TableTop BornStar is that kind of filth that pretends to be a respectable “board game experiment” and then just drags you into a slow, dirty corruption trip where you end up clicking “yes” to things you swore you wouldn’t. You’re this washed-up talent agent stuck in his office with an ankle bracelet, basically a horny goblin in a cheap suit, and you’ve got Mary Jane on the phone and in your cams, this adorable country girl who thinks Hollywood is about “art” and “dreams” and has no idea what cumshot even means yet. Every turn is dice and cards and little choices that feel small, like “take this photoshoot” or “meet this producer” or “try this new ‘acting exercise’ that just happens to involve a vibrator under the table”. Then ten turns later she’s doing anal for a low-budget indie “thriller” and you’re like, ok, maybe that one friendly massage suggestion was the start of a very long fall. It’s fun how the management side is just enough to feel like you’re actually running some crooked porn empire from your phone while you’re on the toilet, checking stats like “fame” and “innocence” and “kink” like it’s a spreadsheet, except the spreadsheet moans and asks if you like her new lingerie.

What really got me addicted is how the game keeps throwing you these decisions that sound sweet or romantic, then immediately gives you a way nastier branch if you’re in the mood to be a complete bastard. You can play the nice manager, hold her hand (and yeah, later, more than hand) and try to keep things “classy”, take her on slow-burn romance scenes, oral under the desk, soft cuddling after a creampie, all that fake Hollywood love story vibe. Or you can push her into exhibitionist gigs where she’s stripping in a cheap club with drunk assholes grabbing her big ass, backstage masturbation sessions just to “relax before the take”, weird board game events where a card suddenly lets you suggest a lesbian scene with her roommate and the only thing stopping you is your own conscience, which you probably left at the title screen. I had one run where she started in this cute sundress, barely kissing anyone, next thing she’s on a casting couch with three guys, toys involved, you’re watching from a camera like some happy little voyeur, and the game just shrugs like, “Hey, you rolled the card.” Then another run I tried to be more caring, focused on romance, and still somehow ended up with pregnancy drama and her asking if you’ll stay with her while she’s rubbing her belly and offering you a footjob because “you helped her so much”. Completely fucked up in the best way.

What I didn’t expect is how funny it is sometimes. There’s these stupid jokes about Hollywood, failed movies, directors who think they’re geniuses because they added one artsy black-and-white sex scene, and your character is just roasting everyone while also setting up gangbang auditions. The humor kind of hides how rough some choices are. One card event I got had Mary Jane doing a “serious” acting workshop which turns into blindfolded “trust exercises”, and the sound of the dice roll made me way more nervous than it should. Speaking of sounds, the audio is surprisingly decent: little gasps when you push her too far, slaps during spanking scenes that feel almost too real on headphones, wet sucking during oral that made me close other tabs fast so nobody hears. I wish there was a bit more variety in some moans, sometimes they loop in a way that made me think my browser bugged out, but I still kept playing, so whatever. The animated bits are short, kind of rough, but that fits the late 90s Hollywood trash vibe, like watching old bootleg porn tapes someone recorded over daytime TV. And those multiple endings sneak up on you: one time she was broken, fully corrupted and still smiling on red carpets, another time she was this successful “serious actress” who secretly sends you nudes between shoots, and I’m pretty sure there’s at least one path where you actually don’t ruin her completely, but I keep accidentally pulling cards with sex toys and group sex offers, so maybe I’m the problem, not the game.