All Hands on Deck!
Bridge Command is a realistic immersive interactive theatre experience based in Vauxhall in South East London where you take on the role of a member of the crew on a space ship. You'll don uniforms and, once onboard your ship, you'll have to man consoles controlling navigation, engineering, communications, weapons, etc. Some of the crew may have to deploy to the shp's shuttlecraft. You'll have a mission and you'll encounter other ships and personnel played by actors. The various Bridge Command scenarios link together to form an ongoing narrative in a coherent believable universe, so return visitors have a sense of progression and can even advance in rank.
Paige O'Callaghan and Board's Eye View reviewer Edmund Ward are both regulars at Bridge Command, now both advanced to Lieutenant Commander rank, and they've devised All Hands on Deck! as a card game set in the Bridge Command universe. The characters and mission specialists on the cards are all drawn from Bridge Command and brought to life by artist Lt. Cmdr. Natasha Vucak, and many will be recognised by those who have taken part in the Bridge Command experience.
All Hands on Deck! is a light card drafting game played over eight turns. Each of the 2–5 players has a tableau of four cards representing their ship's four stations. A cube on each shows that station's power (initially zero). Players are each dealt a hand of eight cards. These all show crew members with a power value and various skills and attributes, including an ability that may be ongoing or may just kick in when the card is drafted.
Simultaneously, players draft one card and allocate it to a station on their ship, adjusting accordingly that station's power. At the end of each turn, you pass your hand to the player on your left, so your next turn will involve drafting a card from the new hand you are given.
Throughout the game there will be a display of four mission cards. You can claim a mission when your ship satisfies that mission's specific requirements, usually involving having particular affiliations represented in your crew and/or a minimum power level in a specified station. You can't complete a mission unless all four of your stations have at least one assigned crew member, so players won't be able to claim missions before the fourth turn. Meet a mission's requirements and you earn a mission reward. That'll be worth 1-3 points but it could represent a pirate prisoner with an additional effect...
That's the game in a nutshell. Because the drafting is simultaneous, player count doesn't materially affect playing time; this is a brisk game where the eight turns are likely to run to a total of around 20 minutes regardless of whether you're playing with two players or the maximum complement of five. Four players is probably the sweet spot tho' as at that count everyone gets to see the same hand twice. And tho' the game plays quickly, it has a distinctive arc because players have to build their crews before they can tackle any missions.
For devotees of the Bridge Command experience - both regulars and one-off visitors - All Hands on Deck! makes the perfect souvenir. You can click here to pre-order your copy but it's only due to be sold over the counter at the Bridge Command bar, although you may be able to pick up a copy at the London Boardgame Show in January.
