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A particular favourite genre of game for me is the hidden movement game. I really enjoy the aspect of both trying to outwit your opponent(s) as well as figuring out the best strategy to achieve victory. One of my favourites of these types of games to play is Jaws, designed by Prospero Hall (a personal fave of mine) & Brian Kirk, and published by Ravensburger.
For those not familiar with the game, one person assumes the role of the shark, and up to three other takes on the roles of Brody, Hooper & Quint from the film. The game takes place over two acts, with the first act set on Amity Island and the ocean surrounding it, and the second act taking place on the Orca (Quint’s boat) in the ocean.
The first act is a game to gain an advantage for the second act, with shark aiming to eat as many swimmers as possible, and the other trying to find and attach two barrels to the shark.
The second act is a game to the death where the shark must either destroy the orca, or kill the other three characters, and the others are trying to kill the shark.
It was when watching the film (for about the 100th time – if you haven’t seen it, go and watch it immediately!) then I started wondering if I can adapt the rules for the game to make it a passable solo game.
As soon as I had watched Bruce (the name given to the animatronic shark used in the film) meet his untimely fate. I got out my notepad and started scribbling down ideas on how I could make it work. Here’s what I came up with.
I decided the best way was to come up with a mechanic that could work for the shark, and play as the trio of heroes, adapting the existing gameplay where I could, and limiting the number of changes. My solution was to introduce a good old D-12 to decide where the shark would appear in Act 1 (there are twelve spaces on the board). That way I could factor in the ‘not knowing’ aspect of a hidden movement game.
With that decided, I then had to remove aspects of the gameplay that would not work\make sense. I removed the fish seeker from Hooper and restricted him to the shallow spaces only. I removed the binoculars from Brody and made it slightly harder to close a beach. I also decided to limit the characters to three actions.
I also decided to add in some rules for the shark, whereby if he rolled a number that matched a beach space with swimmers in, he automatically munched one swimmer, and had the ability through a dice roll to snack on up to two more swimmers. I also removed his four special abilities as they did not make sense with the version I was planning.
In terms of act 2, I decided the changes would be to draw a single resurface card after I had placed my crew and targets to determine where the shark would surface. I also would automatically draw a shark ability card (if any left) as well.
That was that, and with my notes scribbled down, I grabbed the game, and my solo game buddy (my pooch Loki) and set about trying it out.
Act 1 – Brucie Bonuses
The first event card drawn was not too bad, it added five swimmers (not great), but I could pick up barrels for free – extremely helpful with less actions available.
Next up was to roll the d-12 and see where Bruce would be appearing. I rolled a three, which meant he was within range of Quint I could attach a barrel on the first turn, ‘great, I am going to have so much gear to take him on in the Orca!’ I thought to myself. After using that turn to get Brody in place to close a beach on the next turn (You open the beaches on the 4th of July, it's like ringing the dinner bell!), and trundle about rescuing two swimmers with Hooper. A good start!
The next round saw a card adding five more swimmers again, and boy (or should that be buoy?) did I pay for that! The D12 was rolled and bang, Bruce surfaced in space 12 (west beach) and helped himself to a snack. He then rolled for his Brucie bonus, and sure enough rolled a two, and helped himself to two more swimmers. The fact Hooper was in the same space was irrelevant, as Quint was the only one who could shoot barrels.
The next turn, I was able to close a beach and save three swimmers in one go with Brody, move Hooper around to give Quint an extra Barrel. Brucie decided he was going to surface on the other side of the island, rolling a ten and helping himself to a swimmer and an extra Brucie Bonus because of course he rolled one damage on his other di. I could not reach him with Quint, so he disappeared back into the ocean (farewell and adieu to thee fair Spanish ladies . . .).
It was at this point Loki & I had a sit-rep to see where we were. Bruce had munched five swimmers in three turns – not great, but also not the worst position I had been in playing as the trio before.
The next round turned out to be the last in act 1, as the shark once again roiled a three. This meant no swimmers to munch on, and Brucie was again in range of Quint, So I duly attached the second barrel and that ended the first act.
Act 2 – Boys, oh boys! I think he’s come back for his noon feeding . . .
I was feeling good, I had a lot of gear on which I could equip my guys with, I had drawn two lots of ammo which doubled my rifle (smile you son of a . . .) and pistol usage, and Brucie only had a few shark ability cards.
I placed my figures, and away we went, first card, attacked a boat space I was not targeting, and the role was high enough to destroy that piece . . .
Ok, ok, bad start, but I am still in a good place, next up I played the chum card (which I adapted to make Brucie reveal his next resurface card (which was the space he had just destroyed). With that knowledge I targeted all my guys on that space and rolled for damage. Six di rolls later and we had succeeded in doing a grand total of one damage to old Bruce . . . just seventeen more to go!
Then it was his turn, and of course he rolled a massive five damage (3 di).
I decided the best rule for this eventuality was to choose the space with the highest value to attack, so he did, destroyed another piece of the orca, dropped Hooper in the water and had a free munch on him.
This is not going well is it Loki?
The next few turns went pretty much the same, and before I knew it, I was down to one piece of the Orca, and two of my meeples in the sea. . . My only hope was to target the right place (a 50/50 chance) . . .yep, you guessed, I chose the wrong one, Brucey came in like a hurricane and destroyed the Orca. And that was that!
Conclusion
It was bloody, brutal, and brief – and I really enjoyed it. I think overall the tweaks I made were not well balanced between the two acts. I found the first act too easy for the humans, and the second act too easy for Brucie.
I have therefore tweaked my rules introducing a success\fail mechanic for attaching barrels in act 1, and having the three resurface cards visible before drawing at random which one the shark will attack for act 2.
This gives Brucie more of a chance to fill up on swimmers in act 1 and more of chance to actually do any damage to him in act 2.
I also created mock ups of the revised player cards as part of the rules pack, I have created and be interested if anyone gives this a go and let me know what they think?
Overall, there is a good solo game in there, even if I have not landed on it just yet, but I still enjoyed playing it despite the fact I could not play as Brucie - Mike rule 101 - always be the bad guy!
Let me know what you think of this as a concept and of any other games you think I could try and adapt to solo play.
Until next time, show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I want to go to bed...
For an online, in depth copy of the solo play rules, click here!
