T8R4M4 Jojolity Delibs

Judge MarioAddict -

The Jojolity here was to deal with traps like a daring explorer - or, as another judge put it, “don’t be lame”. Both players did pretty well with this, I think, and left us with a pair of strats that would feel right at home in your classic Hollywood adventure movie!

Starting again with Sara, and I think things are done pretty well here! Her bike is sacrificed early on as a clever way to both find and avoid tripwires, while her movement options give her the sort of action movie flair you’d expect from the setting, dodging under and around the hazards that come her way. Things are played smart and safe at the start, but once the temple starts to collapse, the focus shifts to getting out alive even if it means some inherently riskier plays. The narrative helps tie it all together, highlighting the wonder and amazement Sara feels (and rekindles) while exploring this site of clear cultural significance to the Exumans. If I had to give a critique, I think the tactics for dodging around traps can get a bit repetitive (mostly just sliding underneath them when possible), but this is still a nice, coherent package all together. This feels to me like a high **7**, all things told.

As I mentioned in my Quality delibs, I think Philip knocked this one out of the park. If Philip had wanted to, he could have just blown past every trap at high speed. If Philip had wanted to, he could have used cautious, clever tricks to carefully navigate the traps. But Philip decided to go a step beyond - he didn’t *just* find a clever way *through* the traps, he found clever ways to make use of the traps in his favor. Tripwires and explosions are turned into extra charge, poison darts are gathered to use against Sara in close quarters (or just to launch at her with a sound wave), the boulder is used as an impenetrable wall to guarantee your victory before the escape is even finished… it’s exactly the kind of clever play that I’d expect from an Indiana Jones type character, and it made the strategy a blast to read. This is, to quote the rubric, a Jojolity that “fundamentally elevates” your strategy - **9**.

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Judge Switz -

DMR:

Philip makes his mission statement clear from the get go, defining a “daring explorer” to be himself: Philip Buster, the hero of Dexter Osely who can do things the latter could only dream of. Philip accomplishes this task by attempting to hit every trap in his path with a particular panache, making the traps themselves a focal point of the strat. While Philip’s aforementioned creativity in finding new ways to handle the trap rooms, certainly contributes, it does speak to his “daring” nature that these traps are often weaponized and their dangerous nature taken advantage of for resources: stealing arrows from poison traps is the obvious example, but other plays like generating noise from ignitions in the gas room or jumping off sawblades certainly give credence to the idea that Philip is a heroic adventurer beating back impossible odds with ease. The mechanical integration of this idea combined with the narrative that establishes it is worthy of high praise: however, I do think it is a bit of a weakness in the JoJolity that the strat often makes a point of waiting for Sara to make a move. The passivity of Philip’s tempo and avoidance of the other player does hinder the visual a bit of Philip’s daring escapade. Better integration of Sara into the JoJolity ideal could have pushed this score higher, but I certainly don’t intend to ignore what’s already here. An **8**.

GROTS:

Sara’s strategy establishes a thesis throughout of both experiencing the wonder of adventure and moving beyond just “destroying walls.” The strat makes a point of places where Sara could simply brute force her way through the temple with zero regard for the experience; however, there is a concerted effort throughout the strat to respect the traps and actively play around them rather than simply destroy them, with a careful and relatively safe approach, and leveraging mobility rather than might in any other cases. Overall, this idea is well executed, and serves as a nice basis for the strat. Still, I don’t have much more to say than that: nothing particularly jumps out at me, but I don’t have very much to say beyond that the thematic of “adventure” could have used more exploration and emphasis throughout. A few places, like the last stretch with the boulder, felt rather sparse on JoJolity, leaving the climax of the match to end on a quieter note. All in all, what’s present is a solid JoJolity thesis with fun mechanical plays peppered throughout to reinforce it, but not that much more. Worth a **7** in my book.

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Judge AtomicPeace -

GRoTS:

Sara’s baseline vibes are pretty daring, so I think she was well suited for this jojolity, and delivered nicely on its premise. There’s a lot of characteristic flashy movement tech on display, and some good shows of personality, especially towards the end, that added well to the strat. I do think looking it as a whole, it doesn’t seem that much different than her standard fare, which isn’t a bad thing per say, but does keep it from reaching the heights it could if you leaned into it a little more. That said, it was executed nicely. 7/10

DMR:

As I said in the quality portion, Philip’s character shines through in this strategy so well, and he embodies an explorer in great fashion. His commentary, the way he bounced off Sara, and the general in-character approach are all very nicely written. As for how this factored in mechanically, I feel like you did a great job incorporating the temple and traps themselves into your strat, making the cleverness of your navigation integral to how you approach combat as well. You did a great job of making Philip feel right at home in the setting, and the arc of the strat felt like a nice little adventure. 8/10!