Tom's Oath Journey: SU&SD Newsletter #59 (January 2022)

Tom: Hello! Fancy seeing you here, in a place like  this; in times like these! Welcome to the first newsletter of 2022,  ‘Episode One’ of the verbal (?) TV show we like to call ‘writing’. Let  these sentences paint a beautiful picture in your mind! Or, if you’re  less charitable/more realistic about my writing ability; a macaroni  sculpture.

There’s only one thing that I really want to talk about this month, and it’s Oath. I remember saying somewhere that I wanted to make a ‘Year Since Oath’ kind of video, where I talk  about my relationship to the game once the hype of it being a real thing  in my hands had somewhat subsided. Now, that doesn’t seem a  particularly viable feature to make - there’s a bunch of stuff that  deserves coverage before we think about going back to such a recent  game; (including other products from Leder Games 👀) but the newsletter  presents a unique opportunity to talk about something that’s uniquely  affecting us at the moment - and oh boy, is Oath affecting me.

I had maybe four games of Oath on an actual table, and about 10 digitally before writing its review. Here’s the thing; the online games missed the tactile tabletop aspects but showed off the legacy stuff neatly, whereas the physical games had me actually sitting down to touch the components… and  entirely missing the legacy aspects! So the review is something of an  amalgam between two half-lived experiences of a theoretical product;  containing leaps, assumptions, and flights of fancy based on how the  game ought to play out on the table. A lot of time pre-and-post  video release was spent fretting if my criticism was 'correct' due to  my funhouse-mirror testing of the game.

I’ve just about played two games of Oath every week for the past  two months. It does work, exactly as I thought it would. I can breathe  easily.

In our most recent games, a three-session-long alliance of  Chancellor and Citizen led to a great ‘abolishment of beasts’ after a  conspirator was found recovering the secrets of magical fire from a  ruined city; it's great walls swatting away a siege tasked with  recovering a most precious relic. We’ve had that land crumble and slide  into the ocean - its once-great ruler forgotten and a new face brought  into the land. We’ve had a roving terror demolishing every quarter of  the board before being promptly forgotten - and a dictatorial state  where an omnipresent Chancellor quashed rebellions left right and  center. Every game has been magical, and it’s upsetting to me that I’m  probably going to have to start playing other games soon.

I’ve also been playing back through the Souls series in  anticipation for Elden Ring, and whilst wallowing in my Souls-Swamp I’ve  been watching a bunch of videos about the series; most importantly  Hbomberguy’s In Defence of Dark Souls II video, where a slice of time is spent chatting about ‘play  conditioning’ - a nifty phrase for the as-yet-unnamed way a game teaches  you the desired and 'authorial' way to play through its mechanics. And I think it applies here.

I think lots of people played a little bit of Oath and then bounced off it a.) because it was hard to play anything social in a safe way at the time of its release and b.) because a lot of games media doesn’t have the time to sit with something; to let it gestate, breathe and stretch  out. That’s fine! Most games don’t really demand that kind of time  because their pattern of play is understandable immediately - the  rhythms and goals natural and intuitive to anyone who has touched a  meeple, placed a bid or rolled a die… and the only reason we have time  to really sit on stuff is because of you! (Thank you! :) )

Here’s my pitch; Oath has “play conditioning” built in. Granted, it  takes a little time before you get plugged into its particular brand of  game on a rules level, but even longer to reach the second level of  roleplay, of empires strung between games - victory delivered to another  player. Vassals and citizens - victory for your ‘suit’ as opposed to  the player. The way that the game is balanced and the motions of play  are poised to deliver a game that’s fundamentally unsatisfying if played  typically - prompting either a lack of desire to play it again… or the feeling that you might be missing something.  I think that’s something I wished I’d have dwelled on longer in both  the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ section of that video, on how Oath is truly  revolutionary both mechanically and socially; taking a good bit  of getting used to before you engage with it on its terms and unlock  that next level of enjoyment. But that feeling is perhaps assuaged by  the excitement for what Cole and Leder are going to do next - how  they’re going to change assumptions about victory and narrative that  maybe won’t resonate with everyone now… but will eventually, over time.

Anyway, play Oath. It’s a blast. Well, it’s a blast for everyone  except the one guy in my group who has just missed out on the win in every game so far. Sorry Cal.

Oh! If you’re a new donor, HELLO! Thank you so  much for your support, it means the absolute world to us. You’ll get a  newsletter like this every month, though undoubtedly at a different time each month as schedules get tangled and videos take just-a-bit-longer than they might normally.

What are we roleplaying!🧙

Quinns: On the subject of Tom’s epic return to “an actual tabletop”, this week will be the first session of my new RPG campaign.  I’m not yet ready to announce what game we’ll be playing, but I will  say that after two years of pandemic I’m taking an absolutely  fetishistic approach to setting the table.

For starters, when my players come in they’re going to see not one, but two enormous paper maps. There’s gonna be a whole side table of booze and  snacks. Did one of them forget to bring a pencil? Not a problem, take  one from this entire pot of sharpened pencils.

The subject of dice required lengthy consideration- not regarding what dice to provide, but where to encourage players to roll them.  I’ve long been of the opinion that you want a central receptacle so  that everyone can watch each dice roll. But do I want to put out my  velvet-lined dice tray (advantage: small footprint on the table), or  remove some of the planks from my gaming table to give players a long  channel to toss dice into, like a craps table?

I’ve just this second had another idea. Incense! Ooh- there’s only 48  hours to go until the session. I’ll have to stop by the shop tomorrow  morning...

What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: This past month-and-a-bit, I have played  through Dark Souls, Sekiro and Bloodborne… again. I just started Dark  Souls 3. I can’t be stopped. I literally can’t be stopped. Someone stop me.

My definitive and completely accurate ranking at the moment stands  as Bloodborne > Dark Souls 3 > Sekiro > Dark Souls > Dark  Souls 2. I also think Dark Souls 2 is a really, really great game so  putting at the bottom means very little. It’s better than Dark Souls in a  bunch of ways! It's just tonally a bit whack.

Matt: Tons I didn’t love about it, but gosh - that  bit where you could hang about in a cave of traps causing strangers  grief? Pure magic. I’ve been bad for new games this month - I just keep  diving back into Slay The Spire, which is increasingly just too hard for  me to play now that I’ve gotten three of the characters up to level 15,  or something?

What are we reading? 📖

Quinns: I’m reading The Magic Toyshop by Angela  Carter at the moment, mostly because her opus Nights at the Circus is  one of my favourite novels ever, but the book I want to talk about here  is the one I just finished reading- Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze.

On the off chance you’re watching the new Sexy in the City reboot, Carrie was pictured reading it? Which is hilarious because this is an intensely gritty,  semi-autobiographical novel about growing up into a life of crime in  some of the toughest streets in London, and almost every page features  mention of either a knife or a zoot. Which isn’t to say that this is one  of those aimless books that’s only printed to feed the neverending  demand for stories of “real” crime and “real” gangs- what Krauze has  created is something like a holy monument to the criminals that society  first creates, and then stops at nothing to destroy.

It all comes to a head in a final chapter that I found deeply moving. I think it permanently changed how I see my home city.

What are we music!  🎵

Matt: After really enjoying the latest album by  The Coral - a strangely dreamy visit to a seaside town that’s past its  best, I’ve been diving back into a bunch of their old albums that I  never even visited, in addition to going back to their fabulous first  album. Butterfly House remains the best of the middle-bunch, for any  other lapsed fans dipping back in!

Tom: William Aura’s Half Moon Bay has  really gotten me through a lot of stressed-out evenings recently - a  weirdo little synthesiser record that’s a little kitsch and saccharine  but buoyant as heck. Well worth a listen, even if just for how much that  first track will lift your spirits. Prins Emmanuel’s Arbete/Fritid has been my go-to cooking music recently - all locked, driving grooves and staccato percussion - and Portico Quartet’s Monument is great writing music if you need something with a little edge, but not too much. I’m instrumental this month!

Ava: Ooh, have Portico Quartet got good again?  They made three lush records, and gave me a couple of my top ten gigs of  all time and then a bit later dropped the quartet and played one of the  worst gigs I’ve ever seen because they’d turned from a jazz quartet  into a not great indie band? The lovely little faun man who plays double  bass like a beast didn’t even have a double bass, it was just a single  bass! An electric one! What’s the point!

Anyway, I’ve been distracted by another twitter tournament of pop tracks,  this one digging into the best tracks of 2021 and making me realise  I’ve stopped listening to new music! Worrying! I’ll eat my hat if  Montero doesn’t win because I just think it’s incredible, but I made a  lot of good discoveries, including BUFFALO by Sunwoojunga and a host of  others. It pops and I love it.

What are we watching? 📺

Matt: This last month I’ve chewed through pretty  much all of Doom Patrol - as someone who’s rarely a fan of comic book TV  adaptations, I’ve been really impressed by just how much fun this is.  It doesn’t have the same style of weirdness, but it still reminds me  quite a lot of the excellent Legion from a few years ago - both punch  well above their weight in terms of what they’re going for, and  continually seem able to surprise and delight.

Tom: Line Goes Up and Fear Of Cold are two masterclasses in different styles of the new wave of excellent video essay content on YouTube and I’m continually struck by how both of their creators seemingly never miss. The pressure must be unbearable. I’d say to go take a peek; but you probably have already!

Ava: Oh my word I just watched Line Goes Up and it  was ludicrously informative. I’ve been reading stuff about the  financial crisis, the blockchain and NFTs since each of them started  existing, and I have never found a work that summarised them so clearly  and succinctly and then showed me a load of stuff I hadn’t even  registered. I guess I should probably check out Fear of Cold.

My tellywatch of lately has mostly been Euphoria, which was so  deeply not what I expected. And then not what I thought it was after I’d  had those expectations upturned either? I’m probably going to have to  rewatch the whole thing, because I was only half watching for a while,  until a string of scenes made me realise this might be…unlike anything  I’ve ever seen? After one particular point I woke up the next day with  the feeling of dissociated under the skinness I only normally get from  David Lynch at his best. I’m not saying it’s like that, and I’m probably  over-egging something. But there’s more power than I had any  expectation of. It is NOT easy watching, so be careful with yourself,  especially if you have experience of marginalisation, addiction or  abuse.