The Players- Shimon, Tim, Alex, Caspian, Laura, Dani L.

Since there were six of us, we decided to do a game of Metrofinale. For those unfamiliar, it is about as rules-lite and surreal as it gets. How to describe the setup? The world is ending and people are passing through train stations on their way to the new world. You play saints, these incredibly powerful beings whose job it is to find your successor. You also have the role of describing the setting and events and characters of one of the train stations. Each scene is more of a conversation between the player of the saint and the person who has control of that train station. Each visit things get more and more surreal until finally you are able to find the next generation of saints. Your job is done.

Again, it is a very surreal game. You say something and it happens. No dice, no cards. Just tracing the routes between the station, really. The others were a delight to listen to with their creativity. It was fun to watch those who haven't played this game start to embrace the fact that they could pretty much do anything. Yeah, the basics of Metrofinale are always going to be the same but no two games are ever going to be remotely similar.

For absolute narrative freedom, for its surreal beauty, I love this game. It's fascinating to see each group's different interpretation of the stations, the saints you play, and what it looks like at the end. It's been a while so after the fact I realized how I could have explained it sooner to help the players grasp the situation sooner. After the flavor text, which I find evocative and helpful in evoking the surrealness, I could have done a better job of explaining it more literally. This game is so full of metaphor and imagery! It was interesting-- ashes, water, flames, immobile figures being granted mobility again, and dancing were common elements in this particular game.


It took us a bit to find our footing but once we did we had a great time. It was a great game of Metrofinale. It's weird and weird.

Thanks to Caspian, Tim, Alex, Shimon, and Laura for their creativity and willingness to try a game that is almost not a game at all.

- Dani L, aka The Virgin/The Blacksmith