Dark hallways

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Dark hallways
Deskohraní 08-09-27 193.jpg
Game data
author Friedemann Friese
graphic Maura Kalusky
publishing company 2F Games ,
Rio Grande Games ,
Tilsit


Filosofia
Giochi Uniti
Swan Panasia

Publishing year 2003
Art Board game
Teammates 2-7
Duration 45 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

German Games Award 2004: 8th place
International Gamers Award 2004: nominated

Finstere Flure is a board game by Friedemann Friese , published in 2003 by his own publisher 2F-Spiele . It was illustrated by Lars-Arne “Maura” Kalusky , who also took on the graphic design for many of the author's other games.

In Dark corridors is a predominantly tactical board game with Bluff -elements for two to seven players. In addition to the satirical presentation, some game elements such as a pronounced interaction between the players and their moves as well as the comparatively low chance of chance are typical of the author .

The game

Game idea

Various groups of people are trapped in Prince Fieso's fortress and must try to escape from it. The only thing that stands between them and freedom is the prince's monster , Furunculus.

Each player takes on one of the captured groups, which, depending on the number of players, consist of three to four characters . The aim of the turn-based game is to get the majority of your characters past the deadly monster to the exit of the fortress and thus to safety.

material

In addition to instructions, the game material includes:

  • 1 game board
  • 25 game pieces in 7 colors, glued on both sides
  • 17 hallway tiles (11 stone blocks, 4 teleporters, 2 pools of blood)
  • 8 monster movement cards
  • 1 marker for the beginning player
  • 1 monster kit (22 body parts that can be put together to form monsters of different looks)

Course of the game

The game board shows a columned hall divided into fields from above . In one corner is the entrance from which the players' pieces start, in the diagonally opposite corner is the exit, the goal. It is the task of the players to cross the hall with their pawns without them being "eaten" by the monster, that is, being hit.

The game takes place in rounds, all players take turns moving their figures first, then the monster is moved according to certain rules and can also defeat the players' figures. All figures can only move horizontally or vertically.

When it is the players' turn, they always move one of their figures in turn until all figures have been moved once. Each game piece has two differently designed sides (colored and black) with different movement points, which in total always add up to 7, for example 3 and 4 or 6 and 1. After each move, the figure is turned over to the other side resulting changing range of motion must be taken into account by the players. This mechanism also has the practical function of distinguishing between figures that have already been drawn and those that have not yet moved. Player characters may change direction and jump over each other while moving, but they cannot hit each other.

The monster is moved by the players together and according to certain rules. In contrast to the figures of the players, it can also run out of the playing field and is then used again on the opposite side of the game board. The eight monster movement cards are used to determine the range of movement; they also form the only random element of the game. The cards are shuffled before the game and laid out in a face-down pile; the top card is revealed before the monster's turn. Six of the cards show the number of spaces the monster must be moved in that round. The two remaining cards stand for one or two “hits”, the monster is moved here until it has captured one or two player figures, however a maximum of 20 spaces.

The drawing of the monster follows a certain pattern: Before each step it first “looks” to the front, left and right, the orientation of the monster figure therefore plays a decisive role. If the monster discovers one or more of the players' figures, it changes its direction of travel to that of the closest game figure, otherwise it continues straight ahead. By positioning their characters in a targeted manner, players can control the monster's movements to a certain extent, whereby those players who are last in turn can often exert the greater influence on the monster's movement. Especially in games with many other players, the game is often very unpredictable for the first players in a round, but this unpredictability is one of the charms of the game.

There are also eleven stone blocks and two pools of blood on the game board, which are placed at the beginning of a game. Stone blocks block the monster's view and allow the player characters to hide, and the blocks can be moved by both the player characters and the monster. Figures can "slide" over the four fields of large blood pools and thus increase their range of motion.

The course of the game is also divided into two phases: In the first phase, captured pieces are only returned to the entrance and the player can try again to bring them to the exit. The second phase begins after the penultimate monster movement cards have been revealed and executed. All eight cards are then shuffled again and laid out again as a face-down pile, otherwise the game continues without changes. However, in the second phase, captured pieces are completely removed from the game.

The winner is whoever can move all but one of his pawns out of the hall first, this is only possible after seven game rounds. However, the game inevitably ends after 15 rounds at the latest, as the second monster pile has then been played. In this case, the first player to save the most pieces wins.

Extended version

For advanced players there is the option of using special blocks instead of the normal stone blocks, which make the game a little more challenging. There are crystal blocks through which the monster can see, deflection blocks that influence its direction of travel, and teleporters between which the monster (but not the player characters) can teleport.

Awards

Friedemann Friese at the international match days in Essen 2017

Finstere Flure achieved eighth place at the German Games Prize 2004, and it was also one of the finalists at the International Gamers Award 2004 in the category "Multiplayer" (General Strategy Games, Multi-Player).

Translations

The game was published in English (under the title Fearsome Floors ) by Rio Grande Games and in French ( La Crypte de la Créature ) and Italian ( Fuggi, Fuggi ) by Tilsit (the edition was bilingual). Both the English and Italian titles receive the alliteration on the letter F, which has become a trademark of the author.

A French edition was also published by the Canadian publisher Filosofia, an Italian by Gniochi Uniti and a Chinese by Swan Panasia.

useful information

The background story of Finstere Flure , which is rather irrelevant for the game , continues that of an earlier game by the author, Fish, Fluppen, Meatballs . The story ends in the game Horrible Enemies , published below , which also takes up the monster theme again. Apart from the story, the content of the games has nothing to do with each other.

An online version of the game Finstere Flure which can be played in the browser is made available on the Internet platform Yucata .

Since 2011, the game has included instructions in 4-color printing. In the previous editions, the instructions were printed in black and white for cost reasons.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nominations 2004 on the website of the International Gamers Award (English)
  2. ↑ yucata.de with the online version of the game Kahuna , accessed on January 13, 2017.

Web links