Dungeon crawlers and League of Infamy

So a day or two ago I discovered that Mantic games are doing a boardgame kickstarter. I was admittedly apprehensive since its a dungeoncrawler made by a big company, and those seem to be a dime a dozen these days. But it seemed to do some interesting differently enough to warrant a pledge from me, but before I get in too deep I want to talk about where I am coming from game-wise to have a comparison.

You can not win anything other than my adoration by commenting here by the way.

But dungeon crawling boardgames, its something to have in every collection isn't it? Discovery, exploration, teamwork and fat loot is something everyone enjoys to one degree or another. Where I entered the field was with Imperial Assault. A Star Wars themed game that takes place around The Empire Strikes Back, with one player being an imperial commander springing ambushes, security measures and sending stormtroopers after a small band of rebel operatives. My both most and least favorite thing about it is the amount of components and variety. Rebels have various equipment, can steal new stuff or buy it on the black market, they learn skills and whatnot too. There is a load of map tiles, events, scripted segments and various opportunities for the empire to research and improve their troops. It feels very much like playing a RPG campaign as each mission has clear goals, there is a coherent storyline that changes based on mission outcomes and I get to be a truly antagonistic gamemaster for once, the game encourages me to simply hassling the rebels all I can, and its still balanced around it, so I dont have to worry about wether sending in that extra squad of bounty hunters in, because hey those players triggered the alarms themselves and gave me the extra threat points to deploy them. But also oh my lord the components.

Also worth noticing is that they actually included options to play it as a skirmish game, so there are even more stuff for that part of it. And well phew, that box has nothing in the way of slots or sockets for everythings, so its just plastic bags gallore, its on you to keep it organised (or try hah) and that is such a discouragement when it comes to actually picking it up and playing. And with a total of 6 expansions and some 20 ally / villain packs out there it becomes a big ol mess to dig through, so I really should get myself an organizer for it and simply put all the skirmish stuff aside.

Its still on my shelf and I wanna get back to it, specifically the campaign part. Skirmish games I have plenty and better of anyhow. Along the line comes a new CMON game on kickstarter namely Zombicide Black Plague. And this time we're talking fully a cooperative game. You're a bunch of fantasy characters caught in the schemes of a god damn necromancer, and you have to work together to fight through the undead hordes and stay alive. This one is much more of a conversation between players since turn orders and zombie behavior are deterministic, which means having to coordinate efforts if you wanna stay alive. And its nice that you can pick it up and divide heroes amongst 1-6 players so even if you have just one buddy to sit down you can have a fun and tense game of cooperation, deliberation and zombie slaying.

But yeah I know what you're thinking: Nicolai, what a load of beating around the bush. So yeah, League of Infamy. For the gameplay videos and Q&A's I've seen it is largely a dungeon crawler through and through, different player characters, tiles, ambushes, loot etc. There is even a Keepmaster player who controls the opposition. But as you may have gathered from the theme you're the bad guys this time around, And one thing is being told that by the through aesthetics - like being an ancient vampire slaying baby dragons and halfling farmers.

But I am very much a show don't tell kind of person when it comes to game themes, if the gameplay doesn't encourage villainous behavior then what is this theme but a different set of paint? And this is what made or broke the game for me. And luckily, yes yes it does reinforce its theme through its mechanics. The players are at best a loose coalition sent on a joint mission by a world-spanning shadowy organisation of generally bad dudes. So why they have the same objective - the recovery of certain assets, the assassination of a key character etc, they have their reputation to think about.

During the game each league player earns Infamy for killing off defenders, picking locks and the like. However they will be personally evaluated and the most infamous player will be the 'winner' and get the spoils, and everyone wants to be #1. But Infamy is also a spendable resource, you can spend it to decrease damage you take or increase damage you deal, and most brilliantly of all, its a haggle-able resource between players. Some times players might want to get earlier in the initiative order, borrow an item from a 'friend' or have someone heal them. And maybe a small Infamy bribe can give them an incentive to help you out. 

But that's not all, in case players need that extra Infamy boost or if they are feeling particularly vindictive, they all gain Disorder cards during the game. These cards boost your infamy when played but generally make your 'allies' lives a little harder, things like stealing a piece of loot they were going to pick up, misplacing their healing options, or trip them up as they're making their escape.

And it is this Infamy resource and the play around it that sold the game for me, because it adds an entirely extra layer to the gameplay. Because suddenly these players are eyeing each other, and that whole distrust and hubris adds so many inter-player relations at a time where they probably should be focusing on their teamwork. And finally worth noting, they also plan to add an optional AI keep master so that you and a single buddy can also sit down and do all kinds of backstabbery together.

I think the kickstarter campaign is just about ended now, but I'd give it a look regardless. 

Also they have fat little halflings!