Vast
Yes More Vast Talk
Multiplayer Finally
Played my first non-solitaire game of Vast last night. We only had four so we didn’t get the full meal deal. I played the Cave, the only role I haven’t tried yet; we had the Knight trying to kill the Dragon, Goblins trying to kill the Knight, and the Dragon thrashing around trying to wake up and escape.
I’m super grateful I solitaire’d it first, that’s for damned sure. Watching the four independent minigames interact is super cool. I love it. And once you’ve seen how everything interacts, it’s not so very mind-boggling.
As the Cave, my main job was to run the clock down as fast as possible and keep everyone apart. So I kept dropping rockslides between the Goblins and the Knight to keep the Knight alive, kept shoving around the Goblins so the Dragon couldn’t eat them (part of its wake-up routine), and to constantly harass and tie up the Knight’s time/efforts so she didn’t have time to smack the Dragon. It’s a slow-burn role and I didn’t have a lot to do each turn other than cash in my supply of Omen tokens on various effects: play more tiles or turn tiles on the map or whatever.
The emergent play, from where I was sitting, was very evocative of, well, dungeoneering. The Knight, as sort of the game’s protagonist, has to face all kinds of bullshit from every direction — monster attacks, random events in the cave, and the slippery, hard-to-corner dragon. The monster side of the game (Goblins) are constantly racing out of the darkness and retreating, then reappearing where you’d least expect them to. The Dragon is also a slooow burn role, very hard to get momentum but it speeds up as play goes on while the Knight sort of slows down., building up huge attacks.
Oh! And I found a use for my treasure tokens I got from Stonemaier a couple months ago. Goodbye cheapo wooden chest-like extrusions, hello bling.
Cannot wait to try all 5, although I suspect it’ll be slow. It is a beautifully built, tightly wound Swiss pocketwatch of a game.
Oh, that’s a damn fine idea (treasure chests) I’ve got a few from Super Dungeon Explore and I think some Bones chests as well…. I’ll have to bling up my set tonight!
VAST was fun! Only played it once, but got to be the cave.
Sold.
At least, as soon as I can actually buy it.
I wish for my copy to please reach me soon!
Is this the Leder Games one? Because that has a free print & play version:
http://ledergames.com/vast/pnp/
Christian Griffen yeah, that’s the one, totally doable if you’re into arts and crafts.
This game is a great design achievement, but fell totally flat for my group.
Jürgen Mayer Can you say how? Just wasn’t any fun?
Yes, it plays very… dry. Every player is playing their own mini-game; those mini-games connect and interact, but are just not very engaging. The mechanics work just fine, but we found the gameplay just not very interesting. I sold my copy from the first kickstarter after the first play.
Jürgen Mayer what was your player count?
I just did a two-player with my wife, Knight v Goblin, and it’s not bad. Not nearly as good as the four-player game, that’s for sure. I suspect 4-5 is the sweet spot. I did like that you could play a whole game in about 20 minutes, and the learning curve isn’t crazy nor do you really have to learn anyone else’s roles. When we did this four, the decision space was richer.
There may be a thing where each side’s hidden stuff — the Knight’s side quests, the Goblin’s secrets, the Dragon’s power draw, the Cave’s omens — are, or maybe just feel, kind of swingy. The Goblins’ stuff is so good! Then again, we’re 1 victory each K and G teams after today.
I think it was a 4 player game. Might have been five.
Excellent performance
very fine