstarter campaign for its second edition—Lifeboat is darkly humorous, social game of survival and inter-party rivalry in which the survivors must steer their way to land all the whilst fighting for the contents of the boat’s locker, for food, and for water as well as trying to avoid being knocked overboard and placed at the mercy of the circling sharks. If the Lifeboat could make it to land, then one of the survivors might have accrued sufficient loot, ensured that his Secret Love also survived, and his Secret Enemy died enough that he score enough Victory Points to win!

The good news is that the survivors of the sinking of the HMS Arden have made it to shore—even if it is in the South Pacific rather than the Atlantic and a desert island rather than the mainland. Now Lady Lauren, Sir Stephen, the Captain, the First Mate, Frenchy, and the Kid must start all over again, surviving the dangers of island and scrounging not only the jetsam washed ashore from the wreck of the HMS Arden, but also the pirate loot to be found on the island. Which should keep them busy until a passing ship spots their signal fire and everyone—still alive that is—can be rescued. This is the set-up for Desert Island, Gorilla Games’ sequel to Lifeboat, which is designed to be played by between four and six players, aged thirteen and up.

Funded following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Dessert Island consists of fifty Food Cubes (forty brown cubes and ten yellow four-cube cubes), twenty black skull-shapped Fate Tokens, three Ship Tokens, thirty red Wound Tokens, the rules sheet, and one hundred cards. The latter includes six Character cards, six Character Location cards, six Love and six Hate cards, six Location cards, thirty Fate cards, and forty Scavenge cards. The six Character cards are Lady Lauren, Sir Stephen, the Captain, the First Mate, Frenchy, and the Kid, each of which is illustrated in an Edwardian style, and is marked with values for their Size (a measure of their strength in combat and their capacity to take damage, ranging between three and eight) and Survival Value at game’s end (ranging between four and eight). Each character also has a Special Ability. Lady Lauren removes Fate Tokens from herself whereas Sir Stephen can add them to anyone, the Captain removes Fate Tokens from others, the First Mate can forage for more Food, Frenchy gains Fate Tokens back from a fight, and the Kid can steal Food from his neighbours. There is a corresponding ‘I Hate...’ and ‘I Love…’ card for each character. The Location cards are numbered from one to six and each grants a special action. The Beach (1) enables a Character to distribute Scavenge cards; when hunger strikes, there is always extra Food to be found in the Jungle (2); Food is lost in the Swamp (3); there is always extra Food to be found in the Spring (4) when foraging; there is more likelihood of the signal fire being seen from the Hill (5); and the Cave (6) is a safer place to hide.

The Scavenge cards consists of food, loot, and tools. For example, Sardines are equal to five Food and a Coconut just one; a Chamber Pot is worth five Victory Points, whilst a Chalice is worth seven; and a Blunderbuss +10 to any fight or turns any Boar or Monkey Event into three Food. The Fate cards represent events such as animal attacks—Boars (Lose Two Wounds), Monkeys (Lose A Card), or Rats (Lose All Food); Illnesses (Lose A Wound); and Tsunami (scour the island of Food and Signal Fire Tokens, and inflict a Wound on everyone). In addition, each Fate card gives the ‘Wood’, ‘Torch’, and ‘Ship’ icons that indicate whether or not the signal fre has been lit and spotted, as well as a number and character name that indicates who might be the subject the event on the Fate card.

Game set up on the Desert Island is similar to that aboard the Lifeboat. Each player randomly receives a Character card and an ‘I Hate...’ and an ‘I Love…’ card each. t is possible for a character to love himself, which makes him a Narcissist who will score double Victory Points for surviving, though of course, it means that no one else has him as his Secret Love and so will not willingly support him. Similarly, a character can hate himself, making him a Psychopath who will score Victory Points for the deaths on the island… Everyone receives a single Scavenge card with the rest of the Scavenge deck placed off the Beach. The Location cards are laid out in order, from one to six and the Characters are randomly placed in the Locations.

Each turn represents a week spent on the island. Each week begins with the Character drawing Scavenge cards equal to the number of survivors and deals them out as he wants. Of course this allows him first choice and to assign a good Scavenge card to the Character he secretly loves and a bad one to the Character he hates. Then everyone draws two Fate cards and plays one as part of an action, discarding the other. In addition, one Fate Token is placed on the Location corresponding to the number on the Fate card and another on the Character who is named on the Fate card. The Character with the most Fate Tokens at the end of the round will be subject to the event on the first Fate card played (or the most if multiple Fate cards of one type are played). Again, this enables a Character to protect the Character he secretly loves and target the Character he hates. 

Each Character now takes a single action. This can be ‘Forage’ (gain Food indicated on the Fate card), ‘Signal Fire’ (add to the Signal Fire), or Steal. When a Character decides to Steal, it can be to take Food or a Scavenge card from another Character or it can to be to force to exchange Locations. Now a Character can accept this and take the consequences—lose Food or a Scavenge card, or his Location, otherwise a fight ensues. A fight is a simple matter of comparing the combatants’ Size values against each other, the higher Size always beating the lower. Stalemates are always resolved in favour of the defendants, but both attacker and defender can boost their respective Sizes by using weapons like the Spear or Shovel and by getting allies to aid them. The attacking Character also gets to add the number on the Fate card played. The loser, or losers, if allies are involved, all take a single Wound. Should a survivor suffer wounds equal to his Size, he dies, and blocks the Location he is on.

In addition, the Characters who initiated the fight each receive a Fate Token as do any allies who joined on either side. So joining fights increases the chance of an event affecting a Character. The Characters are of course free to negotiate deals for their aid in helping one side out or another, but all deals are final and a Character cannot withdraw from a fight.

In the Lookout phase, the Characters check for Wood and Torch icons to see that the signal fire has been lit and for Ship icons to indicate that their signal fire has been spotted. This needs to happen four times for the Characters to be rescued. Lastly, the event indicated by the Fate cards occurs and everyone needs to consume Food equal to their Size. Then all of the Fate tokens are removed and a new round ensues…

Desert Island ends if everyone dies, in which case everyone loses. If the survivors are spotted enough times, they will be rescued and they can total their Victory Points, whether from Loot, keeping the Character they love alive, or killing the Character they love. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner.

Physically Desert Island is nicely done. The art on the cards has a charmingly period feel and both the Ship and skeleton-shaped Wound tokens are a nice touch. The rules could be a little clearer in places, but they are readable and after a play-through or two of the game, easy to understand. A set of ‘Sequence of Play’ cards would have been nice, rather than just the one.

Like Lifeboat, this is another nasty, cutthroat social game that is quite finely balanced. In both games the balance is between the need to gather resources or Water/Food, attempting to steer closer to land/attract ships, and protecting and killing the other Characters for Victory Points. Desert Island is not quite the same game as there is more of means to direct the action or events through the Fate cards against a Location or Character. So to an extent the players have the ability to influence where the events are going to happen. Another balancing point in the game is between the need for somebody to survive in order to avoid everyone losing against the drive for everyone to kill the Characters that they hate. In this, Desert Island is a semi-cooperative design.

Above all, the best element in Desert Island is going to come from the players. The Characters they play will influence their actions, but their ‘I Love…’ and ‘I Hate…’ will ultimately drive their actions. This will be coloured by the Characters that they play, which will allow them to bring some roleplaying elements into the game. Desert Island is a terrifically themed game of survival and infighting.

Love, Hate, & Survival

Gorilla Games publishes a couple of games that I like. BattleStations manages a rare combination of light roleplaying and space combat against a Star Trek-like background that has a darker side to it than is usually hinted at in Gene Roddenberry style setting. Who Would Win? is a silly game of ridiculous comparisons. Whereas the latter is a light social game that works with both parties and families, BattleStations is very much a gamer’s game with several supplements supporting its setting and the capacity for a GM to create his own material. Lifeboat is the third of Gorilla Games’ titles that I have tried and liked. It is another card game, and although not necessarily a family or a party game, it is actually far more social than Who Would Win? with a strong emphasis on interaction, diplomacy, negotiation, and treachery.

Designed for four to six players, aged twelve and up, the theme in Lifeboat is very simple. The players are survivors aboard a Lifeboat rowing to safety after their vessel has sunk. Tensions between the survivors are high. Not only do they possess few resources between them, they also each have a secret love aboard whom they want to see survive as well as a secret enemy whom they would like to see go aboard and be left behind as shark bait. In the days it takes to row to shore, the survivors will squabble over who will be Quartermaster and thus control the resources, who will be Navigator and thus steer the boat closer to shore, whilst the stress of the near constant squabbling and the near constant threat of thirst and dehydration takes its toll. If a survivor can make it ashore alive, he scores Victory Points, and he can score more if his Secret Love also survives, his Secret Enemy dies, and for bringing loot such as jewellery, paintings, and money with him. A game should last no more than an hour.

The game consists of forty-two Provisions cards, six Character cards, six Placeholder cards, six Hate cards, six Love cards, twenty-four Navigation cards, three wooden Seagull meeples, twenty Wound Markers, plus the rules sheet. The six Character cards are Lady Lauren, Sir Stephen, the Captain, the First Mate, Frenchy, and the Kid, each of which is illustrated in an Edwardian or 1920s style, and is marked with values for their Size (a measure of their strength in combat and their capacity to take damage, ranging between three and six) and Survival Value at game’s end (ranging between four and nine). Each character also has a Special Ability. Lady Lauren, Sir Stephen, and the Captain value jewellery, paintings, and money respectively, and get extra Victory Points for smuggling them ashore. Whilst the First Mate is “…JUST PLAIN BIG,” Frenchy is an excellent swimmer and never takes damage for being knocked overboard and the Kid is a Pickpocket who can steal Provisions cards from other survivors. There is a Placeholder, a Hate, and a Love card for each character.

The Provisions cards consist of various different items. They include weapons such as Gaffing Hooks, Knives, and Oars – the latter can also be used to row the boat; bottles of Water to stave off thirst and Medical Kits to provide healing; and Life Preservers to help a survivor endure going overboard without suffering injury amongst others. Our favourite was the Bucket of Chum, which ensures that sharks attack anyone or everyone who has gone overboard. The Navigation cards determine at the end of each round if the boat is any closer to shore – indicated by the appearance of seagulls on the card; if any characters are knocked overboard, thus loosing anything that they are holding and possibly suffering an injury into the bargain; and if any characters suffer from thirst after rowing the boat, fighting, or just because…

At game’s start, each player receives a Character card, plus a Hate and a Love card to indicate their Secret Love and Secret Enemy. It is possible for a character to love himself, which makes him a Narcissist who will score double Victory Points for surviving, though of course, it means that no one else has him as his Secret Love and so will not willingly support him. Similarly, a character can hate himself, making him a Psychopath who will score Victory Points for the deaths of anyone else aboard… Everyone receives a single Provisions card with the rest of the Provisions deck placed at the boat’s prow. Then the Placeholder cards for the characters are placed in the following order: Lady Lauren, Sir Stephen, the Captain, the First Mate, Frenchy, and lastly the Kid who sits in the boat’s stern. Behind sits the Navigation deck.

Each turn represents a day spent at sea by the survivors. Each day begins with the survivor in the bow of the boat doling out the Provisions as the Quartermaster. Cards are drawn equal to the number of survivors and first the Quartermaster chooses one before passing the remaining to the next survivor in the boat, who again selects one before passing on the remaining cards. Then beginning with the Quartermaster, each survivor takes a single action. This can be to “Do NOTHING,” “ROW” the boat, “CHANGE SEATS” with another survivor, “MUG SOMEBODY” for a Provisions card, or “TAKE A SPECIAL ACTION” as allowed by a Provisions card.

To “ROW” the boat, a survivor draws two Navigation cards, chooses one to add it to the Rowing Stack whilst the other goes at the bottom of the Navigation deck. To “CHANGE SEATS” with another survivor, a survivor simply swaps places with another in the boat, changing the seating order in the boat. If the other survivor refuses, a fight can ensue. Survivors usually attempt to “CHANGE SEATS” to gain control of the important seats at the bow and stern of the boat, the Quartermaster position allowing a survivor access to the Provisions cards first whilst the Navigator position has control over who takes or avoids injury and thirst at the end of the day as given on the Navigation cards.

Similarly, a fight can ensue if a survivor refuses an attempt by another to MUG him and take a Provisions card. SPECIAL ACTIONS let a survivor use and open the Parasol, which staves a survivor’s thirst, remaining in play until lost overboard; or use a Flare Gun to get closer to the shore or use a Medical Kit for healing. Provisions cards like the Parasol or the Flare Gun are used just the once before being discarded.

A fight is a simple matter of comparing the combatants’ Size values against each other, the higher Size always beating the lower. Stalemates are always resolved in favour of the defendants, but both attacker and defender can boost their respective Sizes by using weapons like the Knife or Gaffing Hook and by getting allies to aid them. The looser, or losers, if allies are involved all take a single Wound. A survivor can take damage equal to his Size before being knocked unconscious. If he takes another Wound or is knocked overboard, he is killed. A survivor who is successfully mugged must give up a Provisions card or if he was attacked over his seat, he must swap places with his attacker.

At the end of the day, the survivor who is in the boat’s stern serves as the Navigator. He gets to choose a single Navigation card from the Rowing Stack and carry out its effects. This can include a Seagull appearing to indicate that the boat is closer to the shore – four of these needed before the survivors are rescued and the game ends; if any survivors are knocked overboard, their being injured in the process and losing any Provisions cards that they have on the table; and if any characters suffer from thirst after rowing the boat, fighting, or just because… It is possible for a character to be thirsty a total of three times if his name is listed on the Navigation card and they also rowed the boat and was involved in a fight. A survivor can use any bottles of water Provisions cards to offset the effects of thirst.

A game of Lifeboat ends once four seagulls have appeared on the Navigation cards and the survivors are rescued. A player then scores Victory Points if his Survivor made it, his Secret Love survived, his Secret Enemy died, and for any loot he brought ashore. The player with the most Victor Points wins.

Physically Lifeboat is nicely done. The art on the cards has a charmingly period feel. The rules are simply explained, but they are perhaps a little too plain.

One of the interesting aspects about the design of Lifeboat is how the survivors are balanced. They are balanced in that the higher their Size value, the lower their Survival value at game’s end. For example, the First Mate has Size 8 and Survival 4 versus the Size 3 and Survival 9 of the Kid. Similarly, the survivors with lower Survival values tend have more powerful Special Abilities. For example, the First Mate has no Special Ability, but the Kid is a Pickpocket who can Mug other Survivors without the need to fight them. It is one reason why the Kid is such an annoying character!

The other balancing factor between the strong and the weaker survivors is that the names of the stronger Survivors appear on the Navigation cards more often and thus suffer from thirst or are knocked overboard more often. The best balancing factor are the players themselves, who will each have different motivations depending upon the Love and Hate cards that they drew at game’s start. These will drive their survivors to support or attack different survivors each time the game is played, rather than necessarily team up on the same players each time, which can be an issue in others that have a “take that” style element to their play.

Despite the balancing factor of the Navigation cards, the high Size values of survivors like the First Mate or the Captain might be difficult to assail, or at least seem so. Either though, can be defeated through a combination of allies and weaponry, and making these alliances – often temporary – is the fun part of playing Lifeboat as is working out who a survivor’s Secret Love and Secret Enemy are, and then using them to your advantage, whether that is to gain support or to stab him in the back. This aspect will certainly appeal to the player who likes to engage in table talk or roleplaying a little in order to form or prevent alliances. Overall, Lifeboat is well designed, fun to play, and comes without the survivor guilt.

Arguing the...

I do not own many party games, but after hearing about Who Would Win? from listening to the team behind the podcast, All Games Considered, I decided to check it out. When I found out that it was published by Gorilla Games, who do the excellent Battlestations boardgame, I decided to buy a copy. What I got was a game about debating against the clock the merits of famous people doing incongruous things. Thus, “Who would win at zoo keeping – Frankenstein’s Monster or Evel Knievel?”, “Who would win at a beauty pageant – Spongebob Squarepants or Edgar Allen Poe?”, and “Who would win at video gaming – Christopher Columbus or Godzilla?”.  Unfortunately, it was not until I was UK Games Expo this last weekend that I got to play the game properly.

Designed for three or more players, aged thirteen and up, Who Would Win? comes in a buff cube of a box that contains one hundred and ten character cards, one hundred and ten event cards, a twenty second timer, and a single page of rules. The rules themselves are very short and can be read through in less than a minute. Each of the character cards gives the name of a single well known figure who might be a celebrity, such as Paris Hilton; a politician, like Nelson Mandela; a historical personage, such as Gandhi; or someone from fiction, like Count Dracula. The event cards give activities that range from the mundane like Cooking or Customer Service to the weird, such as Hog Calling or Sword Swallowing.

Play is simple. On his turn, character cards are given to the active player and the player to his left, and an event card is drawn. Both players are allowed twenty seconds to each state why his particular character would win at the activity given on the event card, with the active player given five seconds for a rebuttal. Everyone else around the table gets to vote on the player who presented the best argument. The player who receives the most votes gets to keep the event card. On a tie, no one gets to keep the event card. At the end of his turn, play passes to the player to the left of the active player, who then becomes the active player and debates with an opponent to his left. On his next turn, the first active player will debate not with the player to his immediate left, but the next one along, and so on and so on until each player has had the opportunity to debate with everyone around the table.

The winner is the player who manages to win five of these debates and accumulate five event cards in front of him.

Who Would Win? is definitely a game for older and geekier players. Younger players are not always going to know who the people are on the character cards, even though each person is given a short description. Similarly, not everyone is going to know who a person is on a character card or what an activity on an event is because the game has a strong American slant – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Hog Calling being obvious examples. Nevertheless, the mix of characters and events is good, and with a good shuffle of both decks, the combination of characters and events is endless. Another issue is favouritism when it comes to the voting, but that is outside the scope of the game itself.

Who Would Win? is all about the debate. It is about who can present the best arguments, but when I first ran the game, it was not a success. One player could not see how the scientist Stephen Hawking could beat Superman at hurdles, even when it was suggested that the brilliant scientist had minions who could fit go faster springs to his wheelchair and would know where to find Kryptonite! More recently at UK Games Expo, the game proved to be popular enough for one player to go hunting for a copy to buy. The game also plays well as a team game, with players organised into teams rather than playing as individuals.

This game demands the players to come up with arguments that are interesting, ridiculous, or both, but because of the possible combinations, Who Would Win? never gets very far from the silliness. After all, what game has Julius Caesar face off against Donald Duck in a weightlifting contest? Above all though, what Who Would Win? is about the players being inventive.