The latest episode of the Dice Hate Me podcast they discuss the design principles of My Father’s Work. Sounds like they’re aiming for a long thematic event (3-5hr?) game that portrays the ups and downs of a legacy campaign within a single game. So I expect lots of mid-games interruptions that skew the game like the early Pandemic Legacy levels?
The different scenarios cover different horror elements (Frankenstein, Dracula, etc). Sounds interesting for sure!
Thanks for the details. I see the appeal but that makes it an easy pass for me. I have enough trouble getting 2hr games to the table, lol.
Yeah, they weren’t clear exactly how long it would take to play. One host said in passing, words to the effect of ‘I’d rather play a 4 or 5 hour event game like [MFW] than a massive legacy campaign’, and the designer didn’t correct them, and they briefly discussed it being an event game (e.g. thinking it’s worth sprucing up the quality of components), so I imagine it’s on the long side.
I said 3-5 hr to be slightly generous in case that was a slip up. Definitely going to be over 2 hours since they said at the beginning they class an event game as being at least 2 hours.
To me, it sounds like a game I’d love to play 2 or 3 times, but would never want to own. Much like a mega game, the novelty is a big part of the draw. Although the same scenario can go in lots of different ways, I imagine the surprise factor wears off pretty fast.
I’d probably rather play something like that over a legacy campaign as well, but I also avoid those outside of Gloomhaven.
It’s definitely a game I’d like to try, but I have no reason to own it.
I am curious what the playtime will be listed at on the KS page.
I wonder how easy it would be to split a single game of MFW into three separate sessions – how much state you’d need to store. For people who have relatively short sessions but can reliably get the same group together. (BGG says “120 minutes” fwiw, which presumably comes from the publisher.)
The designer did an AMA on BGG and said:
On game length: 2 to 3 hours, but your first game WILL be longer (and it goes up with number of players). He got a 2 player with experienced folks in at under 2 hours.
On when to pause:
"Probably between Generations is the best place to pause, BUT I know Renegade is making sure to have a “pause” feature in the app so that you can pick up where you left off at any main Round Hub page. Even in this earlier stage, MegaCat (electronic side) have a “continue” button built into the final version of the app so that players can save their progress and hop back in. It’ll be implemented later, but its part of the plan for sure.
As far as fully tearing down and reseting, that one is tougher. I think at that point you’d have to take a picture to be safe and definitely would want to make it the End of a Generation so that all the tracks reset. But, all your Estate upgrades are inset in double-thick punchboard, along with the slots for cubes on your Journal tracks, and since almost everything goes away at the end of a Generation, you’d only have 2 or 3 cards to keep with each player. Not so bad for saving."
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2640187/my-fathers-work-ama-kickstarter-date-427/page/1
I presume this is a game which depends on a digital app?
Yep. Some argument in the AMA on whether that’s a good thing, designer said it couldn’t work any other way. I expect the KS campaign will provide details.
They talk about decisions/choices for the players which I assume is where the app is essential to control the permeation of routes but time will tell.
I would like if they came up with a nifty save option for the board state.
Is it different enough from Dice Hospital, for which I haven’t even cracked open the expansions yet?
And they’re doing the “big deluxe pack with minis also has gameplay content” thing again, which I really don’t like.
I’m leaning towards a “probably not” at this point.
In these days of incremental designs, it seems like the go to is usually “better for people new to the franchise, but not worth it for people with the other game”… except when it’s not.
I have a friend who was put off Dice Hospital because of the theme (choosing who lives or dies was a bit icky for them, even before the pandemic), so maybe a re-skin will solve that?
I’ve played Theme Park. You can’t tell me that won’t be in this one.
The last time they relaunched this it was the “ultimate edition”, which annoys my inner pedant. But mostly, while I liked the idea of “what if Tales of the Arabian Nights but in Sixties Spy-fi?”, the actual story choices dropped suddenly into a gritty reality very much at odds with the presentation.
I just thought the original editing etc was terrible. It might have been improved since then but I didn’t care enough to partake. This…we’ll see. I’m gonna watch gameplay and see if it’s actually good now. I want the pitch very much. But…what I got originally…nah.
I desperately want a Sixties Spy-Fi game, but not at that price for something that is roughly based on the Tales of Arabian Nights framework. I just don’t have a lot of patience or love for flimsy storytelling games that specifically aren’t over in 20 minutes or less.
It’s interesting that they have Big Trouble in Little China The Game listed on their “products available in pledge manager” infographic. I was pretty sure that game was out of stock and never-to-be-reprinted.
Agents of SMERSH may be a game that I could really get into… but at that price for something that seems so misaligned with my preferences, it’s a hard pass.
I received an early warning of this via newsletter… this morning. I had not heard about it previously but I am intrigued by this latest offering from ION Games. The design is by Matt Eklund (whom I know from Pax Transhumanity) and it’s a game of social deduction (I deduced this from BGGs set of mechanics) for 2-9 [edit: initially I wrote 1-9 I misread on BGG] players aboard a space station with a playtime between 1 and 2 hours.
It has an endorsement from Cole Wehrle on the KS which is not something I see all the time. There will be a Heavy Cardboard playthrough (big surprise) before the KS ends and there is a TTS mod to look at:
(this one is labeled beginner setup, there is another one without that label)
As the expensive components (minis and neoprene mat) are optional, and the base game price is fair enough but not on the cheap side with $64, I’ll be checking out some of the videos to find out if this one is for me.
A social deduction game for 1 player?
I know it is a bit weird. It says something about hidden roles and deduction–the label social deduction was mine. So my best guess is that there is a weird solo mode to this? I am checking out the TTS mod right now (waiting for my Pax Pamir people to show up). The space station has Therapy Garden and Magnetic Containment where you can eject antimatter 
and the escape pods have names… cute.
I stand corrected, I misread on BGG. It is 2-9 players. Makes more sense. Sorry about that.
Also: shipping is expensive. $25 for basegame shipping to EU…