The Gig - First Thoughts

“First comes the bass.

Then the drums.

Then we bring in the keys, oh yeah.

Followed by the sax.

Then, and only then do we lay down the lyrics; it’s poetry really.

Now that, that’s Real Cool Jazz”

MAD E. Upman - The Spirit and Soul of Real Cool Jazz

The Gig is a light and fast dice placement game that caught my eye, attention and imagination at the UK Games Expo 2018 and it was quite simply a joy to play.

[caption id="attachment_2852" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Songbook is the very on theme main 'board'[/caption]

In this game, each player takes on a role of a member of a jazz band, whose goal is simple, put on a damn fine gig, yet be the crowd favourite at the end of the performance. Players will draft dice from two separate pools to place on either a central area, the song board, or a private solo board. Depending on the song and instrument, the rules governing the placement of these dice differ slightly, but in any event, you are going to want as many of your coloured dice or your key number on the main song as possible, whilst also having completed the most, if not all of your possible solos.

You’ll score points for every die placed on the main song, how many points will depend on how much the crowd are loving or hating the overall performance. The main way to shift this score is by completing sections of your solo which all players will be doing. This allows an audience roll, which can then shift those dice placement points up or down. Getting the timing of this can be key to bagging a seriously good run on points, and in a game about music, timing is understandably important.

[caption id="attachment_2853" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Each song will have its own rules on how dice can be placed, this little bit of variability is going to keep me coming back for more certainly.[/caption]

This idea of timing and rhythm blends into the turn sequence selection, where players select one of their five cards to denote the order of play. Being the leader for a round means you get first dibs on the dice and first placement of those dice, which can bag you those ‘special’ scoring areas on the song board. This puts you squarely in control of the song, just with fewer choices... well, in theory.

Not only do you want to manage your dice selections, but you also need to consider your place in the band, in terms of turn order. Being aware of what other players/band members are doing and anticipating these shifts in audience appreciation is a skill, but once mastered will surely elevate the game. However, should any players clash, by selecting the same turn order card, well that means you've just ballsed up royally and the crowd appreciation drops down.

[caption id="attachment_2854" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Solo board is where you are going to rack up most of your points and provides an interesting puzzle/sub game as part of the larger whole[/caption]

One of the aspects I like about the Gig, and one that certainly stood out is that it deftly steps around a common 'issue' in dice placement games, in that often they hold some agonising, and game-slowing decisions. With the Gig players will always have a choice, not only on which board to play on, but with the dice themselves. You can place two dice from your allowed pools, or flip a dice to the opposite face, or keep the face but change the colour, or even, in a last-ditch attempt return three and roll three new ones. These choices, although can feel sometimes sub-optimal (but actually aren't) keep this game moving and flowing at a decent pace.

In short, The Gig combines some great, light mechanics; the central play area is an area control game, the solo area is a roll and write sudoku-style-thing and this is all managed through dice placement. It hits a lot of strong chords with me, and on top of all of this, it was quite simply really good fun.

The Gig is still in development but at present, Braincrack Games are planning to bring it to Kickstarter in the winter of 2018. To keep up to date with announcements on this and their other games their Facebook or Twitter are probably the best places to do just that -or sign up for The Braincrack Games Newsletter

Nice

This review is based on a demo of the game played during the UK Games Expo 2018 ran by the publisher/designer.

This review was first seen on Polyhedron Collider and features some extra images courtesy of Iain McAllister of the Giant Brain, and a completely made-up stand in header image that I created whilst looking after a sleeping toddler.  But thanks for reading it again :)

Review: Boss Monster

Game Name:	Boss Monster	Published Year:	2013
Game Publisher:	Brotherwise Games	Player Scale:	2 - 4
Game Designer:	Johnny O'Neal & Chris O'Neal	Run Time:	20 – 40 mins

Boss Monster flips the typical and clichéd narrative of heroes vanquishing monster at the end of a perilous dungeons and makes YOU the Boss Monster.  You’ll be building trap rooms, monster hatcheries, and haunted libraries etc. in an attempt to save your scaly and monstrous hide from a range of would-be heroes.  If that doesn’t already sound like fun, you’ll be playing this game in a wonderfully retro homage to the 8-bit computer games of the eighties and nineties.

Your mission is simple, lure fabled heroes into your ever growing, and increasingly dangerous dungeon to destroy them.  The Boss Monster who collects ten hero’s souls first is declared the winner, and boss amongst bosses.  Alternatively, the last Boss left standing wins if any Heroes are able to penetrate you’re almost death-trap and score five wounds.

Boss Monster presents a wonderful merging of theme and mechanics in this quick and light game of tableau and pattern building, harking back to the late eighties and early nineties video games like Super Mario Brothers, with its replication of side scrolling dungeon exploration, and monster crushing.  Dungeons are made up of a maximum of five Dungeon room cards, and each of which will carry with it a damage value, a treasure type and special rule.



 

Each turn players may add another room to their dungeon that can be at the end of the tableau of cards or layering a card over an existing one, in this way players can adjust the damage and special effects of cards, chaining them together for maximum effect.  This will also allow players to attract (or repel) the various Heroes that appear in town each turn.  With four different types of hero with their own treasure preference; fighters like fighting, thieves like gold and so on

 

On the surface, Boss Monster is a very simple game, you have only one build action per turn, and your choice of that action extends as far as your hand of dungeon room cards.  Equally, your dungeon is built with a very tight construct: only placing cards to the leftmost space or over an existing card.  Spell cards are another action that you can take, and you can play any as many of these in a turn as you can afford to, with the simple limitation of being played during the build phase, or whilst an adventurer is in a dungeon (Adventurer Phase).  Unlike Dungeon room cards, Spell cards aren’t drawn each round, getting more of these very useful cards will require particular room effects.



All of this makes Boss Monster very, very easy to teach but it takes a lot longer to master.  You don’t want to attract too many heroes too early, as there is a very good chance you’ll end up taking wounds and getting knocked out of the game, but you also need to start building up your dungeon and this needs to be relative to your opponents.  If players are tied for the most gold, the Thieves wait in town until there is a clear leader, and since you can build over existing rooms you can use this ability to force bottle-necked heroes into you opponents dungeon when they are ill-equipped to deal with the onslaught – even better if you have a few nasty spells up your sleeve.

The limited actions do sometimes feel very limited, every now and then you can end up with a hand of dross particularly in the later stages of the game or spells that won’t have any worthwhile effects, so your hand becomes cluttered and full.  This stagnation can be more frustrating if an opponent is running away with the lead.  The obvious solution to this comes in the form of expansions, of which there are many, adding more and new flavours and jokes to your games.

 

[caption id="attachment_1735" align="alignnone" width="4032"] One can't help but notice the likeness of a young bespectacled wizard facing off for the Counter Spell[/caption]

There is, I feel a very fine balance between direct and indirect player interaction that Boss Monster strikes.  The Spell cards introduce a clear Take-That aspect to the game yet none of them have a particularly nasty sting, so no-one’s fun is ruined solely by a spell.  Indirectly, good or experienced players will monitor and be aware of the dungeons around them, which heroes are being attracted, the room combinations that are particularly effective and so that you can plan and scheme your machinations of destruction by building your dungeon to conflict or contract with theirs.

Boss Monster is made up of a few simple decks of cards, Heroes, Dungeon Rooms, Bosses, and Spells and the art work, and iconography throughout is all simple and totally on theme; capturing the tone and feel of those 8-bit games.  When playing Boss Monster you cannot possibly forget you are playing a table top adaptation of those games and for many gamers who grew up with and loved that era of gaming Boss Monster will resonate with you immediately, and there is a fair chance you in fact already own this game.  Younger games will still be impressed by its charm and the small flourishes and nods to fantasy works such as Jonny of the Evening Watch.



This game looks great on the table it even looks great on the shelf with the loving recreated pixelated art, theme and box.  It is super quick and easy to pick up and play and understanding the finer points to the game’s strategy all evolve at a good steady pace when you’re all new to the game.  The luck of the draw can limit your choices when only playing with the core set, which also means that more experienced gamers may fatigue of this game after a few playthroughs.  It is a very charming, fun small box game, one which you are unlikely to ever forget playing.

 

The Good:

Balance Take-That and indirect player interaction

Loving homage theme and art

Very simple and easy to learn

The Bad:

Luck of the draw can limit player’s hand and thus choices

Expansions are “needed” to keep the game fresh and challenging for higher replayability

 

If you like Boss Monster you may also like Quadropolis – which is also a tableau/pattern building game which is very reminiscing of classic city building computer games of the eighties and nineties.