/pic2275795.jpg)
/pic2299550.jpg)
Quote:
Every round, players have to choose secretly and simultaneously between three possibilities, which we have names Peace, 1 and War (or sometimes Greed). In our first prototypes, players had cardboard dials, and had to point a plastic arrow to one of the three symbols for Peace, 1 and Greed before the dials were revealed simultaneously.
Dials are expensive to produce, so we first tried to replace them with cards. Players have three cards with the symbols for Peace, 1 and Greed. Each player plays a card face down, then the cards are simultaneously revealed. It works, the results are more or less the same, but most players prefer dials.
Now comes the real experience. Get rid of cards and dial, and play this à la Rock/Paper/Scissors. A closed fist means War/Greed, an open hand means Peace, a thumb up means 1. Theoretically, this system is equivalent to the two former ones. When playing, however, the feeling is very different, and it seems that the results are slightly more aggressive, with more wars and less peace. Maybe holding one's arm makes one aggressive? Maybe the requirement to play fast, without hesitation, makes us less careful? Anyway, it's the same game, but it plays a bit differently.
This article came to mind after I played the new version of Jun'ichi Sato's Eat Me If You Can! from IELLO and Purple Brain Creations. To summarize the game, each round one player is the wolf and he must attack one opponent to try to eat him. Before he does this, each non-wolf player chooses either sleep or trap, scoring points for the trap only if the wolf attacks him and scoring for sleep only if he doesn't. If the wolf attacks a sleeping player, he steals points from that player.Dials are expensive to produce, so we first tried to replace them with cards. Players have three cards with the symbols for Peace, 1 and Greed. Each player plays a card face down, then the cards are simultaneously revealed. It works, the results are more or less the same, but most players prefer dials.
Now comes the real experience. Get rid of cards and dial, and play this à la Rock/Paper/Scissors. A closed fist means War/Greed, an open hand means Peace, a thumb up means 1. Theoretically, this system is equivalent to the two former ones. When playing, however, the feeling is very different, and it seems that the results are slightly more aggressive, with more wars and less peace. Maybe holding one's arm makes one aggressive? Maybe the requirement to play fast, without hesitation, makes us less careful? Anyway, it's the same game, but it plays a bit differently.
:strip_icc()/pic1730535.jpg)
The original Japanese version of the game included only two cards for each player — sleep and trap — and each round a player would choose one of these cards to indicate his choice.
:strip_icc()/pic2256565.jpg)
In the new IELLO/PBC version, players have standup houses with dials on the back (dials again!) that players turn to sleep or trap before the wolf player choose a victim. What's new is that with the standup houses and wolf figure, the players tend to roleplay what they're doing, acting out attacks, dancing from house to house sniffing the air for fresh piggies to eat — everything about the game is more playful while the rules remain exactly the same as in the original release. Very curious to see those differences play out on the table...
/pic2299549.jpg)
/pic2299555.jpg)
/pic2299558.jpg)
/pic2241692.jpg)
/pic1195948.jpg)
/pic2058787.jpg)
/pic1988890.jpg)
:strip_icc()/pic2049042.png)
