Thanks so much for your review, Mike. I love the look of this game and it's solo-only nature, but I think I will wait and see if a second edition appears-hopefully to clean up the rules and address the replayability.
Thanks for this, Mike. I always appreciate and trust your solo reviews. I backed this on KS and agree that the rules could and should be better. That being said, I do still enjoy it and Absolutely LOVE the components.
I almost didn't back this because both the rulebook and cards were just riddled with atrocious spelling. I understand not everyone excels at spelling, but creating a Kickstarter page with error after error after error does not bode well for an understandable rulebook. After many MANY complaints, they promised they'd fix all this, kind of rudely actually. I thought about canceling my pledge because it all seemed so unprofessional, but the visuals were just so fantastic, and the game itself seemed very though-out, especially with the different characters and layouts. Fast-forward a million months and I open this spectacular package left in my doorway and right there on the back, "hoard" when the word is spelled correctly MANY times elsewhere. Also, is "resources management" what it's called in Australia? And loads of punctuation where there shouldn't be any and so many empty spaces that desperately needed hyphens. Sigh. I hoped this wasn't a sign of things to come, so I opened the box... more extraneous punctuation on the side of it (sorry, but my biggest grammatical pet peeve is apostrophe-s being used for the plural of a word). I recall more misspellings but what jumped out at me was the awful graphic design. Spacing between paragraphs is haphazard. It's no dealbreaker, but it just further highlights the unprofessionalism of this project. So I grabbed the rulebook and I could not wrap my head around any of it. The illustrations were useless! I even watched the official playthrough, which was a bit... stammery. So I figured I'd wait until Mike did his review. Sigh. At least I understand it a little better now. Thankfully, I have fewer problems with deciding how a confusing rule should be played. I usually go with whatever feels right. If it ends up making the game too easy/hard, then I try it out the other way. Still, the fact that the characters and layouts don't really change up the game has me worried. We shall see...
I have the same sentiments. Too bad many reviewers didn't highlight your valid points because they got the free copy from the publisher. The problem not just lie with the rules. There were misprints, misspellings, awkward sentence presentations, design flaws...I was upset because with the premium price I paid (plus shipping and wood tokens add-ons), these kinds of (basic) mistakes should not be ignored. I can't be apologetic just because this is the designer's first game, etc. Glad I am able to sell it close to its paid price. I heard the designer is planning for Ratcatcher 2. Definitely count me out.
With regards to the rulebook, as someone who was in the KS--it wasn't clear to me if the creator either struggled with English at times (they're in Australia so not sure the issue), or perhaps didn't finish schooling. . .whatever the case, their messaging was usually a bit juvenile so it comes as no surprise there were issues. People called it out in the comments and were assured it would go through a professional proofreader. While that may be, a proofreader can only address what they're given so whoever was in charge isn't the best at their job. Then again, I'm a Technical Writer who deals with developers who can't for the life of them put to words what it is they design, so I imagine that's exactly the problem here.
You got it exactly on the point about the rules. I also had a big issue understanding how the game works from reading the rules. It's not the point to go to BGG in search of an answer to many many questions. There is a great idea, theme, and game hidden behind very bad rules. Sadly.
Great review Mike. I saw LIz's review and she echoed a lot of the same sentiments you have. From what I understand they are a new company so I am sure this will be a learning experience in terms of the rules. I'll probably pick this up at some point, but right now in the UK it is about £40 which is a bit too much for me to pay for a small box solo game with murky rules
As someone who has really not liked much of the way The Dice Tower approaches reviews etc, as a Solo Roller I am so pleased Mike is on board, changed everything for me. I'm now subbed!? 😂 👍 I 😍 this game. Just pulled off the shelf again and was awesome to see this timely refresher!
I saw this early in the design process on Board Game Design Lab. It does have a cool theme and art. I agree with the fact that good rules are critical.
Agree with Mike. Got this on kickstarter bcos of the theme but I sold it after one session. Judging from the high price point and confusing rules, it’s a bad purchase. Not to mention there are print mistakes on the cards too.
It's disappointing that a designer goes to the effort of creating an interesting game but chooses not to blind test their rulebook. Designers and publishers, just because YOU know specific rules to the game does not help a gamer seeing your game for the first time. Write your rules as if your prospective buyers are clueless which we mostly are to any rule set you have created to properly play the game.
I agree with everything. I want to like it, and maybe I could after a few months and errata or a better rulebook comes out, but for now it's too frustrating to be enjoyable.
As far as I am concerned if the rulebook is not coherent and succinct, you have no game. You have components with a concept. I stress that the rulebook is the single most important thing in any game for without it you really don’t have a defined game. This game could possibly sink a new publisher and rightfully so. If you can’t make a solid product on your first outing then you don’t deserve anyone’s money going forward until you right the wrong of your previous product. The Pied Piper has the backstory of Miss Black printed on his player board! HOW THE HELL DO YOU MISS THAT? Did they not get a review copy before printing? I purchased mine through Miniature Market but I feel they need to replace cards with grammatical errors and the rulebook. My copy came with heavily warped player and nemesis boards as well.
It is pretty poor I agree. So much time spent on the design and then finalise quality checks, clearly not given enough time. Glad I stuck with it though as the puzzlement and the quality of the art and design are just wonderful. Imho. Would be a nice touch to include a FREE errata replacement set for any backers of the inevitable expansion.
The rules are garbage and remain so today. The difficulty is so far off the chart that after a playthrough of it, Robinson Crusoe feels like it was designed by Ghandi.
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks so much for your review, Mike. I love the look of this game and it's solo-only nature, but I think I will wait and see if a second edition appears-hopefully to clean up the rules and address the replayability.
Spot on with this review, just played it and wanted to see what you thought and echoed my experience near perfect
thanks for showing it off I've been mulling it over based on the art, but I can definitely make the decision better now seeing more of it.
Thanks for this, Mike. I always appreciate and trust your solo reviews. I backed this on KS and agree that the rules could and should be better. That being said, I do still enjoy it and Absolutely LOVE the components.
Wow, perfect timing. I was just about to check out with it in my cart, but I think I'll deliberate a bit more. Thank you!
I almost didn't back this because both the rulebook and cards were just riddled with atrocious spelling. I understand not everyone excels at spelling, but creating a Kickstarter page with error after error after error does not bode well for an understandable rulebook. After many MANY complaints, they promised they'd fix all this, kind of rudely actually. I thought about canceling my pledge because it all seemed so unprofessional, but the visuals were just so fantastic, and the game itself seemed very though-out, especially with the different characters and layouts. Fast-forward a million months and I open this spectacular package left in my doorway and right there on the back, "hoard" when the word is spelled correctly MANY times elsewhere. Also, is "resources management" what it's called in Australia? And loads of punctuation where there shouldn't be any and so many empty spaces that desperately needed hyphens. Sigh.
I hoped this wasn't a sign of things to come, so I opened the box... more extraneous punctuation on the side of it (sorry, but my biggest grammatical pet peeve is apostrophe-s being used for the plural of a word). I recall more misspellings but what jumped out at me was the awful graphic design. Spacing between paragraphs is haphazard. It's no dealbreaker, but it just further highlights the unprofessionalism of this project. So I grabbed the rulebook and I could not wrap my head around any of it. The illustrations were useless! I even watched the official playthrough, which was a bit... stammery. So I figured I'd wait until Mike did his review. Sigh. At least I understand it a little better now. Thankfully, I have fewer problems with deciding how a confusing rule should be played. I usually go with whatever feels right. If it ends up making the game too easy/hard, then I try it out the other way. Still, the fact that the characters and layouts don't really change up the game has me worried. We shall see...
I have the same sentiments. Too bad many reviewers didn't highlight your valid points because they got the free copy from the publisher. The problem not just lie with the rules. There were misprints, misspellings, awkward sentence presentations, design flaws...I was upset because with the premium price I paid (plus shipping and wood tokens add-ons), these kinds of (basic) mistakes should not be ignored. I can't be apologetic just because this is the designer's first game, etc. Glad I am able to sell it close to its paid price. I heard the designer is planning for Ratcatcher 2. Definitely count me out.
With regards to the rulebook, as someone who was in the KS--it wasn't clear to me if the creator either struggled with English at times (they're in Australia so not sure the issue), or perhaps didn't finish schooling. . .whatever the case, their messaging was usually a bit juvenile so it comes as no surprise there were issues. People called it out in the comments and were assured it would go through a professional proofreader. While that may be, a proofreader can only address what they're given so whoever was in charge isn't the best at their job.
Then again, I'm a Technical Writer who deals with developers who can't for the life of them put to words what it is they design, so I imagine that's exactly the problem here.
Great review Mike! Gave me lots to think about regarding this game 🤔
Very helpful. Thank you kind sir.
You got it exactly on the point about the rules. I also had a big issue understanding how the game works from reading the rules.
It's not the point to go to BGG in search of an answer to many many questions. There is a great idea, theme, and game hidden behind very bad rules. Sadly.
Great review Mike. I saw LIz's review and she echoed a lot of the same sentiments you have. From what I understand they are a new company so I am sure this will be a learning experience in terms of the rules. I'll probably pick this up at some point, but right now in the UK it is about £40 which is a bit too much for me to pay for a small box solo game with murky rules
As someone who has really not liked much of the way The Dice Tower approaches reviews etc, as a Solo Roller I am so pleased Mike is on board, changed everything for me. I'm now subbed!? 😂 👍
I 😍 this game. Just pulled off the shelf again and was awesome to see this timely refresher!
I saw this early in the design process on Board Game Design Lab. It does have a cool theme and art. I agree with the fact that good rules are critical.
Agree with Mike. Got this on kickstarter bcos of the theme but I sold it after one session. Judging from the high price point and confusing rules, it’s a bad purchase. Not to mention there are print mistakes on the cards too.
It's disappointing that a designer goes to the effort of creating an interesting game but chooses not to blind test their rulebook. Designers and publishers, just because YOU know specific rules to the game does not help a gamer seeing your game for the first time. Write your rules as if your prospective buyers are clueless which we mostly are to any rule set you have created to properly play the game.
I agree with everything. I want to like it, and maybe I could after a few months and errata or a better rulebook comes out, but for now it's too frustrating to be enjoyable.
The art and setting are really strong and it feels unique to me to many solos in the tactics the way you can explore and change strategies as you go
I think we said the rules were tricky in playtesting which makes me think they ran out of time to fix things?
As far as I am concerned if the rulebook is not coherent and succinct, you have no game. You have components with a concept. I stress that the rulebook is the single most important thing in any game for without it you really don’t have a defined game.
This game could possibly sink a new publisher and rightfully so. If you can’t make a solid product on your first outing then you don’t deserve anyone’s money going forward until you right the wrong of your previous product.
The Pied Piper has the backstory of Miss Black printed on his player board! HOW THE HELL DO YOU MISS THAT? Did they not get a review copy before printing?
I purchased mine through Miniature Market but I feel they need to replace cards with grammatical errors and the rulebook. My copy came with heavily warped player and nemesis boards as well.
It is pretty poor I agree. So much time spent on the design and then finalise quality checks, clearly not given enough time.
Glad I stuck with it though as the puzzlement and the quality of the art and design are just wonderful. Imho.
Would be a nice touch to include a FREE errata replacement set for any backers of the inevitable expansion.
That’s a bad score for a game that prides it’s elf on being a great solo game :/ too bad
The rules are garbage and remain so today. The difficulty is so far off the chart that after a playthrough of it, Robinson Crusoe feels like it was designed by Ghandi.