To talk about Thornwatch I first want to talk about Dungeons and Dragons, and any other Tabletop Role-Playing Game I’ve played. My experience playing these games has always straddled the line of true role-playing and meta-gaming. Due to my insecurities, when I am playing a character, I feel like it is important to play an “effective” character, to prove my value to my cooperative teammates. When I am in the GM role, my meta-gaming is shown when I try to provide challenges for my players that make them feel threatened. However, I am supported by the system, and the truly cooperative nature of these games (the GM and players are secretly on the same team), help me to forget my insecurities and get closer to inhabiting my characters.
Thornwatch is a board game masquerading as a TTRPG. It certainly looks like a TTRPG, with its dichotomy between Players and Judge, with its teasings of lore, with its RP encouragements on every card, and with its truly spooky setting. But it doesn’t feel like an RPG. The Judge, only controlling the monsters and having some dastardly global abilities, is much more of an Adversary than a GM. The Judge and Players are both most systematically rewarded for skillful play, rather than storytelling. This is despite the Trait cards that can be used by the Players, that can offer boons if the Players RP in specific ways. The adjudicator of whether someone is RPing “well” is the Judge, and the Players are incentivized to really play up their traits for these mechanical bonuses, rather than because its interesting or fun. The Players tend to sprinkle their RP on top of what they were already going to do, rather than let RP decide their actions.
This also puts the Judge in an interesting position. How are they supposed to “win”? Are they telling a story with the Players, even though they are loaded with abilities that hurt the Players? Can they tell a story with the Players, when the Players have to devote so much mental energy to just determining what they want to do, to whom, and when, for maximum tactical superiority? The Player’s goals are clear. The Judge feels like they are playing against many people, and trying to defeat them all, but also sure they have a good time. In many TTRPGs, this contradiction would suck. But maybe Thornwatch shouldn’t be played as a light TTRPG. Maybe its just a Many vs One tactical board game.
And Thornwatch is definitely good at being that. The dice are swingy enough where every attack has a bit of trepidation. The character classes and the judges feel different enough to feel truly unique. The individual scenarios can be altered to make them feel replayable. Each individual turn feels important, and the initiative-as-health mechanic makes damage feel tactile and rewarding in a way that no other game does. As a Player, cooperation with your fellow players is paramount, and always feels good. Support roles and tank roles feel valuable in real ways.
But when I’m the Judge, I feel like an asshole if I win, and like i have no self-respect if I allow myself to lose.
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