I don’t know what to make of Sun Rot, and I mean that in a good way. Published by indie model-making studio Smashbash Miniatures, it’s sold as a hefty coffin-box board game, has rules halfway between a lightweight TTRPG and an indie miniature wargame, and has a supplemental model line designed by arthouse sculptors. This article isn’t so much my first impressions of Sun Rot as it is my first encounter with it – the kind of encounter you would have with aliens.
There are two versions of Sun Rot, both of which I’ve received as review samples. One is a set of card decks: decks for characters’ abilities, decks for events, monsters, and other happenings, and a rules booklet. To play with this you’ll need regular six sided dice, plus models to represent the player characters, their enemies, and the strange ruined city they’ll be exploring under the light of a dying sun.
That really shows the game’s genealogy. Smashbash Miniatures emerged from the indie ‘Inq28’ miniature wargaming scene: it’s a subculture that’s big on creativity, light on rules, and promotes DIY model customization.
I’ve been sent some of the official minis for the game, all made by sculptors who rose to prominence making Inq28 kitbashes, and they’re more like tiny fine art sculptures than any normal miniatures.
The rules are light touch, with lots and lots of scope for improvisation and interpretation by the game master and players. That fits perfectly well with the traditions of both indie RPGs and Inq28, arenas where the rules are often a framework to facilitate player expression and creativity, as much like improv prompts as they are challenges you can pass or fail.
The big box edition repackages those decks and rules with dice, a board, cardboard ruins, and dozens of cardboard standees for every type of character and monster you might encounter. Bring your imagination, and you have everything you need to play.
There’s an added scenario booklet, but this is just a selection of art and single paragraphs of evocative text. This paints the world like a serial killer paints the walls, in vivid and violent spurts: a rancid mist begins to dissolve the guests at a wedding; the public gallows begins to sprout more arms and nooses like a tree in rapid growth; the tide goes out so far the harbour is revealed as a swallowing throat…
Our guide to the best board games doesn’t have a section for ‘games with mechanical ellipses that can only be considered complete when animated by human creativity’, and not just because it would be awful for SEO optimization. Normally, that kind of game isn’t published as a board game.
So is this a massively overproduced indie RPG slash wargame? Or is putting everything you need to play into one box enough to make it a board game, albeit a very weird one? Will the open-endedness and invitation for substantial player improvisation expand minds, or merely frustrate? I’m intrigued.
Once I’ve worked out whether I test it with board gamers, wargamers, or RPG players, I’ll let you know my full thoughts. If you’ve got an opinion, or can think of relevant comparison points for this platypus of a game, let me know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
