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Before the birth of time itself, great abyssals patrolled the darkness, guarding the secrets of the unborn cosmos. Infernals held court in their fantastic ballrooms, connoisseurs of decadence and indulgence. And most unfathomable of all, the celestials shaped, guided, created and molded.
In Primordial Secrets, players must send their obedient pawns to entreat these all-powerful titans for their aid and guidance, all while playing a strange and dangerous game of flamboyant intrigue. If a player's visitors have enough devotion, they will return with strong new allies, and with enough insight they could even uncover a dark secret guarded by a rival. Meanwhile, your deceitful hosts will try to lure the emissaries and party guests sent by your opponents to your sacrificial altar.
The game ends when a player has collected six sacrifices or stolen six secrets, and the unborn universe shall be theirs alone to rule.
—description from the publisher
- Some interesting concepts
- Excruciatingly ugly cover art
- Confusing and nonsensical terminology
- Artwork looks the same throughout the game
- Too chaotic
- Hard to track who is winning
- Messy and unrefined gameplay
- Clunky mechanics
- Randomness of the middle deck feels like luck
- Player mats are difficult to fit into the box
- Cards are not marked for easy sorting
- Eldritch intrigue
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deck Building — The game is described as a 'competitive deck-building game' where players start with a deck of cards and buy new cards to add to their deck.
- sacrifice — If defense beats attack, the attacker sacrifices one of their people, and getting eight sacrifices is a win condition.
- Set Collection — Players collect secrets and sacrifices, and recruiting expensive royals also contributes to victory points.
- Stealing — Players can steal a pile of secrets from opponents if their attack is four or more greater than the opponent's deceit (defense).
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- So, um yes, I'm biased against people with uh sense organs on their hands.
- Deceit means attack.
- And I just find that all these different terms and symbols and things hurts the gameplay.
- This is a very very okay deck builder. And it's very very chaotic.
- It's messy. It's unrefined and it's clunky.
- This is not a game I can really recommend.
References (from this video)
- gross theme
- little convoluted
- bunch of guesswork
- primordials visiting others with eyeballs
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deck Building — It's a deck builder of sorts.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Elect yourself president from Parker Brothers.
- It's all it takes to buy your presidency.
- Flip It Jackpot endorsed by television personality Flip Wilson.
- Nightrider.
- Chips.
- The Bionic Woman.
- $6 Million Man.
- Thunderbirds.
- Pre Matt Lecock.
- Get smart.
- I love this.
- I love this book.
- This is my favorite one that I've ever pulled off the shelf.