A Touch of Evil, The Supernatural Game

[supervike]

Hmm! Does sound very promising.

[Old Dwarf]

Here's more frob BGG & GenCon:

The Booth, the Company, and The Designer A+++
Jason Hill and several “actors” were there at the booth signing autographs and demoing LNOE and A Touch Of Evil. I was lucky enough to get there early and play the game right away. I have to say everyone from Flying Frog was extremely friendly and enthusiastic about talking to fans and potential buyers. I though Jason was extremely patient, polite, funny, and good at teaching the game. I have met several game designers but he was easily one of the most gracious. I voiced my concern for the game board (more on that in a moment) and he was very receptive to constructive criticism about it, sharing with me that not all people liked it, while explaining what they were going for in the design motif. He actually provided an excellent supportive explanation for the board design. He wanted an old parchment/Grimms fairly tale hand drawn look, and wanted to make sure people did not treat the game as a tactical adventure (like LNOE is).

The Game
The Basic Game Rundown
You can play A Touch of Evil as a cooperative or competitive game. Unlike LNOE one person does not play the role of the villain. Instead, each person plays an investigator hired by the town elders to search for clues to the evil that is haunting the town. There is a race against the “shadow track” to find and kill the villain/creature. The shadow track is not like a normal turn track in that every turn the track moves one. The track moves when cards demand it to, when elders are killed, or when certain events occur. When someone is ready to take on the villain they buy a lair card (telling the investigator where the villain’s lair is), go to the proper location, and then have a “Showdown” with the villain. In the competitive game, the first person to defeat the villain wins; in the cooperative game the team wins when they defeat the villain. In the cooperative game the villains are significantly tougher.
A turn consists of:
The first player rolls one die for movement.
If they roll a one they get an event card. They can decide to move, or stay in their current location. If they stay they must role one die to check for lingering monsters. If they roll a one they must roll another die to check which monster minion they must fight.

If the player chooses to move they can move up to their dice roll (and any movement modifiers). If there is a monster in their path, they must end their turn in the path location of the monster and fight the monster.
Then the player takes actions

Encounter the Space (if it is a named space)
Try to collect investigation tokens from the board (if there are any already on the board)
Heal a Wound for three investigation tokens
Look at a town Elder’s Secrets
Buy A Lair Card (price based on Shadow Track)
Start a showdown.
The player can take as many actions as they can afford.

This continues with all the players. When each player has had the turn, player one must draw a “Mystery” card. Mystery cards are usually bad, such as the monster killing one of the town elders, or player one having to fight the creature in a showdown one round battle.

I played this game seven times over the course of Gen Con (four times in the board game commons) and every time I played it, people came up and wanted to know more about the game, play it, and for many, decided to buy it from the Flying Frog booth.

Evaluation
The Pros
This game is a bit heavier than a beer and pretzels game, but a bit lighter than some RPGish board games like Runebound. The comparisons are going to be made so think of this game as an Arkham Horror game that can be completed in up to a ¼ of the time. I don’t think the comparisons to Arkham are that close, and personally I find the fun factor and flow of A Touch of Evil to be much better than Arkham and I love Arkham (even though I sold it because since I moved I only played it twice). I think this game will appeal to all kinds of different gamers and I strongly suggest pre-ordering a copy as soon as possible because this will sell out…I promise you!!!!
The production quality on almost everything is simply awesome. The colors are vivid; the dice are normal (no Cyclops ones), lots of chrome via bits. The rules have very few errors, clear, well organized, and the manual is full of manuals and illustrations.
The player interaction is high (several screw your neighbor cards), the game is tense, challenging but not too much, and can be completed within an hour as a two or there player as long as people know the game. I imagine the first few games will take longer as investigators will try to gain too main items to ready themselves for a fight. In a three player game demo, one person who never played the game before killed the villain in less than 45 minutes. The box insert is nice but there are tons of bits so bring your baggies because you will need them.

The Cons
Like LNOE the cards stick to each other (not as bad but they still do). Be carefully to bend the decks before you separate. I had a friend help me unpack the game and one of the cards had a corner graphic peel off the back. (Luckily it was a town item blacksmith card, which are not hidden but common cards).

The one big complaint is the game board. I would have like to see it be modular for expansions (although I guess new towns could be created). I think it is too small, and the graphics just don’t pop like the graphics on the rest of the game items. However, thematically speaking, I understand the choices for the board and I would be satisfied if the board were just a bit bigger. However, this is such a small complaint that I would not hesitate to buy this game.

I rate this game a 9/10.

Tom
(johnnyspys)

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I do find it interesting that they have a Card expansion ready to go
pictures have been posted on BGG (for now anway)

OD

[mqstout]

I will be getting my copy of AToE on Wednesday (a friend went to GenCon). I hope to get a group together to try it out this weekend.

[Old Dwarf]

mqstout Wrote:I will be getting my copy of AToE on Wednesday (a friend went to GenCon). I hope to get a group together to try it out this weekend.

Envy just emerald green envy...well let us know how it
goes.

OD

[Canadian Pittbull]

Yeah do tell how it goes since the rest of us have to wait. I have mind pre-ordered now just waiting patiently to give it a go.

[zombie67]

Just looking at the pictures posted on BGG and this one really made me laugh:


With thanks to original BGG poster "johnnyspys"!


The Cartwrights seem to have been a most unfortunate family throughout history! Not one of them seems to have settled down!

[supervike]

Hmmm...

Maybe it's not Jake's family...but JAKE himself!!

That dude is STRANGE indeed!

[mqstout]

I got my copy, I can't wait to play it. I'm making calls, trying to schedule something for the weekend.

[Canadian Pittbull]

supervike Wrote:Hmmm...

Maybe it's not Jake's family...but JAKE himself!!

That dude is STRANGE indeed!

Jake has aTime Machine? Interesting...

[Old Dwarf]

I GOT MINE!!!!
I came home for lunch & notice a package on the porch
& thought it was my replacement figs from a BattleLore Expansion
screw up(although it looked rather big for that)It was AToE-YES

I was #2 on the FFP preorder list,of course I have to go back to the office now.

I figured I had a month to fool around with "Warriors of God"
a board game on the 100 year war......now I'm going to be torn
but I think I'll have to hold off an actual AToE game till be do
Warriors of God as my group was pumped for it.

OD