The crew of the Manticore takes back to the sea as I continue my play through of Sleeping Gods by Red Raven Games. What adventure awaits them on last nights live stream? There is a lot of adventure and more story to explore as we meet an old friend from a couple of sessions ago. You can catch up here.

The Game – Sleeping Gods

Story without a direct focus is what we’re going to talk about today. And I’ll describe what I mean by that. This story can be explored in almost any order. New avenues will open up if you have keywords, but you can go anywhere and just explore. That is part of the game.

The question is, is that a good part of the game. I have played other games that do this, Near and Far as well as Seafall, and it can be a problem. In Near and Far, the little vignettes were fun, but the story overall for the game felt like it was lacking. The glimpses I got into the world made me want to explore it more, but also didn’t help me care that much about it. Especially in a mechanically driven game.

Seafall also tried to do little vignettes into the world. However, most of them were so generic that it felt like it really didn’t matter. And because they wanted to add reveals into the story, we actually, but poor luck, got a reveal of some of the mystery after the bigger reveal had happened. So the story that was there came out of order.

Now, this all sounds pretty negative. And I totally get that, I do often have issues with story written like that. But in the case of both Near and Far and Seafall, the story was treated as secondary. The mechanics going on were what drove the game, and the story felt more like an afterthought. I don’t believe it was, but that is how it felt. In Sleeping Gods, that isn’t the case, the game is about the story.

Mechanically, Sleeping Gods is still very sound. But the story is what drives the choices you make and what you do, not the mechanics. And that is why Sleeping Gods works as a game with story vignettes. Exploring the world is how you beat the game. Exploring the story is how you beat the game. Not by having the most points to trigger then end, as in Seafall, or get rid of all your tents in Near and Far.

Hopefully that distinction makes sense. Sleeping Gods is so driven by the story that I want to explore that. The mechanics are there to make it a game, but exploring the world and that story is what the game is about. And even if it’s not a grand epic fantasy story told in a normal format, it is still great.

The Drink

Last nights drink wasn’t anything too fancy. I went with a Mojito. The mixer part was in fact from a mix, which I generally don’t do, but I picked some up to try a while ago.

When I pick up alcohol for a mixed drink, I don’t think about it for that purpose. If I’m not willing to sip on the liquor, I’m not likely to buy it. The idea kind of comes from wine. Wine is often used in cooking and there is a mindset that you can get cheap wine for cooking. You aren’t going to drink it, just use it in cooking so why should it be good? But the flavor is what you’re going for, so a less appealing flavor in wine will make your cooking less appealing.

In a mixed drink, if I wouldn’t sip it, that means it’s going to negatively impact the flavor of my drink. Sure, something like Bulleit Bourbon or Whiskey I’m less apt to sip on, but I would. So when I make an Old Fashioned with it, I know the flavor is going to be good.

Upcoming Steaming

So Wednesday’s as always are going to be Sleeping Gods. Subscribe to the channel and click the notification bell to know when we’re going live. But if you don’t want pesky push notifications, I generally don’t, know it’s every Wednesday at 8 PM Central Time.

I honestly don’t know how much of Sleeping Gods is left. With the introductory scenario, I believe I’ve streamed about four and a half hours. So my guess is that I have at least another month to go of game play. But I know what game I’m playing next. Just coming in this week, from Favro Games, Spire’s End. I’ll talk more about it as we get closer to streaming, but it looks like a fun one.

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