....and I am SO stoked to play this game! It wasn't on my radar at all (I generally prefer fantasy to sci-fi, though I've read a lot of both). I got it on the Xmas sale, and I am really glad I did. What a beautiful game: so nuanced, so gorgeous to look at. I was surprised, frankly, at some of the controversy over the game that I saw on BGG. I really don't understand why people aren't blown away by Android. The one thing I might desire is actually a little MORE sci-fi (the world seems rich; why not add more nifty sci-fi ideas beyond just the "we have androids and a space elevator" notions?) . But what's there is awesome. I love the 'noir' feel, and the rules seem really elegant and character-driven. Though some have complained that the evidence against suspects makes it feel kind of like you're framing them instead of investigating them, Kevin made it pretty clear in one of the video interviews that this was intentional. It's meant to be ambiguous; it leaves you with room to tell the story the way you see your character going. Whether your character has a happy ending or not; whether he falls prey to his Dark Cards or stays heroic, the end of the mystery still makes sense. You COULD be framing him! Or, you might use old-fashioned police work to figure it out legitimately. The flexibility that this allows you as a player-***-storyteller is really amazing. What I like most about playing a board game , including Talisman, my old standby, is the stories that come out of the gameplay. This seems built for my style of gaming. Can't wait.

Zozimus said:

Awesome! Glad you're excited to play the game!

As far as the sci-fi aspects, I have a feeling the Android-based fiction from FFG will draw the sci-fi parts out more. Free Fall did a nice job with this, and I'm guessing the Identity Trilogy will as well.

I also just picked up an Amazon copy of this game. Can't wait to try it. Seems like a long involved "bladerunner" RPG version of clue... I hope it plays as good as it looks.

Oliphant said:

Well, just to warn you — it's not like Clue at all. One aspect of the game that some players don't like is how Android does not have a simple deduction aspect, like Clue. I'm a fan of how Android does it, though. Hope you like it!

Glad to report that our first game was a good one: it doesn't really take all that long to get the hang of the rules, though I think we'll have to play multiple times before we really understand how to fit a good strategy into the timespan a game takes to play. It strikes me that everyone has to have pretty much equal investment in their character, as well as understanding of the complex interrelationships between characters, if you want to have a decent game experience. One criticism I do have is the number of rules that you just have to keep track of, rather than having some reminder or symbol that keeps it in the foreground of your mind: for example, the fact that you have to remember that you can affect the cost of a twilight card that happens to have the same colour as your plot card is a little arcane to my mind. That's just too much to remember, and the card colour isn't a good enough reminder...particularly if your attention is where it should be, which is on the story element. Otherwise, I'd say the rules are simple enough.

I might also suggest a further VP house rule that has a "real" murderer drawn from the list of suspects at the beginning of the game. I love that you can view your character as either honestly uncovering real evidence against a suspect (if your character is on a "light" path), or else actively framing the suspect (if on a "dark" path). But it might be interesting if there was some reference to objective truth as well: say you draw a suspect card at the beginning of the game and put it aside as the "real" murderer. You could get some new reward of VPs if your hunch matches A) the convicted killer, as in the base game, but then also if it matches B) the actual perp. And if your hunch matches the convicted killer, but not the real murderer, then you could be said to have been framing the suspect, which should affect your final moral state, so to speak. I haven't thought this through, obviously, but it might be interesting to think about.

Gosh, I have been so on the fence for like a year and half on whether or not I want to get this game. It seems to be so polarizing that I'm scared my group won't like it and I'll have a 60 dollar pile of cardboard.

Flint Lockwood said:

Well, there are lots of ways to buy it or trade it for much less than MSRP. It's a risk you take with any game, though. Maybe try to play it at a game gathering or con?

So after I posted this I found it was heavily discounted on Amazon, and will be getting it in the mail in a couple days.

Same here. I'm already wishing there was a PoD or box expansion available for the game. I am reading the manual and seeing the potential with districts or Mars murder-plots; heck, new characters with their dark cards set on Mars map. I will let this thread know how I feel about the game when I play it but I am witness that the production of this game had so much thought put into it. Too bad so many people dissed it because I like the setting, art, and concept.

Tromdial said:

Right on — it'd be nice to see something Martian in the game. They mention the planet and the war there quite a bit in the novel(s) too, but don't really spell too much out. I'm still hoping for a POD eventually, of any kind, for this game.

jasonpanella said:

I know it's kind of wishful for me to think this, but I'd like Android to have what Arkham Horror has (both Wilson's games): six district decks that trigger (beanstalk included) at the end of each day for each respected character, having on the backside a separate bullet description for each shape (circle, diamond, triangle) just like the location decks in Arkham. Call it unoriginal, idc, it's my favorite part of Arkham. This easily could be PoD's separate thing because those decks don't exist, so texture won't really matter of the cards.

Plus a lot of FFG products use an "Event" deck anyways, or "Threat" tokens. District/Location decks is just the same deal.

I share your enthusiasm for such things, but on top of Android's existing event cards, and the many location-triggered twilight cards, a set of location- but not character-specific event decks seems like it would start to get pretty redundant.

subochre said:

Oh, so it does have triggered location themes? I read the manual a few days ago and didn't see anything like that; the game will be in my hands this week, I am eager to play it. Sounded like that was something the game was missing because the instructions only mentioned districts as a tool for finding places easier on the map to put tokens on.

Tromdial said:

Themes, no, but many of the characters' dark cards are triggered by locations (be it specific or general). Ray, for instance, has a number of cards that are triggered by specific locations (Challenger Ferry, and so on). Other characters have cards that are set off by entering seedy or ritzy locations.