Run
Run is an asymmetric hidden movement game in the tradition of Scotland Yard (Ravensburger), Diabolik (Ares Games) and City Chase (Korea Boardgames), but unlike the majority of other hidden movement chase games, Run is specifically designed as a two-player game rather than one-vs-many game. Players both have identical boards on which they move respectively their runner and pursuit helicopter but their boards are protected from their opponent's prying eyes with large screens. Run is designed by Moritz Dressler and published by Fowers Games, with art from Ryan Goldberry in the distinctive style that many will recognise from previous Fowers titles, including Now Boarding, Sabotage , Wok Star and, of course, Burgle Brothers.
It's clear that Moritz Dressler has learned from the experience of of other hidden movement chase games. He's streamlined gameplay, communication and record keeping through the use of plastic tokens to indicate movement. As a result, he's created a game that plays quickly but where you can keep the game fresh by stepping up both players' challenge. Modifying a player's 'rank' essentially means reducing the number and range of movement tokens or tiles available to them. You can also scale the difficulty level in the choice of which city board to play on. The easiest is Cologne but there are eight different pairs of city boards to play on and each of them introduces a tweak to the rules.
The Runner has to collect three 'gadgets' and then make it back to a safe house. The Runner has to choose between silent moves (opponent knows you've moved but not what direction) and sprints that can take the Runner further but which show their opponent the direction they've moved. When the Runner picks up a gadget they can make use of it; for example, the jetpack allows the Runner to fly to the roof of a building instead of having to bother with using fire escapes. All the gadgets make sound thematic sense and so they also play their part in adding to Run's thematic immersion.
The Dispatch player moves a pursuit helicopter and chooses their actions from those on the card tiles available to them. The tiles are single use unless Dispatch uses an action to recharge (flip all their used tiles to their active side) but when a tile action results in a miss, Dispatch is compensated by being able to use one of their backup cards.
Our plays of this game at Board's Eye View have mostly run to a filler-length 20 minutes or so. That means Run is a game that's never going to outstay its welcome. And it's just the right game length to encourage players to want to reverse roles for an immediate re-play...
