I haven't used it yet, but I am planning on using this system in a history class to simulate an international crisis where different parties (diplomats, aid workers, UN peacekeepers, Human rights watch, warring factions etc) work to create a peace plan. I'm hoping the structured argument approach will be successful. So, base in the fact that te system has inspired me to man a creative lesson for my students, I will give it a 5.

The Engle Matrix game itself is absolutely brilliant.

I'm not 100% sure that a comic actually WAS the best way to convey this. I ended up having a lot of questions that were resolved after 2-3 more readthroughs ... an example of a complete play session, rather than just vignettes, would have answered them much more quickly.

I know what you're asking: "why in the world would you want to rate a free game? Isn't it easy enough to download it for yourself?" Good question, one that deserves a good answer: I believe in giving credit where credit is due.

OVERVIEW: Engle Matrix is a story-telling game, simple in design and function. Most of you hard-core, crunchy RPGers won't like it; there's no meat to sink your teeth into. None the less, it is a good idea and a likeable game.

Go ahead and download it. Try it on for size. For the creatively-challenged, it's a good fit.

GAME SYSTEM PLAYABILITY: Strong

ATTENTION TO DETAIL: Fair

REPLAY VALUE: Strong

CHARACTER PROGRESSION: Weak

COMPATIBILITY: Strong

I've played a lot of Sherlock Holmes games and this scenario has the potential to capture all the flavor of a classic Holmes mystery. If you're not familiar with the Engle's Matrix Game, the idea is very simple: each player gets a chance to decide one fact in the game and chooses another player to set the difficulty level of the die roll. There, you now know about 90% of the rules. The game engine is simple, but it allows for players to create the game that they want to play, without a great deal of preparation from a GM.

I ran this at a recent game convention and we had a blast playing it. I printed the map and one set of character cards in full color. I printed another set of cards in grayscale, cut out the pictures, and stuck them in foamcore to use as the playing pieces. We didn't have a great deal of movement in the one session that I ran, but the pieces still looked good standing on the board.

The players decided that they were going to play this one a little on the silly side, so there were some funny twists and turns, but it still had the feel of a Conan Doyle story. In our story, the cook was having an affair with a gentleman friend of the Duke. She managed to escape from Holmes after stealing both the Duke's and the gentleman's silver. She booked passage on a steamship bound for the United States, arriving just a little too late to book on the first ship she wanted to sail: RMS Titanic. The gentleman stood trial and was convicted, while his backstabbing lover lived on the stolen goods in a fancy apartment in New York.

All that developed and was resolved in less than two hours. And that's how it goes with these Engle's Matrix games. I'm hooked, and if you're looking for a fast-playing game with the emphasis on character interaction and story, then you can't go wrong by giving any of the Hamster Press' products a chance.

Awesome game! Dead Man on Campus is one of the most successful games I've ever run at a convention. I ran this game twice just this past weekend at MEPACon (mepacon.com) and both game ran at or over the announced player limit of six. Here's the thing, the first game ran in the midnight slot Saturday over Sunday; the second game ran in the Sunday morning 9am slot, the traditional "dead" slot because you simply can't attract enough players. Dead Man on Campus (DMOC) was easy to teach and run, and the players all had a blast playing this. The two different groups each created wildly different plots, but still definitely Lovecraftian and each engaging, dramatic, and fun to play! DMOC is now among my favorites and I'll be adding Engle Matrix Games to my GMing repertoire for all conventions in the foreseeable future. The idea of Engle Matrix Games is dead simple. A player states what he or she wants to see happen, then chooses a referee, from among the other players, who sets a target number, based on how likely the referee thinks the result is to happen. Other people can make counter-arguments and choose their own referees. In the end, a few simple die rolls indicate if what was proposed actually happens. So, literally anything can happen, and it's always something that at least one player wants to have happen. The presentation of DMOC was very good. The color map prints on four pages and is easy to assemble. My color printer wasn't working, so I was forced to print in greyscale, but the map was still easy to use. The character cards contain a picture of the character in the form of an actual "old-timey" photo, along with a memorable and informative quote. I printed two copies of the cards and used the second copy to cut out the photos and use them as playing pieces to represent the characters on the map. My co-GM used color markers to place a color-coded border around the pictures on both the cards and the playing pieces, this made it easy to see where everyone was at a glance.