I played Umlaut: Game of Metal with the Friday Night Oneshot Crew. It was awesome! I haven’t laughed so hard playing a game since I played Maid a year or two ago.
My band was a thrash metal outfit called Razor Likker. They were determined (or at least their leader was) to be “bigger than Metallica” whom they idolized (and pinched more than a few riffs from). Among the other bands competing for metal glory were Dystopian Ascension (who played “stoner metal”), Screaming Reaper (classic metal), Toxxxic Shokkkk (glam metal) and a Swedish death metal band whose name I could not remember through the entire game (but there was alcohol involved).
Anyway, Razor Likker (somehow) managed to thrash both bands they went up against, but only managed a mid-range of success, becoming a regional hit but never breaking out of the Bay Area (so they were kinda like Exodus). They hit their peak when they opened for Metallica…
The game itself uses regular playing cards for conflict resolution and is really easy. Since you play the whole band, it’s very improvisational and really depends a lot on the people you’re playing with. If they just want to sit there and say “We practice and increase our technique” you should beat them over the head with the drum kit until they repent and get into it.
But we had a blast. SO much insane stuff happened, very much in the Spinal Tap sort of way.
I will definitely play this again!
