Let's Be Bad Guys (July 2023 newsletter) (Patreon)

Hey folks, we have a winner! John Company 2nd edition will be the next Patreon sponsored tutorial. I can't wait to dive into this game about running a company and being an absolute bastard doing it. Beyond the Sun got 2nd place, so it will secure a spot on the next poll. I'll be reaching out to the publishers soon to get a copy, and should have no problem getting that video out in September, but first I'll be going to Gen Con! I honestly wasn't expecting to go for the longest time, but Above Board is sending me out and I'm so happy they are. Not only will we be filming a bunch of stuff while we're there, we're also doing a live show on Friday at 10am on the main stage, so if you're attending the con, please do come out. I'm sure the show will be great, but we're a new channel, so I really don't know how many people are going to be there. Still, it's my first show at a con, so I'm very excited.

As for RTFM-related stuff, last week I released the tutorial for Galactic Era, a very worthy entry in the space 4x milieu. Even if you don't care about the game, check out that video to watch the intro sketch, which I had a lot of fun making. 

The game I'm currently working on is Deliverance. This is a dungeon crawler pitting angels against demons and I've been having a ton of fun with it. I'll admit I was a little hesitant when I was first contacted to make a game that has a definite Christian basis, but the gameplay is solid and while the narrative is very much steeped in its source material, I haven't found it to be too heavy-handed. It's certainly easy enough to play it as just a supernatural skirmish game and ignore the rest if you want to.

Something I'm very excited about is getting to play an early copy of RUN by Fowers Games. Tim Fowers contacted me about making a rules video and while I was certainly interested, my schedule was pretty filled up for the rest of the year. He sent me a copy to entice me and boy did it work, but I really don't want to take on more commitments than I can honor, especially since I want to make sure that you guys still get to choose at least half of the games that I cover. Fortunately, one of my commissions had to push back a few months, leaving a slot open for RUN, so expect a tutorial for this one to come out around November/December. As for the game itself, this is an excellent hidden movement game for two players where one is a runner trying to escape the dispatch while picking up gear and making their way to a safehouse. The big trick is, as the runner, you can only make each move once, and then that isn't an option anymore. The picture above shows me playing dispatch and keeping track of which actions I think the runner has already used, as well as where they might be. It's tense and strategic and plays pretty quickly (if you don't have serious AP). It also packs 10 different maps, many introducing different rules and abilities for both players, as well as a handicap system to help balance for player experience. I hope it'll be a big hit for them, because I've really enjoyed it.

Anyway, that's all for this month. I'm sure I'll have a good Gen Con report on the next newsletter, so for now I'll leave you with this picture of a very good boy ordering some tacos.