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solo_knightPlaythrough/Review: The Wizard’s Missing Gemstone
What is it?
A game where you walk around a small town looking for clues what happened to the Wizard’s Missing Gemstone.
Is it playable out of the box?
I had to make one ruling about what happens after I hear a rumour: go to the indicataed location (instruction) but do I then roll for what happens or just talk to the indicated NPC? I chose rolling.
Amendments:
Next time I’ll give myself a bonus to conversations because dear fucking gods, nobody wanted to talk to me and I more or less got -1 to all conversations until I gained the second clue.
It’s supposed to take 15-30 minutes; it took me almost an hour and half, and I took no breaks.
Oh. In the conversations on the game page it turns out that you choose the location. I just rolled for them.
I also did not like the resolution mechanic; it would be more fun (and make no actual difference) if I could decide who the culprit was, based on the evidence I’ve collected.
Tools
d4/6/8/10
Price:
Pay what you want
Verdict
🚂 Honourably Retired
⛏️ Pickup game
I played this because it is the prequel to the game I meant to play, Dungeoneer for Hire. 15-30 minutes sounded doable.
This turned out to be wrong, but it’s still a short game that does not need much brain. It also offers somewhat limited opportunity for roleplay - the setting is only sketched, and the NPCs are mere names.
I’m very interested in mysteries, and this was certainly an interesting mechanic. I found it a little unsatisfactory: while there is a win/lose condition it depends on rolls you made earlier, you roll for the suspect, and the ‘solving the mystery’ part is mere flavour text, so that’s not quite as satisfying as it could have been, so I’m not sure at this point what would make it wholly satisfying.
But that’s part of exploring mysteries, which will… happen in June 2028.
I can see myself playing this again just as a quick ‘I wanna roll some dice’ game.
Because the game relies on inventing six locations, with three NPs and three rumours per location, this is not osmething you can whip up and integrate in an RPG/adventure.
But yes, as a quick and dirty standalone game this was more fun than a lot of things I tried to play.
What is it?
A game where you walk around a small town looking for clues what happened to the Wizard’s Missing Gemstone.
Is it playable out of the box?
I had to make one ruling about what happens after I hear a rumour: go to the indicataed location (instruction) but do I then roll for what happens or just talk to the indicated NPC? I chose rolling.
Amendments:
Next time I’ll give myself a bonus to conversations because dear fucking gods, nobody wanted to talk to me and I more or less got -1 to all conversations until I gained the second clue.
It’s supposed to take 15-30 minutes; it took me almost an hour and half, and I took no breaks.
Oh. In the conversations on the game page it turns out that you choose the location. I just rolled for them.
I also did not like the resolution mechanic; it would be more fun (and make no actual difference) if I could decide who the culprit was, based on the evidence I’ve collected.
Tools
d4/6/8/10
Price:
Pay what you want
Verdict
🚂 Honourably Retired
⛏️ Pickup game
I played this because it is the prequel to the game I meant to play, Dungeoneer for Hire. 15-30 minutes sounded doable.
This turned out to be wrong, but it’s still a short game that does not need much brain. It also offers somewhat limited opportunity for roleplay - the setting is only sketched, and the NPCs are mere names.
I’m very interested in mysteries, and this was certainly an interesting mechanic. I found it a little unsatisfactory: while there is a win/lose condition it depends on rolls you made earlier, you roll for the suspect, and the ‘solving the mystery’ part is mere flavour text, so that’s not quite as satisfying as it could have been, so I’m not sure at this point what would make it wholly satisfying.
But that’s part of exploring mysteries, which will… happen in June 2028.
I can see myself playing this again just as a quick ‘I wanna roll some dice’ game.
Because the game relies on inventing six locations, with three NPs and three rumours per location, this is not osmething you can whip up and integrate in an RPG/adventure.
But yes, as a quick and dirty standalone game this was more fun than a lot of things I tried to play.
