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Board Souls |
| 2021-05-04 |
Board Souls
I cannot remember in which book it was, the reasoning was that the christian relegion was successful in sixteenth century Japan because it promised the paradise after a single life of suffering, unlike the reincarnation grind promised by Buddhism. Die, respawn, die.
My friend Gary (not Gygax) invited me to play the Dark Souls board game. It's a beautiful piece of hardware. Once the miniature contemplation time was over, we battled the counters and read the rules. The various icons were a bit confusing, but we got the hang of it.
Gary was playing the Knight and I was the Warrior. We punched in and left the bonfire to enter the first room.
After the first two fights, we were used to the system, we had made a few rulings over corner cases (or maybe we were too lazy to re-read the rules). We cleaned five rooms with one or two sparks and then...
Then we were bored, we didn't want to redo all the rooms for a third time. It felt like a game for Sisyphus.
From Dungeons and Dragons to a video game to a board game. Two reincarnations and a fall in a dungeon that is a trap itself. Not much immersion, no love for any of the characters.
The miniatures are beautiful, they can be reused in tabletop roleplaying games. Maybe the game can be hacked and turned into something a bit more lovable.
We left the table, opened beers, and watched "John Wick".
