A follow up note to this one having replayed a few days later - we got an outcome that is not on the table thanks to a last minute hand switch in the final scene - Black Hearts and Red No Hearts.
We chose to play that as the Black player trying and failing to betray, and the Red player accidentally killing as a result. However, any update on that one would be awesome.
This is such a fun game! I was a bit worried that the cards might get in the way, but they were an excellent mechanic that flowed really well even online. Using the wildcard to swap hands at a pivotal moment was a delightfully satisfying moment on my side, even if it was playfully unappreciated! The game is well structured and easy to play in a few hours, and the variety of potential outcomes and settings makes for excellent replay value.
I think next time I play we might increase to one extra phase or an extra scene in each phase - we had such a good time that we wanted a bit more play with our characters than we got in the four scenes across the two 'main play' phases. We also contemplated drawing cards between scenes as well, since we rarely had more than three cards in our hands for most of the game - but that might also have been because a lot of the hearts were just at the bottom of the deck...
A great duet oneshot, beautifully simple and gorgeously illustrated, I will come back to this one.
Hi, this looks very cool! I have a question about the rules: is it only intended to be one letter each, written simultaneously? Or is there meant to be a series of letters back and forth - and if so, what is the best way to determine an end point? Initially thought this was a PBP game but now I'm less sure.
The ones you have are really great, I don't know what else you could have done. The playincards.io room worked well for us though, hopping between the two tabs wasn't an issue - as I said I'm happy to give the file to you if you would like it, the site is free and the files are very easy to import :)
I ran this for five players and we had a great time - we played online and i modified one of the playset miro boards so we could do our own setup, really appreciated that you have created such good online tools for the game. If not using a playset, budget in an extra 45 minutes to an hour for the setup phase, we went for about 4.5 hours total including a couple of breaks. It was such a good game; we decided we were elves living on a floating city above a flooded world vying for control over the trade routes and skyships with our jail buried in the depths of the sea, and we tore ourselves to pieces so efficiently the Knife barely needed to do anything.
The only bit I initially had an issue with was using the cards online, since my brain had difficulty with the idea of mapping them to a normal deck suggested in the online play tools and I wanted people to be able to read their own prompt cards. I made a playingcards.io room with all the cards uploaded into it and I think it works pretty well - happy to share if you would like it.
Modern Prometheus is a beautifully laid out text, with evocative prompts and lovely minimalist artwork. I feel like it mostly uses the system well to create the specific experience it is trying to achieve, with only one of the games that felt like it was there more as 'classic firebrands game' rather than because it necessarily fit the narrative. The decision to make the characters have specific minigames associated with them is also a really interesting design choice i haven't seen before and enjoyed. If you are looking for a game that takes you through pretty precise story beats of the Frankenstein novel, this is definitely one to give a go.
Unfortunately based on the early intro text, we thought the game was more 'frankenstein inspired' with room to generate your own narrative on the themes, since a lot of firebrands games are more about the setting and vibes than a specific outcome; and consequently we deviated from the expected plot beats early on, found the games a struggle to fit with the characters we designed and had to retool several of them. I think if we had known the more specific expectations of the game experience upfront in the preamble before getting to the minigames (a la something like Our Travelling Home), I would have had a very different time with the game and if I were to play it again, I would definitely keep that in mind.
Playing this with a friend and we are having a blast. We do have one question since we were a little unclear: Are the Aff/Plot/Sus trackers shared, or do we each have our own tracker? I interpreted it as the first, and they thought the second - we've gone with their interpretation and it's still very fun, but also hitting multiple boiling points seems less likely. Could you clarify please?
