In which we talk about the solo mode, especially the trolley-dash-monster-smash combination move. And AireCon, and two more pictures!
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the library! With 12 days left on the Kickstarter, we are now 160% funded. That’s just over £22k, and we are hoping it might reach as high as £30k by the end of March. As always, I’m Jess, part of the team, and your narrator.
AireCon
Mill and I spent last weekend at AireCon, which is a convention in Yorkshire. Mill picked me up and we drove there — a good four hours plus from my place, and much further from Mill’s. But it was definitely worth it.
AireCon is a very friendly, informal convention. There is a lot of space given over to open gaming tables and big games such as Werewolf. We had a demo table for the weekend and were showing Library Labyrinth all weekend. By the end, my throat was very sore…and then after the weekend both Mill and I discovered that we had picked up covid. We’re fine, and both had spent the weekend wearing masks, but it is rather frustrating. Anyway, here are some photos of us at AireCon.
Mill also met Rodney of Watch It Played, and almost won an interactive game of Yogi involving betting on players (pure, amazing chaos!). We’ll be back next year!
What’s this about a dash smash something move?
Ah ha, the Trolley Dash Monster Smash move! Or terror smash. Naming is not quite fixed yet.
I’ve been playing the solo mode on Library Labyrinth in the last couple of days. In this version, you have a semi-sentient trolley companion. It’s a little library trolley which helps you in the library by keeping some of your books for you, or by checking out dark corners for hidden terrors. Mechanically it’s a) an additional hand of cards which you can go and get when you need, and b) a way to flip over floor tiles in two different sections of the board.
One of the things I’ve been testing is the idea that you and you trolley could combine skills. Every now and again you come across a sititution where you want to defeat a terror, but one of the cards you need is on the trolley. You could pick up an additional card, but that’s an extra move, plus you might not have space in your hand. You could move to the trolley, swap some of the cards around, and then go capture the terror, but that’s two extra moves. What if you could pick up your trolley as you moved, and then defeat the terror together?
Imagine it happening like this. You see the Big Bad Wolf on the far side of the library. You have Gordafarid in your hand — a Persian champion who delays an invading army long enough to change the outcome. On your trolley you can see Lorna Doone, the resilient heiress brought up by a band of thieves. If you combine Gordafarid’s strength with Lorna’s fairness and resourcefulness, you can capture the Big Bad Wolf. So you spring into action — rushing round a corner you leap on the trolley, pushing it round to the left, opening both books as you do so, whizzing along the corridor, smashing into the startled wolf and ta da! One monster captured.
It’s definitely being included in the solo rules. And maybe, just maybe, we might find a way to add the trolley into a two player variant.
Would you like to see the move in action? Of course you would!
You may have noticed that in that picture the grid doesn’t have all the tiles. There are no corners! I’ve found that for the solo game it works better if the grid is 21 rather than 25 tiles. You find everything more easily, and spend less time hunting for things.
What else is new?
In the last newsletter, the Kraken was not quite coloured in. It’s now complete, and we have it and the Pit & the Pendulum below. What do you think?
What’s next?
As we are in the middle of the mid-campaign slump (and still not 100%, what with covid), then anything you can do to help get the word out would be fabulous, and very very much appreciated. Here are the important links:
- Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dissentgames/library-labyrinth
- Full playable game on Screentop: https://screentop.gg/@DissentGames/LibraryLabyrinth
- Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/416452332782608
- Website with newsletters: https://www.librarylabyrinth.com
Library Labyrinth 