Review - Betwixt
By Alex White
- 5 minutes read - 967 wordsI've just played a playtest version of Betwixt by Megan Ramirez and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The game is now available on itch here https://mumblemegs.itch.io/betwixt
The Basics
This is a journalling game, where you respond to prompts and either write down or record your personal logs. The rules are simple and are available in a tri-fold format. It is a body-horror game, and you, the intrepid explorer/horrible colonist are being transformed by an alien intelligence. Eventually you will cease to be you.
Playing the Game
You have five 'lives' at the start. Little tokens which represent your sense of self. Each turn you roll a d20, and respond to the prompt. If you roll a number that has already come up, lose one 'life' and roll again.
At first it seems that the game might take quite a long time, but when I played it started slow and then hit a tipping point and it all went alien-shaped quite quickly after that!
It's simple mechanics and eerie prompts make for a fun journalling game.
Would you like to see a game?
This is the last logs of Dominic Green; a wiry, young, tattooed explorer. I've used heart icons to indicate his remaining life, and parenthesis to indicate my die roll.
Log Entry 01 (6) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
As they probe within me, they don’t really understand how my liver works - the vital role it plays in cleaning my blood and keeping me from infection. I think this might mean it is progressing less quickly than I first feared.
Log Entry 02 (13) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
As their thoughts threaten to overwhelm me, I’m reminded of my overbearing father. He was always dominating me, belittling me, telling me I was a nothing.
Log Entry 03 (16) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
As I wrestle with the changes being wrought in me, I think I’m going to miss my sense of self as a human. My connection to my parents, my brother and sister. The connections I hoped to make with a lover. Those things are very human, and I fear I’m going to lose them all.
Log Entry 04 (2) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Crawling in the far corners of my mind has somehow dislodged an early memory — It is my first day at school. I’m surrounded by strange faces. Unfriendly faces. I’m scared.
Log Entry 05 (12) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I tried to remove my exosuit but after I undid the seals I couldn’t peel it down over my shoulders as I had expected. Digging my fingers in under my collar, it seems as though fibres have grown from the suit into me—or is it the other way around?
Log Entry 06 (20) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thinking back to my exposure incident, I can’t help wondering why the previous surveys here had not mentioned this. Surely someone must have noticed this happening before?
Log Entry 07 (11) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I want to scream but I cannot. I can hear my voice speaking, but it isn’t under my control. I can’t use the communicator to warn anyone.
Log Entry 08 (12) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
(I mark off a life ❤️ and re-roll)
Log Entry 09 (3) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
My body arches and spasms - unconsciously it is trying to reject this alien invader, but without success.
Log Entry 10 (2) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
(I mark off a life ❤️ and re-roll)
Log Entry 11 (9) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I’m starting to understand why they want to change me - I’m to be their spaceship for exploring a strange new world. A means for interacting with the human technology that brought me here.
Log Entry 12 (8) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I’m losing some of my old memories. I fight to retain the memories which my tats represent. One or two of them go before I realise what has happened. Why do have the string of hearts on one arm? I know that the butterfly represents the day I entered the academy. I manage to hang on to that.
Log Entry 13 (17) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I feel that I’m dwindling away. Becoming less of myself. Why didn’t I come on more strongly to Lt Delaware on the way in? I’m sure they liked me. They won’t like me now.
Log Entry 14 (1) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I have an urge to race back to the lander, to clasp Lt Delaware to me. I start staggering back in that direction.
Log Entry 15 (7) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
As I’m staggering along, my changed eyes are seeing many more colours. Infra red and ultra violet for sure, but there are another dozen colours I can’t put a name to in the sky, across the terrain, on my arm. It’s weirdly beautiful.
Log Entry 16 (14) ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
As my muscles spasm, I realise that I possess the new sense of snut. Being able to snut makes such a difference on this planet - i close my eyes so that I can snut with more detail.
Log Entry 17 (14) ❤️ ❤️
(I mark off a life ❤️ and re-roll)
Log Entry 18 (18) ❤️ ❤️
I/we realise that if I/we get back to the lander, my colleagues will have no chance to stop me/us from getting off this planet and infecting others. This scares/delights me.
Log Entry 18 (1) ❤️
(I mark off a life ❤️ and re-roll)
Log Entry 19 (13) 👽
I call out to Lt Delaware. I tell them that I’ve been wounded and need immediate medical assistance. They will let me onto the lander. They care for Dominic and that will give me the perfect opportunity to colonise them too.