Geek Native got a sneak peek at Deep Regrets at Tabletop Scotland, and then both Bronwen and I rocked up at Argonaut Books here in Edinburgh, Scotland to play the game on its opening night.
What’s a board game’s opening night? It was in the post to Kickstarter backers. I played with gamers who had backed the Kickstarter and would get the game the next day.
Deep Regrets is a Lovecraftian fishing game where players roll dice to catch increasingly horrifying creatures. They must strategically decide whether to stay at sea or return to port to manage their resources effectively. Players assess fish schools at various depths, take risks to catch larger creatures, and navigate reveal and catch abilities.
The game features hand-inked art and includes “Regret” cards, which increase madness but also offer benefits, such as rolling more dice and achieving higher values for strange fish. Players must balance their madness since the player with the most Regrets has to discard their best bonus fish at the end of the game.
The goal is to catch the most valuable haul of bizarre fish during a week at sea by managing resources and leveraging madness wisely.
Deep Regrets complexity
I sat down in the bookshop. I was offered a beer. Judson Cowan spent about 20 minutes explaining the rules to us and then moved on the next table.
I can’t say I was feeling 100% confident that I knew how to play when the game started but I wasn’t lost. I knew I had to go fishing and that would mean flipping over a card and having enough points on the dice to catch the fish. I knew there would be fair fish (real fish in our oceans) and foul fish (horrors) and that symbols on the cards would tell me what to do.
I also knew that I could spend dice to steer my boat futher out to sea and tackle more dangerous but more valuable fish. Alternatively, I could head to port to trade my fish for money and spend that on gear. Gear would help get better fish.
Two tensions. Do I go further out to sea for bigger and more dangerous fish with the equipment I had or go back to port? And, secondly, the more sane I was the better I’d be at fishing UNLESS it came to dealing with the madness of Lovecraftian horrors I might catch in the depths.
Deep Regrets gameplay
I think Deep Regrets is a game you need to play through once and then you’ll be comfortable with it. That’s a good place to be for the game. I think your first turn might feel daunting, but after a few cycles of play, everything will click, and it’ll make sense.
As such, I think Deep Regrets is an engaging and fun game. I’ve no regrets about spending my after-work evening in a community bookshop in Leith playing a fishing game with strangers.
Well, I say it’s a fishing game, but while I started off with a strategy of selling wholesome and easy to catch fish from the shallows, pretty much everyone else ended up sailing into deep waters, going swiftly mad and pulling tentacled horrors from the depth.
How did they do so well? They all ended up with magical fishing rods and powerful reels by cashing in their first impressive fish. These rods are a game change,r and without on,e you won’t be able to keep up. Despite my error, I don’t think I ever felt like giving up. It felt as if I always had a reason to keep playing, although I’m chill about that sort of thing. And I enjoyed seeing what horrors the sea would throw at people next.
Deep Regrets also supports solo play! I think I can see how that works and I’d love to try it.
Look and feel
Impressively, the game’s designer, Judson Cowan, is also the game’s illustrator! The illustrations are fantastic.
As I said earlier, I loved watching what horrors the sea has and was amused that some of them are real-life creatures. Watching a card flip over and Judson’s art earn a response was a delight.
The production quality in Deep Regrets is great too. The card is thick. The wooden meeples easy on the eye and to pick up. The fisher character cards are double-sized. The dice aren’t run of the mill but nor are their arty for stretch goal sake.
I can see Deep Regrets on Zatu Games pre-order for about £45. That feels like value for money to me.
Overall
I was a little overwhelmed by the run-through of the rules, but that concern quickly eased with gameplay. I’m pretty sure that having played the game once, I could introduce others to playing it.
And I’m a fan after just one game. Deep Regrets looks good, is layered with complexity and feels like a game you could play over and over again with friends and still find new twists and turns in the strategy.
Don’t regret not checking out Deep Regrets. Tettix Games will be at Tabletop Scotland and UK Games Expo, so I regret checking the game out if you’re attending either.
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