Collector First Impressions

Ideal Hands Games

 Collector

Ideal Hands Games

By Greg Farrell, Joe N Brown, and Danny Kostianos

Special thanks for the advance copy

 

Little is certain in the shadowy Realm, except that death is fast approaching. When the time comes, those who want a tolerable afterlife must pay 1500 gold coins to the goddess Ubato. Anyone who falls short is trapped in limbo, forced to watch others make a journey forbidden to them. With a world teetering on the brink and a life days away from ending, the Roller sets out to pay the toll the only way they know how. Dice games.

They'll roll off against a range of opponents, each one stranger and more disturbing than the last. Greatest of perhaps all adversaries is their collector, who lent them money to get the Roller back on their feet and now intend to collect. The game itself is simple enough but when you lose it all, that includes your immortal soul. You can cash out of a match with your winnings in tow but the call of the game means you'll be back eventually.

Collector is a micro-RPG by Ideal Hands Games, currently on Kickstarter. Clocking in at just under 30 pages, it's designed for one player and one game master. There's also rules for a solo play and multi-roller mode, though the game works best with two souls dueling with dice for a peaceful repose. It's an agile game, with a strong central idea and a stronger central mechanic. 

Ideal Hands Games

There isn't a huge amount beyond that but Collector covers all the ground it wants to. Collector is a simple enough game, one that captures a lot of the current zeitgeist in dark speculative RPGs but with a novel twist. There's a few issues in presentation I do hope get worked out by its proper release.

Narratively and mechanically, the lure of the dice is all that's left in Collector. Beyond the apocalypse unfolding in the background, the Player character, or roller, knows they're soon to die. There are plenty of apocalyptic RPGs and such fatalistic affairs are especially popular right now. But I appreciate how Collector bucks the mold a bit in that players have accepted their impending death, all that's left now is to make preparations for their passing. 

It adds a novel twist to the well populated genre of superdark fantasy, a compelling hook that helps set up the dice game mechanics. The setting itself has some personality, especially through the  strange characters inhabiting the various random charts and their secretive gang affiliations.

But in an effort to keep the world open to each table's interpretation, Collector doesn't offer much help in visualizing the nitty gritty of the world. By the same merit, the game can end up feeling a tad generic, barring the central premise of caring only about keeping your winnings between now and your death.

Collector's mechanics are much more well rounded. Players generate their Roller on a chart of one of twelve backgrounds. Each one adds a small boon or disadvantage but its never enough to really tip the scales, instead adding some much needed personality. The Collector is then generated, a cross between a payday lender and a psychopomp. Each of these twelve perverse personalities get the Roller back on their feet but regularly appear to collect a tax. Fail to pay and the Roller meets Ubato early and without the necessary fee.

Players also know when their character will die, rolling a 2D6 to see how many days they have left to live. However, Rollers can only swear off a game for two days before they come crawling back to risk it all. Between that and the many hazards that show up, it's easy to lose a good lead or end up doomed from the start.

Ideal Hands Games

In contrast with a lot of tonally similar games, the conflict in Collector isn't rooted so much that you might die but how you die. Even the bleakest RPGs tend to offer some way out but here, you're dead, no doubt about it. That the goal is just achieving your place in the next life, and through dice games instead of entering lethal combat, adds a certain mood that's absurd but still believable. That you can still be prematurely killed by various adversaries adds to the tension.

The actual dice rolling is simple but a little tricky to get the hang of. Rolling 2d6, they have a 2 out of 12 chance to win immediately and bet again but a 3 in 12 chance to lose. Any other number rolled and becomes "Point." Then you keep rolling until it shows up again or lose the bet if a 7 is rolled. It's a sound, nerve wracking mechanic but for one thing. A 7 in the first roll means you win, every roll after that, you lose. 

As small as that might seem, it definitely tripped my players and I up more than a few times. Betting in set increments also takes getting used to but that was easier to adjust to.

That one glitch aside, it was a winner of a mechanic, especially important for a micro RPG built entirely around it. The rules are loose, to the point that some GM ruling is needed. But that just lends it a very characterful experience with a few hard and fast rules meaning there's not much a Roller can do if the dice come up wrong. I myself have a penchant for "unfair," games but the powerlessness of the Roller in such a petty dice game makes for some compelling chances for storytelling.

Collector keeps things simple but makes for a memorable experience. Even compared to the recent rash of smaller games, it's a very economic use of space, with only a handful of evocative, cryptic art pieces scattered throughout. Some of the mechanics could be better presented but it's hardly unworkable. Overall, Collector is an evocative, intense game more than worth the short time it takes to learn and play.