Retro (horror)
Fat Goblin Games
2017
Complexity: 2
Send in the Clowns is a bit of an odd thing, it’s a special edition of vs. Stranger Stuff focused on clowns. It’s also, I believe, the third game I’ve reviewed from the deluge of Stranger Things/It-inspired games that have appeared in the last few years. So let’s check out Send in the Clowns, a game of creepy clowns, and creepier plagiarism.
Character Creation: 2/5
Send in the Clowns follows the basic formula: players are kids or teens experiencing some kind of horror in a small town setting. Players only have two attributes: Brains and Muscles, one is set at 6, the other at 4, that’s it. Players then choose a ‘Good Stuff’ and a ‘Bad stuff,”—basically a positive and negative trait—from a list of six each. I guess it does the job, but there’s really just not that many options here. Like, there are 72 total mechanically-distinct characters that can be made, and when you can calculate the total combinations of all options in your head, that’s not a lot of options.
Mechanics: 2/5
The basic mechanics are as such: when a character tries to do a thing, a difficulty is set, then a number of playing cards are drawn equal to the relevant attribute with success if a card equal to or higher than the difficulty is drawn. That’s pretty much it, and honestly I’m unimpressed. I think comes down to a problem that I’ve noticed with games that use playing cards in general. That being it feels like they used cards just to use cards, they’re not really utilizing the mechanics that are unique to cards—i.e. having a hand that can be played from, and forcing an even distribution or results, and while this system does remove possible results from the outcome it doesn’t really do so in a meaningful way.
Writing: 0/3 [−][−]
Overall the writing in this game is unremarkable, there are some issues, but one specifically that caught my attention. The “Types of Clowns” section was a little strangely worded, and seems seemed very familiar. So I googled “Types of Clowns” and this was the fourth result (http://www.shrineclowns.com/info_pages/types.asp) which contains almost verbatim the descriptions used in the book. The reason the wording is so strange is because there are guidelines for clown competition judging, and as such are filled with phrases like “All exposed skin including the neck and ears, must be white.” and “This category will utilize one of the make-up categories of White Face, Auguste or Tramp/Hobo for the facial features.” That’s not just plagiarism, that’s lazy plagiarism.
So then, just out of curiosity, I decided to google one the entries from the “Clown Lingo” section, and found this (http://www.whimsy.org.uk/circus.html) which contains ever entry from the section verbatim.
Now let’s keep in mind that if you did this on a college paper you would at least get a 0 on the assignment, and at worst be expelled. So since I’m such a nice person, I’m just going to give them a 0 for writing… and of course this big callout.
Presentation: 4/5
If nothing else, this book looks good. It is presented in a somewhat unconventional square format, with a nice green background red lines and slightly translucent content boxes. The art is a little hit or miss, presumably all stock art—and hopefully all used with proper licence—it’s a mix of various styles of illustrations and photos. As is so often the case, I personally find the photos to be the most effective, and would have really liked to have seen the entire book done that way. The page and column breaks are less than ideal, but I’m sure any reader of this blog is tired of constantly hearing me complain about that.
Content: 2/3 [•]
Aside from the rules, this book contains three decently-sized adventures, plus some… odd extras like a clown jointed paper doll. Overall it’s a good amount of stuff, and as stated in the book’s introduction, the general goal of this product was to present “a complete tabletop
roleplaying game experience,” and I guess it does that.
Overall, Send in the Clowns seems like a decent game, however some specific aspects lead me to have to question Fat Goblin Games as a company. They put out a lot of content, and I have to wonder how much quality control is going on there, or if they’re just taking whatever, slapping it in a nice-looking layout template, and pushing it out the door as quickly as possible.
Base Points: 8
Character Creation: 2/5, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 4/5
Adjustments: −2
Setting: N/A, Writing: −2, Content: +0
Overall Score: 40% (6/15 Points)
Fat Goblin Games
2017
Complexity: 2
Send in the Clowns is a bit of an odd thing, it’s a special edition of vs. Stranger Stuff focused on clowns. It’s also, I believe, the third game I’ve reviewed from the deluge of Stranger Things/It-inspired games that have appeared in the last few years. So let’s check out Send in the Clowns, a game of creepy clowns, and creepier plagiarism.
Character Creation: 2/5
Send in the Clowns follows the basic formula: players are kids or teens experiencing some kind of horror in a small town setting. Players only have two attributes: Brains and Muscles, one is set at 6, the other at 4, that’s it. Players then choose a ‘Good Stuff’ and a ‘Bad stuff,”—basically a positive and negative trait—from a list of six each. I guess it does the job, but there’s really just not that many options here. Like, there are 72 total mechanically-distinct characters that can be made, and when you can calculate the total combinations of all options in your head, that’s not a lot of options.
Mechanics: 2/5
The basic mechanics are as such: when a character tries to do a thing, a difficulty is set, then a number of playing cards are drawn equal to the relevant attribute with success if a card equal to or higher than the difficulty is drawn. That’s pretty much it, and honestly I’m unimpressed. I think comes down to a problem that I’ve noticed with games that use playing cards in general. That being it feels like they used cards just to use cards, they’re not really utilizing the mechanics that are unique to cards—i.e. having a hand that can be played from, and forcing an even distribution or results, and while this system does remove possible results from the outcome it doesn’t really do so in a meaningful way.
Writing: 0/3 [−][−]
Overall the writing in this game is unremarkable, there are some issues, but one specifically that caught my attention. The “Types of Clowns” section was a little strangely worded, and seems seemed very familiar. So I googled “Types of Clowns” and this was the fourth result (http://www.shrineclowns.com/info_pages/types.asp) which contains almost verbatim the descriptions used in the book. The reason the wording is so strange is because there are guidelines for clown competition judging, and as such are filled with phrases like “All exposed skin including the neck and ears, must be white.” and “This category will utilize one of the make-up categories of White Face, Auguste or Tramp/Hobo for the facial features.” That’s not just plagiarism, that’s lazy plagiarism.
So then, just out of curiosity, I decided to google one the entries from the “Clown Lingo” section, and found this (http://www.whimsy.org.uk/circus.html) which contains ever entry from the section verbatim.
Now let’s keep in mind that if you did this on a college paper you would at least get a 0 on the assignment, and at worst be expelled. So since I’m such a nice person, I’m just going to give them a 0 for writing… and of course this big callout.
Presentation: 4/5
If nothing else, this book looks good. It is presented in a somewhat unconventional square format, with a nice green background red lines and slightly translucent content boxes. The art is a little hit or miss, presumably all stock art—and hopefully all used with proper licence—it’s a mix of various styles of illustrations and photos. As is so often the case, I personally find the photos to be the most effective, and would have really liked to have seen the entire book done that way. The page and column breaks are less than ideal, but I’m sure any reader of this blog is tired of constantly hearing me complain about that.
Content: 2/3 [•]
Aside from the rules, this book contains three decently-sized adventures, plus some… odd extras like a clown jointed paper doll. Overall it’s a good amount of stuff, and as stated in the book’s introduction, the general goal of this product was to present “a complete tabletop
roleplaying game experience,” and I guess it does that.
Overall, Send in the Clowns seems like a decent game, however some specific aspects lead me to have to question Fat Goblin Games as a company. They put out a lot of content, and I have to wonder how much quality control is going on there, or if they’re just taking whatever, slapping it in a nice-looking layout template, and pushing it out the door as quickly as possible.
Base Points: 8
Character Creation: 2/5, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 4/5
Adjustments: −2
Setting: N/A, Writing: −2, Content: +0
Overall Score: 40% (6/15 Points)
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