You only Die Thrice

On Saturday night Andrew, Chris, Joe and I converged for our long-mooted, 50th-birthday-marking game of Xia: Legends of a Drift System. This is a sandbox-in-space: everyone starts off as a lowly nobody, and like their pathetic earth-bound brethren, all they want is to be famous. Points are fame points. How do you get points? Let me count the ways...

In the beginning

You can trade, buying commodities at one planet and delivering to another. You can explore new lands space, collecting Exploration tokens for minor rewards. You can take on Missions - some fair, some foul - and complete them. You can upgrade your ship. You can gain Titles by being the first to do X. You can buy fame, you can stumble into it (roll 20 on a d20) you can even assist each other by donating energy to a stranded player, lost in space. Or you can blow each other up.

Clockwise from yellow: Chris, Andrew (black) Joe (red) and me (blue)

In doing these things however, you're expending energy and often picking up damage. As long as you end your turn on a planet, you can recharge for free. Out in the cosmos, however, such assistance is harder to come by, and your resources slowly drain away. 

There's also quite bit of luck. Each 'outfit' aboard your ship - engines, weapons, shields - represents a number of die rolls. It's possible to simply roll low, and plod along in a very non-Star-Warsy manner. And the other potential spanner in the works is your legal status. Everyone starts out lawful but the game is engineered to tempt you into going Outlaw: it's just so much easier to crash through barriers and sell cargo at Outlaw planets. Being lawful takes a bit more effort. But the less lawful you are, the more the bounty on you grows, and the more tempted everyone is to blow you up and claim it.

We started around 4pm, and agreed to wrap up at 7.45. I began, and realised that in excitedly kitting out my ship to the gills I'd kept no cash back for trading. Instead I nabbed an exploration token and picked up my first mission. Everyone began on a similarly tentative level, as we explored the space around us and the board began to grow.

But this gentle existence didn't last long. Chris flew into Ferrin's Call and was sucked to his death in short order, although at least he explored twice on the way. Then Andrew died too. They were both disappointed that dying wasn't recognised in the point-scoring, and when Andrew died a third time he cried "I must be famous now!"

But no. I also took a risky flight across what looked like murky space but turned out to be a star, and died as well. Fortunately for all of us, dying isn't as problematic in Xia as it is in some other games - or indeed life. But as our knowledge of the galaxy grew, so did the risks, with three non-player-chartacters triggered into action at various times. One hunted down outlaw players, one went after innocent law-abiding citizens, and the other followed a trade route, accruing cash as it did so and becoming more and more tempting to blow up as a result. 

As we gathered money, we also upgraded our ships, with Chris buying Occam's Razor - small hold, but an exceedingly destructive gun on board. "It's only fair to warn you" he pointed out, slightly ominously. 

Andrew meanwhile was having some crappy luck with the dice, and remained behind us on the Fame track, as lowly 'space scum'. Joe and I had already made 'humble skipper' - which Joe confusingly misread as sphincter - as the competition hotted up. Events - triggered by players reaching spots on the fame track - and Titles (same) where starting to pop up and give the game a bit of extra dirt. The Scoundrel caught Joe and dealt him damage before running away ("like a child" - Andrew). I completed two missions and gained a title by being first to deliver cargo to a particular planet. Joe and Andrew started a race to get to various mission points around the galaxy, which I inadvertently won after finding I'd failed a mission. 

Before we knew it, space was explored, pizzas had been consumed, Chris had had three cups of tea and it was 7.45! 

Sam 10

Joe 9

Chris 7

Andrew 2

Chris and I loved it. Joe and Andrew had some understandable caveats regarding the luck-heavy dice-driven engines, but Andrew said he'd like to play it again. Maybe we can tempt Joe too - not sure if this is a Tuesday night game but I think Ian, Matt and Katy would all like it. 

Unfortunately however on the night Joe had to dash, which left Chris, myself, and an imminently-departing Andrew. When we saw that Chris' very generous birthday present to me - Tapestry - only had four pages of rules, we poured ourselves another tea/wine and dove in. 

It calls itself a civilisation game but it's not recognisably so in the sense of something like Civilisation. Tapestry is more abstracted, and... kinda weird. Each player has their own faction (I was the Historians)  and are simply spending resources to move up four different tracks - science, military, exploration and technology. Once you're out of resources, you take an income turn (gather resources) and go again - after everyone's fifth income turn the game ends. 

player board

Apparently the designer wanted a simple civ game where the rulebook would be short and sweet, and although I'd debate the sweetness of the rules, it does succeed on the latter. They're so brief that having read them we weren't entirely sure what to do, so watched a clarifying video and then cracked into it. From what I knew - or thought I knew - of these games, it was worth taking hits early on in order to get yourself to the juicier actions further up the track. I concentrated on Science and Exploration, while Chris' early moves were more military-minded, as he built a big presence on the map. I was of the opinion that the map barely mattered until I realised I couldn't explore any more unless I expanded first...

whoops

Whilst I puzzled that out, Chris was surging up the scoretrack at a rate of knots, hitting 60 as I idled around the high twenties. Some spots on tghe track reward the first player to reach it with landmark buildings, that - like standard buildings - you can use to populate your city. The bigger the city, the more likely you are to get points at the income phase. But I was determined to get into space before the game ended, but I'd neglected two tracks to such an extent that Chris had claimed all the landmark buildings, and I didn't even know how to make a hammer. 

However, I did know how to make a rocket - as I had no metal, possibly out of card? - and I darn well made it into space anyway. Where there's a will, etc. Disappointingly, the epic point-scoring opportunities I hoped to find there were sadly absent, instead the firmament simply applauded me for having markets back home. Thematic nonsense!

The thematic nonsense is in part what civ-building players object to, I think, with Tapestry. I find it quite funny. It doesn't have the lurching silliness and dramatic narrative of Xia - what does? - but puzzly fun all the same, and I think a few GNNer's might enjoy this one - no, not you Martin! Chris rinsed me though:

Chris 115

Sam 90

And with that, the night concluded. Thanks all for coming and making it very special.