Game #60: The Hunting of the Snark by Kevin Lanzing

What I tell you three times is true.
And my apologies in advance for this.

"I've got an idea", Deviant said
As he picked up his cards and his dice.
"We'll go hunting a Snark", his posting read
A subject I had to read twice.

"A Snark?" was my thought - "what sort of a fool
Would think such a ludicrous theme
could work in a game - no matter how cool
the mechanics? It must be a dream..."

So I clicked on the files, the cards and the tiles;
I downloaded the rules and the board.
I printed them out on what still looks like miles
of paper to get my reward.

"It's a race game", I said- with hexes to play
on your travels through places unknown.
The pathways entangle around 'til the way
from the ship to... wherever is shown.

But random encounters may spoil your fun
As unless you have cards that agree,
You may find yourself trapped or forced on the run
by a tile-draw you could not foresee.

And it's usually right to feature some dice
in a light game as this seeks to be.
Did I mention the dice - I have mentioned them twice!
'cause they feel too restrictive to me.

The movement mechanic is clever and nice -
the players must think (not too long!)
But missing a turn to reroll "dead" dice
Just feels arbitrarily wrong.

Perhaps a free roll could be offered each turn
If a die showed a one or a two -
Or maybe a tool could allow you to "burn"
a die roll that just didn't suit you?

I've waffled too long without much of a clue
On a game that I'm happy to say
could well be good fun - and is no way a "Boo-"...
but I seem to have vanished away.

Hey, I like it! The action dice mechanic is not one I've seen and is very interesting (yes, I'm not well versed in gameology, and I'm sure it's in dozens of games). It might be nice to have a tool or two that let you reroll dice without resting, but ah, I see you don't discard tools you use, do you? That wouldn't be so good then. I think it works well as is - you have a random amount of energy, and when it runs out, your odds of getting a good amount back are quite high, with an 88% chance that at least one of your dice will be 4-6 if I calculated that right, and you reroll all 3.

It seems to be a very luck-based game, but there's nothing wrong with that. I think you might want to sit down and write up everything about it that you think is an element of skill and see if you can play that up somehow. Offhand, I can't really think of any skill element other than deciding when to attack the Snark (which again is partly luck, depending on how it moves), which is pretty trivial, and the actual outcome will be mostly luck. Maybe there could be some strategic concerns somehow... the Snark is weaker depending on how many people have it surrounded (are in neighboring tiles), or something. Of course that's still something that just comes down to the one specific fight.

What about the ability to attack other players - Imagine if you not only can't stay in the same place as another player, but you can't pass THROUGH another player's space... without beating them in a fight. Fight rules kind of like the snark fight (assign weapons, compare rolls). If the attacker wins, he trades places with the defender and gets to steal one card from him. If the defender wins, he steals a card from the attacker. This adds some strategy in that you can try to block other players from parts of the map, if you are strong enough. Or you can just plain try to get your hands on some of their goodies.

I think a definite improvement would be having to haul the unconscious snark back to the ship, with fear of other players attacking to take it from you. Sort of a second phase to the game where the snark changes hands and people try to get it back (or perhaps it could wake up at any moment!? Aiyeee!). Better still, once beaten, it's knocked out for, say 3 turns. The other players need to try to delay the player that caught him until it wakes up, at which point he'll get boojumed and the snark is loose again for them to capture (possibly also with the snark-stealing from above too, almost like a game of Hot Potato - you want to be the one with the snark when you get to the ship, but you don't want to be holding it when it wakes up).

The Grab Bag is the grab bag card - that is, you give the victim of your theft the Grab Bag card in compensation for taking his item (the reason he can't just rob you back is that it requires a 6 to use). I got that part!

If I had the energy, I'd prototype and play this game with my wife, it seems like it would be good simple fun.

EDIT: Oh, I too am confused by Mustard & Cress. Does it up you to having 4 action dice? I think it needs clarification. "Roll into play"?

I'm a little confused about the action dice, and how many things you get to do in a turn.

It sounds to me like you can do as many things as you want, as long as you have an action dice of the right value. When you use an action die, you re-roll it, but it's still there and you might use it again.

Is that accurate? Does it allow, in theory, for a turn in which you keep acting (though it might not actually make sense to do so)?

Would it be more clear if you set aside a die when you use it, then at the end of the turn you reroll all dice set aside? Or do you WANT people to use the same die over and over?

I'm also a little unclear on when or how often you move. It seems like you can move 1x/turn, and if you want to move 4, 5, or 6 spaces then you have to have the appropriate action die. I don't know if you can move (rolling a 4, say) then use that re-rolled die to activate a Grab Bag or something.

Hmm.. what if Move was just another action you could do with an action die, and no matter how many spaces you move you have to have the appropriate die. Exploration would just be a result of moving into an unexplored space (you'd have to stop there and put a tile down). This would give you something to do with low dice. That coupled with the 're-roll all dice at EOT' thing would allow you to move up to 3 times per turn, letting you get around the board easily (good or bad?), but there could still be a restriction of 1 explore action per turn.

As far as theme, I think it's GREAT! But I agree with the guy who said it'd be pretty much all luck. Adding a little bit of decision making would be cool, and his suggestions sounded good.

Good job with the rulebook as well, I like he poem interlaced in there.

- Seth

At least, that's the impression that I get.

- Seth