Get Your Hands On Some ANIMAL CRIME
Ben Lehman, the designer of Polaris, On the Ecology of the Mud Dragon, and Hot Guys Making Out, among others, has just released his successfully-kickstarted game ANIMAL CRIME.
image via animalcrime.com
This prequel-of-sorts to Sea Dracula is a “veterinary noir” role-playing game, where you and your friends take on the roles of Marmot Detective and his suspects in the crime-ridden world that is Animal City. As Ben says, “The goal is to have a game which you, as someone who enjoys role-playing games, can play with other friends in the social space of a board game.” That is to say, 45 to 90 minutes.
To that end, the game comes in a neat little box with everything you need to play:
- A 16-page, three color comic written by Ben with art by Jake Richmond: ANIMAL CRIME presents MARMOT DETECTIVE in THE McCORGI AFFAIR
- Enough dice to play the game (six)
- Character pamphlets
- Pencils
- Game rules
- A secret gift
the first box of ANIMAL CRIME to hit the streets (minus the character pamphlets)
I haven’t played nor read ANIMAL CRIME yet, but by far the most exciting part of the whole thing to me is its stated goal of being designed for that board game social space. I’m all for (smart) outreach. It also seems to be walking the line between serious and parody so well that I can’t tell if it’s both or neither.
There are only 100 copies of the game, a little over half of which have sold as of this writing. Official word is that there probably won’t be a reprint. A bare-bones version of the game is going to be released on the TAO Games website for free or a suggested donation, though. There’s also a weekly webcomic at animalcrime.com that follows the aforementioned Marmot Detective in all his gritty doings in the underbelly of Animal City.
You can find ANIMAL CRIME at the animalcrime.com store.
