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Read Religion, the Board Game (Second Edition) now!
Religion, the Board Game (Second Edition)
Absolutely, but I try not to be overly vocal about it. Religions and belief systems are fascinating, but I struggle to understand themāor rather, to understand how people choose to behave within their structures.
My intention here was to poke some good-natured fun at both religion and board gaming, and I hope Iām not offending anyone in either camp.
I think current world events suggest that a combination of Technology and Narcissism will come out on top, but might not actually achieve victory before destroying the world.
Yes, to the degree that itās cutting into my writing time, though Iām making a small attempt to combine both in blog posts for Zatu (a large UK game store). If anyoneās interested in reading. My current favourite game is the absolutely brilliant Ark Nova.
blog posts for Zatu (a large UK game store)
Not really; it was more about how badly written some rulebooks are! Taking Ark Nova as an example, though itās by no means a poor rulebook, gameplay information is distributed in what feels like a haphazard fashion across a couple of books, both of which are very terse. The situation isnāt helped by the gameās German origin, in that there are a few terms which donāt have the best English translation. Iām pretty sure that mere mortals wouldnāt be able to learn the game solely from the in-box rules, but thank goodness for the availability of gameplay videos and online tutorials.
I donāt mean to pick on that game; really good rulebooks are the exception rather than the norm. On that note, I was delighted to see a recent episode of Chris Georgeās Room and Board podcast, in which he outlines what makes a rulebook great. I could ramble on for ages about how writing rulebooks, instruction manuals, or user guides requires a different skillset than designing a game or appliance, but the basic message, which Chris touches on, is: put yourself in the readerās shoes and think about they need, not just about the details of the game/appliance.
On the religion side, the ārulesā there seem as thoroughly arbitrary, complicated and inconsistent as the best (or worst?) of board games, and somehow, treating all that as a game seemed the most logical thing for me to do!
I will note that there are a couple of recent games that definitely werenāt inspirations, as I wrote this quite some time before they made a public appearance. Almighty, the Godliest God Game and Gods & Mortals look like a lot of fun to play, and might be the closest this bit of writing could be as a viable game (though in those games you play as gods, not religionsāa subtle distinction). Maybe there was some cosmic religions/games proto-idea floating around the universe a few months ago, and it pinged in several minds at once :-) (The Aliens religion at work, perhaps.)
This is where I cheated a bit: I think Narcissism already exists in the minds of some āplayersā :-o
This was the very first submission! Itās difficult to find humour markets, at least the sort of humour I tend to write, but Foofarawās been nice to me a few times.
Iām currently working through Mary Roachās Replaceable You. Itās fascinating and gruesome in equal measure.
Iād love to point people at my novel, The Feather and the Lamp, an example of my humour that took a long time to find a publisher. The first few chapters are available as a preview on Amazon, and reviews/ratings are absolutely welcome.
Huge thanks to L.N. for sitting down and talking about board games and religion!
https://bookshop.org/a/101577/9781951768607
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