Shimon, Drew, Tim, and myself met up to give this game a try! We decided to go for a more gritty, realistic tone with mild spookiness.

The characters:
Private Henry Shanks, Swamp Rat and Deserter- A deserter from the Confederate army who felt he had something to prove due to his less-than-privileged upbringing, he decided to turn on his Union comrades, who killed him when he tried to attack one of them. (Tim)

Sergeant Lemuel Dunham, Veteran and Impostor- Turns out he'd been sent by the Confederacy to infiltrate the ranks of the Union Army. Eventually he began to sympathize with the Union. He confessed this to the Lieutenant, who decided to let him live. He later perished from injuries inflicted by Henry Shanks. (Drew)

Lieutenant Charles ??, Leader and ??- (Sorry, Shimon, couldn't remember his last name!) The lieutenant did his best to be an officer and a gentlemen and keep the worst excesses of the men in check. He seemed to be a decent sort. Unfortunately, after a harrowing incident where Robert thought he saw his dead baby girl, Robert shot him. (Shimon)

And our survivor:
Private Robert Eager, Scofflaw and Criminal- A somewhat kleptomaniac young man who seemed to have a taste for arson, that ready grin hid a deeper side. He was eager to get back to his biracial daughter, his beloved wife (who had been a young black woman) having died in childbirth. Seeing the corpse of a little girl who looked like her and finding a baby abandoned in the road really shook him. He survived to return to Abigail, his daughter. (Dani)

No matter what "tone" you choose- and I appreciate that this game provides some suggestions and I think it has enough flexibility to allow for something more actiony (a la Django Unchained) or more spooky or realistic- there is definitely going to be some grimness to it. Only one character is going to make it to the end and given that every scene you frame you are going to Disgrace, Destroy, or Kill and you start out with vignettes showing your character doing something... unpleasant... So it is not to everyone's taste. It is going to be bloody.

But if you're prepared for some grimness, this is a pretty neat little game. Granted, this is the first time I've played it. It left me with a favorable impression though. I like that the other players in essence create your characters for you. It seemed to flow pretty well and there are some wonderful hooks suggested by the prompts on different cards. You don't HAVE to use them but you should, seeing as it's one of the only ways to get points that mean you may survive. It's also neat that players of deceased characters get a chance to influence the story still in their roll as "swamp ghosts" and still get to frame scenes and make things interesting and spooky for the other players.

We finished in under three hours and still had a complete game. I don't think it took us that long to get the hang of the mechanics and how to use the cards and what they meant. It's not very mechanically heavy and I think how it works is pretty clearly explained. The Background and Raid Cards as well as the ones for each Act really add nice flavor, enough to let you get into the game without overloading you with details about the setting.

So overall, a fun game I'd love to play again! I think it's got a lot of replayability.

Thanks to Shimon, Drew, and Tim for a very memorable game!

- Dani, aka Private Robert Eager