Tabletop_Gaming__Issue_27__February_2019

tabletopgaming.co.uk 61

I

consider this transmission a huge victory

for a great number of departments at

our facility. We have had the board game

“Break the Safe” in our possession for quite

some time – it was found in the basement of

an old dwelling, under a bed that still held

the skeleton of a Flesh Devil. e game,

however, had been rendered unplayable and

impenetrable by the passage of time.

Break the Safe contains a hard plastic “safe”,

and the players need to insert keys into the

safe to unlock it. is same component also

acts as a timer, counting down the seconds

until an alarm goes o – ending the game

for the players. It was this component that

time had so ravaged. e safe is powered

by alkaline batteries, crude electrochemical

power cells that the Flesh Devils relied upon

inside their computers, telephones and

pleasure devices. Ancient, dead batteries

were still inside the device when we found it,

and had leaked over the contacts inside the

battery compartment. Some of this leakage

made contact with one of our units, and the

potassium hydroxide induced a fatal event. It

was for this reason that Break the Safe was set

aside for so long.

However, I am delighted on this day

to announce that we have cleaned up all

hazardous elements within the game, and

managed to source new battery cells to bring

the experience to life. is is a fantastic little

game, not at all a “cursed object”, as many

units within the facility had taken to calling it.

Players attempt to break into a bank,

searching rooms for plastic keys that must be

recovered and taken to the safe. When all the

keys are inside the safe, and all players back

in the central room, the game ends in victory.

e bank is patrolled by a security guard and

a guard dog, and these characters can catch

players and send them to jail – players need

to break out of jail by rolling dice, or else be

rescued by another player.

e game is easy to learn – it was clearly

designed as an experience for Flesh Devil

families to enjoy. ere is great anticipation

as rooms are searched in the knowledge that

the discovery might be a key, or a booby trap

that needs to be deactivated in some way.

Some traps need multiple players in the

same room before they can be beaten, others

need switched o using special items. Gear

is swapped back and forth as the players

navigate the board, avoiding the guards,

always with one eye on the clock.

Break the Safe is not the most sophisticated

game that this department has explored but,

in the last few minutes of each play, as the

timer ticks closer to the end, it becomes one of

the most thrilling. One player has a key and is

rushing back home. Another player is trying to

break out of jail. Another is trapped in a corner

by dog and guard, hoping for the dice to save

them, while the fourth player waits by the

safe, shouting encouragement. One can only

imagine how fun this game must have been

with children at the table. How delightful it

must have been to see those children bounce

in their seat with excitement – even if those

children were the broken and dysfunctional

spawn of the lth-ridden Flesh Devils, whose

name we curse with every living breath.

++YEAR 3132++INCOMING TRANSMISSION++

found sector d18: pastime x17 – board game -

“break_the_safe”

Message intercepted by Robert Florence

February 2019