Penny Dreadfuls of Victorian London: A Deep Dive Critical Boardgame Review

[@jonathanwarner2893]

I do respect that the authors of these cases were experimenting with a new and in some ways very open system. I think each case had good ideas and at the same time found issues that could exist with this system. Having been there for all the cases and sort of getting a feeling for more general problems that seemed to exist in all cases, here is some advice to any one who is interested in making another case. I'm not trying to say these are the definitive correct answers. But I think there worth considering or at least they hopefully draw some attention to some issues that others can come up with better solutions to. Some advice for future case authors: 1. Don't be afraid to keep us in one location for more than a couple of cards. And work on creating more connective tissue between different locations we visit. I think this would help make the journey feel more deliberate. 2. Don't rely on one big twist in the story. It's hard to land one big twist with the length of these sessions. 3. Keep inventory management simple at the start of the story. Either just give the players some starting items and let them come into effect later in the story, or offer them a collection of items to pick from at the very start. But don't give them some items and then immediately start challenging them to discard them in order to acquire different items at the very start. 4. Either lean more into hiding information in the images on the back of cards or make sure the art on the back of cards always helps to tell the story. In the case of storytelling if it's not a portrait of a person makes sure the item being depicted is visually interesting and has clear relevance. 5. If you want to lean more into deduction make the votes, especially near the end, based around deduction and understanding the case. The votes could be about picking the right culprit, going to the right location to catch them, going to the right location to get the final piece of evidence. 6. If you want to lean more into thriller add in some more trials but make them cost less early on and be a little less punishing to loose. That way there could be more tension as cubes dwindle near the end. And some debate about whether to lose an early or mid game trial. You could also make the outcome of the trials result less in leading to a game over but still have a very bad narrative consequence if you fail. Similar to suggestion 7 below. 7. Another type of vote that should be added to the cases are a moral/psychological decision. Jesse often talks about how games should include these and this seems like another example where it would shine. Near the end could have to make a decision to maybe let the culprit who is less evil than we first thought escape. These seem like they would be very interesting votes in a group. 8. Don't be afraid to obscure the threat a bit more at the beginning of the case and to draw from more obscure works of literature.

[@mattc3780]

I see where Jesse is coming from. They tried some new things, and a broken game that tries something new is more fascinating than a broken game that fails to be original. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the game at all and found it mildly infuriating but I can see finding enjoyment in exploring a new mechanic that might be applied better elsewhere. The gameplay really got under my skin because it had some narratively pointless mechanics that just act as busy work, like moving pieces around a board for trivial reasons, flipping cards and moving them around to different spaces, etc. I also felt like we spent far more time shuffling things around and checking the rules than feeling immersed. The narrative part of the game seemed to fall into a tell versus show style of writing that also hampers immersion. I got pretty excited when we started having to choose inventory items. I could start to picture this system coming together, with some sort of item trading mechanic based on deduction, but it was all just kind of random and item trading wasn't really important. Many items were never referred to again. It didn't feel like we needed a game board and all those location tiles just for this. The tiles with Greek letters, shapes, and colors were very counterintuitive. At one point we had a yellow alpha triangle and a yellow alpha pentagon on the same card that were two different things. It would have been helpful to put pictures on the back of the tiles to improve the immersion. I do think the idea of a competitive wagering system in a deduction game is really clever and maybe a future game will be inspired by this.

[@COOPFORTWO]

Just as a first comment let me say that this game does have its very real charms, and despite my criticisms I would be happy to play more scenarios written for it. -jesse

[@mattc3780]

I'd give it another chance if they found a way to apply your feedback and improve on it. There were some moments that I had "hope" that it could be something great

[@debbielevy3539]

I'm intrigued by the use of 'AI' mechanics for a solo / two-player game, even if it doesn't work especially well here. I don't think I've seen that in a board game before.

[@COOPFORTWO]

Another comment -- you might expect from the tutorial case, which is clearly based on the real life story of Jack the Ripper, that the rest of the cases will be continuing the story of Jack the Ripper. Not so. All of the other cases are self-contained little stories that have nothing to do with that.

[@clipomaniabestmovieclips4421]

Jesse Do you know board games that are based on Jack The Ripper cases, or some personal board game Jack The Ripper , and you have sub and new fan from Serbia cheers mate

[@COOPFORTWO]

There are a bunch of Jack the Ripper inspired board games. There are the two hidden movement boardgames made by same publisher of Penny Dreadfulls called "Letters from Whitechapel" and "Whitehall Mystery". There is the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective box: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204305/sherlock-holmes-consulting-detective-jack-ripper-w There is also a CosyKiller case called "Marlborough House" which is based on Jack the Ripper There are also some geeklists on boardgamegeek: boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/13522/jack-ripper-games and boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/154800/games-about-jack-ripper