Lockdown: It has meant that my boys and I have had so much time to play game after game, a silver lining in an unprecedented situation. Yet I realised that I hadn’t written ‘Tales of a Gamer’ for some months. The reason? Our Star Wars gaming has died a death. Star Wars Destiny, which we loved, had release after release coming out that we just couldn’t keep up and then Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) announced that it was coming to an end. A game of Star Wars Legion was taking upwards of three or four hours and we just didn’t have that sort of time to be able to play. And X-Wing was taking so long for us to set up, that when the second edition came out, we just weren’t that fussed. I’m not saying that these are good games, some even truly great, but for the three of us, they just didn’t really meet our needs as gamers.
In this Tales of a Gamer, I want to share with you what has become of our gaming nights as a family, particularly during lockdown. For the most part this doesn’t involve Star Wars, but I think it’s important to think about, as it shows a missing gap within the market.
So, what did meet our needs? We started finding games that were far more effective both in terms of cost and time. Key Forge from FFG became a huge favourite, a card-based game where you buy an entire deck, that needs no modifying, or any additional cost spent. Perfect! We also started to play Star Wars Outer Rim, which is a one-off purchase and hugely fun. But with two sons, and three of us playing, it always led to the same thing again and again, arguments. Facing off against one another, someone would lose, someone would feel unfairly treated, the list goes on. It is a problem that dates back to the more traditional games of Monopoly, you just can’t seem to just have fun.
That all changed for me just after Christmas. There have been two huge developments in gaming in recent years that seem to have completely bypassed me (the ignorance of a family man with not enough time). The first is a game called Gloomhaven. I have never played but its reputation preceded it. It is a cooperative game that has rave reviews across the world, gamers exploring a world together. It has led to a huge increase in cooperative games, not competitive. Gamers work together, not against each other to complete the game. The second development is games on Kickstarter, which now seems to be the preferred way of companies getting their games released.
These two things came together for me when I found a game based on the Batman Animated Series on Kickstarter. I am a huge fan of the series and the miniatures from the game looked amazing. Before I even knew about the game play, I signed myself up. As I looked further into it, I found that it was based around a universal system that applied to several games from IDW Games called the Adventure Universal Game System (AUG), designed by Kevin Wilson and Pete Walsh. The other games that had been released were based on a new version of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from IDW comics. I had been a huge fan as a child, even had my own homemade Donatello outfit, but had not looked to any of the new things from them. And so I didn’t concern myself with the game, thinking I would wait until Christmas for my delivery of the Batman game.
When lockdown began, my boys and I wanted to try the game mechanics of Batman and so decided to buy one of the Turtles games, that was already released. None of us were too fussed by the Turtles…and then the game arrived. As we sat down, looking over the rules, the beautiful miniatures, the custom dice, something felt different. We played, we talked, we discussed tactics of how we were going to complete the mission. We worked together, we laughed together, and we completed the mission with big smiles on our faces and having had a huge amount of fun. There had been no arguing, no resentment, none of the things that can come from competitive gaming. We had had fun. Before I knew it, we were playing three of four times a week, and just this game. What was even better, we wanted to know the story. I was suddenly buying the IDW collection of comics (by Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman) to read with my sons. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. The story was so compelling, it took me right back to my childhood and it followed the game perfectly. All we seemed to be doing was talking Turtles, reading Turtles and playing Turtles. I don’t want to overstate this, but the series is one of the very best I’ve read. I can’t quite believe I never thought to check it out before! We weren’t having arguments anymore; we were having fun night after night after night. So much so that I had to buy the second game of Turtles for us to carry on.
It completely changed how I view games and what, as a family, I expected from a game. I didn’t want the competitiveness, I wanted the chance to share an experience with my boys, to feel like we had overcome the villains are emerged victorious!
So why mention this when talking about Star Wars? Because Star Wars games don’t offer this sort of gaming yet. Oh, I can hear some cry out about Imperial Assault, which I did look into. The game has since finished and needs someone to be the villains. There is an app that can be used to record this but only for a few campaigns. At the price point, I want something where my boys and I are all on the same side. I mean, it’s Star Wars, should we not all be able to be the heroes, to fight the Empire with everything we have? If there’s ever a franchise that should have a cooperative game, surely Star Wars should be high on that list? Are the films not all based around groups of characters fighting to save the day?
Since getting The Turtle games, I’ve also invested in another cooperative game from FFG, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth. This is again cooperative and uses an app to play as the villains and guide you through a narrative based game. Again, like the Turtles, we love it! There’s no arguing and you feel you are uncovering a story as you go. It has a very different feel to the Turtles, but that’s perfect for us. Yet it does show what FFG can do. I mean, a cooperative, narrative game set in the Outer Rim, where you explore the galaxy… that’s surely a winner?
The gaming experience with my sons has never been better, all thanks to IDW Games and cooperative gaming. It allows us to work together as a team rather than against each other. Not only that, but we’ve been reading a whole comic series that we are able to discuss and enjoy at the same time. It has made us realise that there is a hole in our gaming though, one we would love Star Wars to fill. FFG already have the game system in place, they just need to apply it to a galaxy far, far away. If you have a family and are looking for a truly great gaming experience, then look no further than cooperative games, you may be surprised with just how much fun you can have…
