Near and Far

 Near and Far

I was supposed to meet with my friend Chad to play Near and Far before delving back into some of our game design work. We've been away from it for a long time because we just haven't been able to get together. Or, rather, I haven't been able to get together because I either had stuff going on or I was battling COVID. While he'd never *actually* blame me for our involuntary hiatus, he'd be the first to say he was available this whole time, so I figure I might as well beat him to the punch.

If you know me, you know I deserve this.

Naturally, when our appointed time to gather and do these things arrived, the tickle in my throat was informing me that either my allergies were kicking me around or I had managed to catch strep throat. Either way, I wasn't up to getting together. But the notion of cancelling again pissed me off, so I suggested we catch up a little bit on game design priorities and play something we could play remotely. He said we should still be able to play Near and Far and since it was still on my list of things I very much wanted to play, I was quick to agree.

So we each set up our own boards, hopped online, and decided that my board would mirror his board and we'd play the best we could...

...and as you can see, it worked pretty well! Kind of a crowded table and obviously didn't run as smoothly as if we had gotten together, but it got the job done. Honestly, other than some deck-searching for when adventurers and cards need to be replaced, it works pretty well this way! There isn't really a ton of book-keeping because the actions are fairly simple and turns are pretty short.

I had read the rules previously but we ran through a quick refresher before getting into the game. For those who don't know the game, there are a couple of different modes you can play: Campaign Mode (in which players play through a story that goes through each map in the game atlas), Character Mode (in which players develop their character's stories and abilities as they race to the Last Ruin), and Arcade Mode (this is the one we chose: it's a short game on a single map that excludes the campaign elements). Chad and I decided to hold off on the campaign or character modes until we are playing in person, but also didn't want to try that until we knew whether or not I even enjoyed the game before committing to a longer version of the game!

I will say that the actions in this game are extremely simple and straightforward, and though turns can get a bit longer later as players can Adventure further and further onto the map and attempt quests, there's still only so much a player can do in a given turn. So the learning curve isn't bad at all! It's actually a fairly easy game to jump into and grasp, as the mechanics and symbology are pretty intuitive. It took me a little while to get out of town and Adventuring because Chad went first and I was basically following him around the board. Which was tough, because I was trying to avoid him so I wouldn't have to Duel him (more on that later). After he left town to start Adventuring, I lingered for another two turns to keep shoring up my supplies and options while I had the luxury of not chasing him to different action locations.

Ultimately, I spent too much time chasing Chad around town instead of being willing to go where I really wanted and Duel with him. I mentioned in another post about Spirit Island that for whatever reason, I had it in my head that I should do absolutely everything I could to stop the Island Card from flipping over to the Blighted side. I was bending so much energy toward it that I was missing out on some Powers and options in the game when the truth is that, sometimes, it actually hurts our game play to be so reactive! I found myself doing the same thing here in Near and Far: from nearly the start, Chad had an Adventurer with a sword icon, and so I just didn't want to mess with him because I knew there was downside if I lost the duel. However, since it was easy enough to avoid him (with only 2 of us on the board), I just never really examined the option very closely. If I had, I'd have learned that there's plenty of upside to my choosing to duel him and the downside isn't really awful! The main thing to remember is this: as the attacker, you're the only one who can spend hearts during the duel. So either the dice rolls really kill ya or your targeted opponent had far more combat tech than you did. But it's open information, so you know the numbers going into a duel. I'm not saying you always want to do this, but I appreciate that there are strategic reasons to do so, the benefits of which are far more about what you gain than the notion of taking anything away from the defender. If the defender loses in the duel, they lose...well, nothing. It's the attacker who stands to lose something (specifically, their turn) when they lose and go to the jail space.

So my caution in avoiding duels sort of closed off an entire component of the strategy to it because, in my mind, it wasn't worth the risk. I think I've learned that lesson after the first time and next time I play the game (and there will be a next time, as I really enjoyed this one!), I will be more likely to pursue duels and see if I can use that to change my reputation (as my reputation didn't change at all during this entire game, which did prevent me from buying a couple of cards). Ultimately, the game ended when Chad got all of his camps out when I had something like 2 or 3 left. We both ended the game with one trade route totally under our respective controls, neither of us managed to recruit any of the chiefs, I think I got one more camp into the Mine than Chad did, and we both scored some artifacts. But Chad easily had more points in artifacts than I did and outscored me 67-41. Even that score was somehow closer than I thought it would be!

But I feel comfortable with the game now and I'm very much looking forward to playing it again sooner rather than later! Also, I'll be curious to see how I feel about either Character or Campaign modes. I mentioned that I should've been looking for duels when it made sense to initiate them, but I also took a little too long to start Adventuring. I really had it in my head that I would be doing so much more Questing, so I spent too much time in Town prepping to be out and about. I think my assumption stems from having played Sleeping Gods first, in which just about everything is an Encounter that requires a test of some sort.

That said, after wrapping up the game, I took my dog out for a walk. And on a day that is entirely too much like spring for this early in March, I couldn't help but draw the parallel from this game to...well, life. How's that for a leap, huh? I had mentioned to Chad that we already debrief after we play games, but we should document what we like and don't like since we're often playing these games as a way to enter the game design space. Given the breadth of our respective game libraries and experience, if we've only played a game once or twice, it can sometimes be difficult to remember what we did or didn't like about a game. But as I was walking the dog, I was thinking about the mistakes I made and what I'd do differently the next time I lay the game. And more than conscientiously avoiding duels, I think it was that I took too much time in town before adventuring. And that got me thinking about how prevalent it is among people to spend inordinate amounts of time preparing for a perfect endeavor instead of just setting out to get there.

To be clear, I'm not advocating against preparation; I think preparation is key to success. But I also know (and perhaps part of my insight to this comes from being an artist) that our fear of failure/defeat/embarrassment/whatever often keeps us toiling away at the impossible task of preparing to ensure a perfect undertaking. Such endeavors are folly. But too often, we don't learn the lesson. If anything, we often walk away with the notion that we should've worked harder or prepared better. And if the stakes are higher in subsequent situations, our anxiety over screwing them up may become so great that dare not risk failure of that magnitude!

There's a life lesson in there, so you should write that down. But in the meantime, I'll say this: I really enjoyed playing Near and Far! Next time, I won't be so hesitant to get my hands dirty with a duel or risk failure because I went Adventuring without being completely prepared.