Review: We Have Lost

A "small game, previously playtested by some at Warpcon" to quote the author Donogh McCarthy, this is a GM-less story game for 3-6 players. With art by Wayne O’Connor of whom I am a big fan.

This is a 4 page game where all players are - were - companions of the Empress who has just died. Aspects of everyones character and the set-up are defined by choice from a list or vote and then the game itself is in remembering the Empress. Over a number of rounds you go about the table and each tells a tale of your times with the Empress.

What is very cool about this is the 'bennie' type mechanics - with red and black stones that trade hands depending on whether the tales told in a round move you in one direction or another. At the end the counts of those stones determine who gets to tell the definitive story of the Empress death and its aftermath.

With a page to set the context, a page to say who the players are, a page for the mechanics and a page for inspiration this is a taut, neat game that I will be giving a go at next opportunity. I think there is potentially a nice synergy with Microscope or a potentially a great place as a flash-back within a more classical campaign besides its potential as a fun one-shot game.