Cowboy Bebop Boardgame Boogie

I might have to put this on my birthday wish list.

Better come with the soundtrack.

Even though I love Firefly and Cowboy Bebop is essentially the original version of Firefly, I never liked Cowboy Bebop. I just didn't like the characters, especially the weird one. Except that I really liked the one episode that focused on the weird one. That said, the Cowboy Bebop theme song is fantastic.

Josh demoed this for me last Origins. The cards all have art from the show, and you get to track down all sorts of bounties from the show. The part I liked the most was the personal stories; each character has to achieve something unique to them.

It's been a year since I've played it, but it hit all the notes you might expect of a Bebop game. You'll have to supply your own Seatbelts music.

@hotseatgames

I'm good to go then. I have a couple of Seatbelts CDs.

Tentatively interested, but has Jasco ever published anything good? Didn’t they do that abysmal Mega Man game?

DarthJoJo wrote: Tentatively interested, but has Jasco ever published anything good? Didn’t they do that abysmal Mega Man game?

Exactly why I hold out little hope for this game. Although Lynnvander also did the Buffy boardgame, not sure if that fact is encouraging or discouraging.
Also, the release date has been pushed back multiple times now. From early 2018, to GenCon 2018, to March 2019, now to August 2019.

I kept reading "The Seatbelts" and thinking y'all meant "The Pillows." Different anime.

@DarthJojo: we could say the same thing of USAopoly, who gave us Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle out of nowhere. Cowboy Bebop is a cool IP, so we're at least in 'high expectations, low hopes' territory.

This was for sale all the way back in November at PAX Unplugged. I debated on it a bit too long and it sold out. Why it isn’t out now is because Jasco seems to be kind of a mess.

If you told me that a company called "Everything Epic" was going to make a legitimately good Big Trouble in Little China game I wouldn't have believed you, but that exists. There's always a chance. Cautious optimism.

Anjou Valentine wrote: @DarthJojo: we could say the same thing of USAopoly, who gave us Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle out of nowhere. Cowboy Bebop is a cool IP, so we're at least in 'high expectations, low hopes' territory.

At the risk of derailing this thread, Hogwarts Battle was a mixed bag. Some clever ideas, pretty great production but really needed about two months more development to iron out the game itself. My wife really liked it, but I traded and replaced it with the old TCG.

I’ll go along with high expectations, low hopes, though.

We have played Cowboy Bebop Boardgame Boogie twice now. Once was a 3-person flail through, where we screwed up some rules. Once as a four player game. I feel like I still need to play it a few more times to make a final decision on it, however, after two plays, I will say it is surprisingly good.

It seems to share a bit of DNA with Knizia's Lord of the Rings, having a similar mechanic of discarding cards that represent skills or qualities, individually or as a group, to overcome obstacles or achieve objectives, creating a tension/trade-off between personal goals and the well being of the group as a whole.

It also seems to share a bit with Battlestar Galactica, having events (like crisis cards) forcing you to lose resources, and giving you choices between discarding cards from your hand or losing resources from the group's pool of food, money and fuel. Again that tension between what is good for you vs what is good for the group.

It has this neat thing where you collect leads (cards) as a group and then use them to create melds which allow you to locate bounties. Having played a lot of Arkham Horror where clues are just another resource to be spent, it was cool to have "clues" that had in-game meaning that came together to direct the action.

Despite being somewhat abstract, it manages to be evocative and capture the essence of the show, especially feelings of desperation and of living on the edge - there is real concern when food and fuel stores are running low, as you can all starve to death, or get yourselves stranded and then starve to death.

The art is better than expected from Jasco.

Right now my main concern is that the four player game seemed a bit too easy. I don't know if that is just because we were lucky with how the cards came out, if we got a rule wrong, or if it is actually that easy. We will have to play a few more times to determine that. Also there are spoilers in the game, so it probably shouldn't be played by people who haven't watched the show but intend to do so.

There’s original art by Jasco? I assumed it would all just be screenshots.

And thanks for the write up. It’s unlikely I’ll get it as I already have too many games that need first plays, but I’m glad to hear it’s a solid piece. Now, where’s my Kids on the Slope game?

Thanks for sharing Uba. I love Cowboy Bebop and really enjoyed Josh's other work, but I was wary of this one based on snippets I've read in various places. Going to check it out.

When I played it way back, it was just screen caps from the show. I have not seen the production copy.

@charlest

I bet they are saying that it is a frustrating catch-22 in which you feel like you are at the mercy of lady luck. You spend a lot of the game worrying about having enough food to get through the next day, while hanging out on the Bebop or in bars doing nothing just waiting around for other people. Just when you think you might finally be making some progress, Vicious appears out of nowhere and kicks you in the head. Even if you manage to win, the ending is still kind of depressing...
Just like the show.

The game is certainly NOT a fun little romp, or a happy adventure.

DarthJoJo wrote: There’s original art by Jasco? I assumed it would all just be screenshots.

The art is better than expected, because Jasco actually got the rights to use the screenshots, and use a lot of it. Like every card has a unique shot. If they hadn't, it could have been as ugly as the Buffy game. The stuff that is their own, original art is kind of janky, but serviceable.