Boardgame inspired to "The Player of Games" of Iain M. Banks
AZAD the game
10/09/2019 06/06/2021 by Steve Cappelletti
An important question that arise when developing the game is,
"Which elements are embedded in the Azad game ?"
To define the elements of the game we need to know more about the history of the game development and the Empire itself.
Do not despair, we have enough information about this.
First of all, the name "Azad" means machine or system [5.18] in the wide sense, and the game has been developed over several thousand years.
This mean that everything is included in the game, from flowers to the animals, people and objects, a waterwheel and any functioning system.
Obviously in several thousand years the things have evolved, especially the technology, so the game contain old and new elements. As an example the waterwheel of yesterday today is a fusion reactor, and both are enclosed in the game.
The components of the game (cards, dice, chessboards, pieces, etc…) are an heterogeneous collection of every possible elements coming from several thousand years of the Eä history.
We also know that the present form have been reached about eight hundred years ago [5.25] and since then has altered a little. The final form has been defined around the time of the first relativistic exploration of the nearby space.
What does it mean ?
Mean that eight hundred years ago the Eä population has become a spatial warfare civilization and has started to conquer the nearby stars.
How this information could help us ?
Easy, the planet of fire Echronedal is about twenty light years from Eä [174.17]. Today the travel last about 12 days, but eight hundred years ago the starship was capable to travelling only at "relativistic speed" so the travel was lasting for years. The first pioneers who have discovered and conquered Echronedal obviously have with them the game and the rules available at that time. We have to understood that then the empire was based only on one planet, Eä. Due to the fact that Azad is a representation of the life itself [06.13] now we have an additional planet to take into consideration. The Echronedal particular echosystem so different from Eä flora and fauna, have been embedded in the game. Moreover the new planet is so peculiar that the final part of the Azad tournament, the full six years Grand Cycle, take place on Echronedal since three hundred years [176.22].
As You can see, using simple logic we are able to extrapolate enough information to help us to develop the guide lines of the game.
So I have listed all the elements described in the novel and used these elements as the subjects for the cards.
But how they act in the game ?
Well, we know that the cards and pieces have various effects in the game, like destroy, demoralize, blind, weaken and several others [84.24].
So cards and pieces are susceptible to these effects that have an impact on their characteristics.
Just for example, let's try to analyze these few words.
Destroy mean that the card/piece is totally obliterated and so removed from the game.
Demoralize mean to reduce the self esteem, to increase depression and so to reduce the overall strenght and the recovery speed.
To blind mean that the pieces will have difficult in their movements, reducing their movement area and reaction speed.
Weaken mean reduce the strenght, so the piece/card become less effective.
Again, with the logic analyzing the effects we can deduce the characteristics that should belongs to cards and pieces.
I'm add some few other info for all of You, the cards can be used just once because then their effect is exhausted [83.30], then the pieces need to recharge and this mean that they cannot be used indefinitely [118.21].
As You can see, detailed analysis and evaluation of the novel provide us a good quantity of informations to create a game overall basic structure.
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4 thoughts on "ONCE UPON A TIME…"
Matt Ball says:
Look forward to the completed project!
Steve Cappelletti says:
Thank You Matt, hope to have enough strength to complete soon or late. 👍
Yport says:
Very nice interpretation! Thanks for this awesome blog, just finished the book and loved it!!
Thank You, I'm happy that you appreciate this blog. Stay tuned for other interesting future updates.