Pendulum Review

Image: Stonemaier Games

INTRODUCTION

Few board game publishers are as divisive as Stonemaier Games and few designers make headlines in the manner of Jamey Stegmaier. In fact, it has reached a point where the board game community’s response to a new game being announced exceeds the impact of Days of Wonders yearly hype cycle. This has been true of Wingspan, Tapestry, and now we have Pendulum: a worker placement strategy game with real-time as a core game mechanism from first-time designer Travis Jones and an official solo mode courtesy of the development team at the Automa Factory. There is certainly a lot to unravel and we do not have a moment to lose so let us get started.

Full disclosure: a review copy of Pendulum was kindly provided by publisher Stonemaier Games.

COMPONENTS

In terms of component quality and art direction, based on the pedigree of Stonemaier Games I was really excited for Pendulum seeing how both Wingspan and Tapestry are some of the most aesthetically pleasing board games ever produced. Therefore, it saddens me to say that I found Pendulum to be something of a disappointment both in terms of artwork and component quality. Now, as we all know art is famously known for being subjective so take my comments and thoughts regarding the subject matter with a fair grain of salt. That being said, there are several things concerning the art and graphical design choices present in Pendulum that I found to be somewhat questionable. When it comes to colours the game certainly makes a bold statement, as evident by the main board which features predominantly dark tones of intense purple and blue mixed with equally concentrated variants of green and black. And yet, despite the rather bold choice of colour palette the board manages to feel barren and to a certain extent uninspiring due to the rather significant amount of “dead space”. What’s more is the fact that some of the more interesting aspects of Pendulum in terms of art, specifically the province cards, are tucked away under your player board when acquired essentially rendering the depicted artwork superfluous.

In terms of art, the character illustrations by Robert Leask are definitely the highlight of Pendulum. Photo: Fredrik Schulz

There are aspects of the components that I do enjoy, mainly the character illustrations. Each individual vying for power is portrayed in an art style reminiscent to Dishonoured, a fusion of industrialism and arcane magic. But despite featuring some of Pendulum’s most interesting drawings, the functionality of the player boards is less than stellar. I rarely advocate that a board game “needs” dual-layered recessed board in order to accommodate for pawns and tokens not being accidentally knocked over, however Pendulum is one of those rare exceptions. Despite being coated in a gritty texture much like the player boards in Tapestry, the victory point tokens are still prone to being accidentally moved out of position from the tracks. Also, several of the player boards in my review copy showed signs of wear and tear at the edges despite being new in shrink, which I can only guess is a result of the coarse texture of the boards shaving against one another. At the end of the day, for me the art and components Pendulum is a blemish staining an otherwise excellent track record that one associates with Stonemaier Games.

OVERVIEW

For centuries, the world of Dünya has been ruled by the sovereign immortal Surcil known throughout the lands as the Timeless King. Blessed with immense powers bestowed by Gahael, god of the changing seasons, Surcil instilled peace and prosperity to his realm by banishing the dreaded dragons thus bringing an end to the era known as the Time of Chaos. But now the king has vanished under mysterious circumstances and as a result the iron pendulum has ceased its movement, frozen in time and immovable by the hands of mere mortals. You take on the role of a powerful noble, vying for the opportunity to become successor to the throne of time and being crowned the new ruler of Dünya. In order to accomplish this lofty ambition you will need to prove your worth by gaining the favour of the people, expanding your influence through politics and warfare with the ultimate goal of earning the legendary achievement needed to lay claim to the throne.

Setting aside the real-time aspect of the game design for a second, at its core Pendulum is a fairly bog-standard worker placement strategy game. You will deploy your workers to various locations on the main board which by doing so will grant you rewards or income in the form of resources needed to perform additional actions or advancing on one of the three victory point tracks representing power, prestige, and popularity. This progression on your individual player board is connected to the locations where you will deploy your workforce. The main board is divided into three sections, each geared slightly more towards a particular piece of the game design. The blue section tends to provide you with Culture needed to play and more importantly retrieve special effect cards back to your hand. The green action area rewards Military resources which you will use to conquer provinces by visiting the black area of the board, which also serves as a way to earn new income in the form of gold. The common denominator in all of these various areas is the way they are structured using two identical rows.

In Pendulum the most important resource is time. Photo: Fredrik Schulz

The top section of each row features spaces with a gold frame, this is where you will initially place a worker. Some action spaces have an associated monetary or resource cost which you will need to pay before taking the action, as indicated by down-pointing arrow. Finally, there is the bottom half of the row which shows the actual reward for taking said action as previously mentioned. Similar to Viticulture, in Pendulum each player has access to two different type of workers. There are the common ones that can be allocated to an action slot only if there are no other workers currently present at the location (the exception being the black area of the board that is considered limitless). Then there is the Grande worker who is never blocked by other labourers and can therefore be placed pretty much anywhere on the board. During the course of the game players will have the option to upgrade one common worker to the Grande equivalent, allowing for more strategical flexibility in terms of not being as easily cut-off by other worker pawns.

However, unlike the vast majority of other worker placement games in Pendulum you do not immediately collect any rewards for placing your worker. Instead, this process is entirely dependent on whether or not a row currently has a sand timer assigned to it. For it is the case that no worker can be added or removed from a row where there currently is a sand timer, and no location will yield any rewards unless a sand timer is present. This real-time, logistic juggling act is what makes Pendulum such an interesting proof of concept. I admit, when Stonemaier Games revealed Pendulum I like many others were at the very least slightly intrigued about this new approach. In theory, the game does indeed present an interesting take on the tried and true game mechanism known as worker placement. Seeing how the act of acquiring resources and rewards is divided into two subsequent process, you really have to exercise a bit of cognitive yoga when trying to maximise your actions. Because workers cannot in general be retrieved after performing their action on account of being essentially restrained by the assigned sand timer, you constantly need to evaluate not only what you want to gain in terms of resources but also how much time you are willing to sacrifice having a worker being unavailable. Because even though three minutes is not a significant amount of time in theory, having one of your workers being at the mercy of the purple sand trickling down ever so slowly can feel downright agonizing!

Although Pendulum features a more dynamic, fluid system where players are taking and resolving actions largely independent of one another the game does incorporate a more traditional round structure. Once the purple sand timer has been flipped a number of times and the sand has run out, the current round will end and what is known as the Council phase commences. Unlike the occasionally frenetic nature of the game as a whole, the Council phase slows the pace down allowing players to catch their breath and take stock in preparation of the upcoming round. Based on the number of votes amassed during the current round, players will adjust their position on the Privilege track accordingly thus earning them various amounts of potential victory points and also a reward card. These cards either grant you with an immediate one-use effect, alternatively the reward card is added to your existing hand to be played in future rounds. At the end of the Council phase all remaining face-up cards on the main board are removed and new cards enter play, including the Achievement cards. In order to be eligible to win Pendulum, at some point during the game players must earn the Legendary token as the ultimate proof that they are the worthiest heir to the throne. Each Achievement cards has a prerequisite amount of resources that players need to be in possession of in order to claim the token for the current round. After four round the game ends, if you were able to obtain the Legendary token and reach the thresholds of all three victory point tracks you are then declared the new Timeless Ruler of Dünya.

In order to win the game you must obtain the Legendary token, thus proving your worth as future ruler of the kingdom. Photo: Fredrik Schulz

THE SOLO MODE

Allow me to begin this part of the review by saying that I do not tend to gravitate towards games that feature real-time as the main focus of the design. My profession as a nurse anaesthetist has me experiencing enough stress as it is, a job defined by being in a state of constant vigilance and situational awareness that on occasion comes down to the wire. Therefore, situational stress is not something I necessarily seek out when playing board and card games, as I consider this hobby to be a personal sanctuary. However, I also believe in keeping an open mind and as a result I always strive to experience designs and mechanisms that are new to me simply because I appreciate theorising and analysing game designs in general. That being said, from a solitary point of view I found Pendulum to be an exceptionally underwhelming experience. Now, before you sharpen your pitchforks and light the torches allow me to elaborate.

It is often the case that the experience of playing a board or card game solo differs quite substantially from a multiplayer setting. Developing a system that accommodates neutral players is a different beast compared to other aspects of board game design, as a result the solo mode operates on a completely different set of parameters which influences the sensation of playing solitary. Personally, I have no objections whatsoever in regard to this discrepancy as it is par for the course. However, regardless of player count I expect a game design to provide a coherent experience, where the different gears interlock with one another in a satisfying game. Pendulum is not that experience on account of the fact that the core game system does not feel even the slightest compatible with solitary play. Similar to other recent solo designs, in Pendulum you will be competing against not one but two Automas. In practice the duality only really comes into play during each Council phase, during the real-time aspect of the game they are handled as one entity making the process of executing their actions a very manageable affair. Any time you remove one of your workers from a row with no sand timer present or if the purple sand timer has run out and you flip either the green or black equivalent the automated opponent gets to take a turn, its actions being dictated by the Automa cards. Some cards will instruct you to flip a certain sand timer if possible, move one of the Grande workers belonging to the artificial opponent, or remove one of the province cards thus ensuring a certain amount of flow. From a pure academic point of view, in terms of rules upkeep and managing the actions of the automated opponents the solo mode in Pendulum is incredibly straight forward which is quite impressive given the hectic nature of a real-time game.

The actions performed by the automated opponent are dictated by the Automa card deck which also shows the amount of victory points and votes that are rewarded during the Council phase. Photo: Fredrik Schulz

But setting theory aside, playing the game solo quickly evolves into a bit of a mess all due to one crucial aspect of the core game design as stipulated by the rulebook. “No actions are ever required to be taken. Just because a timer has run out does not mean it has to be flipped”. Allow me to put this rather significant predicament into context when playing Pendulum solo. The board is set and ready to go, I have my two workers assigned to the rows I wish to activate as part of my first actions. The three sand timers are flipped signalling the start of the game to become the new Timeless Ruler, thus I perform the two actions of my workers which takes mere seconds. What happens next is the thing that makes playing Pendulum solitary a borderline degenerate experience. Since the acts of the Automa are completely dependent on your actions, this situation creates a perverse incentive on the behalf of the human player to simply refrain from making a move that would cause the Automa to trigger. Yes, it is true that by doing so you are effectively creating a self-induced stalemate but it nevertheless creates an infinite loop where you have all the time in the world to analyse the board state and plan accordingly, which is somewhat ironic considering the theme and emphasis on real-time. Only when you are good and ready will the Automa take an action, potentially flipping a sand timer. Alternatively, it makes a lull turn as a result of several Automa cards being blank thus no action is performed which is strange in and of itself. I am exceptionally cautious of labelling a board game as “broken” but in the case of playing Pendulum solo I can find no other way to summarise my feelings.

FINAL THOUGHTS

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” - Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

Just because a board or card game can have a solo mode does not mean that it should, and Pendulum is a perfect example of this thesis. When the core game mechanism proves to be more or less incompatible with solitary play, I am left wondering why it was included in the first place. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that Pendulum is a game that thrives on a larger player count not suited for solitary play. And that is absolutely fine, again not every single game on the market needs to have a solo mode shoehorned in with force simply to cater for a perceived market demand.

Despite my personal misgivings towards Pendulum, I do genuinely think that Stonemaier Games is to be commended for believing in first-time designer Travis Jones and bringing the game to fruition. The fact that the publisher continues to be a mentor to aspiring board game designers is of great importance to the continued influx of creativity within our hobby.