Fantasy Flight's Beowulf the Legend Requires Luck to Win and Imagination to Visualize

October 2005 saw the release of Fantasy Flight Games Beowulf the Legend, the latest in what can only be described as an explosion of board games produced by the company. Beowulf the Legend was designed by board game designer extrordinaire Reiner Knizia and is graced with artwork by artist John Howe (those how watched the Peter Jackson version of Lord of the Rings have seen interpretations of his artwork). While Reiner Knizia is a genuine board game superstar, not all of his games are equal nor are all releases of his games. Sometimes the mechanics fail to impress, sometimes the graphic design fails to impress, and sometimes the relationship between the mechanics and the theme of the game is hard to discover. So how does Beowulf the Legend rate in the categories and one additional category, component quality?

Mechanics:

To begin, how are the mechanics of Beowulf the Legend? First, they are surprisingly simple. The game play is divided into 36 episodes, each representing an individual event in Beowulf's adventurous life. To quote the rules, "In most of the episodes players compete for fame and awards...Whoever has the most fame and the most treasure to their name becomes Beowulf's successor and wins the game." In order to compete in the various episodes players are dealt "activity cards." Two of the cards are given to all players: one Beowulf card (representing Beowulf participating with the player in a given episode) and one fighting card with 2 symbols (representing the prowess of the shieldbearers). In addition to these two cards each player is dealt five more cards frm the shuffled activity card deck.

There are three types of episodes --Minor, Major, and Treasure -- and each of the episodes is resolved in a different manner. Before I continue, it should be noted that all players arrive at all events at the same time because they are Beowulf's companions. A Beowulf piece is moved forward one event after the last event is completed. There are three types of Minor episodes, most of which add, or change, the cards in the player's hand or reduce the number of "wounds" suffered by the player.

Major episodes, which depict the significant events and challenges of Beowulf's life (fighting Grendel as opposed to Sailing to Geatland). Major episodes, unlike minor episodes which are likely to add cards to a player's hand, are resolved in one of two ways. "Simultaneous Play" episodes are resolved by players secretly selecting cards from their hand and placing them face down in front of themselves. When the cards are revealed, all cards with a symbol matching the symbol of the event are counted (Beowulf cards are wild cards) and the player with the highest total gets the most prestigious award from the event and the player with the next highest total gets the next most prestigious prize, and so on. After the selection of gifts is made, any cards that did not match the symbol of the event are returned to the respective player's hand. So player's are allowed to bluff. Only the cards matching the event are discarded. So players must choose which events they wish to spend cards on wisely. This is further complicated by the second type of Major event the "Clockwise Play" event. In this event, the players -- starting with the "first player" who is initially the youngest player -- begin an open bidding war where they must play at least one card and must equal or exceed the number of matching cards of the prior player play continues until only one player is either able or willing to continue adding cards to the pot. When a player cannot, or will not, play a card they are removed from the episode. Player's receive "status markers" in inverse order of when they were eliminated. In a five player game, the first player would take status marker 5. Awards are then divided, with the player with the highest status (the lowest value card, i.e. 1) getting first pick of the available awards. The player who had the lowest status (the highest value card) become the "first player" in the next major event.

Treasure episodes are similar to Simultaneous Major Episodes except they can only have one winner.

When players reach the Death of Beowulf event players resolve this major event by revealing their entire hand. The player with the most cards with "symbols" is given status one, and so on, then the players select the awards for this event. At the end of the game players total their fame and treasure in the basic game (or merely their fame in the advanced game), the subtract points for injuries suffered along the way (no one wants a new ruler who is close to death after all) and the player with the highest total wins.

In essence, this is a public and secret bidding game which combines elements of luck and strategy where players must choose which events to win and which to lose in the manner associated with their cards. Given the high regard given to "trickery" in the epics, the secret bidding (Simultaneous play) episodes are a nice mechanical edition. In essence the game is simple to play and takes roughly 30 minutes to an hour to complete.

Graphic Design:



As you can see, the game is beautiful to look at, though there are not a lot of small details for player's to gawk at in multiple playings. What I found the most appealing was the shape of the board. As an inverted L, rather than a square or straight board, the board represents both the eventual termination of life and the fact that it can take an unexpected turn.

Components:

Like all of Fantasy Flight's recent games, every thing post-Lord of the Rings, Beowulf the Legend has high quality components. Like many American companies in recent times, Fantasy Flight Games seems committed to having games that have component quality comparable to those in the European gaming market. The "chits" are large and printed on heavy cardstock with nice graphic design. The only minor quibble would be that the fame tokens are not wooden are plastic, but given the lush design of the game and the added cost that would cause to an already significant price ($39.95) the addition of wood pieces seems foolish.

Relationship Between Mechanics and Theme:

The game play section begins with the following quote:

As a player you accompany Beowulf on his travels and adventures. You stand by him in all his exploits ready to assist him in both word and deed. The aim ofhte game is to achieve fame and rewards in the form of fame, treasure and alliance tokens, special cards and additional activity cards. It is all played with one goal in mind: to win Beowulf's recognition and favour. At the end of the game, Beowulf's successor -- and therefore the winner of the game -- is the player who possesses the most fame and treasure.

By the description it becomes readily apparent that the scoring system matches the theme, but what about the bidding resolution system? Does such a system represent the furious action of the battle scenes, or the political negotiations of the Hall scenes? To fully answer this, one must understand what the cards in each player's hand stand for. There are six types of activity cards representing the following: Travelling, Friendship, Wit, Courage, Fighting, and Beowulf. When the players play the individual cards in the events they are representing those kinds of actions. So when a player plays Travelling (an example would be Hunting the Sea Hag as they sadly left out the famous swimming race) he or she is demonstrating their ability to travel swiftly. With fighting cards players are representing their skill with arms. It would take too long to detail how the mechanics work in each individual scene, so I will select two where I think the mechanics do indeed support the theme, but which also require a little inductive imagination. The first scene is the King Hrothgar's Hall Major Event. This event is a simultaneous secret bidding event where the player who bid the most "Friendship" cards is the winner. Using a bit of imagination, one can visualize the companions of Beowulf planning their "toasts to Hrothgar" in secret and revealing them in the Great Hall. Each boasting of how much respect he (or she as this is a board game) has for the great king. The mechanics also work with the Grendel's Attack Clockwise Play event --which requires both courage and fighting prowess -- it seems only natural that the player exhibiting the most courage and fighting ability should win the day. In fact, the bidding process in a way simulates the scuffle as the companions help Beowulf before Beowulf finally takes things fully in hand and removes the arm of the beast.


Overall, I have found Beowulf the Legend to be an innovative and interesting game which is easy for the novice to learn and which is highly replayable.
You can download a pdf copy of the rules here to see if you might be interested in owning this new game.

New Feature Added

Now I can force you to listen to my voice! Bwaaa, Haaa, Haaa, Ha!

It Appears Veruca Salt Did Have Something to Worry About

I guess the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the angry squirrels just got a little more frightening.

According to the BBC story these squirrels, "'literally gutted the dog,' local journalist Anastasia Trubitsina told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper."

I will now bow down to our new rodent overlords.

Thanks to Monitor Duty for the link.

NPR Covers "Mining" and Other MMORPG Economic Practices

If you want a perfect example of how useful a well developed journalism career can help a journalist stumble through unfamiliar territory and still come up with an entertaining and informative story, you need look no further than this piece by Robert Siegel for NPR's All Things Considered.

NPR is no novice when it comes to writing stories about the virtual economy and its inter-relationship with the real economy (having been writing about it since as early in 2003, at that time it was about Everquest), but this interview and accompanying article are a great primer for the parent wondering why their kid wants you to purchase a bidpay moneyorder or find out your paypal password.

Robert Holt, an NPR Manager and avid MMORPG player, helps guide and describes the phenomenon (along with Siegel) in language that even the those with only a minimum understanding of what a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game is, and that knowledge need only be that their child wants to play World of Warcraft for this piece to be informative. Holt doesn't merely describe the phenomenon though, and neither does the NPR piece for that matter, he also discusses his opinions about the morality of Gold Farming and Power Leveling. To quote:

In my opinion, there are many reasons why you shouldn't buy items or power-leveled characters.

• It destroys the economy of the game. In the game, unlike in the real world, all users start on a level playing field. I like that. There should be no advantage to you in the game if you're rich in real life. This may be idealistic, but I play games to get away from things like this. It also causes items that are being auctioned to become over-valued because large amounts of gold are easily purchased. This puts the purchase of powerful items out of the reach of the player that doesn't purchase gold using real money.

• Sure, it's great to be all-powerful, or "uber" in game parlance. But at what cost? I consider it cheating to buy your way in to an uber character. In order to be truly "uber," you need to earn it. Besides, it takes a lot of skill to use a high-level character's abilities to their fullest, so an inexperienced player that has purchased a high-level character will very often lose a battle or die because they don't have the experience of all that playing time.

• For me, the point of playing these games is not to win -- it's to be immersed in the worlds, and to interact with fellow players. You miss out on truly experiencing the world if you don't earn your items and character abilities.

I find two things interesting. First, I agree with his first and third points and these same opinions are why I play the way I do. But second, and equally important, is that all his opinions are rooted in how the game "ought" to be played. They are moral, or since this is a game possibly aesthetic, opinions as to what makes the best game. For some merely being "uber" is what they game is about, even if they are "pwnt" by a more experienced player who isn't a "n00b" in disguise. As to the phenomenon destroying the economy of the game, this was certainly true of Ultima and Everquest, Blizzard's "soul bonding" mechanic addresses some of this phenomenon but the fact is that many of the farming activities in World of Warcraft (fishing, hunting/skinning, cooking, mining, etc.) are fun minigames in themselves. In the case of fishing there is no reward save the items you receive in the gaming (i.e. no level gain) and you might as well make profit off it. Though whether that "profit" should exist solely in the virtual world and not in the real world is up for discussion.

I think what baffles people about the phenomenon is that what is being purchased isn't a real and physical thing. The object purchased (or Power Levels acquired) are temporary and non-tangible with no real world application. People sometimes have a hard time understanding why these things have any value. Not ironically, Locke's section on Property in his Second Treatise actually answers this question for us. These things have value because of the labor put into them. More specifically, they have value because of the labor one must put into acquiring them. For some, the exchange of real world time vs. virtual time is very costly. Their real world jobs take a lot of time and are worth a lot of money, but they want to get "as much" development as they can in the limited amount of time they have. Couple this with people who have lots of time that isn't worth as much money, and you have a marketplace. Sure the items are virtual, but so too (technically) is money and the economy is better for money being virtual. Trade is more fluid when currency is floating, even the Spartans understood that the medium to process trade (money) should not have any intrinsic value. Otherwise it should be put to the use for which it has value.

All these things said, I have never purchased levels or items because I like to experience the world I am adventuring in. Whether it is City of Heroes or World of Warcraft, I find myself plugging along leveling at a slow and steady pace all the while examining all the nooks and crannies the worlds have to offer. I am having a blast. It's like reading one chapter a book a night, but reading it very carefully. Funny thing is, sometime I encounter a "n00b" who has one 40+ level character who has just started a new "alt" and thinks he can "pwn" me. All these "suxxors" are good for is giving me reputation. My character may be low level, but his "user" (to use an old Tron term) is "l33t" and patient. As the saying goes, "youth may be stronger, but age is crafty."

Grateful Dead Concerts Available for Free Download

Just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday archive.org removed from its free download section all mp3s of Live Grateful Dead concerts. Almost immediately some fans of the Dead began an online "boycott the Dead" petition. The petition demanded the return of availability the free mp3, a sentiment that is supported by one of the Dead's (now deceased) founders Jerry Garcia who was "fond of saying that once his band was done with a performance, the audience could have it."

Archive.org quickly reversed their policy and has made the files available again so all you deadheads out there can share your favorite performances with one another again. Archive.org has shown a commitment to protecting the non-live performance Dead recordings on the site stating, "While all of the band's live audience recordings -- and there are thousands -- are once again available for free download, soundboard recordings will now be available only in streaming format." This seems a fair compromise, and brings us to a discussion.

It is certainly fair to argue that fans want to be able to share the sounds of their favorite bands in order to promote them. There are many legitimate reasons for file sharing, just as there were of tape trading. We all want to increase exposure, and in the long run help our favorite bands earn a living by expanding their paying audience, of the things and bands we like. And the fans in this case had a point. The Dead's frontman had stated that the Live performances belonged to the audience to share after the show was over. I also think the fans behaved appropriately. Instead of defending file sharing generally, they cited reasons for sharing of particular files while asking for a boycott of other particular files which have a cost associated with them until the first group of files were made free. In other words, the fans used the marketplace to encourage the band to offer some material for free while allowing other types to be have a charge associated with them. The fans also seemed to take the intentions of the band, rather than the website, into consideration as a part of their reasoning. They didn't set it as a general principle, but as a particular occurance. All around I think it was an interesting display of the marketplace.

This guy on the other hand, who is trying to help people download streaming audio, seems a little less than on the right side of the argument. As I said, there are legitimate reasons for file sharing, but this behavior doesn't appear to meet the smell test.

Stocking Stuffers for Gen X Pop Culture Geeks

For those of you out looking for the perfect gift to buy the Pop Culture -- and nostalgia -- geek in your family for Christmas (or Chrismukkah if your shopping for Josh Schwartz), I have a couple of sweet little items for you.

There are very few Gen X geeks who didn't marvel at Mel Stuart's version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). I have watched the film again and again, each time finding new bits of magic to entertain me. The Stuart version is a true film classic, and those wanting to learn more about the film have one of two options available. First, they can beg someone who knows him for contact information and try to interview him (most certainly losing a friend in the process and probably failing to ask the right questions anyway). Or they can do the more rational thing and read Pure Imagination: The Making of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Director Mel Stuart with Josh Young.



Vanity Fair has described the book as "a genial, jocular explication (written with Josh Young) of the most sinister kiddie entertainment ever concocted. Any disquieting questions lingering in your skull since age 11 are duly answered." Make this a top priority present.

Most certainly next on the list of must haves for the pop culture fiend is The Art of Ray Harryhausen by Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton; with a Foreward by Peter Jackson. Can you get more geek crack into one place at one time? Sadly the book isn't listed to come out until January of 2006 (just in time for my birthday, but sadly late for Christmas), so you had better run out and get Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life by Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton.



Harryhausen is possibly the greatest practitioner of stop motion animation and one of the fathers of modern special effects. His work on Mighty Joe Young humanized the title character and added pathos to the narrative, but for me it is his work on Jason and the Argonauts and his Sinbad movies that truly stand out as masterpieces of visual design. Go buy this book immediately or I will send Minoton to bash your head in.



Leaving the realm of books, and thus things that might at least appear to be useful, and entering the realm of mere idle recreation, who doesn't want an Atari Flashback 2? This "plug and play" console contains 40 classic Atari 2600 games for the low-low price of $29.99. How many times have you heard your friend speak longingly of days spent playing Pitfall with the "old style" joystick? Who doesn't want to play the bizarre 2600 ports of Asteroids and Centipede? Sure, we now have consoles almost capable of simulating reality, but who cares when you can play Pong? This is a must buy for any nostalgic Gen X-er. After all, how else are you going to be able to properly educate your children in the narrative history of video games? The youth of today must be taught the fundamentals before they can truly enjoy the modern "sophisticated" games. An important lesson in video game enjoyment is that playability is more important that graphical aesthetics. A game can look amazing and be entirely unplayable, but a game that plays well does so regardless of how it looks. A lot of those old 2600 games have playability in spades.

Comic Book Advent Calendar

Are you tired of yummy chocolate Advent Calendars?

Did your Oma forget to send you one this year and you find the German store intimidating?

Or are you just a comic geek in need of a way to countdown the days until Christmas?

Well...Scott at Polite Dissent has just the thing for you. Now you can count down the days with Christmas themed comic covers for each day from December 1st to the big day itself.

Thanks to Monitor Duty for the tip.