A Tale of Two Toms - Sons of Liberty Playtest
So last night we played the second installment of our Sons of Liberty playtest where we are trying out the Campaign Mode. We have cleared the Stamp Acts phase and we are now in Shot Heard Round the World.
Last night it was Mark, Judson, and I. Turo, who played in the first session where we cleared Stamp Acts, couldn’t make it, but the game continued undeterred, as it is meant to. It was rather gratifying how much this was not a problem; I don’t want to say that I was happy that Turo didn’t game with us, but I was happy to see that Turo not being able to play didn’t upset the game.
Mark wanted to give the Tory player a try this time around, so Judson and I picked Patriot figures. I played Tom Paine; Judson went with Thomas Jefferson, who Mark played in the prior session. Again, the repeat of characters was a great, big non-issue, and that made me happy. This was also the first time we played with the Tory figures prepared and “on-line” so Mark picked up Governor William Tryon to start with (although he switched to Dunmore later, see below).
We drew objectives and filled out the mad libs sheet, although this time we only bantered about the primary objective and left the three opportune objectives to be fleshed out in cut scenes. I really liked this change, as it led to more fluid play and a sense of possibility and unknown that hasn’t been part of the game since the first (single-objective, multiple-scene) playtest. Our primary objective was “The Sons of Liberty must disassemble an apprentice while the British smuggle an author.” Our interpretation was, of course, that General Howe’s aide-de-camp was a cunning clockwork boy who advised him on tactical matters. While Howe was distracted getting a pro-Tory anti-revolution author into the colonies, we could sabotage the aide-de-camp.
When I did up Thomas Paine’s favored circumstances, I nabbed “while flying his ornithopter” right quick. (I also took “when impersonating an officer,” “witnessing and reporting,” and “using pamphlets.”) So the opening travel scene saw the two Toms flying south to Savannah. Mark had us pursued by a “Flying Snake” British airship. We were outgunned, but the intervention of the Turtle evened the odds and we captured the airship. End of travel hand.
I got the cut scene, so I picked up the opportune objective “The Sons of Liberty must forge a customs house lest the British install a fleet.” The cut scene consisted of the two Toms enjoying the airship captain’s store of brandy and discovering plans to build an entire fleet of the things to crush the revolution. All the parts, however, were coming in through a customs house in Savannah, so we decided to subvert the customs house and divert the parts to Valley Forge. I really, really liked how the next objective was developed from within the progress of the game rather than before play began in earnest. It felt natural and created a less jerky story.
So the two Toms stormed the custom house and rather soundly trounced what little opposition there was. Mark’s chosen starter Tory figure could only lock down sets of 5s and 7s, and none of these came up in the course of that scene. This became the “big problem” of this playtest. The Tory figures were implemented, sure, but it turns out that their abilities are so narrowly defined that it is quite possible for the Tory player to be unable to actually exercise them. This was a problem, especially since the “value” of the hand is determined by how often those abilities are used. So while Judson and I won the hand, we didn’t actually win anything mechanical. Still, we kicked the redcoats out of Savannah and raised Betsy Ross’ new flag. Booyeah for us. It’s also important to note that that hollow victory was our last.
Tory partisans had scattered out into the hills surrounding Savannah; in the next cut scene we selected the objective “The Sons of Liberty must deliver a court before the British arm colonists.” The interpretation was, of course, that we had to set up a proper government in Savannah to find and disarm those Tory partisans before the British gave them enough guns that they could retake the city. It was here that Mark ditched Tryon and picked up Dunmore. Mark exercised his abuse (militia of ex-slaves) and usurpation (collusion with the Shawnee) three or four times, and this was a glory to behold. There was tons of setting color injected into the game on a pretty organic, natural basis. Backed up by his militia of freed slaves and Shawnee allies, Dunmore kicked us the hell out of Savannah. I didn’t mind very much because it felt so appropriate.
Judson took the next cut scene and directed us at the objective “The Sons of Liberty must destroy a brother mason lest the British rescue a heliograph station.” There was a destroyed heliograph station, Judson explained to us, and a fellow mason was being manipulated through his pride to help rebuild the tower bigger and grander than before. We had to stop this or else word would get to Howe about the insurrection in Savannah and he’d know something was afoot. The two Toms leapt to action… and totally ate it. Whether it was poor cards in our hands or Mark competently shutting us down, we got nowhere here, tried to infiltrate the mason’s manor and embarrass him but the British found us out and we had to run for the hills.
Round about here, we were looking at Mark’s stack of 12 Tyranny, and realized that only the Primary Objective was left and Judson and I would have to get 34 cards on the table before Mark collected his three face cards, which was a tall order. After a desperate cut scene in a rickety shack, the two Toms resolved to give it their best for the cause of liberty. We infiltrated (using connections with the staff attending to Howe’s camp), we pamphletted (silencing captives by stuffing their mouths with pamphlets), we loomed (Jefferson is 6′2″!)… we got into General Howe’s inner sanctum, loaded a wax cylinder of seditious lies into the clockwork aide-de-camp… and then Mark called the question. We had 33 cards on the table to his 34 points. We lost by ONE POINT.
The sabotage of the aide-de-camp was discovered, repaired, and the yellow-bellied monarchist author was smuggled into the colonies. The two Toms fled into the night, flew off in Paine’s ornithopter, defeated for the day but alive to fight another day.
This was a very positive playtest; I was somewhat concerned that the Tory player was sort of a chump source of adversity there to kind of challenge you but not really. The inclusion of the Tory figures really evens the playing field and makes the Tory player very competitive. We had more than a few currency issues, but they were plain and transparent currency issues, and the way forward is pretty clear, there.