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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2010-05-01 10:00 pm
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May Day, Games and Time Travelling!

[livejournal.com profile] hathhalla and [livejournal.com profile] ser_pounce visited today, a pair that we haven't seen since for more than a year. They're part of a semi-regular planned group (we hope) of Saturday attendees to our abode at Willsmere estate. Being May Day, we had a round of the Avalon Hill boardgame Class Struggle, which could really do of a re-write more in the game-system, but also perhaps its politics. Early game session of Eon's Quirks was significantly more enjoyable.

On a related note on Friday my review of Trail of Cthulhu was published on RPG.net after several fun sessions. Reviews of Torg and Powers & Perils are planned. Thursday was our regular Dragon Age game which will be replaced with Mouse Guard in about a month or so. This Sunday will be a continuation of my RuneQuest Prax game which has had some recent significant events.

Last Sunday our co-GMs for the GURPS Krononauts game resolved a lot of the well-known paradoxes of time-travel (grandfather paradox, free lunch paradox). With a little bit of dealing we've adopted a policy of object independence of items (including people) that have time-travelled, an observer effect for things that have not (very Phillip K. Dick), and the future not being affecting the present (because that would be too hard in actual play).
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[identity profile] laura-seabrook.livejournal.com 2010-05-01 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Class Struggle looks like it was inspired both by RAT RACE (not the card game) and RED SQUARE, both of which I used to own.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2010-05-02 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
If anything it would have been the other way around; Red Square was from the 80s, Class Struggle from the 70s. I can imagine Red Square being written as a response to Class Struggle.

The politics was a little over-the-top; "I haven't seen this much moralising since Church" was [livejournal.com profile] hathhalla's comment, and the mechanics led to a very quick game (2d6 move, doubles roll again and looped, 84 squares).

It was a little like Monopoly; but Monopoly has a subtle brilliance about it - it was originally an education tool which demonstrated the power of landlords - but without the sledgehammer approach of Class Struggle.

I would really like to re-write CS, it's a great concept and has been recognised as a classic for that reason. Fixing the politics and the game system however are both requisite. Interestingly, it seems the author is still around..
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