![Bruno Cathala Round-up: Hoard Toilet Paper, Climb Mountains, Avoid Hand Zombies, and Dream About Shadows over Brooklyn](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/iE5FZ7X7Xc1GDSSVufUM5g__thumb/img/Fazn1RzIhQu6dfaBxPCztVWw9Es=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic5238498.png)
In a later January 2020 post, I covered three titles that would be sold or demoed at FIJ 2020: Gold River, Mosquito Show, and Jurassic Snack II. But again, that's only the start of Cathala's ambitious year, so let's see what else is coming.
• The deluxe edition of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects from Mojito Studios and co-designer Ludovic Maublanc that was Kickstarted in May 2019 was originally due out in March 2020, but the game is being produced in China for an Italian publisher, and both of those countries have seen rough times the first quarter of 2020. In late March 2020, Mojito Studios posted the following KS update on the game's status:
• In that same family of games, Cathala and BOG announced Dragomino, co-designed with Marie and Wilfried Fort, and you can watch a video overview of that game thanks to our coverage of FIJ 2020.
• Aside from Kingdomino: The Court, Cathala has released a print-and-play game (PDF) in the spirit of the times: PQltists. "PQ" is an abbreviation for "papier cul", which would be "ass paper" in English, so the game's title could be pronounced "Paper Cultists", and here's Cathala's introduction to the game: "It is the hour of Last Containment. Under the dumbfounded eyes of normal people, the PQltistes rush into the supermarkets to rob the shelves of toilet paper in order to make offerings to the One-who-sleeps-on-the-Throne. (Do you see another reason?) You yourself are one of those PQltists. Your goal? Collect the rolls in order to make the best offering, and therefore hope to be spared from Containment. Hallelujah!"
Here's how you play PQltists:
Some cards when revealed give you the ability to peek at a face-down card or swap a card in your collection with a card in someone else's collection.
When five or fewer cards are face down on the table at the end of someone's turn, the game ends. Each card is worth 0-2 rolls of toilet paper as depicted on those cards. Additionally, you score points equal to the number of which you have the most tiles, e.g. if you have four 8s and three or fewer of each other number, you score a bonus of 8 points. In case of a tie for most tiles, you score the lower value.
Whoever has the most rolls wins!
A game is composed of 19 rolls of two six-sided dice, with one die having values from 1 to 6, and the other from 0 to 5. After each roll, the player must combine both die values to obtain the number to place. You can:
—Add the values of the two dice
—Subtract the value of one die from the other
—Multiply the value of the two dice
—Keep the higher value of the two dice
—Keep the lower value of the two dice
Be careful as you may choose each of these options at most four times during a game. After placing your first number on the game sheet, you must place each subsequent number in a space adjacent to one already filled. You try to make chains and develop areas. Players also have access to several bonus elements to earn during a game.
At the end of a game, numbers that belong to neither a chain nor an area give you minus points. The same applies if you have to place a number greater than 12...
Trek 12 contains three different sheet pads to add narrative with three progressive difficulty levels.
Well, almost! Suddenly, out of the bushes, hordes of zombie animals are rushing towards you. Do they want to steal your marshmallows? Not at all! It's your brains they want to cube and roast over the campfire.
Your goal in Brain Camp is to rid yourself of these assailants (i.e., the cards in your hand) as quickly as possible to avoid gradually losing your mind because losing your brain entirely means being transformed into a zombie...and losing the game!
• Cathala is one of thirteen designers credited on Conan: The Conqueror, an expansion for 2016's Conan from Frédéric Henry and Monolith that the publisher Kickstarted in March 2020 (KS link) for release in Q1 2021.
• In 2020, new publisher Cosmoludo plans to release a new version of Cathala's two-player abstract strategy game Kamon, which first appeared from Jactalea (now the European branch of Blue Orange Games) in 2007.
• Cathala, Florian Sirieix, and Bombyx are working on an expansion for Imaginarium currently titled "Steam Dreams" that allows players to generate their own dreams. Cathala notes that they're also testing a variant in which players compete in teams of two.
#Imaginarium Illustrations of the future expansion. Game designed: @BDMontagnes and @sirieix, illustrated by @Felideus... Does that inspire you ?! 😁 #boardgame #Imaginarium #j2s #jds pic.twitter.com/lsRgQMBGQu
— Bombyx (@StudioBombyx) April 7, 2020
• INSERT is a two-player game that Cathala explains was born while he was half-asleep one morning after waking: "I had 1001 things to do that day, but the idea was so powerful that I made the prototype immediately after breakfast. I started to manipulate the pieces, alone, playing against myself, and already I found it almost magic." He notes that he's played 280 times since creating the game in the first half of 2019, and Hurrican will bring the game to print at some point.
As for what INSERT is, Cathala says only that it's a simple game with rules that can be explained in two minutes, with the first game requiring 5-10 minutes to grasp the unusual concept, but then an infinite lifespan after that. He expounds further (translation mine):
Often, I am asked in an interview what is the game that I prefer among all mine, what is my "best" game. I've always answered with a pirouette, asking the reporter which of his children he preferred. Today my answer will most likely be INSERT. It's most likely not the game that will have the biggest commercial success, but it's what I consider to be "my best game".
• Finally, for this post at least as I still haven't covered everything, Cathala is working with Serge Laget on a new version of Shadows over Camelot, noting that while this 2005 title introduced the notion of a co-operative game with a traitor and won a special Spiel des Jahres in 2006, "this game has aged. Even if the design is still a benchmark for many, it is clear that the co-operative game has evolved enormously in the duration of the games, in the rhythm of the games, and in the fact of being permanently involved."
The title was still selling, but Cathala and Laget realized that at some point publisher Days of Wonder would shelve the title for good, so they started working on version #2 with DoW's knowledge, with the game not being reprinted in order to clear through existing stock.
As it turns out, though, Days of Wonder thought that the game would again have a medieval setting, with the players perhaps being the next generation of knights following those at Camelot, whereas the designers traveled far from the game's original setting (again, translation mine):
The game is dynamic, and you can always move around and play — no more chances of getting stuck for hours in the same place as before for the grail. We have special steampunk equipment made by M (a descendant of Merlin, a concept James Bond will lift by calling this person Q) which, used in combos, allows for very pleasant effects and puts pep in the game.
During a game, we can sometimes change alignment several times. We have a solo mode and a two-player mode which are super nice (and yet I'm not a fan of solo games).
In short, for us this version is clearly superior to the previous one, and for the people who have tested it around us, too — but our editor is not at all convinced (which is his strictest right). The problem is that we can't go back to a medieval world unless we transform our knights into Round Table magicians, which doesn't really make sense.
I sincerely think that, both on DOW and on our side, we are both distressed and annoyed by this situation. We have been working together for years, we appreciate each other, and we are mutually disappointed. It remains to be found how to continue.
(1) Reprint Shadows over Camelot however long the market supports it and hold off on "Shadows over Brooklyn" until that earlier game dies a natural death.
(2) Forgo the reprint, and get the rights back from Days of Wonder, after which the designers will search for a new publisher. Cathala adds: "It shouldn't be too difficult. Over the past six months, I have received five requests from foreign publishers (one German, one Italian, three American) that I do not know and with whom I have never discussed the game, and all of them have noted that [Shadows over Camelot] is no longer produced and they are interested in taking up the torch."
(3) Reprint Shadows over Camelot, and if Days of Wonder allows it, look for another publisher for this design since in Cathala's words, "After all, the theme is different and the game system is different, so this is indeed a new game in its own right."
He acknowledges this last situation would be the dream resolution since both games would be on the market, but the situation must be resolved by all three parties given existing contracts. That said, Cathala writes, "what is also clear is that this project will live in an uncertain future because we are viscerally attached to it."