Galaxy Trucker

I wanted to give these space truckers a fair chance, mostly because the theme looked like exactly the sort of thing that might pull a child away from a console for one evening. It did not happen: the younger recruit would not touch Galaxy Trucker, and I was already feeling worn out by the second play.

You take a space lorry out into a route where meteors are the threat hanging over the whole prospect. There is something appealingly theatrical about that image on the table: truckers in the void, waiting to discover whether they will make the run or become orbital debris.

In the handful of plays I brought to the table, though, the experience never found its rhythm. It did not naturally produce the cheerful chaos that such an immediately legible disaster ought to invite, and the player interaction never did enough to make the fatigue worthwhile.

I have one reservation left for a four-player game, because perhaps meteors and shared misfortune need the right company. Otherwise, Galaxy Trucker is the sort of box one regards fondly on the shelf, without any great hurry to load it up again after a Tuesday at work.