Pyramid Review
Recess!
Published by Atlas Games
Designed by Morgan Dontanville
Illustrated by Alexander Bradley
Four Six-Inch Square Full Color Game Boards, Full Color Circular Clock Board With Pointer, Two Full Color Two-Inch Square L-Shaped Entrance Sections, Two Full Color Two-Inch Square Safety Squares, 10 Wooden Boy Figures In Five Colors, 10 Wooden Girl Figures In Five Colors, Two Black Nun Pawns, 50 Yellow Wooden Coin Tokens, & eight by 10-Inch Black & White Four Page Rulebook; $24.95
Although Atlas Games have published boardgames before, the company is better known for its card games and RPGs. Recess! is different in that it is not really aimed at the gaming hobby. In subject matter, it is designed for a broader, younger, and more family-friendly audience. Its components match that audience, evoking the feel of a European boardgame.
The setting for Recess! is a parochial school and its subject matter is, as the title suggests, the period between morning and afternoon school. The 30 minutes in which each child has to get across the playground, beat the snot out of the other children for their lunch money, and maybe even steal a kiss from a sweetheart, all while trying to avoid the baleful gaze of the Nuns. If a child's stiff-arm tactics gets noticed, or another child tattles on him, then detention will surely follow.
Designed for three to five players, aged eight and upwards, Recess! consists of four square board sections, marked in squares and with various pieces of playground . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 15, 2006
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