Aleph Null | Board & Book

I love that little lectern! Seriously though, that is a cool idea to turn cards into a book. I think the subject matter is entertaining and interesting, but I'm coming from a non-believing perspective. I totally understand the "curiosity and amusement" reasons for keeping this game in your collection. More on the amusement side of the subject I've enjoyed the movie "Onyx The Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls" for a comedic take on the desire to summon a demon / follow the devil.

Great video - looks like the game captures the theme really well.

A difficult game

It's such a unique, tough and clever small game.

Eeeep! I know the name James Blish only through his novelizations of Original Series Star Trek episodes (Star Trek One, Two, and so on). Didn't know this theme was his main line of work.

Enjoy the linking of a game derived from a book or book series. Do more

This wasn't covered in the video, but I found the rulebook for this game to be quite confusing for a game of this size, and I'm curious whether anyone else feels similarly/differently. Let me count the ways...

(0) No initial explanation of your objective. Straight into setup and "on your turn".

(1) Making the rulebook thematic cluttered the language of the actual rules (e.g., game setup as "The Preparation of the Operator"; language to "summon/scrap/sacrifice" a card instead of play/discard/trash). Maybe I would appreciate this more if I'd read the books the game is based on. But I just wanted to learn how to play in the most familiar language possible.

(2) Some basic concepts were never explained (e.g., it was never explicitly stated that there is a play area in front of you, and playing a card means putting it face-up into the play area -- easy enough to figure out, but it made me wonder if I'd skipped a section).

(3) Multiple forward-references to parts of the rulebook I haven't yet read -- this made it harder to understand the part I was currently reading.

(4) Inconsistent headings (e.g., "The Turn" section has steps: "1. Draw 5 cards from the deck; 2. On the use of cards; 3. The end of your turn." Minor quibble, but why not make those headings all start with verbs of the particular action you take, like in step 1? That would make it easier to get a high-level overview of how to play just from skimming.)

(5) "Virtual" magic power sounded like it was going to be a mess—needing to keep a running count in my head while also trying to play the game. When reading the rules, I thought, "why not just include a counter for this?" In practice, I was only producing magic power when needed, so there wasn't as much to mentally track as I'd anticipated. So maybe there's not actually a critique here.

Anyway, none of this is meant to be a criticism of the rulebook writer. It's more a mental exercise to think through what I value in my rulebooks, from the perspective of an aspiring game designer.

Rulebook aside: I had never played or heard of a "deck destruction" game, so in terms of mechanisms I think that's a neat idea!

And even though the theme doesn't speak to me, I did really like the grimoire and cards as a book.

Thanks for the video, Liz! It's nice to see a recent video of a game I just happened to finally pick up off the shelf. :)