Hallowe'en Gaming 2015 - Psycho Raiders

This game is fucking OUTSTANDING, and anyone who disagrees is objectively wrong on every possible level of consciousness.

This is THE game of the year, IMO. I've played it twice now, once as the Raiders and once as two of the townsfolk (we played a 9 player game and I chose to sit out until they were activated....note that I was Sinister). Mike nailed it: it delivers a sense of doom like no other, to the campers, and delivers a sense of purpose and straight-up evil to the Raider player.

If you miss out on this, you suck at life.

Michael is wrong about one thing: If this had really nice, 100$ bits, it would be just as good or better. I've already considered ways to make that happen, such as translucent miniatures for each "hidden" marker, etc. The art couldn't change, and the magazine would have to be included.

Masterpiece.

charlest wrote: Where were all you people last year when Calendale and myself were raving about it?

To be fair, you weren't really a "Fort Guy" then, really. You should know by now that the Fort is a very exclusive club consisting of people who are natural-born cynics, who see the hypewagon, laugh, and rarely get upon it for a ride, and that are VERY selective on whom they seek out advice from, let alone trust that advice as valuable.

Don't take it personally, but until you've proven yourself here at the Fort, you're just another piece of shit huckster selling people what they want to hear. That's how many of the F:ATties that I've spoken with feel, at least.

I have NEVER played a game that created a stronger sense of fatalistic, nihilistic doom. The fucking world is at stake in Eldritch Horror, but it doesn't feel nearly as crushingly grim as Psycho Raiders. I'm just kind of blown away because it does some things that you usually say that horror games "can't" do when the topic is discussed. When you are playing the campers, it really does capture this feeling of being HUNTED like nothing else. And there is no motivation, no storyline or context for it...they are just soulless, merciless killers.

The townsfolk switching thing...oh my god, that is genius. You've got the campers running toward the town (Crucible, which is a GENIUS name for it given how it becomes a crucible for ridiculously emergent gameplay), and maybe even phoning them. Or screaming for them. They may even come out to help. But then they can just turn on you at the whim of the Raider player or whoever is controlling a Sinister character. You are never safe.

There was one bit in my first game that just really stuck with me. Ginger screamed for the mechanic, he came running out of the gas station after grabbing a hammer. Randy ran toward him, Dawn was in the woods (where she ran across a body) hiding with Spud in pursuit, and Ginger was also heading up to the gas station. The mechanic threw the keys to Randy, he and Ginger caught into the fixer-upper parked outside. Dawn had used a hide token to fool Spud and wound up making it to the car too. Randy floored it...and immediately flipped the car on the turn just north of the gas station. Randy was pretty badly hurt so he told the girls to run and he got out of the flipped car to confront Torch and Beau and stall them. Torch set him on fire with the flamethrower. Beau stood by and laughed. But the kill draw missed. Randy had one point of speed left at this point, and the damage roll on the fire would have put him down on the next turn. But it started raining, and it put him out. It's like he just wouldn't die, and he gained a little will back to clobber Torch with the tire iron. Beau tried to stab him, but missed because Randy used a once-per-game dodge. Randy fought back, but dropped the tire iron on a natural one.. Beau ran the saber through his eyes. It was strangely sad, grim and utterly brutal in a way that board games NEVER are.

It was such a narratively specific turn of events...but it could have unfolded 1000 other ways up to that point, and that exact situation will likely not happen again. It was thrilling too, even though there was no chance for Randy to win in this situation...but we played it out because we _had_ to. We had to see what happened, and it was crucial to the themes that Randy keep fighting, keep trying to survive. Because he stalled them, it did actually turn into a win for the campers, Ginger ran through the chapel, hidden, and off the map. Just after the Raiders walkie-talkied to the Gravedigger, who was sinister. He was coming into the church with a shovel when she got out. Skin of the teeth.

I'm revising my GOTY 2014 picks. It's a joint win for Psycho Raiders and Mushroom Eaters. I can do that, it's my award.

Jeez, it's been out a year already? I don't know where time goes these days. Moving this to top of priority list.

According to my tracking number, now it appears that Psycho Raiders will in fact make it in time for my game night Saturday. There will be 6 of us, so do you think it will work to have 2 people run 2 raiders each, and the other 4 run 1 camper each? Assuming horrible luck on the part of any given camper, how long will someone have to sit out once he gets got?

Nobody sits out.

Have 2 players as Raiders and 1 each play a camper. When a camper dies, they play a townsfolk...not knowing what their role is until the point where a Raider tells them that their specific guy is evil. Raiders can't play townsfolk until after a reveal, IMO, and when a townsfolk turns, the Raider takes them over and the dead camper player takes over a different townsfolk.

It works pretty well because campers don't seem to die until they've already gotten most of the way to town. That's a limited view, only 2 plays, but it worked for us.

Oh, and spectating is like watching a horror movie BEING FILMED. It's oddly satisfying. It's the same thing as watching a Spatracus gladiator battle, sort of. Cheering on your side and sipping bourbon.

Good times

I can't wait! I'm hoping I can digest the rules in the short span of time I'll have. Is the first play kind of rough?

One thing I deleted from my post was that there used to be a radio station (Psycho Raidio) that you could play in the background. It was atmospheric as fuck with bits of dialogue from the Raiders. Hopefully they'll bring it back. EEE did this with Cave Evil which was so awesome I would listen.to it at work. www.cave-evil.com/KVVL/

Nate and his crew KNOW what they are doing.

The whole package is phenomenal.

UPDATE: Found a bit of the soundtrack here:
microtoxin.bandcamp.com/album/psycho-raiders-radio-tracks

That soundtrack looks like a fun addition to the game. I will probably still make my own soundtrack as well, focusing on actual music from that time period. Haven't decided if I will go with creepy Tangerine Dream style early electronica, '70s metal, or maybe just the current Top 40 from the week of Halloween 1978.

Damn, I would need to subscribe to Billboard.com to get that official chart. Looking elsewhere, I at least found a top 40 for 1978, which includes these possible appropriate or ironic candidates:

Stayin Alive / the Bee Gees
Hot Blooded / Foreigner
Miss You / The Rolling Stones
We Will Rock You / Queen
We Are The Champions / Queen
Two Out of Three Ain't Bad / Meatloaf
Dust In the Wind / Kansas
Love is Like Oxygen / Sweet
Three Times a Lady / the Commodores
Baby Come Back / Player

Expanding it to include 1977:

Torn Between Two Lovers / Mary MacGregor
I'm Your Boogie Man / KC & the Sunshine Band
Hotel California / the Eagles
Easy / the Commodores
Fly Like an Eagle / Steve Miller
Looks Like We Made It / Barry Manilow
So Into You / Altanta Rhythm Section
Dreams / Fleetwood Mac
Don't Give Up On Us / David Soul
Mr. Breeze / Lynyrd Skynyrd (Didn't make the Top 40, but deserves inclusion)

I'm unclear on something... the game blurb says there are 4 campers but everything else seems to indicate only 3 campers. Which is the correct number?

hotseatgames wrote: I'm unclear on something... the game blurb says there are 4 campers but everything else seems to indicate only 3 campers. Which is the correct number?

One camper met his unfortunate end right before you play the game and finish the story.

I figured that's what it was... I suppose now with 6 players I'll have 3 play as campers and 3 play as raiders; we can collaborate on the extra raider.

Thanks for the review Anthony! Psycho Raidio is back up. Not sure what had happened. www.cave-evil.com/psychos/#

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Channel 1 Psycho Raidio,
Channel 2 Irish Halloween (takes a moment to load),
Channel 3 (Murder Radio),
Channel 3 Gravedigger's Greatest Hits,
Channel 5 Storms

Time Dial mixes all

Shit, that's right. That's what I get for chasing the dragon before going psycho, I guess.