Had a lot of fun running this game, especially since Penguins are my favorites! Did find a few rules to be a bit finicky and changed them -
I ruled that using items will allow to draw another card in the deal phase
I ruled Secret Agendas counting for the hand valuer is a one time thing after revealing them.
so, very minor things overall. The random tables were a lot of fun, we had a Walrus named "Lieutenant Colonel Mayonnaise" trying to put the world under a new ice age, and out Agents had to travel to Australia to get the crumpled note with his password from a nature preserve, dealing with Airport security, a Parrot with a smartphone and a pack of armed Dingo 4.5/5
I played this lovely little game with my family for a game night get together. We always watched spy movies growing up so we a had a great handle on the tropes for this kind of genre. We sat down at the dinner table with a print out of the rules and a deck of cards and figured out together. Even my parents, who had never played a roleplaying game before, got right into it with our dapper avian agents. The blackjack mechanic was really fun and easy and fit so nicely with the theme. We managed to thwart a villainous cat's iceberg-cutting laser by infiltrating their hidden casino island all while creating so many laughs. Truly joyous experience.
I'm glad you and your family had a great time playing! Thank you for sharing! A villainous cat's iceberg-cutting laser and a casino island?! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!
During the Engagement, are you using a deck with the face cards removed? (Because they were used to determine the agendas)
During the Engagement do you count your Secret Agenda in your total if it is not revealed (i.e. is your score always at least 10)
If there are multiple Agents in an engagement, do you succeed so long as at least one agent beats P? If one agent beats P, does it matter if the others go bust?
What happens if an Agent goes bust, while another agent succeeds? Do you ignore the Bust?
If you wager a coin, but then don't beat P, while another Agent beats P, does your wager still work?
Hi there! Let me do my best to answer your questions:
1. Yes, the face cards are removed from the deck. In hindsight, the unused face cards should be reshuffled back into the deck. When I tested the game originally, we did not add them back in but they certainly work better for the math and gameplay.
2. Yes, you count the value of your Secret Agenda card, which means you should always have at least a score of 10.
3. After P's turn and if P did not go bust and if at least one agent beats P, then it's a successful action. If the other players go bust, it does not affect the results unless a player wagered a Lucky Coin as well.
4. The bust affects an outcome only if a Lucky Coin was wagered when determining results. If no Lucky Coin was wagered, then the Bust is ignored when referring to the Results table.
5. Yes, the wager still works and the agent keeps their coin.
That's very much the way we played, but we found the game was heavily stacked against P. As agents we did all sorts of risky things with low scores, and wagered on them, and never managed to fail. It seems hard to imagine actually running out of Coins.
I'd thought we were almost certainly doing something wrong, but it doesn't sound like we were :)
If multiple agents attempt the same risky action in different ways can they use different stats to do so?
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Had a lot of fun running this game, especially since Penguins are my favorites! Did find a few rules to be a bit finicky and changed them -
so, very minor things overall. The random tables were a lot of fun, we had a Walrus named "Lieutenant Colonel Mayonnaise" trying to put the world under a new ice age, and out Agents had to travel to Australia to get the crumpled note with his password from a nature preserve, dealing with Airport security, a Parrot with a smartphone and a pack of armed Dingo
4.5/5
My review: 5/5
I played this lovely little game with my family for a game night get together. We always watched spy movies growing up so we a had a great handle on the tropes for this kind of genre. We sat down at the dinner table with a print out of the rules and a deck of cards and figured out together. Even my parents, who had never played a roleplaying game before, got right into it with our dapper avian agents. The blackjack mechanic was really fun and easy and fit so nicely with the theme. We managed to thwart a villainous cat's iceberg-cutting laser by infiltrating their hidden casino island all while creating so many laughs. Truly joyous experience.
I'm glad you and your family had a great time playing! Thank you for sharing! A villainous cat's iceberg-cutting laser and a casino island?! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!
Questions:
Hi there! Let me do my best to answer your questions:
1. Yes, the face cards are removed from the deck. In hindsight, the unused face cards should be reshuffled back into the deck. When I tested the game originally, we did not add them back in but they certainly work better for the math and gameplay.
2. Yes, you count the value of your Secret Agenda card, which means you should always have at least a score of 10.
3. After P's turn and if P did not go bust and if at least one agent beats P, then it's a successful action. If the other players go bust, it does not affect the results unless a player wagered a Lucky Coin as well.
4. The bust affects an outcome only if a Lucky Coin was wagered when determining results. If no Lucky Coin was wagered, then the Bust is ignored when referring to the Results table.
5. Yes, the wager still works and the agent keeps their coin.
Thank you!
That's very much the way we played, but we found the game was heavily stacked against P. As agents we did all sorts of risky things with low scores, and wagered on them, and never managed to fail. It seems hard to imagine actually running out of Coins.
I'd thought we were almost certainly doing something wrong, but it doesn't sound like we were :)
If multiple agents attempt the same risky action in different ways can they use different stats to do so?
I'm glad you found the game fun and thank you so much for all the feedback! I deeply appreciate it.
If multiple agents attempt the same risky action but in different ways, yes you can use different stats for sure!