Photodump

Photodump had seemed like an honest, pleasant game when I first encountered it, without making me leap out of my chair to applaud. It has a little of Vangelis’s Dice City about it, but in a simpler, cleaner, more streamlined form. It is the kind of game that sits nicely on the table for rolling dice while the little snake burns, without demanding either a YOLO attitude or a doctorate in nuclear physics.

At its core, it is a dice-based engine builder. You roll, use your results, and gradually assemble the familiar flows I expect from a D'Clair game. The feeling is recognisable and functional: it is not trying to reinvent the wheel, but it delivers clearly on what it promises.

Its great virtue at the table is the complete lack of downtime. Turns move quickly, so everyone stays in the game instead of waiting for the next player to finish with their engine. It is not as chaotic or “whatever happens” as the dice may initially suggest, while its simplicity keeps it easy to enjoy without weighing you down.

On its own, Photodump remains a good engine builder and fair value for money for me, rather than something I would necessarily call astonishing. After returning to it, though, I am much more positive: if the option is there, I would buy it bundled with Shy Pluto and give it the ten plays the campaign asks for.

Updated session

The second encounter did not merely confirm my initially okay impression; it won me over completely. Shy Pluto initially looks like a light demi-legacy mini campaign that tweaks the rules a little from game to game, but it ultimately adds a meaningful extra dimension. Especially if you commit to counting the combined score once all the story cards are complete, the package gains much more of a reason to exist.