More games, and a Visitor from Down South

[pozorvlak]

Elizabeth came up from Oxford on Sunday to give the Geometry seminar on Monday afternoon. She was speaking about her DPhil work, which is fairly hard-core algebraic geometry (specifically, she's using geometric invariant theory to construct coarse moduli spaces for stable maps). None of us were very familiar with the background material, and so she'd put in some explanation of the ideas used: it was all clearly presented, but there was quite a lot of it, so the pace was a bit fast. I got quite a lot out of it, though. After the seminar, we went to dinner at Balbir (seriously posh Indian restaurant on Church Street) with susoeffl and the seminar convenor, then Elizabeth, susoeffl and I returned to my flat to drink gin and bizarre Welsh slivovice/whisky and to eat cheesecake that the lovely wormwood_pearl had prepared. Then we played a couple of rounds of Carcassonne until it was time for Elizabeth to get her train back to Oxford. It was excellent to see her again, and to hear her explaining her thesis topic at length and while I was sober for a change :-)

I'm increasingly impressed with Carcassonne. The game mechanics are wonderfully simple and elegant. It seems like it would benefit from more depth, but maybe there's depth there that I'm not seeing yet. And there doesn't seem to be much incentive to cooperate: maybe playing doubles (a la croquet) would help.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about games of that sort recently, and this morning I came up with an idea for one.

Tobacco Lords of Glasgow

You'd play one of the Tobacco Lords of eighteenth-century Glasgow: every year, you'd send ships off to the Americas to trade, and accumulate wealth. But wealth would not be the point of the game: you'd win by building big houses and patronising the Arts and Sciences (for those of you not in the picture, central Scotland was one of the most important centres of the Enlightenment). Not too sure about the mechanics: I'm thinking that there could be several thinkers, artists and architects in play, and every turn you submit a closed, eBay-style bid for the services of as many as you think you can afford. Architects increase your posh house score, thinkers and artists increase your culturedness score, and so on. You can also put your money into buying more ships to send across the Atlantic, or shipyards to build your own ships, or new buildings for the University, or something. All bids can be shared across several players, so poorer players can club together to get a shipyard or whatever. Periodically, big random historical events would disrupt the game ("Jacobites flow relentlessly forward, one step in the Highlands and two steps upon reaching the Lowlands..."). Sadly, it looks like something quite similar already exists. It could be fun, though.

I mentioned this to wormwood_pearl, who immediately suggested a better idea:

Escape from Cessnock!

You are an effete Trustafarian student at Glasgow University. You've just been out to a great little party, where you had the tiniest bit too much to drink. The rocking motion of the Subway train makes you... ever... so... sleepy...

With a sudden jerk, you wake up. They're calling for everyone to get out - the train has terminated! And there won't be any more until the morning. Terror grips you as you realise that you're trapped in the South Side...

... and Rangers have just lost at home. To Celtic.

Can you avoid the irate Rangers fans, the muggers lurking behind every fence and dustbin, and the Buckie¹-fuelled neds², to make it home to Queen Margaret Halls³?

Mechanics-wise, I'm thinking a stylised map of part of Glasgow, divided into hexes or squares, with three or four areas per district. The river could only be crossed by bridges, which are of course populated by violent drunks and muggers. Roll to move, then draw a card for a random event (eg, "Someone approaches you saying 'Gies a fag, pal' - do you have any to give him?") Some squares (such as the bridges) would have extra conditions on ("Kelvingrove Park. Roll five or under to avoid being bum-raped"⁴)

If either of these get off the ground at all, I'll post some more here...

¹: Buckfast tonic wine, the preferred drink of Scotland's disadvantaged young folk.
²: The aforementioned disadvantaged young folk. The Scottish equivalent of chavs. (spits, disinfects mouth after using foul classist word)
³: The upmarket, overpriced halls favoured by students with more money than sense.
⁴: As any student will tell you, the parks are full of gangs that will gang-rape you if you venture in after dark. the_barlow informs me that this is bollocks, though some of them are used as cruising spots by gay men.

Comments

[the-barlow.livejournal.com]

Hahah! Genius!

4: As any student will tell you, the parks are full of gangs that will gang-rape you if you venture in after dark. the_barlow informs me that this is bollocks, though some of them are used as cruising spots by gay men.

Indeed. You're only going to get bummed if you give the impression that you're up for a bumming. However quite a few of the guys can get a bit over-excited, so you do need to keep your wits about you!

E
x

[weaselspoon.livejournal.com]

1: Buckfast tonic wine, the preferred drink of Scotland's disadvantaged young folk.
Or as, one Glaswegian referred to it, a bottle of Dyawansommathispal. Raw violence encased in glass. Ah, happy days.

[michiexile]

You'd like it here. Germany is the number one location for loads and loads of good board games. I'd invite you to play settlers and carcassone and much much else if you'd make it here some time (and I'd accumulate the games - my copies right now all live in Stockholm)

Will you be coming to Spiel06? Sounds to me that you should consider it.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Yeah - Wikipedia for one refers to Carcassonne et al as "German-style" board games. Spiel06: I hadn't thought of that... when is it? My google-fu is weak today. The trouble is, I've already got a lot of travelling lined up over the summer, so money and time are a bit tight (Prague in a week*, then Category Theory '06 at the end of June, then the Edinburgh Festival in August). I'm already feeling guilty about missing the European Juggling Convention :-(

BTW, I notice that Jena is fairly near to Chemnitz - there's a small town round there called Colditz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz) which is very much worth a visit. Colditz Castle was where the Nazis put the Allied prisoners who'd already escaped from at least one POW camp, and they have a museum there to all the crazy escape attempts they made. Complete gliders constructed in the lofts, for instance.

* Do you have any advice for Prague, seeing as how you've been there recently?

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

By the way, have you come across Thud (http://www.thudgame.com)? Someone was recommending it to me last night. I thought that as a Pratchett fan and a gamer you might be interested...