OMFG- Mushroom Eaters

Nobody is home (not like anyone here would really care about it) so I need to react somewhere to this package that Nate Hayden (Cave Evil) just sent me...

Aside from the "Fuck Minis" button with a crossed out cthuloid silhoutte, he sent me the new Cave Evil, an official Cave Evil cassette tape (hell yeah) and some other goodies.

He also sent me Mushroom Hunters.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

The thing is, like Cave Evil, a lot of people would look at the art and not get it. They may say it's "terrible" or "ugly". But they'd be dead wrong, because it is FUCKING AMAZING.

I have never seen a board game before that I felt I could accurately describe as "psychedelic" or possibly even "mystical". This is it. But there's a raw edge too with photocopied photographs, mixed media images, sketches on notebook paper, abstract paint splatters, 3D artwork (glasses included).

And then the game is actually about eating mushrooms. Not elves. Not world war II. Not oregano trading.

Can not wait to play this thing.

I've been curious about this game for a while. Pretty keen on hearing how it actually plays, because I think it looks awesome.

I've been waiting to hear when he's going to publish some more copies. Right now everything has been hand made as far as I know. Now that the new edition of Cave Evil is out I hope some news regarding a print run surfaces...I'm all over this one when it comes out.

So jealous...

Yeah, I don't know if this would be as successful as Cave Evil if they do a bigger print run...it's even MORE esoteric, and I'm sure if it had more attention then the board game morality warriors would be up in arms that it's a game about a psychedelic/shamanic/drugs experience. Reading through the rules, I can see like 90% of average board gamers checking out before it hits the table for any number of reasons.

I was just looking at the comments on BGG and some guy in Greece wrote this:

This isn't just "another" game.
It is the APOCALYPSE NOW of boardgame community.

That is the best comment I've read online this week.

GOD I WANT TO PLAY THIS NOW.

Yeah, I don't know if this would be as successful as Cave Evil if they do a bigger print run...it's even MORE esoteric, and I'm sure if it had more attention then the board game morality warriors would be up in arms that it's a game about a psychedelic/shamanic/drugs experience. Reading through the rules, I can see like 90% of average board gamers checking out before it hits the table for any number of reasons.

I was just looking at the comments on BGG and some guy in Greece wrote this:

This isn't just "another" game.
It is the APOCALYPSE NOW of boardgame community.

That is the best comment I've read online this week.

GOD I WANT TO PLAY THIS NOW.

I just read these two comment and didn't realise it was a double post until I got to the Greek guy's quote the second time.

This game makes me psychedelic just from reading about it.

Jealous, man! I arrived at his booth in Essen just a little too late to get one of the 45 copies he made. Did get a bit of a preview though - totally nuts.

But in a good way.

I soooo want to play this.

I miss mushrooms.

Holy shit I need this.

I bet Nate could sell a 500 print run. There's got to be a big enough segment that is tired of yawn inducing, done to death theming. And his flavor and themes are off the hook.

0K, I just solo'd a full three player game.

Blown away.

But the thing is, there are maybe three people that I would recommend this game to. One of them studies shamanism and other forms of mysticism. One of them grows mushrooms. The other is Frank Branham. All three are also game players, but most game players will go into this looking for the wrong things.

It is most definitely not a game for general audiences. If I were to write an overwhelmingly positive review (which I will if it holds up after a couple of multiplayer games) recommending it to everyone that reads my column and plays the kinds of games we all play, it would be like telling the audience of a Transformers movie to go see Holy Mountain.

This game is Jodorowsky to pretty much everything else's Michael Bay.

The gameplay is likely to disappoint many. You play a card from a set of mood cards and advance a token representing all players along a linear path. You experience actions on the path that generally give you things or take them away. There are boards that monitor your nervous system, your overall condition on the trip. There are boards that measure how well you are focusing. You might land on a space that represents conversations had in the middle of a psychedelic haze. Or you may land on a space that checks to see if you are following the shaman's rhythmic mantra. Interaction seems like it will be high because it's a shared journey- the key is that you are attempting to earn points through a number of different measures of self-awareness, understanding of the Great Paradox, success in dealing with personal discoveries, and wisdom.

That sounds pretentious, but it really isn't.

What blew me away the most was the journey itself and how the board depicts it. You start out on an image of a hut with a fire and a shaman conducting the ritual. As you progress, the board unfolds revealing different stages of the trip and very specific passages that build a narrative. For example, there is almost no way to get wisdom on the first few boards. You have to earn that later on. There are periods of intensity, where you risk having a breakdown if you lose your nerve or lose focus. But then there's rest too, the realization that you are just sitting at a fire.

Another thing that blows me away about this game is that there isn't really any kind of opposition. You're all going to make it, winning is a matter of who learned/experienced the most. If you're having a "bad trip", it seems like that generally means you're losing things you gain along the way and finding yourself unable to cope with what you encounter. Players can be selfish or helpful, which is a major theme throughout.

There actually is some strategy and there are points where the mechanics are more familiar than the rest of the game- the focus boards are really area control, for example.

This game is something really special. Unlike anything else I've ever played, and with a very specific intent to communicate a psychedelic experience- and by that I mean a metaphysical, spiritual one and not just getting high- through the mechanics of a board game.

Nate is just working on an entirely different level than anybody else on this one.

The idea that taking drugs could lead to deeper understanding of the world is one of the greatest fallacies in human history.

Here's Nate explaining the game, wearing a Zemial t-shirt:

Looks like something that I would absolutely want to try once. I have no idea if I would like it or ever want to play again.