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mburnamfink's review
5.0
Storygaming all-star team here, with Jason Morningstar (Fiasco) creating a Powered By The Apocalypse game about the Night Witches, the all-female Soviet bomber regiment.
It's a really specific topic for a game, but one that has been customized perfectly, as witnessed by Jason's thoughts on character sheets. Characters are distinguished by Natures (a personality type, which is fixed), and a Role (which can change). Perhaps the cleverest bit of game design are the Marks, a sort of strategic damage track representing the psychological toll of war. There are long odds against the Night Witches, and even if they avoid the simple Harms of flak, Nazi fighters, and crash landings, they'll eventually run out of options and be forced to Embrace Death. The gameplay itself is similarly made to order. Each mission has a day phase where characters rest, recuperate, prepare and generally live, and a night phase where they brave the hazards of the Eastern Front to make attacks on German positions. Unless players are ungodly lucky, they will take damage, but failure means interrogation by the NKVD. Better to die honorably in the air for Mother Russia!
This is a brilliant, but very narrow game. The art and presentation are great. While there are great quotes from real Night Witches, and a solid bibliography, there wasn't enough fluff to make me sure of my ability to portray the unique challenges of friendship and combat that the game demands, a problem that might be amplified by a rotating GM model. The systems ties to the Night Witches setting are great touches, but make it hard to adapt. I could see some of the ideas being used in any setting with a strong rest/hazard divide; like fire fighters or Battlestar Galactica Pilots.
So yeah, buy this game if the idea interests you, or you want to see some absolutely brilliant design. I loved reading it, but I honestly can't see myself ever playing it, sadly.
It's a really specific topic for a game, but one that has been customized perfectly, as witnessed by Jason's thoughts on character sheets. Characters are distinguished by Natures (a personality type, which is fixed), and a Role (which can change). Perhaps the cleverest bit of game design are the Marks, a sort of strategic damage track representing the psychological toll of war. There are long odds against the Night Witches, and even if they avoid the simple Harms of flak, Nazi fighters, and crash landings, they'll eventually run out of options and be forced to Embrace Death. The gameplay itself is similarly made to order. Each mission has a day phase where characters rest, recuperate, prepare and generally live, and a night phase where they brave the hazards of the Eastern Front to make attacks on German positions. Unless players are ungodly lucky, they will take damage, but failure means interrogation by the NKVD. Better to die honorably in the air for Mother Russia!
This is a brilliant, but very narrow game. The art and presentation are great. While there are great quotes from real Night Witches, and a solid bibliography, there wasn't enough fluff to make me sure of my ability to portray the unique challenges of friendship and combat that the game demands, a problem that might be amplified by a rotating GM model. The systems ties to the Night Witches setting are great touches, but make it hard to adapt. I could see some of the ideas being used in any setting with a strong rest/hazard divide; like fire fighters or Battlestar Galactica Pilots.
So yeah, buy this game if the idea interests you, or you want to see some absolutely brilliant design. I loved reading it, but I honestly can't see myself ever playing it, sadly.
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