Critter-cal hit

Mice and Mystics and Stuffed Fables designer Jerry Hawthorne is recruiting another party of heroic rodents for his next story-driven board game.

Aftermath is the latest instalment in the Adventure Book series, the anthology of narrative-focused games that play out in the pages of ring-bound tomes. The latest game in the series was Hawthorne’s sci-fi tale Comanauts, which Dan Jolin found to be a less than essential experience compared to Stuffed Fables in our review.

The upcoming game sees Hawthorne returning to the critter-friendly quest of Adventure Book predecessor Mice and Mystics, with Aftermath set in a world where humans have mysteriously disappeared – leaving animals to reclaim what remains of humanity’s legacy.

Playing out across the same combination of map and story pages as the other Adventure Book games, Aftermath seems to embrace the tropes of its post-apocalyptic leanings, as the characters form colonies, deal with rival factions and predators around the city, rescue fellow survivors, and scavenge for food and resources.

Among the first characters – known in-game as ‘providers’ – teased for the game is a “guinea pig with anger issues”, a fast-talking hamster, a hardy mouse and a vole on the edge of going feral. Each character has a different play style and personal storyline that will play out over the course of the game’s 27 story missions and side quests.

Aftermath is due for release this autumn. It’s currently up for pre-order on publisher Plaid Hat’s site for $85 – so expect a price tag north of £67 here in the UK.