Mass Effect: The Board Game

Mass Effect is a popular console game. It is a third person role playing game set in a sci-fi world. The boardgame version was released in 2024. One of the designers is Eric Lang, the hugely popular game designer who has done many Fantasy Flight Games titles. The other designer is Calvin Wong, a fellow Malaysian. This is like the dream for us Malaysian game designers - having the opportunity to design a game with a world top-level game designer. 

Notice that the box cover has Calvin's Chinese name as well. The publisher took this very seriously. When they decided to put the Chinese name, they did not just use any random font. They contacted the console game localisation company in China and asked them for the official font in the Chinese edition of the game. I admire that they take these production details so seriously. 

I visited Calvin's booth at the Asian Board Games Festival in Penang, where he showcased Mass Effect. I did not sit down to play a game, but I asked him to give me an overview of how the game works. The design direction behind this game is to make something that is accessible to many people. The target audience is fans of the console game. The idea is to get them interested to try the board game version of the game. Many of them may not be boardgame players. Yet. 

The game is scenario based. When you sit down to play, you pick a scenario which has its own map and setup. Regardless of the number of players, there will always be four characters in play. If you have fewer than four players, some of you will play more than one character. Each scenario has its own winning and losing conditions. A scenario does not take too long, so that if you want to, you can play a series of two to three scenarios within one evening. There is a plot line structure which links together multiple scenarios. This creates the experience of playing a campaign. What happens in one scenario carries over to the next. You don't always play with the four fixed characters. There are more than four to choose from so you can try different combinations.

These are some of the characters you can play. Every character has their own character sheet. They have their own sets of abilities and also possible upgrades. 

You get to play these characters.

When a round begins, the start player rolls a whole bunch of dice. Thereafter everyone takes turns utilising three dice. The icons on the dice specify what kind of actions you can take. You take turns executing actions until the dice are used up. This is a cooperative game. You work together as a team to complete your mission.

Calvin Wong the game designer