I ran my first session of Paul Czege’s The Clay That Woke  tonight and I wanted to share some quick thoughts.

I ran my first session of Paul Czege’s The Clay That Woke  tonight and I wanted to share some quick thoughts. 

The session prep for this game is easy and quite enjoyable. It’s right up there with Dogs in the Vineyard for me in terms of games that have a structured prep that allow you to get it set-up fairly quickly, while also forcing you to spend time thinking critically about the world. The entire time I was engaging with the prep process, I was chewing on the elements necessary to bring the world alive. It felt good (and I felt prepared). 

Notes from gameplay: it is not a game that comes immediately or easily. It took us about an hour into the session before we really started hitting our groove (and we’re fairly experienced gamers). But unfurl itself the game did. We gradually began to understand the token economy, and got a good feel for how these minotaurs conduct themselves. There were really good moments where I could visually perceive the players restraining themselves in an attempt to play the minotaurs honestly, preserving their Silence. There were also times when the players had clearly had enough of restraint, and allowed their minotaurs to act on instinct and emotion – loss of Silence tokens be damned! I think the push and pull of the players’ reactions is a big credit to the game. 

We didn’t get to the jungle this session, and I’m kind of glad. It was enough for us to get accustomed to life in the Degringolade, and simply master the Krater of Lots. We have some nice little story arcs going, a couple of which ended on cliffhangers, and there are at least two minotaurs ready to travel to the jungle at the start of session 2. I suspect the game will continue to open itself up (Voices, gifts, and externals – oh my!), and I’m excited to see where it goes. 

An observation: I have no idea if Paul intended this or not, but the setting feels like the American South during Jim Crow. The parallels popped-up over and over again. In that regard, it was a very thought-provoking, and occasionally uncomfortable, game. I certainly wouldn’t expect anything less from the designer of My Life with Master.