Weary from Games Expo, maybe having had a beer or two, I bludgeoned Joe, Matt, Gregor and Iain into playtesting I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper (ILMHTAST for the sake of brevity). Indeed, it was the first time it had ever actually been played, so that was quite something. For those who might not know, ILMHTAST is a game where each participant takes the role of Sarah, an intergalactic space lady who is attempting to reach the risque and sexy Close Encounter Three with the hunky Captain Strange. Various amusing and romantic encounters should result along the way. The game is entirely based on the 'classic' 1979 hit of the same name by Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip.

The game is meant for three players, so Joe and Gregor teamed up, as did Matt and Iain.

Things began with the players creating three Sarahs. We ended up with Satanic Sarah, Steampunk Sarah (complete with brass goggles) and Gymnastic Sarah. We played out the first turn, just to see how it went. I'd rate it as an 'ok'. It was fun in its own way, but somewhat procedural and lacking in a certain spark that makes a game really fun.

Some things for consideration that came out of play:

At the start, there is a good likelihood that one persons Sarah will have superior Hotness and Gossip to everyone else in the game. This, in many ways, makes the entire thing a protracted game of catch up, which is unsatisfying. Related to this issue is the fact that when you choose what stat you are using in the first conflict, thats the only tactical choice in the game when you are playing Sarah. The stats alternate from then on.

On each turn, the person to the left of the active Sarah take the role of Captain Strange, who gets to set the scene. However, once this was done, that player had very little to do. Perhaps bonus dice for Sarah or the use of certain other elements could be decided by the Captain?

There could potentially be a tendency for 'bubble play', where each Sarah exists in their own little world and nothing really links up. It was suggested that established facts within the story must tie up, things that happen in one scene must come in to the next scene and so on. A simple way to avoid extreme bubble play would be to have all the Sarahs part of the same team, on board the same spaceship or something similar. This doesn't resolve the issue completely, but goes some way towards it.

Leading on from this, the use of the bonus dice for Starfleet Command (where they get extra dice for bringing in complications) was a bit weak in implementation. A good suggestion was that if the active Sarah was not successful in her conflict, then that complication remains active for the next sarah and so on, until one of them is successful. Another bonus dice issue was Captain Strange being Devoid of Emotion once for each Sarah. At the moment, the player taking the role of the Captain for each Sarah gets to decide when this happens. This probably needs to be more dynamic.

All this being said, this very first, brief outing for ILMHTAST was good fun, but the game really des need a load of work. The first things to do is make sure that facts and stories tie up better and make the game more involving for everyone.

I've probably missed out a few thoughts and ideas that were suggested, so further comments and thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers
Malcolm