Liquid Crystal

Next weekend I’ll have chance to play Liquid Crystal again. It is a game in which players create and play robots with no personality to start with. The game is set in a utopian (or dystopian) future where most of the humanity is wiped out and the remainder try to build anew, starting with the city of New Olympus. The back story is largely unimportant, as it is not a game about exploration, unless that is defined very specifically to mean the psyche of the robot played. In another words, it is game of building personalities and seeing how they turn out. Very few games start with a blank character sheet that is completed based on the events of the game, and not the other way around.

The rules could have used a bit of polishing, but they work well enough for trying out. The game was actually written for Iron Game Chef 2006, taking the respectful second place. I haven’t tried the winner, but if it was actually better than LC, it must have been great.

I bought my copy from Lulu.com, but it appears to have been released as a free copy on 1km1kt.net. It is an excellent game so if you happen to try it, I suggest you pay the author the tiny amount he is asking of it.