Each player chooses a starting location for their Main Agent token. The locations on the board get a number of cards placed on them depending on the number of players, with the top card turned face up, and two Permanent Effect cards are place faceup by the board. You then choose a set of ten starting cards illustrated with your Main Agent (Agent Monday, Agent Tuesday etc) and a pile of influence cubes and control discs. Players are secretly dealt a random card, kept hidden, to determine if they are Loyalists or Restorationists. So allow the Esoteric Order give you a précis. It really is one of those games that you don’t feel you understand after reading the rulebook, and need a game or two to get your head around. Unfortunately, understanding is not aided by a rulebook that feels like it jumps right into specifics without laying enough a strong enough groundwork of processes. It’s a confusing jumble of a system at first, but it isn’t long before the sticky tendrils begin to clump together and everything begins to make sense. Using these cards, you place influence on other cards so as to add them to your deck, increase its strength, and use their abilities to amass victory points.

During a game, you’ll gather all manner of Victorian, Holmesian, and Lovecraftian-themed forces into your deck of cards, a deck which you will continually recycle in time-honoured deckbuilding fashion. A Study In Emerald simulates the machinations of two groups in an alternate Victorian-era world conquered by Lovecraft’s Old Ones: the Loyalists (loyal to the Old One-dominated ‘royals’ and the existing world order) and the Restorationists, a semi-terrorist organisation determined to return mankind to hegemony over the planet. I was drawn to this one because of its theme, but thankfully the mechanics don’t disappoint. … you’ll gather all manner of Victorian, Holmesian, and Lovecraftian-themed forces into your deck of cards Which brings us to A Study In Emerald, a fun, card-driven area control game-with deck building and hidden roles thrown in.

I did recently play one game of Discworld Ankh-Morpork which I found to be a fun, card-driven area control game. Now I must admit at the outset that I haven’t played many of Mr Wallace’s other games, though if you check out his website you’ll see he’s designed around forty, including such well-regarded titles as Brass, Age of Steam and A Few Acres of Snow. Go on, go read it, we’ll wait here until you come back.Īnd so is, I’m happy to say, Martin Wallace’s game based on the story. The idea probably popped into Neil Gaiman’s head in the shower, and by lunchtime he’d churned out an entertaining short story called A Study in Emerald, which you can read here.

When it comes to atmospheric themes, it’s a gift isn’t it? Sherlock Holmes meets H.P. Disclaimer: Treefrog Games kindly provided me with a review copy of A Study In Emerald.

Gaiman a study in emerald