#RPGADAY2020 19. (The Dark) Tower

 

#Tower

Tower is easy. 

The Dark Tower, by Milton Bradley. My dad came home with this game and it became a fixture at the dinner table. We'd eat and the game would come out. No one fought over the pieces, because the Tower was the goal of every player.

My Mom, Dad, and sister all played this every chance we got. I wish we had pictures because those were good times. I did a retrospective post on it, since I don't have an actual game to review. 

Game play was easy and it left a great impression on me. While it isn't an RPG, it reminds me of Barbarian Prince by Dwarfstar Games. 

The mechanics were easy. Move a piece on the board and the electronic tower responded. Each turn cost food, some ratio of food to solders. You fought brigands from time to time, got lost or walked into a plague. If you collected up the 3 keys, you could mount an assault on the Tower itself. 

There were some special events, fight a dragon, find a Pegasus, or a magic sword. The sword automatically defeated the dragon, but you lost the sword. A Pegasus would allow you to hop across a single kingdom. Checking in at home gave you more soldiers. 

You could hire a beast, a scout or a healer to offset some bad events. Records were kept with simple cards and a sort of pegboard tally sheet. It was so simple. 

One of the standout features was the artwork. It was weird and cool at the same time. Each image appeared on the side of the tower, lit by an small light bulb. Recently, I was able to figure out that it was done by Bob Popper. There is even a brief interview with him over at WellOfSouls.com. In that interview, he imagined the characters or teams going on endless quests. His unique style did that wonderfully. 

I can still hear the win condition music from the game, which is of course linked to the images. 

Tower... the timeless setting.