Doomtown: Reloaded, Requiem

The Doomtown LCG is ending soon; word is the last expansion for the game will be released in October and as of this writing, there is no plan for it to be picked up by another publisher.

That's unfortunate, because this is a hell of a game. Yes, the learning curve was quite high, but once it leveled out, the rest of the game came pretty easily. It had an interesting blend of the familiar and the new and few games I've played have as successfully evoked the atmosphere they were going for.

Multiplayer games especially felt like the high noon shootouts of old west movies. They were tense with a lot of buildup and then bangbangbang! Did you guess right about the time to pick your battle? If you did, that felt pretty sweet. If not, it became pretty clear where the stumble was-usually picking a fight you didn't need to.

However, the game had some issues and I'd like to talk a little bit about I think went wrong.

First; playtesting. In the first year of the game, especially in the last half of 2015 and into very early 2016, expansions were arriving every month. That is a lot of product to sift through.

And it lead to some cards that felt awkward or weird or nonsensical. Which leads me to the next point.

Second: unruffled feathers. I remember there was an early expansion that gave Dudes (the characters in the game) keywords of "Confederate" and "Union". The significance of this? They couldn't be on the same team at the same time.

That's it.

Since there was no reason to use them cooperatively, nor a reason to use them to counter each other, then perhaps they were just powerful? No. And if there's one thing Doomtown isn't lacking for it's Dudes to play. So the impact on the game that made players have to take into consideration those keywords was nothing.

So many features of the game, ostensibly new mechanics that were introduced, just didn't matter. Didn't change the status quo, and didn't reach back to make an old card interesting, nor pay off in a near future set. 

That is not a good thing for a new mechanic and it's the kind of problem that many Doomtown expansions had. But when they did we got...

Third: confounding expectations. For certain kinds of mechanics in Doomtown, the player would perform a Pull to see if they succeeded. To Pull, the player would simply announce the ability they were activating (say, the creation of a gadget) and then reveal the top card of their deck. If the value was greater than or equal to the number required for the Pull, the activation was a success. Certain modifiers would come into play at that point: a Dude could have a Mad Scientist value of 3, which would be added to the value of the card-so if I needed to hit a 7 with a Mad Scientist value of 3 and drew a 5 or greater, I'd succeed.

This all got turned upside down with the introduction of the Kung Fu mechanic. Which worked like this:

To play a Technique, you must choose a dude with Kung Fu and pull. If the pull is lower than the dude’s value (remember this is the dude’s printed value plus Kung Fu rating value), it succeeds. If the pull is equal to or higher than the dude’s value (once again, including Kung Fu rating), it fails.

What? Why do we have to add the Kung Fu value to the printed value? Why not just provide a Kung Fu number and then subtract that from the value you needed to hit? It would be a clever mechanical way to distinguish that ability and it would be an easy thing to remember.

In a game like Doomtown where mechanics already were difficult to remember- movement and how jobs worked, being most notable- adding in extra math and issues for value was needlessly complicated. Plus, it would allow for good Kung Fu Dudes at higher values so you would have a broader range of values to work with.

Messy implementations of mechanics like this are impediments, not benefits.

It's because of things like this that I feel Doomtown had difficulty sustaining an audience. It's too bad, because there is a really interesting game under it all that could have had time to shine. Magic was equally messy in it's early years too and people, I think, often overlook that because what we talk about now are the powerful successes that make Legacy and Vintage interesting.

But even with that, Magic almost imploded on itself in it's early years. I would have liked to see Doomtown make a similar escape. 

Half a glass of whiskey

Three games of Doomtown on Tuesday...three losses.

Not just losses, though. I got into shootouts where I was crushed. Hand ranks of 10 or 11 that were legal, leaving me zero recourse to respond with cards that might have helped me. This happened multiple times in a row, luck absolutely coming against my favor.

It was something my third round opponent, Gerald, and I laughed about.

"You are getting a sign," he giggled.

"Absolutely. I'm going to go home, have a bit of whiskey, and crawl into bed," I chuckled.

At the same time, there was an innerspeak, howling at me about how goddamn unfair it all is.

That's something that isn't easy to shrug off, sometimes. Especially when you feel unhappy for other reasons. Maybe you haven't slept or eaten enough, maybe you're lonely, maybe you're worse than lonely. Difficult things come up in everybody's life.

For me, it was a rough end to a stupid day. It wasn't a bad day for any notable reason but nothing came together whatsoever. Not work and obviously, not play.

Gerald asked if I wanted to join in another game: I held my hands up in surrender. "Oh, no. I think I've learned my lesson." Everyone chuckled.

There's always a part of me that wants to hold onto these losses. I've learned I can't. I can't hold onto the wins, either; both conditions do something to my brain where it becomes easy to overload and fuck up my thinking processes. I have to let the loss sting for a moment and then square my shoulders and move on. The wins, OK, let's smile a little longer over that but...holding onto a past victory means that getting a future one becomes harder.

There are any number of ways to process this: when I've been involved in Magic tournaments, I've gone for walks between rounds to clear my head. Tuesday, though, there wasn't such a luxury. I kept a good face up, I think but when I went home, I poured myself a half a shot of whiskey and moped at my desk for a little bit. Sometimes, you just gotta. 

Doomtown Event: 1-2 Eagle Wardens

Not so hot, I know. I don't think my matchups were very strong and I know I made a huge mistake with my starting posse. However, the Desolation Row deck just wasn't even close to being ready and to be honest, I didn't think people would be prepared for Eagle Wardens.

I was right: there were 3 Law Dogs, 3 Sloan Gang, one 4th Ring and me. So not a ton of variety but at least I got to play an outlier! But I was also wrong; playing the outlier didn't make the matches favorable.

Here you go:
Eagle Wardens (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)

Dude (12)
1x Mario Crane (Double Dealin')
1x Max Baine (Exp.1) (No Turning Back)
1x Jacqueline Isham* (No Turning Back)
1x John "Aces" Radcliffe* (Nightmare at Noon)
1x Mazatl* (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Lydia Bear-Hands (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Bloody Teeth (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Three-Eyed Hawk (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Sarah Meoquanee (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Smiling Frog* (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Laughing Crow (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
1x Chief Stephen Seven-Eagles (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)

Deed (11)
1x The Union Casino (Base Set)
2x Telegraph Office (Base Set)
2x Baird's Build and Loan (Double Dealin')
2x California Tax Office (Faith and Fear)
2x St. Anthony's Chapel (Faith and Fear)
2x Huntsmen's Society (No Turning Back)

Spell (16)
3x Spirit Dance (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
3x Many Speak as One (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
4x The Pack Awakens (Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force)
2x Strength of the Ancestors (The Light Shineth)
2x Red Horse's Tail (The Light Shineth)
2x Fire of Nanahbozho (The Light Shineth)

Action (13)
3x Unprepared (Base Set)
4x It's Not What You Know... (Double Dealin')
2x Flight of the Lepus (Frontier Justice)
4x Nightmare at Noon (Nightmare at Noon)

I took this from a Doomtown site making a few small modifications, specifically Nightmare at Noon as an addition. The card is huge and certainly helped keep bad situations from becoming worse.

I faced down two Sloane decks running Desolation Row consecutively and both were very aggressive. As a result, I tried to keep up with them when I probably should've held back. The big problem: I wasn't running Lydia Bear-Hands in my opening set. This was an oversight: I meant to have her there but was distracted by a desire to have at least one stud in my opening posse so I had Smiling Frog there, until I realized my mistake. Then I had both.

And Lydia is important because she allows for the best use of the Eagle Wardens home, in addition to being a shaman.

Still, I think I let the aggressive decks set the tempo too often and coupled with a little bit of bad luck, it was a hard night.I had an opening draw hand of four Jacks, and every shootout hand I had didn't get better than two pair. I need more practice with this deck.

So I'm going to get it.

Desolation Row

Double post because I forgot to finish up Tuesdays Latulla post!

This time though, I'm headed back to Doomtown with a new Sloane Gang deck. For reference, the Doomtown card database.

Spades
Allie Hensman
Maria Kingsford
Jose Morales
Angelica Espinosa
Jake Smiley
Jonah Essex
Lawrence Blackwood
Silas Aims
Milt Clemons

Hearts
Outlaw Mask
2 Mirror Mirror
2 Faithful Hound
4 Corporeal Twist
Fetch
2 Quickdraw Handgun
Doyle's Hoyle
Legendary Holster

Clubs
2 Make 'em Sweat
2 Establishing Who's In Charge
4 Back Ways
Ambush
2 Swinford Finds Trouble
Hiding in the Shadows
3 This'll Hurt in The Mornin'

Diamonds
2 The Town Hall
1st Baptist Church
4 Hustings
4 Shane & Graves Security
Pat's Perch
Bunkhouse
St Anthony's Chapel

The nice thing about entering this deck into a database is that it showed me I had too many 3 of Diamonds in the deck.(Hustings and 1st Baptist Church)

The goal is to try and use some of the lower values to create a solid draw structure between A-5, and use Hucksters to provide curses to tilt showdowns in my favor.

It's probably all wonky: the Dudes in this deck that aren't starters don't really fit the draw structure so a little tweaking is in order. Jonah Essex is coming out and in went Cookin' Up Trouble, a second Bunkhouse and a second 1st Baptist Church, removing two Hustings.

The nice thing is, I'll get a chance to play it tonight and see how that helps!

Doomtown: Reloaded

Doomtown has gotten its hooks into me.

Doomtown is a game set in the Weird West-the city of Gomorra is the site of, essentially, a low-level Hellmouth opening up and now all sorts of weird crap is happening. This is in addition to the usual troubles of being out in the barely lawful Old West. Players take on the role of one of four Outfits in Gomorra who are trying to gain control of the town.

I've been trying to get the hang of it and as a game, it has both a high complexity barrier and a strong hint of familiarity to it. It's an interesting design scheme and I'm just starting to get the hang of it.

Doomtown has a layer of language to it that creates a barrier to learning; in an largely successful attempt to evoke the Weird West setting of the game, characters are called 'dudes', and dudes can get 'aced' instead of killed, by way of example. Nearly everything is like this and after playing Magic for nearly two decades, I'm used to simple things being wrapped up in occasionally obtuse language. However, I'm finding that once I get past the learning curve, the game doesn't get insanely difficult afterwards. Strategic, yes but not more difficult to understand.

Doomtown also has something working it its favor; every conflict in the game is decide through a hand of poker. The upside to that is that nearly everyone has some form of knowledge of poker, so there is a piece of knowledge to the game that is 'built in' for a large number of gamers. When dealing with a game with such a big learning curve, this element of familiarity is not only welcome but welcoming, giving new players something they don't have to think really hard about.

It's not for a new gamer, though: The language use and the movement rules for dudes create a well paced game but one that creates an off-putting environment for someone who is brand new to gaming.

On the upside, Doomtown's turns are structured so that each player takes one action, then allows the next player to take an action. When both players pass on acting, the turn (known as a Day) is over, the cards "unboot" (reset) and you start all over again. So it's very easy to remain engaged in play because you don't have to wait long for your next action (even if you're just going to pass) and there's a constantly developing board state to respond to.

So far, I'm finding the game engaging and deckbuilding a very different mental exercise but I think I'll talk about deckbuilding another time.