Ignorance is bliss.

Welcome to TiDE the largely uninformed, over excited, and generally immature blog which will follow my adventures in The Drowned Earth. (Feels like it needs a “dun dun duuuun”)

When I say uninformed I honestly mean it. My current experience with the system can be boiled down to: saw at Salute, thought that gorilla has a tiny lizard friend? Here’s my money.

This was followed by a growing excitement about the game as I found out more about it through the tested method of lazy google and YouTube browsing while I should be working.





So first things first, what is The Drowned Earth, I hear you ask. Thanks for asking, It’s a skirmish sized tabletop miniatures game set in a flooded and jungle covered world inhabited by people, apes fellas, lizard dudes, and dinosaurs (all of these have proper names I’m fairly sure). The systems uses D10s to determine success and the game revolves around “dynamic movement” and a action, reaction process that feels very cinematic.

The fluff puts you centuries after a world ending event, sea levels have risen and flooded most of the world and over time nature has taken back control and a tropical climate filled with jungles and swamp now covers what’s left.

There are survivors making a life in these jungles, among them are various factions and races. Including the previously mentioned humans, apes, and lizards. Also there are dinosaurs, I haven’t got to the point of how or why there are dinosaurs yet but life has taught us that everything is improved with the addition of actual dinosaurs (also new challenge is to sneak a game of this at the Natural History Museum).

Ok so question two is why am I excited? The general answer is I have two speeds, hugely over excited or meh. I’ve been meh about gaming for a while to be honest, just using games as an excuse to paint stuff.
TDE sparked something that made me think, “I need to try this” and not just as an excuse to meet up with mates but because it would be fun (I miss games being fun).
So on the prospect of imagined fun I went from meh to wooooohoooo which while annoying for those around me is a lot better the meh.

None of that really answers the why of the question does it (you can tell I’m out of practice with this I’m rambling, but you get what you pay for). The first thing that struck me about the game was the models, they looked fun to paint. Crisp details, a clear style, and options to try different techniques.
Next thing was the tables possibilities, the game is on dense multi level boards with water that’s an actual feature. I have the option of not just pick box A or B for terrain not just fantasy tree or space rubble.
Thirdly the game feels like you’re tell a story that just happens to have a win condition. It’s a game that works better when enjoyed, running along a bridge, leaping a barrier, and diving into a swamp while you get shot at by a stealth lizard is fun for the sake of fun.

That seems like enough to be getting on with, the more I learn the more I'll share and the more you can revel in the glow of my irritating excitement.