What do you do when you can’t release your game anymore? Retheme the living Dickens out of it that’s what!
I am a major fan of the Discworld. That’s not a secret to anyone that knows me. It may seem like Firefly and Rick and Morty have a higher place in my heart, but no. It’s only that most of my friends don’t get the Discworld references. Martin Wallace originally had a trilogy of Discworld themed games. So when I heard that the first game was being rethemed and called Nanty Narking, I was instantly intrigued.
The first was Martin Wallace Discworld game is Ankh Morpork, a game that most closely resembles Lords of Waterdeep, but doesn’t. This game is the basis of Nanty Narking, and what I am excited about.
Then came The Witches that kind of but not really resembles Pandemic. This is a fun little experience with a number of ways to play it, and well worth a look.
Then, there was to be The Gods, the final in a trilogy. Due to Sir Terry’s passing, The Gods and pretty much all Discworld related licensing was pulled. And for the general public, The Gods were never to be. A piece of me does think that Sir Terry would have smiled at that little piece of irony though.
So what do you do when you have a fun game that you can’t print anymore because of lawyers? Retheme it and place it in a semi-fictional Old Victorian era, and call it Nanty Narking!
At the moment all I honestly know of the game is that it is coming to Kickstarter this year, and has some fun looking minis already 🙂
Based on Ankh Morpork gameplay, Nanty Narking has players competing to take control of what I assume will be London. This will be done with a mixture of area management, hidden roles and varying objectives.
I am hoping Nanty Narking will streamline and balance a couple of the roles that were found in Ankh Morpork, but like Restoration Games, this seems to be being handled by a group that genuinely love the base game and want to bring it to a new group of players.
If you know anyone with a copy of Ankh Morpork, have a game or two before the Kickstarter launch. I will be reviewing Ank Morpork formally around the end of March in the meantime. The gameplay and mechanics to me stand up well, and Ank Morpork was not a game that needed the Discworld theme to hold it up, so I am very excited about Nanty Narking!
Until next time,
JohnHQLD
