Tähti

We’ve played Mike Pohjola’s new game Tähti (Star) for a few times. It’s a game about teenage mutant ninj- krhm, I mean about a teenage mutant girl band. It’s set in 2017 Leninist-Maoist Finland and in our version, the nuclear reactor in Loviisa had a meltdown and Jyväskylä has become the capitol of Finland. Oh, and according to the game, Heidi Hautala is the president. Good for her.

Not your average roleplaying-game then, whatever that means in this day and age. We have two game masters, and five players, adding to 7 players in all. That is a lot, when I think that the optimal amount of participants in a game is usually around four to five. Usually it’s not a issue, but I think it’s worth mentioning that there are 3 girls (khihihi) and 4 boys (hihi) playing. Finding our inner teenage girls hasn’t been that easy for all of us, although the journey has been both scary and entertaining . Mostly the latter. I found that it is easiest for me to use a method of projection to create my character. Basically, it is based on a girl I used to know, if only remotely.

To sum up, the game has been an entertaining change to our usual routines, if we do indeed have ones. There is one thing that has left me to wonder: who are the target audience for the game? Partly, it seems that it is the 12-18 year old girls being played in the game. But then again, there is a lot of intentional(?) sarcasm that is lost in that audience, probably meant for the players like me.