RogerBW's Blog

Another gathering for Xia: Legends of a Drift System.

Yes, all right, it took four and a half hours for a 15-point game with four player-entities (two of them were teams). But I think we all had a really good time.

It doesn't take as much setup as Firefly, where I'd be laying out all the ships and starting money before people arrived, partly because there's less to do before play starts and partly because choosing ships and initial gear is part of the game.

I 3d-printed a storage solution I found on Thingiverse, then noticed that one sort of token didn't have a storage slot – so I fixed it. I'm very keen on the slotted ship holders, and on the cargo cube trays that lock together to make a base for the economy board.

I had a great first turn with the Swamp Rat (6-drive and GTS, 6-shield and Enviro Shield) – starting at #3 Azure, I blind-jumped into five sectors, scooping up their exploration tokens. Then I made the same circuit again in reverse after the Grand Prix event came up.

Others had different approaches – going off into their own corners, or hanging around near the centre for pirate-hunting. (Or was that pirate, hunting? So hard to tell.)

That gap in the map turned out to be the damaged Tigris Gate, so yes thank you I shall have another fame point.

None of us got titles, but I was on my way to take advantage of a cargo prohibition (fame for selling lots of the banned cargo, and it was next on my 4-cube trade route) when I picked up a lost captain and found it easier to turn them in for the fame than to go three more sectors for the goods sale. Combined with four hoarded exploration tokens, that gave me the win.