Tabletop Tuesday - Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension

Welcome to another edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, luck, cards, and more of the Tabletop world.

This week's game...the game of tractor beams and gravitational strings that is Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension.

Players: 2-4
Time: 20-30 minutes
Genre: Strategy



Gravwell is an intriguing game of strategy and mind games as players attempt to escape a swirling vortex of polarity.  As the name suggests, gravity plays a critical role in determining the outcome of every play in this game.  There are maximum of six rounds (though players can escape in less) in which players will draft for movement cards and then play them to progress around the vortex.  During the drafts, 3 cards per player are put face down, and 3 cards per player are placed face up on top of those cards.  In this way, as players take turns picking these pairs of cards, they will each know half of the tricks each hold up their sleeves for the round.  There are three types of movement cards to be found in this game: Green Boost cards are the most common, which will move the player forward towards the nearest spaceship.  Purple Repel cards will push players in the opposite direction of the nearest spaceship.  And Blue Tractor Beams will pull all spaceships towards them.  Since the proximity of other spaceships determines the direction of these movements, it is near impossible for any one player to get too much of a lead before having to start moving back to the pack with the other spaceships.  In this way, the game is becomes a clever setup of leap-frogging other players, deciding when and where to play the larger movement cards for best gain.

There is one more important factor to each of these movement cards to be considered aside from their value and type, and that is what letter their element begins with.  After the drafting phase of a round is completed, players then proceed to play their movement cards.  But rather than taking turns, one card is selected to be played by every player at the same time.  The order in which these movement cards takes effect is determined by these letters, the lower in the alphabet taking precedence.  This is key to keep in consideration as having an idea when your movement card is to take effect can help predict what direction you'll travel in, as well as where / how other players may end up moving.  Should things turn south and you want to prevent a certain outcome, each player is also given one emergency stop per round to negate your movement.  These can prevent tragic backfires, or even be used strategically to prevent lucrative gains for other players depending on the situation.

With so many factors to keep in mind, it can be difficult to predict how events may unfold, which can be just as much part of the fun.  As previously mentioned, it's often difficult to stray too far in the lead in this game, which makes the end-game always an interesting duel of mind games to be had.  I recommend this game for those who enjoy critical thinking and crazy come-backs.  I also recommend the Breaking Bad intro for audio during the final rounds for some surprisingly fitting space-western ambiance.  Trust me.

If you have any questions about Gravwell, be sure to ask in the comments.  And stay tuned for more games and fun to be found in future installments of Tabletop Tuesday!