Roleplaying Games / Board Games
Death Sports on TV are Inevitable
The Hunt: The Ultimate Arena Sport
Tactical tabletop RPGs are having a moment. I want that moment to stop right the fuck now. Lancer’s tactical mechanics ruined an otherwise brilliant sci-fi game. Then Lancer’s publisher made a fantasy counterpart, ICON. Now the creator of the beloved and very not-tactical Wanderhome has thrown their hat into that terrible ring with In The Time Of Monsters.
All this dudes-on-a-grid nonsense has forced me to come to grips with my own past sins. Many moons ago, before I knew better, I once liked a heavily tactical RPG. And I am ashamed.
A while back I mentioned The Hunt in a piece about the recent TSR drama. What I failed to mention was that I had re-bought the damn thing but had yet to write about it. I didn’t know how to approach it. It barely qualifies as an RPG. If you flipped through it, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a Space Hulk-ish skirmish game. It’s listed on Board Game Geek but not RPG Geek. That’s telling.
The fact that the real-world game and the in-universe sport share the same name doesn’t help. To avoid confusion, I will call the game you play “The Hunt” and the in-universe sport “THE HUNT”.
