Ram: As I said at the start of this post, Trophy Gold is great. The game is mechanically interesting and novel, while remaining quite simple. What I love about the game is that it’s a little bit messy when it comes to what it’s about. It’s not trying to a Story Game or an OSR game. Trophy Gold is very much its own thing, and all the better for it.
The format of the review, where multiple people talk about it, reminds me of Shut Up & Sit Down's written reviews. (I'm not sure if that was done elsewhere before them.) I dig it!
Gosh yes. I backed the game because I like a bunch about it, but there's a lot I just don't get. I had a similar problem with Blades, and even after running it a bunch, I'm still not sure I know what I'm doing. (And, honestly, after sort of figuring it out, realized it didn't mesh with my table.)
The abstractness of how Trophy Gold seems to work is even more baffling, as well as how it can lean towards either more story game or more OSR. But I think I'm going to have fun trying to untangle that knot! Plus I can always just buckle down and listen to some of the APs.