Ex Novo Arrives (Not a Review)

A while ago, I backed the Ex Novo Kickstarter, and today it arrived. Ex Novo is “a playable city-generator that helps you construct fictional cities and their turbulent histories.”

The pre-print PDF was released some time ago, and I spent a little time with it then. I was looking forward to getting my hands on the print version because there was just something about the PDF copy that I wasn't connecting with. Or, at least, that's what I thought it was. Especially having to jump around on a PDF. I hate that, and I always enjoy print versions of things far more.
However, having to jump to page 34 from an instruction on page 4 just about sums this up. It's … all over the place. Another took me from page 6, to 38, and then, if you're lucky or have already looked at every single page, to 29. All as part of the Founding Phase, right at the beginning.

Instructions such as “Adding a faction” are also incredibly vague. “When you add a faction, take an index card, write down its name and add a simple symbol representing it”. 5 paragraphs, and again, not a single mention of the table available on page 29.

That said, it's an interesting little book, and I'm going to spend some more time with it and try to get to know it better. There's some fun artwork, and you can tell that they have really put some effort into the creation. But ~£20 for a 60 page, thin card cover stapled A5 booklet feels a bit much on initial glance.