Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
The Rival Networks Coming from Formal Ferret Games
Quick news post today (I promise a review is coming later this week).
Long-time readers know of my love for The Networks (designed by Gil Hova). Not only did I give it a glowing review, but it made it into my Top 5 games played of all-time.
Today’s email brought a welcome announcement from Gil (and Formal Ferret Games): The Rival Networks!
This is a 2-player quick-playing version of The Networks that will be a bit less complex than its parent game.
As Gil says in his post, these are prototypes so not only is the artwork not final, but neither are the rules necessarily!
This is the first time that Gil has co-designed a game (with JR Honeycutt in this case)
With that out of the way, what does The Rival Networks bring to the table?
Let’s blurb this from Gil’s announcement:
“Like the original Networks game, you’re trying to score the most Viewers by drafting Shows. When you draft a Show, you’ll immediately put it on one of your three timeslots with optional Stars. If your Show matches its timeslot, you’ll get a 1-Viewer “Hot” bonus. You’ll immediately score Viewers for that Show.
When you get a Show, you might also get a Star at the same time. Your Stars will add Viewers to your Shows, but each Star is limited to 1-2 Genres they can participate in, and you can only put a Star on a Show with a matching Genre. You immediately score Viewers for Stars you put on Shows.”
There is an “end of season” card that comes out after two turns. If somebody takes it, the season ends. Shows are compared, extra viewers awarded, shows are either hot or cold (for next season) and other stuff happens too.
The game goes for three seasons, so we’re looking at probably a 20-30 minute game.
Which is perfect!
The game will have genre bonuses like its parent, but they’ll work slightly differently.
It will also likely have a small expansion right out of the box with Ads and Executives.
This has the potential to be a great way to introduce The Networks to people who may not be up for the main game right away. But it also sounds interesting enough to give you that Networks flavour when you only have a short time to play (like at lunch!)
I’m really looking forward to this, but don’t hold your breath.
Gil says he’s looking at early 2020 just to launch the Kickstarter, but that may not happen.
Once I know, you’ll know.
In the meantime, go get The Networks. It’s a great game!
(Oh, and there is another announcement that you might be interested in also on that post, a new light RPG designed by Gil. Check that out too!)
Dude! Take Your Turn! 
Pingback: Rival Networks to hit Kickstarter on January 28 – Dude! Take Your Turn!