Yes, 'Famous' can be long...

Well I hurt my stupid back moving all of those boxes into the garage. The next day I was moving like "Flash" the sloth in Zootopia. But after popping some pills my back was, err, back the next day! I brought 4 loads to the post office on Thursday. I've heard that some folks in Canada have already received their boxes!

I am still waiting for some shipping information from about 10 backers. I've sent messages and/or emails to everyone I'm missing, so please check to see if you included a phone # if you live outside of Canada. I admit I should have asked long ago, but I overlooked that I need phone numbers to ship internationally!

One more thing, about the game itself: I've been hearing comments that Famous can take a long time to play, and I admit that I've taught some 3-hour games myself to new people. Famous is not a light game - even though the theme and humour are light-hearted and approachable. There are A LOT of things to do, and a lot of little rules to remember and check. In this way, I would compare the complexity to something like Ark Nova or Dune Imperium or Orleans. Your first play-through or two will be a challenge - stopping every minute to check rules and answer questions: "does a Musician have to match my Band Board?", "How do the Personality goals work?", "What is that weird symbol halfway up the Performance track?"

My advice, after 200 plays myself, is try it solo first: either two-handed, or with the easy Solo deck provided. OR, learn it with just one other person. It will still take about 2 hours though, your first couple of plays. I think Famous plays best at two players. 3-players is a gamble, especially if one player is new to these types of games. And finally, I would never recommend playing 4-players, UNLESS all players are super familiar with it, AND you have 3 hours to spare. But that's true of a lot of big strategy games.

The good news is that it really starts to speed up after a couple plays. My wife and I can play it in about 75 minutes now. And since you can only do one action on your turn (regardless of its power), turns start to fly around the table. I've also never had one person yet quit or get bored before the end. In fact, players have asked ME to keep going to the end - when all your plans will unfold during the Finale.

That being said, I am working on a "Quick Start" mode, similar to "Prelude" for Terraforming Mars, wherein players will get a randomized setup and jump straight to Week 4. I'll include it in the upcoming "Jazz" expansion, as well as for free on my website.

So please, stick with it, and have fun with the dice-rolling, different abilities, personal goals, card draws, and even singing the songs that the characters are named for. Hopefully it becomes a frequent favourite like it has among my family and friends!