The Shot Heard Around the Universe

Tim Campbell-Ladley

Shot is a game of Empire and independence set in a far corner of the galaxy in the distant future. Loosely inspired by the events of the American Revolution, Shot sees players grapple with the risks and rewards of breaking away from a greedy but ultimately stable Empire for independence and self-determination. The game has players engaging in warfare, trade, espionage, and diplomacy, and features some of the strangest aliens in any megagame.

• To find out more, you can read a writeup of the game on Megagame Assembly or listen to a discussion of it on the Last Turn Madness podcast

• 28-58 players (including 4 Press)

• A range of roles - some heavily mechanical, others entirely diplomatic. Most are pretty approachable although the Imperial Governor and one or two of the rebel leaders are very difficult to play well

• The designer freely admits that some of the mechanics need a rework - mostly the trade and espionage games. While it can be run as-is - and it’s got great reviews all around - this may be a bit more work than some of the other options on this list

• Runs with 6-11 facilitators, with a mix of mechanical and narrative responsibilities

• You can contact the designer for a license and materials - £200 at time of writing

• Around 200 cards

• One large (6ft x 5ft) main map

• Around 300 foam board tokens

• Need to purchase/have around 500 generic tokens (poker chips/wooden cubes/etc) - or closer to 2000 if you don’t want to use printed money

• Total cost (including license, before venue) approx £300-£500