" " - Shut Up & Sit Down

Saboteur

Players take on the role of dwarves. As miners, they are in a mine, hunting for gold. Suddenly, a pick axe swings down and shatters the mine lamp. The saboteur has struck. But which of the players are saboteurs? Will you find the gold, or will the fiendish actions of the saboteurs lead them to it first? After three rounds, the player with the most gold is the winner.

With the help of Dwarf Cards, the players are assigned their role: either miner or saboteur. The roles are kept secret- they are only revealed at the end of the round.

Paul: The problem I’m having writing this review is, rather than simply telling you how Saboteur works, I really want to give you a selection of quotes from some of my recent games. The thing is, none of these will be remotely illuminating, since they’re all going to be the same sort of questions, which all go like this:

“What are you doing?!” “Why did you do that?!” “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!”

Or they’ll be the same sort of answers, which go like this:

“I’m helping!” “I have no choice!” “JUST TRUST ME.”

Or they’ll be the same end-of-round exasperation, the same old post-battle cry of Saboteur:

“I TOLD YOU SO.”

I guess Saboteur is something of a game of soundbites.

Paul: This week, Pip is also sharing one of her early board gaming memories. Here’s a story about a game we don’t talk about much here, but which we’re sure you’ll all know. I don’t know about you, but I certainly share some of Pip’s frustrations about this…

Pip: I think the first board game I ever thought of as a favourite was The Game Of Life.

We had a copy which I think my brother and sister and I had worn my parents down until they bought, then played properly only a handful of times (thus neatly adding fuel to their “board games are awful and we won’t have anything to do with them” fire). But I kept coming back to the box and opening it up at odd moments, sometimes working my way along the track on my own.

Paul: Games news, is it? You’d better step this way.

I hope you have a strong stomach.

I’m sorry that you have to see this. There’s no way to make this easy. We’re still trying to piece together what happened. Maybe you can help?

Paul: Here’s the story of how I bunked off school to play a board game and how that board game changed my life. Saying that immediately makes me excited to tell it. A written transcript, with pictures, is available here.

Following the lovely responses we’ve had to our other spoken word pieces (see Brendan’s Correct Way to Scratch, Leigh’s Month as an Assassin and Quinns’ favourite drinking games) this week in the podcast section we have Paul telling us about the quite singular way that he remembers the most influential, most important board game in his life. And how it lead him astray.

Here’s the story of how I bunked off school to play a board game and how that board game changed my life.

Saying that immediately makes me excited to tell it.

Interview: Different Play on bringing diversity to tabletop gaming

Paul: One of the reasons we started Shut Up & Sit Down, arguably the biggest reason we did so,* was to get more people into board and tabletop gaming. We wanted to share something that we enjoyed. Board and tabletop gaming was (and largely still is) ignored by a lot of people who had preconceptions, even prejudices, about how boring, weird or bizarre it was. We don’t like that sort of thing and hopefully we’ve helped change that. Hopefully our invitation to the hobby has also been inclusive and reached out to all sorts of people.

You can imagine, then, how impressed we were to hear about the work being done by Different Play, a collective of experienced mentors reaching out to actively support diversity and inclusion in analog game design, both in terms of the kinds of games being made and also the kinds of people making them. The games industry, even the tabletop games industry, has a diversity problem and this can make it (among other things) intimidating and even outright unfriendly. Different Play wants to make sure that new and different designers are heard, published and paid. We asked them more about their work and their plans.

(Due to the complications of our job/our innate impressiveness,** it was Quinns who got in touch with the brains behind Different Play and talked to them about their aims and philosophy, but it’s me who’s collating and writing up their answers here. So, while it’s my byline, Smith did the legwork on this.)

Paul: You want to know how Games News is made.

You’re barely out the taxi door when the car speeds away into the moist and misty night. No other driver would take you to this part of town, not that you even know what this part of town is. The distant splash of water tells you its the docks… somewhere? Yet there’s no water in sight, just bending, sagging buildings that leer down at you and the sickly light of one myopic street lamp.

Almost pushing through the freezing fog, you find the address you were given. A tailor, apparently. “Alterations, modifications, anything sewn rearranged.” It hits you. “Sewn,” rearranged is “News.”

Mad Bella opens the door of the low, frumpy building. Don’t look her in the eye. Hunched, she beckons, with a gurgle.

This is Games News.

In the Cyclades archipelago, tension has reached a boiling point. The conflict is now focused mainly on two large neighboring islands. With the help of the Gods, there are now 6 great cities of ancient Greece fighting for supremacy.

Now, more than ever, the war is raging. And on top of all that, Kronos decided to join the party, and with him comes a horde of Titans, ready to anihilate everything in their path…

The Titans expansion allows for up to 6 players, and offers 2 game modes: Everyone for himself, just like in the base game. With 4 or 6 players: teams of two!

The Cyclades are currently at peace, but the sound of furious battles still echoes in our memories. Is this a long lasting peace or nothing but a short truce?

There are whispers that Hades will soon return, bringing his undead phalanxes and ghost ships… Every city-state will need to demonstrate their skills at recruiting powerful heroes and gaining the favors of all the gods of Olympus, even terrifying Hades, to extend its supremacy over his opponents.

This box contains several modules which can be incorporated one by one into the basic game, according to the desires and experience levels of the players.

Saboteur

Review: Saboteur

Pip Remembers When Life was Just a Game

Games News! 09/03/15

Paul’s Greatest Gaming Memory

Paul’s Greatest Gaming Memory

Interview: Different Play on bringing diversity to tabletop gaming

Games News! 02/03/15

Cyclades: Titans

Cyclades: Hades

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