/pic7561264.png)
It is April 1793. You are Evariste Gamelin, a young artist with an enthusiasm for the Republican cause. As an appointed magistrate, you will preside over show trials of accused royalists and counterrevolutionaries. Your goal is to elevate your reputation amongst your fellow Jacobins while using your position to settle personal scores and condemn rivals on both sides of your cause.
Some individuals very dear to you may find their own loyalties questioned. Will you carry out the sentences or risk your reputation and position to spare them?
Based on Anatole France's 1912 Novel Les Dieux Ont Soif, The Gods Will Have Blood is a solitaire game driven by player choice and bag building that weaves a story of seeking justice, settling old scores, and those given the power to conflate the two.
—description from the designer
- tight historical theming in a compact package
- potential for tense, narrative courtroom drama
- niche subject may limit audience
- learning curve around historical mechanics
- justice and political upheaval under a harsh regime
- French Revolution era judiciary / reign of terror
- historical courtroom/tribunal driven
- Twilight Struggle
- Here I Stand
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card-based resolution — Cards substitute for dice to drive outcomes and narrative swings.
- courtroom-style adjudication — Procedural proceedings and tribunals shape game state.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's the nice thing about being this size, doing it smaller
- As designers, we're setting the table
- I want combat in these games to be something that the defender feels too has a decision space
- it's all about tension
- There are opportunities to get people involved in these projects to do development