Dem Bones: Into the Echoside

Into the Echoside
Dark Carnival Themed Deck Building Game
2-4 Players
Playtime: Under an hour, usually
Designer: Jumpsteady, Louis Simpson, Tom Wood
Publisher: Psychopathic Records
Year of Release: 2016

Surprisingly the Insane Clown Posse has had multiple forays into the world of games prior to this. Penedulum's Promise was a fairly rudimentary tabletop RPG. Morton's List, the end to boredom, was, well really just a big list where you rolled a die to see what you and some friends should do that day. The Quest for Shangri-La is this big mysterious entity to me that is way out of print and I think was drawn by one of the members of the group. And now Into the Echoside, a deck building game. I may have grown disillusioned with the band years ago and don't really enjoy their new music, but after getting really into the band and the "lore" they created for around five years I can't deny I have an affinity for that universe. Of course I had to pick it up.

I knew this was a deck building game, wherein players start with weak cards which let them obtain more powerful cards as the game progress, thus building your deck, but my only real experience with the genre has been the Legendary games, specifically Marvel. So I was expecting that some great evil was attacking the world and our goal would be to destroy it. That isn't the case. According to the rules the end of the world is coming, and you and other's who realize this are simply preparing for the final battle. Into the Echoside represents a sort of contest to see who is most worthy to save the world. Which is kind of silly, why not just work together?

This is a strictly competitive game where your sole goal is to buy more valuable cards than your fellow players. Each card has (fucking of course) Gathering Points, and the player with the most of these at the end of the game wins. Ending the game is triggered by emptying either the main deck, or the epic deck. This does not mean all cards are purchased, just that the final card has been revealed. The game continues on until all players have had a turn that round, which can be either a boon or a bane depending on turn order.

Having really enjoyed cooperatively defeating Marvel villains in Legendary I was a little worried about this switch to pure competitiveness. I think it mostly works though. While I prefer working together towards a common goal and helping each other out as much as possible Into the Echoside lets players fuck each other over through the use of stomp cards. The game kind of borrows the concept of the stack from Magic the Gathering. As you play cards individually on your turn your opponent has the ability to look at each one and decide if they want to stomp that card, effectively destroying it for that turn. I believe there are other cards that affect your opponent's draws and things as well.

As of yet I haven't had many chances to play this game. Fans of the Insane Clown Posse and friends will most certainly enjoy this game, almost every card is a reference in some way to the universe they created. Those who are unfamiliar with the theme and our open to silly shit like rappers and mystical abstract demigods working together can easily enjoy the game too, this is helped by how simple the game is, really the whole stomp thing is probably the most complicated aspect, and that's literally just a counter spell. My problem though is that most of my friends have prior experience with the band, and most of my friends I'm still in contact with post-High School have a strong distaste for the theme.

Case in point I played with one of my best friends who absolutely hates the band on basically every level, but is familiar enough with several of the references. He begrudgingly agreed to play a round and just hated it. Every turn he was shaking his head, or sighing, and my attempts to explain the lore just irritated him further. Hilariously he wound up beating me by four points in the end. I asked how he felt about it, he said it made him sick. I asked how it felt, theme aside, he said it was a fun game. So even though he will probably never stomach the game again, on a mechanical level he still enjoyed it.

Ultimately I agree. Into the Echoside is a simple, but still fun and engaging game. There are some other mechanics that set it apart from deck building games I've played. There is a unity bonus for playing three cards from the same crew, there is a 12-sided die (Dem Bones is still a relevant title!) that lets you roll for random effects on occasion, Fiend cards stay in play until you activate them, usually fuck over your opponent, then are removed from the game, item cards stay in play and typical benefit you and can be used once per turn. For a fan of both tabletop gaming and the Dark Carnival mythos this is basically a no-brainer, especially if you have other friends who are fans of the music, or people who are open-minded to the silly theme. People with no experience but enjoy deck building would probably have a fine time with this game as well, although a lot of the fun for me was seeing random references (Moon Glorious got a card? Yes!).

Before I go, there are two major problems I need to cover though. First, anyone who hates the music (such as my friend described above) will actively dislike this game, even if they are otherwise having fun. If that describes you, or the majority of people you play games with, avoid the fuck out of this. Most damningly though is the ridiculous price. Into the Echoside is forty dollars, not a terrible price, as of now though it is available solely through Hatchetgear (their online store) and, at least for me in Washington state, I had a single option of two day shipping that cost thirty dollars! Not only that, but they have a three week grace period, where they can take up to three weeks to send the game out. Mine arrived within five days (not counting the weekend), so it wasn't a terrible wait, but I still feel ripped off. My nostalgia is able to keep my rage at bay, for now at least. They've already teased an expansion though, and if that too has the same shipping options I will probably be much less forgiving. Hopefully they start selling it on Amazon at some point.