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Game Night is a short novel by Jonny Nexus, published by Magnum Opus Press. It tells the story of six gods who are literally playing dice with the universe: the AllFather is running a role-playing game for the Warrior, the Dealer, the Jester, the Lady, and the Sleeper.

The Style

The first thing to catch your eye in Game Night is the method by which Nexus has opted to tell his story. Much of the text recounts the adventures of the god's characters in the world; in other words, it recounts the story of their role-playing game. However inter-spaced with that is the story of what's going on at the gaming table: the arguments, the take-backs, the angry fights, and pretty much everything else that could occur at any role-playing table.

Underlying all of thisis humor. Some other reviewers have compared Nexus' writing with Terry Pratchett, and they do definitely write humor in the same way: wry, dry, and British. However, Nexus' funny isn't yet up to the level of Pratchett's--nor would I expect it to be for a first book.

If I were going to compare Game Night to a published work, I'd instead say that it's a novelistic Knights of the Dinner Table. That isn't to say it's in anyway derivative, but instead that it accomplishes some of the same goals. Knights of the Dinner Table has always done well because it feels like it could be describing a gaming group that every one of us has participated in. Despite taking gods as his main characters, Nexus accomplishes the same thing in Game Night. The foibles of the gaming gods are our own, and it's from this that Game Night draws much of its humor.

Overall, Game Night does a great job of both reflecting and satirizing roleplaying groups, and for this it earns a "4" out of "5" in Style.

(Though I'll also offer the caveat that this satirization is sufficiently close to the material that it'll probably be less funny and maybe even less understandable to a non-roleplayer--which isn't a complaint, but instead a note on the limitation of its audience.)

The Substance

Meanwhile, underlying that roleplaying satire is an actual adventure. It's the story of five companions and their quest to save the world.

I've read plenty of Forgotten Realms novels which felt like they were retelling the adventures of a gaming group. They've usually failed for me as narravatives. Jonny Nexus very explicitly is doing the same thing, because he is literally writing about an adventure, but remarkably he succeeds where those Forgotten Realms novels failed.

I can't entirely tell why, though I suspect that part of it is because the adventure is constantly (and ironically) contrasted against the players. However, I thought the adventure storytelling had other strengths as well.

The world that Nexus creates--even though it's just a backdrop for the characters and the satire--is vivid and interesting. As the book opens the characters are advancing upon a great wall, beyond which lie the Far Lands. From there the players move on to meet the legendary elvesWeshen and learn about the greater adventure awaiting them. In some ways it's a pretty standard fantasy realm and in others it does reflect the world creation of Pratchett--in brief--but overall it remains evocative and the adventures of these player characters remain interesting (and often surprising) throughout the book.

I do have some minor complaints about the storytelling. The start was a little muddled, and it took me four (short) chapters before I really had a grasp on who the gods were and who they were playing. There's also a section of the book a bit past the middle that's overly dry and slow. I suspect the book could have benefited from a professional fiction editor who might have helped to point out and clean up these issues.

Despite these minor issues, the Substance of the book tended to be enjoyable and interesting. I've thus given it a "3" out of "5" for Substance, and put it on the high end of that number: slightly above average.

Conclusion

Overall Game Night is a fine story of high adventure roleplaying wrapped inside a funny and satirical look at roleplaying itself. I'd generally recommend it for roleplayers who can laugh when looking at themselves.

I also look forward to what Nexus writes next, because if this is a first book, I can only imagine what a more polished second release might look like.

You can find a PDF of the first chapter of Game Night at Johnny Nexus' Web Site.

In consulting DriveThruRPG we've come up with a number of products which we think might be related, but some might be inaccurate because the name, Game Night, is so short. Nonetheless, take a look, as purchasing through the RPGnet Store helps to support RPGnet.