Must Be Tuesday (Part 1)

Does Must Be Tuesday sometimes feel more real than real life?

Must Be Tuesday is a game by Erika Chappell and published by Newstand Press. Content is reproduced and referenced here for review purposes, and is owned by Newstand Press.

1. Every Individual Component Is The Best

In our analysis, we consider every individual artistic element of a game the best; we don’t find bad or good useful. So, the Split/Party framework assumes it is the best art, best layout, best writing, best design. This is an acknowledgment that nobody makes “bad” art on purpose; any given element is the best art that could have been produced at that point, restricted by its material conditions and constraints of time and effort. This is also because saying something is good/bad art is the most useless criticism that can be given. In practical terms, this section is for things we will not touch on the review but merit acknowledgment.

Lhuzie 

The layout of Must Be Tuesday is as gorgeous as its use under its art direction, transforming it into a crucial element of game design — while remaining pretty accessible and approachable due its cleanliness and element organization.

While not as impossible as her other books are, there is still an absurd level of labor for a silly one shot game priced as it is and with no additional funding. A priceless book, another treasure of the artform.

The version for this critic was an "early access” with little of Early Access to it. The game is complete, missing only a few art pieces whose place in the final release can be inferred perfectly well from the able art direction — and which would not change the critical analysis within the scope of this critical framework.

Brad

This book is well laid out, legible and fun. It wears its influences on its sleeves and runs wild with them. Bright, colorful and even though it is supposedly missing art the whole damn thing is organized and ready to run like a lean mean airplane… Or other thing.

2. Meet The Game At The Level It Is At

Each game comes with certain expectations and tone. To properly break it down, we have to meet the game at the level it is: not lament its choice of premise and wish it was something else, nor resent for not conforming with our politics, not letting “missed opportunities” stand in our way of applying the critical framework relentlessly. It also includes not working with the game as marketed or how it exists in our desires, but as it is.

Lhuzie

Must Be Tuesday once again hits me with the steel chair that is the Erika Chappell special: an excellent game about something that I had no interest on before, asking me for enough buy-in to try it and then totally winning me over purely with solid game design¹. So, it can win you over if you, just like me, never cared about Buffy or Whedon stuff. It is still a TTRPG whose goals are deep into genre emulation, so take that into consideration.

Designed for purpose, Must Be Tuesday is made for one-shots and short campaigns. As such, it gets better results if treated as such and not pushed to overstay its welcomes. It stands out as a game that is also designed with the assumption of a rotating game-master role; the game has more staying power if treated as such.

As a coming-out teen horror monster game, you play minors, there is violence and risk of death, and people are generally shitty to each other in the way only teen can really be. One must maneuver these subject matters comfortably and safely to enjoy Must Be Tuesday.

Brad

I on the other hand absolutely love Buffy, and so was eager to see what Must Be Tuesday had for me as a long time fan and someone who has played a lot of attempts at genre emulation. I think it hits a home run in that field.

I also think that you have to follow exactly what the game says, its designed for short campaigns, run it that way and have an absolute blast!

3. Identify What The Game Says It Is About

Games are about things. Usually. Mostly. That is often the same thing they market themselves as. This often means to establish the relationship of the game with systems, mechanical frameworks, genre, etc. This is how games establish exceptions about the nature of play and establish a common space for creation.

Lhuzie

Buffy! First three seasons! TTRPG! Teen monster fighting comedy/horror/drama coming out stories!

Brad

Save the world! Prom at Four! Kiss a monster! Kiss a Girl! Get yelled at by mom, but be too busy thinking about monster girls to be worried!

4. Uncover What The Game Is REALLY About

What the game says it is about is not always what the game is about. This is where we look at all the weird interactions, examining the system that game creates, how the way mechanics interact with the text and art, how it exists in a given context, how well parts flow together or get in the way. This creates a much richer environment that the original design could ever imagine once a game hits the table.

Lhuzie

This game is about the contrast, about the pressures pulling you into different directions, of the maladaptations one develops and draw power from to deal with. It is how being a teen is like being a monster, and being a monster is like being a teenager. Consider the first edition of this game was released ten years ago. Monsterhearts, Masks… yeah, that’s the artform this game was in conversation with, the context of its inception. And shows restraint by trying to negotiate it with something other than PbtA.

To achieve this, the game is about not quite being in control, while being pushed around by powerful drives and instincts. You are a Monster and a Mortal, and you can barely keep in check if you are one, another or both when you want to be a Monster and Monster. It is something that could easily become an exercise in frustration, however, the mechanics and its engine give players the perfect tools to give away agency while remaining safe and in control: dice mechanics, manipulating your progression between Mortal and Monster, and having full control if you are giving in to instinct or chasing a goal or helping others — and letting you pick at character creation what are the consequences of each of those choices, — Must Be Tuesday is a struggle against teen temper, hormones and the frustrations of being a minor in a world where not even adults are in control, fully centered as a constant mini-game happening on your character sheet, even as you race to stop the end of the world.

Brad

Teenagers are the worst people on earth, they are the most empathetic and sweetest people. That’s the truth of the world and it has been since teenagers first yelled at cave parents and it will continue to be so. That is what Must Be Tuesday is saying, that sometimes a teen can be an inhuman monster lacking in empathy and choosing cruelty… or they can reject that and be heroes and be the kindest people on earth. But I’ll tell you what, they scare the living shit outta me.

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1. It is so easy to get into a very clunky TTRPG that wants to do something you already a fan of. But to do the reverse, and so consistently? There has to be a word to express that.