Wandering Monster: printed prototype

I have printed and sliced all the parts for a fresh, new set. We've been playtesting with some rather rough tiles and cards for a while. The best examples were taped together and had handwritten modifications.

That's pretty rough

 Now it will all be clean and crisp. Certainly it's not final art yet, in case you're thinking these too are a bit bare bones. But before any virtual paint hits any digital canvas, we're going to make sure we have the right number and kinds of pieces for a highly replayable and entertaining game of Wandering Monster. Even this prototype is looking better than ever though.

I finished the slicing and dicing at home on my old swing-arm paper cutter. But I had a few minutes at the Kinkos near home and got to try out their Rotatrim. I've been meaning to try one of these, not the generic brands, but the real deal. It is nearly the perfect tool for these stiff paper mockups. You can line things up quickly and slice even more rapidly. Even when there is a hairline edge of white paper on the edge of your art, you just nudge it out a bit and cut again. The blade disk has no trouble at all whisking away the thinnest extra material. It even works when you are trimming an irregular piece starting from nothing.

The official spinning blade of Wandering Monster

The only thing it didn't do well was separating two small cards from each other. For example, if you want to cut a 40cm strip into two 20cm strips, it will be hard to position it under the plastic guide. Can any of you worthy readers find me one with a narrower guide that solves that problem?

Wandering Monster: More boss monsters

Here are the other two monsters from the Wandering Monster basic set. In an earlier post, you got to see Ogre and Ooze.

First up today is Troll. No, his standard power is not Instant Regeneration or Carrot Nose. He is skinny and nimble, giving him a slight edge against ranged attacks by adventurers, who always seem to be hurling axes, javelins, and lightning balls at anything that moves. It's a little thing, but it helps. The standard power each monster has is designed to be a little less than the full powers you pick up in special rooms of the dungeon. Troll does nicely when you add movement-based powers, such as Hasty or Sprinter. You can never go wrong with Fearsome Claws though.

Lepus rounds out the first four of our monsters. "Lepus" is a pseudoscientific way to say rabbit, so most players end up calling him the bunny, although usually not to his face. The best thing about this monster is tricking him out with some powers, and identifying yourself as, for instance, the enormous bunny with a Huge Mouth and Terrifying Roar. On top of all that, his long, sensitive ears give him the useful ability to assess the threat level of adventurers through doors and around corners. Players have nearly come to blows for the opportunity to play the Lepus.

Wandering Monster: the boss monsters

Welcome to Gnomekeeper, the home of the Wandering Monster tile placement boardgame. Spooktalker finally convinced me to begin, and I'm already glad of it. Come here to see the game clawing its way from a bond-paper-and-tape mockup to a crisp work of paperboard you will want to replay with all your geek gamer friends.
Today I'd just like to introduce a couple of my own friends, the monsters who call the tiles of the dungeon home. Then I'll finish with a few pics fresh from today's lunchtime playtest.

 This is the ogre. He embodies the spirit of the game Wandering Monster, stomping around the damp tunnels, at turns loud, boisterous, and full of vim, and at other times cunningly lying in wait for tasty adventurers. His innate ability is his meanness, with which he often has the edge when it comes to blows with other monsters. He does well when the ominous, glowing oracles of the dungeon bestow on him powers such as Strong Arms and Terrifying Roar.

Next, meet Ooze. He is a basic organism, but just bubbling with possibilities. If you can collect abilities such as Frog Tongue, Ceiling Crawler, and Acid Breath, it very much plays to type. Also fun is giving this blob the Strong Arms and Nimble Fingers, and watching him walk tall in a biped's world. But he never forgets his roots, with the innate ability to ooze through gates and grates.
I'll share some more beasties next time. For now, here are scenes from today's playtest.

 We built a good, sprawling labyrinth, and got right to the end of the first course. The adventurers we gobbled are aside in the foreground. At the very end Ogre (with Strong Arms) made a bold play for the last party, attempting a monster vs. monster beatdown of Ooze with Frog Tongue and Fearsome Claws. The outcome went the other way though, with a chastened Ogre sitting out a round, leaving Ooze to contend with an already alert and mobile party just around the bend.

 How this would play out we can only conjecture. Lunch hour was at an end and we counted up our eatings. Lepus took the top spot with seven chewed and swallowed in the first course. The others were close behind though and it would have been an exciting second act. Next time.