Review

Pope LEo X was right, after all!

Mea Culpa

500 Years of Reformation

2015: 150 Jahre Wiener Ringstraße – 2016: 200 Jahre Emperor Franz Joseph – 2017: 300 Jahre „Empress“ Maria Theresia; all those anniversaries have been and are celebrated with various exhibitions and many new books on the topics, but a comparable harvest in games was unfortunately not in the cards; only on the first date named here, the Austrian Games Museum has published a „print-and-play“ game, see http://www.spielemuseum.at/wordpress/?page_id=266).

But this year, there is also the commemoration of 500 years of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther on the topic of the (mal)practice of indulgence. This event is of interest also due to the fact that, up to the Counter-Reformation, more than half of the Austrian population has converted to the Protestant Faith.

Furthermore, there are - besides, only to name a few, Lutherbrodt (Bread)“, „Lutherthaler“, „Lutherwasser (water) “, „Lutherwein (wine)“, „Luther-Nudeln (noodles)“ (!) und „Luthersocken (socks)“ (!!) - even more game novelties, among them the two “official” games “Luther - Das Spiel (by Erika & Martin Schlegel, Kosmos” and “Martin Luther - Das Quiz!” (by Peter Neugebauer, HUCH! & friends). The experience of game play in both of them unfortunately resembles too closely the (sinister) protestant clichés of joyless diligence, fun free parsimony, scant frugality, scrupulous conscientiousness or anti-hedonic renouncing of luxury; insofar, the topic could be said to have been perfectly implemented, but one fears that additional games are played in 2046 (the year of the next 500 years anniversary).

„Mea Culpa“ approaches the topic in a pleasingly different way: In this game, play not only takes us back 500 years, we must/may also endure the daily life in those days. In earlier days, all was not only better, but also a lot simpler and easier: You sinned, bought Letters of Indulgence and ascended to heaven - that was, in those times, the unholy trinity of a fulfilled life. Unfortunately, not only Martin Luther, but later also the Catholic Church, did forbid the trade in Letters of Indulgence; will all of us poor sinners now have to rot in hell?

At least one of us can be spared this fate, provided that this player acquires sufficient amounts of - yes, correct - Letters of Indulgence. Those letters are even available in four colors, each letter is worth one point, but each complete set is worth eight points! The victory points track not only shows us the current ranking, but also our destination: One direction leads towards heaven, the other one to hell! So, it is no wonder that more and more beads of sweat appear on our brow, as at least visually you seem to fill the hellish tortures getting hotter and hotter, because during a game we all collect only and exclusively penalty points, that is, additional steps towards hell.

As regards to game mechanics, the - in the end only solitaire - Redemption Work uses the auctioning of four roles - which are Pope, Emperor, Merchant and Petty Sinner - at the start of each round. For this, you need to use your own coins thriftily and sparsely, and you also use two more “currencies”, represented by notches on the respective tally sticks and “Sin Stones”. The tally sticks in this game are six-sided and elongated (on the torture rack?) dice, unfortunately made from cardboard and not really made from wood; this chosen shape, of course, is a very generous and loose interpretation of a tally stick. Paradoxically, only the player who has most notches on his tally stick after those auctions may keep the additional coins bid by him. Ties are always - and also in this case - resolved in favor of the player whose victory marker is currently nearest to the gates of hell. Would that not be an incentive for maximum “tally stick investment”? No, because your tally stick account is also credited with other, very valuable actions and you cannot use more than six tally stick notches per player and round; furthermore, a too generous handling or spending of those notches can result in additional penalty points, that is, steps towards hell for a player.

The only four different main action are, basically, the same for all: Buy goods or red/green Letters of Indulgence, sell Goods to earn money with those sales, donate goods or money for the building of churches (in order to be rewarded later with additional Letters of Indulgence, especially blue ones) or even visit a House of Pleasure (!). There not only the “Luther Noodle” is served up al dente, but we can activate event cards offering advantages for ourselves or disadvantages for the other players; furthermore, the House of Pleasure is the only location where the yellow - with a tendency of being the most valuable ones - Letters of Indulgence - are available.

As is to be expected, each role also offers another special advantage:

The Petty Sinner may visit the House of Pleasure at the start of the round and must pay less for this action than the other roles. The disadvantage of this is, that a round can be over, before the Petty Sinner can resolve his second, and in some cases even his first, min action.

The merchant may take a good or a red/green Letter of Indulgence for free after each of his own actions.

The Emperor, on the one hand, has influence on the decision on which of the three building sites construction of the church is continued (only two of the churches are completed at the end of the game); and on the other hand, he can donate two goods at the same time, which can be very valuable towards the end of the game, as you might be left with your hoarded acquisitions which will be completely useless in heaven as well as in hell.

And the Pope can even visit he House of Pleasure - and the six cases available there - for free, at least theoretically; but players have then the opportunity to bet on or guess his actual choice. When they succeed, the Pope player has to pay more than the common people!

The attractive design of components lets you expect a quick and fun family game with mature teenagers, but this first impression is wrong. Not only are there some - at the start not really intuitive - rules details as well as adhering to exceptions from the exceptions, the course of the game can be frustrating, too.

You donate properly at the various churches only to realize in the evaluation that you only achieved third rank in donations and therefore do not receive any award or additional Letters of indulgence.

Or you have invested lots of energy in a certain category of donations and then find out that, for the reward you achieved with this, maybe even less then half of your donations would have been enough.

In some ways, this can be avoided by a cleverer way to play by paying more attention, but it is very hard to keep track of where and how much the other players have already donated. On the other hand, those surprise effects and the “chaos” that can be only partially planned or controlled, contribute a sizeable part to the allure of the game, provided you are prepared to get into is.

Really adverse consequences - in individual cases - can, for instance, result in the activation of a certain House of Pleasure card, which allows the current Pope to steal a yellow Letter of Indulgence. Those yellow Letters of Indulgence can, in fact, result in a difference of plus/minus five points, which is quite a lot in this context. You might try to prepare for that threatening misfortune during the auctioning of the roles, but this misfortune will usually not visit the player in the lead but rather a player who currently does not have enough money to give a higher bid and who maybe suffers destruction of his only set. Of course, you can also get a nasty, frustrating surprise during or after the auction phase, all is possible and ranges from much too much to a near miss.

Generally, the variable end of a game - which happens after the completion of the second church, can please; but in reality, this can mean a duration of nine to eleven rather repetitive rounds, which feels too long for the allure offered in the rounds.

Unfortunately, there are some inexplicable deficits in the components: Letters of Indulgence can run out, and the rules do not offer any clue or instruction how to resolve such an event - I cannot imagine that this restriction was a conscious decision, I tend to believe that, before production, someone forgot to count or to plan a safety margin. The rules summaries printed on the screen for each player, are not a satisfactory solution, because the can only be read well when you are on your knees in a penitent’s position - but maybe this effect was intended! The screens should therefore be better used as a rules summary, laid out flat on the table, and you should borrow some screens from another game. It is, however, impressive, which stable shapes, similar to a box of matches with two chambers, can be crafted from thin cardboard. A very positive mentioning is due to the implementation of the fresh and unusual topic: This was done in a very harmonious and witty way, so that “Mea Culpa” is also suitable for an individual, original gift on occasion of a confirmation, supported by the fact that the graphics of the board are designed like a watch

Harald Schatzl

Players: 2-4

Age: 14+

Time: 90+

Designer: Rüdiger Kopf, Klaus Zoch

Artist: Franz Vohwinkel

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: Zoch Verlag 2016

Web: www.zoch-verlag.com

Genre: Auction, collect, build

Users: For children

Users: For families

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Cute satirical implementation of a fresh topic

Good mix of tactic and non-planning

Deficits in components

Not recommended for two

Duration can appear too long

Frustration with game play is possible

Compares to:

Other role selection and auction games

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Harald Schatzl:

The “unofficial” game on the Luther Anniversary (1517-2017) is a tactical role selection and auction game with an original, witty topic. Unfortunately, some not really intuitive and cumbersome rule details make access difficult, so that probably only experienced players with frustration tolerance will be able to handle the game without problems; but those players could be put off by the somewhat chaotic and difficult to plan course of the game.

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 3

Communication (red): 2

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0