A Noise for Trouble

Nemesis was back on the table last night, as Adam, Laura Ian and I attempted to survive the six million ways to die on this cursed ship: wounds, contagion, fire, hull disintegration, slime, inertia, blind panic. I talked us through most of the rules before we dove in, gravelly-voiced and foul-mouthed, except for Laura who let the side down a little by saying Oh Poops when things went wrong. 

Games generally attempt some kind of USP and Nemesis' is that it's trying to kill you. Despite being lost, afraid and confused, players are unable to stop making noise as they traverse the ship, like a bunch of weaponized toddlers cartwheeling through a deadly library. You'd think being slimed might provide some kind of sound-cancelling lubrication, but no, you're now even even noisier. And noise is bad, because too much of it means the Intruders come out, so-named just possibly to avoid intellectual property issues with a certain movie. I was the scientist, Ian the captain, Laura the scout and Adam the pilot. We combined co-operation - working together can be very helpful, especially keeping the noise down - with independence, as everyone had secret, distinct goals. As with Thursday's game though (see prev post) we filtered out the nastier ones (eliminate player X etc) so the introductory game wasn't at 100% harshness: there's quite enough bad stuff without it. 

The captain was first to encounter an intruder, in the aptly-named Emergency Room. But it was the pilot who dealt with it, as Adam began, despite my advice to run, a campaign of killing, successfully wiping out no less than two (or was it three?) intruders, and happily reminding us of his success at every opportunity, with thinly-veiled digs at our comparative cowardice/ineptitude. 

My secret objective involved finding the nest, grabbing an egg, lugging it to the lab and analysing it, all of which meant I would win (although more than one player can win) if the ship didn't explode (engines) implode (fire/malfunctions) or go to Mars. Adam had check the co-ordinates and assured us it was headed for Earth, but could we trust him? There is a secret objective that asks you to steer the ship to the red planet... We decided we could, as he was happy to hibernate (on the ship) rather than evacuate (in an escape pod). Meanwhile more Intruders were popping up, the ship was littered with noise and we only belatedly, thanks to Ian, located the lab. Ian and I set off for it, dragging various dead things to be examined, trying to avoid being bitten, scratched or slimed on the way...

Adam's die-rolling luck had already ran out - ours never got going - when I was the first to die. Having picked up two Serious Wounds already, I succumbed under attack. I was texting Chris (who had requested updates) to tell him when Ian died as well. The ship was sinking! We didn't know what Adam and Laura's objectives were but at this point it didn't look good. They were both making their way to an evacuation pod when Laura, much to Adam's chagrin, triggered an encounter and picked up a contagion card. Displaying all the humanity of a billionaire playboy, he hopped into an evacuation pod and when asked if he had room for Laura, said 'No way' and left the ship. In fairness, and perhaps reflective of these viral times, Adam didn't want to bring Laura back to Earth if she was contagious. As it turned out, though, she wasn't, and they would have had a slightly awkward reunion a bit later at home. But at least they were alive! And what's more, they were alive victorious. Adam needed an egg and had one. Laura just needed seven items and had gathered them. It was a resoundingly triumphant debut from them, as on our side of the table mine and Ian's only reward was the sad reflection of our final hours being spent in a bowel-loosening panic, as Laura's cries of Oh Poops rang through the air. 

Nemesis is long, and a bit fiddly, with plenty of down-time. But I never felt impatient as I was always interested in what was occurring on the ship, and we agreed that considering the entire thing is a firefight, mixing in a bit of bunfight (the nastier objectives) might be no bad thing. Next time!