Arcs

I gave Arcs the second chance it apparently needed, this time with the advanced rules and asymmetric alien factions and powers. Our first encounter, using the completely basic and symmetrical game, had not gone well at all. This time the experience was clearly livelier and more interesting—a small miracle for something I had already nearly sent to recycling.

With the advanced material, the game gains more personality through the asymmetric factions and their distinct powers. Rather than the entirely symmetrical first session we had, players approach the game from different starting points, which made the overall experience noticeably better for me.

The interaction, however, is direct and rough: punches were thrown. There is room for conflict and for putting pressure on other players, with the group essentially needing to keep the game balanced by itself. And that is where my thorn remains: the game expects the table to impose the fairness that its mechanisms do not do enough to ensure. Wonderful, another system asking the players to do its job.

Still, we laughed and had a good time. Arcs did not suddenly become perfect, nor did its reliance on the group regulating itself stop bothering me. But for me personally, it climbed from “trash for recycling” to the much more respectable “yes, I would play it again.”