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Tag: David Somerville

** Vast: The Crystal Caverns (2016) – Patrick Leder & David Somerville

Ambitious doesn’t even begin to describe Vast: The Crystal Caverns, a five-player, highly asymmetric take on the well-worn “Knight vs. Dragon vs. Goblins vs. Thief vs. Sentient Cave” theme.  The workmanship here is plain as day, as evidenced by an impressive slew of mechanics and ideas that connect through an enticing narrative core that keeps the action centralized and on track.  It’s no wonder that upon release the game garnered acclaim for its unorthodox approach to the traditional dungeon crawl and for aggressively pushing the boundaries of asymmetric game design.  It is quite unfortunate then that, despite its ambition and creativity, the experience of Vast: The Crystal Caverns amounts to little more than dealing with an unwieldy mess of overly specific rules and player interactions.  Even more, Vast‘s problems run so far and deep that it calls into question whether asymmetry on this scale is even desirable in a tabletop game.  Leder Games seems to think it is, as they have since doubled down on the concept with the highly praised 2018 title Root.  But alas, that is another game for another review, and currently we must get back to the disappointment at hand that is Vast. Let’s start with something (relatively) positive for once: the art.  Vast is colorfully illustrated in a charming comic-fantasy style that personally calls to memory the Spaceman Spiff strips from Calvin & Hobbes.  Judging by the art alone, you might think the game is a simplified miniature tactics game such as Arcadia Quest.  It isn’t.  Not at all.  So there’s a…