I do back a lot of kickstarters, some of them because the concept is awesome, some because the person is awesome, and some...
Some just capture a mood that you can absolutely relate to...
Intriguing from the beginning, it's a little on the meta side of things as you're playing a group of assassins who have been contracted to kill the occupants of an office, but the security in the office has got all your weapons, so you have to make do with the things that you can find in the office...
This game succeeds on several levels, but most of all on humour, if you've ever had a moment of office rage and considered stabbing your co-workers with a pencil (which of course, I never have...), then this is the game for you.
I downloaded the print and play files, so I'll apologise in advance for the rushed cutting job on the cards that you see, but the artwork is the same as will be on the main cards. The idea is simple, each players has a number of assassins to place on each day, you either use them to prepare for the hit by going to one of the rooms in the school, or use them to attempt the kill.
There are a good number of different buildings in the office, and each of them has a different use, from drawing cards from your own deck to acquiring new bits of lethal stationery from around the office.
It has to be said that from a purely combat accountant point of view, it's clear that the designer of the game has had the same thoughts I have on a great deal of things that seem like everyday pieces of equipment.
Each turn starts with a new hand of five cards, at the end of the turn, you discard all your remaining cards and draw a new set of five, recycling the deck each time you come to the end of it. It's not quite a deckbuilding game, but it's certainly been influenced by a number of them, which is certainly not a bad thing.
 |
| Dead by Five pencils, a pair of scissors and a CD shuriken |
When the assassination is attempted, the player may use as many cards as they have, adding the total together till they have scored enough damage to kill the target, or they run out of cards. If they run out of cards, nothing happens except the assassin being held in the security department till the next turn (after all, security offices are incompetent as well) where they get out and are free to try again.
I've only managed to play it with two players, and while the tactical aspect of the game was present, it will be far more present with more players as the rooms that you can visit to prepare for the assassination will be used up more quickly (you can't go into a room that's already occupied) and the hits will become more frenzied as each players builds up a larger stack of cards.
It's a two minute teach for a five to ten minute game, plays well, has sufficient variety to keep playing for some time, and could easily be expanded to fit a number of different genre's, very much looking forwards to seeing this come out.
You can still back it at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/351875435/temp-worker-assassins