We're telling tales and stacking dice.
That's right, it's Icarus from Hunters Entertainment.
(upbeat music)
This storytelling game about how great civilizations fall
puts players in the role of storytellers,
collectively building a narrative about the city of Icarus,
and its monument of prosperity represented
by a dice tower in the center of the table.
Setup begins by separating the cards
and creating the story deck.
First, organize the cards by type.
Pillars of society,
motives,
The cracks in our facade,
The rifts between us,
the final hours,
and the bitter end card.
To create the story deck, take the single bitter end card
and place it face down on the table.
Next, shuffle the final hours cards
and place them face down on top of the bitter end.
Then shuffle the rifts between us cards
and deal five face down on the stack.
Repeat this process for the cracks in our facade,
then put the remaining cards from those piles
out of the game.
Next, choose the setting or the theme of the story
that the players will explore in the game.
Go around the table and collectively choose a theme.
Or you can use the suggestions in the Icarus rule book,
like a frontier town in the American West.
Or a fantastic magical city in the heart
of an ancient world.
Whatever you choose, the group will develop
a shared story about the rise, and eventual fall,
of this great city of Icarus.
Once the group has agreed on a setting, shuffle
the 12 pillars of society cards and deal cards face up
equal to the number of players plus one.
Each player will now chose one pillar
that they're interested in exploring during the game
and place it in front of them.
The remaining pillar stays in the center of the table
to serve as the foundation of the monument.
Pillar cards each have a strength and a weakness question.
Collectively choose one pillars weakness question
to explore in the game,
whichever is most interesting to your group.
The remaining pillars will all be strength questions.
Once picked, the player who's pillar was chosen answers
the weakness question aloud in a short, succinct response.
The rest of the players follow suit,
answering the strength question on their card.
These responses will be used to create aspects.
These are notes in the game where players write
their answers to the questions posed by the cards,
expanding on the world.
Aspects should be specific, yet simple.
The aspect placement on the table
should also reflect its nature.
For example, an aspect that says,
"The grain fields have been poisoned
and people are getting sick because of it"
would probably sit somewhere between
the agriculture and health pillars.
Throughout the game, aspects can be replaced
by removing the old aspect and putting another in its place,
or augmented by creating a new aspect and placing it nearby.
Next, shuffle the motive cards and deal one
randomly to each player.
Everyone will combine their motive
and their personal pillar to create a character
they'll control during the game.
If you chose the pillar, safety, and received
the protect the citizens motive, you could be playing
the role of a good-hearted sheriff,
looking out for the people of her town.
Each player should write their character's name,
and how they relate to their motive
and pillar on a note available to all players.
Finally, place the dice within easy reach
outside of the pillars.
Now the players discuss the purpose of the monument
slash tower, based on the monuments chosen pillar
and the city.
Then players create an aspect collaboratively,
answering the question, what is the monument's function?
This may be something simple like,
to show off our power to the surrounding colonies.
Or it might be more practical like,
a giant watchtower to keep the city safe.
Remove the pillar card and put the aspect in its place
near the center of the table.
Draw two cards from the story deck and place them face up.
Read them both aloud and answer the questions
together as a group, creating or replacing aspects
to reflect the answers.
Choose a first player to begin.
Gameplay occurs in rounds, during which,
each player takes a turn.
In a turn, the active player chooses between two actions.
Enact a change, by placing one die on an aspect
their character would like to spend time addressing.
That player describes the change, and how they hope
to achieve it.
Or support a cause by placing one die on an aspect
that already has a die to support that change,
and describing how their character would support the effort,
giving it a better chance to succeed.
After the die has been placed,
the active player draws the next card from
the story deck and answers the question,
creating or replacing an aspect as needed.
Sometimes these changes might modify or replace an aspect
that already has a character's die placed on it.
If this is the case, place the die
on the new aspect instead.
The character must adapt to this changed situation
when they resolve their die.
At the end of the round, once all players have taken
an action and answered a story card,
the first player adds one die to the tower to indicate
that time has passed.
The players who's dice are on any aspects
role plays what their characters are trying to do.
When the scene reaches it's climax,
the player, or players, should describe
what success would look like and roll all the dice
on the aspect.
If any of the dice rolls results in a pillar symbol,
the change succeeds, and an aspect is created or replaced
to reflect this change.
If the dice are all blank, an aspect is created or replaced
to represent a major consequence of their failure.
Regardless of the outcome, any blank dice
are added to the tower.
If a die is already on the monument,
another is added on top.
Once all dice have been resolved,
first player privileges are passed to the left
and the game continues, starting another round
with the new first player.
When adding or replacing an aspect,
players may find that another aspect on the table
no longer makes sense.
Don't hesitate to change or remove it
for narrative cohesion.
At some point during the game, the dice tower's gonna fall.
This triggers the final collapse of the civilization,
and also ends the game.
Players answer three questions as a group
before walking away from this society forever.
What caused the tower to collapse?
What happened to your character in the aftermath?
And what became of this civilization after its fall?
And that's Icarus.
I'm Becca Scott and I got a tale.
It's called The Epic of Beatrice.
So Beatrice, what happened to her whole party?
Nobody knows.
But I know and I'm looking for a publisher.
Hit me up, Simon.
Or Shcuster, either one.
You can watch me play this game and other awesome games
on Game the Game, right here on Geek & Sundry.
We will see you there.
(upbeat music)