On the Workbench - Where Humans Don't Belong - An Interview with Mark Chaplin

So when I looked this game up (credit card in...

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The game sounds amazing, and I just realized that I haven't had a White Russian in decades.

No kidding, my last one was at a cousins wedding when I was in college!

Anyway, this game sounds great. How has there not been a Star Trek games like this already (though this sounds superficially kinda like a few of them).

The make or break for games like this for me are twofold. 1. How fiddly are the rules? Games like this tend to have a lot of very situationally specific instances that require frequent rule book consultations. I don't want every decision boiling down to "roll the dice and beat this number" simplicity but nor do I want an encyclopedia of rules.

And 2. does it tell a compelling story with risk/reward decisions I can at least guesstimate beforehand? Nothing kills a solo game like the random chance of a game ending card popping up with no way to mitigate it. There is a delicate balance between "roll with the punches" randomness and "don't push your luck" mechanics for me at least.

jason10mm wrote: How has there not been a Star Trek games like this already

BITE your tongue.

Great stuff. Excited about this one more than I.S.S. Vanguard.

1) Any off-angle rules are detailed on the relevant sector card or map. I don't want players looking at the rules AT ALL, once you've started play.
Other important rules that might be required are printed on the starship control gameboard.

2) There are no sudden death events or situations. I dislike these myself. You have many, many ways to overcome bad luck, but all require a sacrifice from the player:
*sanity loss (called Restraint in the game)
*lose your explorer robots, and vehicles
*sacrifice your own crew to save your skin, and the greater purpose
*pushing your training
*gain scars on bridge crew
*and lots of others!

3) The pre-launch page is up on Kickstarter, but I don't know if I'm allowed to post it!

Definitely looking forward to this one.

Pre-launch page. Please sign up!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/wherehumans...e-humans-dont-belong

For the record, I always enjoyed Revolver (and its expansions & sequel) back in the day. Fun little asymmetrical card game that I could always haul out for casuals and fans alike. It also had some solo rules at a time when that was kinda rare.

Yeah, one of the reasons REVOLVER did so well was because it was straightforward. But that worked against it with the expansions the publisher requested - the design was stretched beyond its capacity.

Shellhead wrote: The game sounds amazing, and I just realized that I haven't had a White Russian in decades.

Two weekends ago, my in-laws found out that one of the couples they hang out with have never seen The Big Lebowski. So they promptly scheduled a watch party and invited me, the only person under 65. White Russians were in abundance. They are pretty good drinks but high in calories, so relegated to special occasions, like listening to a bunch of senior citizens laughing their asses off at a two-decade-old movie.

But, the movie holds up, and so does the drink. I think one of the reasons why I like TBL (despite not seeing it for years before the other weekend) is that it mirrors the expectation vs. reality of D&D. In TBL, it’s a hard-boiled detective movie like The Maltese Falcon, where there’s competing narratives and everyone has an angle. Except instead of Sam Spade, you get a complete idiot and his moronic friends. In D&D, it’s set up like Conan or LOTR, except instead of Conan or Aragorn, you get a bunch of losers. In both cases, (mostly) lovable jackasses blunder their way through someone else’s worst day and just absolutely fuck it up. Good times.

That's just your opinion, man.