Discworld: Ankh-Morpork - In Stores Now Hot

Not sure whether this marriage of two great English minds will be a happy one, but it's a great potential. Not setting my hopes too high though...

This is strange. I always thought of Martin Wallace as a very unfunny guy. Then again, I see Terry Pratchett the same way... ah, what am I saying, he's ok I guess. Interesting choice nonetheless.

Ugh! Sounds worse than listening to Vogon poetry.

"If you are Chrysophrase the troll then you must accumulate $50 in wealth" - dollars indicate a dearth of imagination.

He did a great job with Moongha Invaders so I don't see why this couldn't be a winner.

All the train lines will go in the same direction.

S.

Scratch that -- diskworld, not ringworld. This sounds a bit like Chaos in the Old World?

S.

I also read a post from Fatutti that he was a little upset he wasn't approached to do a game for Ankh-Morpork.

I could see a Citidels varient where you attempt to get certain events played instead of buildings. You'd be Coercing wizards, police, ect to create the correct conditions to play the events. The events would then make other things possible and/or score points.

BooM! I just designed the *new* DiscWorld Game.

The whole story of The Colour of Magic is framed as a board game being played by the gods, with the central characters as the pieces. He should have just taken that idea and run with it if you ask me.

I know there is no hope of this, but I'm kind of hoping the game easy enough for the Spawn to play. She's been watching some of the BCC Discworld programs, and likes them.

So Martin Wallace is doing a Disc World game published by Twilight Creations. Am I still asleep?

Thanks for catching that. Treefrog and Twilight Creations are next to each other in the drop down. Clicked on the wrong spot. Sorry about that.

I think the game will be low difficulty as I presume they try to attract the large fanbase. Not sure if Wallace is able to cater to that market given his normal designs, which are quite complex and chromey.

I wouldn't mind a complex game, but I don't think that would sell very well.

Also, both with Wallace and Pratchett, the quality varies, so the potential for greatness is as big as for abject failure. Not on preorder.

I don't think another chesslike Pratchett game would be very interesting after Thud. There's a few storylines that could be used for a game, but generic Ankh Morpork could also work. Wouldn't you want to control the guild of seamstresses?

The game they're playing in the book isn't abstract, it's described as an adventure game with dice and everything.

I think it'd be cool to be Offler, Blind Io, or The Lady. That premise would allow you to do the adventuring thing, but since you're playing gods, you could actually have a lot of player interaction as you've got secret agendas and take-that events built into the conceit from the get-go.

Another thing it has going for it is that it's actually in the book.

I have not seen Martin Wallace produce a game that is remotely what I would want in a DiscWorld game. Doesn't mean he can't of course, but the descriptions of the various factions doesn't fill me with a lot of hope.

The game they're playing in the book isn't abstract, it's described as an adventure game with dice and everything.

I think it'd be cool to be Offler, Blind Io, or The Lady. That premise would allow you to do the adventuring thing, but since you're playing gods, you could actually have a lot of player interaction as you've got secret agendas and take-that events built into the conceit from the get-go.

Another thing it has going for it is that it's actually in the book.
The Gods playing games with the lives of men is a common theme through most of the books starring Rincewind, and also Small Gods. In The Last Hero, there's an illustration of the Gods playing their game and the main characters of the story are sitting on the Disc as plastic minis. The game is called "Mighty Empires" in Interesting Times.

Martin Wallace was at the recent CanCon/AGE in Australia. There was a mock up of this game for play. I didn't have a chance to play, but some friends of mine whose judgement I trust said it was quite good and they would be snapping it up on publish.

Yes, the power game in most Pratchett books is more like doam. But the previous disk world game release was this: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4532/thud. Thud is very alike to chess at first sight. So I can imagine the Pratchett legacy will want something different.

So a Pratchett doam game, that might work (if it's not generic but has a real story arch)

I just wonder what Wallace has up his sleeve for his next release. I just got Discworld and look forward to playing it but I am worried Wallace put all of his eggs in one basket (he claimed he spent over $50,000 on developing this game and that was before the production costs of the deluxe and collectors edition. Usually, we know by now what is in the pipeline for next year but there is nothing on his website.

Played this one last saturday. It's much better than I expected. And it's ridiculously simple and not only by the standards of Wallace. I would say, it's one of the simplest games I've ever played.

You can explain it in about 5 minutes (10, if you are particularly bad at explaining rules, or your group is completely stupid): you have 5 cards, on your turn you can play one of them (or more, if the card, that you just played, allows you to play another card), do, what it says, then draw up to 5 again. First player that has their hidden objective completed at the beginning of their turn, wins the game. It's simpler than Dominion, and that's an achievement in itself.

It was clearly designed with non-gamers' needs in mind, but for all its simplicity it has a surpising level of tactical/strategical depth. Although the strategy is basically "try not to reveal your identity to the other players with your actions", it's harder to pull off than you would think.

Is it FUN(TM)? I guess, with the right group, it is. It's light and fast, that's for sure. Not very thematic, though.

I played it with Frank. Thumbs up for me.

Light, simple and kinda mean. Our game had constant screwage which was what made the game for me.

Steve"Troublemaker"Avery

Got this game not too long ago, very simple, lots of luck when it comes to the cards, some combos seem to run on forever. Certainly worth a few plays.

Yeah, I think this game is really quite good...it's one of Wallace's looser, more "fun" designs and I really like how it's almost like a built-out take-that game with a very, very tight area control mechanic going on at the board. The combo-riffic card play is really fun, as are the secret agendas, assassinations, trolls, and other nasty bits.

As for the theme...I couldn't tell you. Never read the books. But I get it, and it works I think. I might actually want to buy it!