Mark of the Beast
United States
Illinois
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For my second time playing this game, we had 4 people. 3 of which had played Fluxx before. We started a YouTube playlist of songs from the movie to set the mood.
2 of the people were slow to learn the rules, so it took a bit of time and frustration to get in the swing of it. The previous time I played it went slowly with a lot of reading, but picked up quickly.
This time it draaaaaaged on. Though I think the game does a good job of recreating time travel and keeps some cool "actions" that Fluxx has. I think for non-gamers or those with troubles with rules this game is just a senseless muddle of decisions they don't understand. At least in Fluxx they have the chance of randomly winning.
I love this game. I think the stealing of prized cards and "tricks" really help with the storyline of your game and builds drama. Fighting over the Sports Almanac happened a lot in our game and made me feel like I was in the movie. But those who already have trouble the memos from the future just seems like a hurdle, for the experienced players it added a bit of depth and strategy to play.
This game was split. And anytime that happens those who aren't having fun will tend to drag everyone else down. That's just group dynamics. It makes the players hate the experience and first timers end up hating the game. The 2 new players would never play this again.
It took us an hour and a half to finish. (We went down to the 5th b-1 card, eliciting groans every time "Mysterious Forces prevent you from winning) One person left the game to go home. The game played fine without them.
We reshuffled the deck a total of 5 times or so. The new players reread every card and were unsure of the play. I can only imagine how they would do with Chrononauts.
Session result: Horrible
Conclusion: I still love to play this game. I'm a fan of Looney Labs, the game and the company itself. The play is simple and I don't really understand people who have a problem understanding it. So now I'm more guarded when I bring it out.
This is a problem people have with Fluxx, that it meanders without direction. In the future I may play the varient of taking out 2 B-1 cards to quicken play and take out some randomization.
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