A Coffee with Pessoa

 

What about a cup of Coffee with Pessoa (literally meaning person)?

Coffee as drink, made from grains sourced in distant lands. Coffee harvested, dried, roasted, ground in advance or just in time. Coffee as place, coffee shop, café. A meeting point for people. Maybe just to meet with oneself, or maybe with several selves, those that may have been, those that are, and the ones that may come in alternate futures.

A person surnamed Pessoa, with Fernando as first name. Pessoa that is not one, but many. Some, such as Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, or Ricardo Reis, more familiar than others. Strolling between cafes and bookstores. Writings, and readings, with a cup by their side, the scent hovering, a comforting feeling.

Café and Pessoa go well together!

These are also the name of two games just arrived, by courtesy of the Portuguese publisher Pythagoras. Games with points of contact, more than one would figure at first sight: created by Portuguese authors, who have been asserting themselves in the national and international boardgame community, and deriving inspiration from Portuguese themes and motives; featuring beautiful art work by Marina Costa, of whom I have now become a fan; in both you can find the renowned Lisbon cafés, Martinho da Arcada and A Brasileira, and also the very own Fernando Pessoa; and the two can be savored solo or shared in small groups, as also happens with that moment for a cup of coffee, or with the pleasure of reading.

Here's an appetizer, fresh out of the box.

Anyone who knows me knows I drink several coffees a day. Not that I am an expert on the grain varieties, blends, and processes. It begun as a so-called social drink, or as an easy and inexpensive order to fulfill a compulsory consumption requirement, in times of university and in places of encounter, study, or mere pause. In cafés called Palácio, Convívio, and later Bolinão.

In this Coffee, made game, there is a card related to another Café made Place. One in my hometown, which is also known as the cradle of the nation. The card bears the inscription Guimarães, 1953, date of establishment of Café Milenário, located at the entrance of Largo do Toural, next to the section of the ancient wall with the famous inscription "Portugal was born here", and whose name celebrates the remote origins of the city, a thousand years before, around 953. Milenário is still in operation, with its characteristic round glass-top tables, over an elegantly curved tripod and accompanied by wooden slat chairs. The clientele is still predominantly composed by local men. The topics of the day, the headlines, the politics, and of course, football, will continue, no doubt, to be the main topics for the conversations. 

The Café-Game comes in a small box, 18 x 13 cm, making it easy to take anywhere, even to a Café-Place. It is true that a small round table will only give room enough for a solo play, perhaps with a Coffee-Drink for company, replacing the daily newspaper.

But what is the game all about? Well, you have to run your own coffee operation, producing the grain, drying, roasting, storing and distributing it. All this considering the four varieties of coffee in play, the different needs of each destination coffee shop, and the importance of establishing and optimizing the entire value chain. It is far more challenging than it may look, as placing each card, the main and almost unique element of the game, opens up new perspectives of action, while simultaneously shutting others down, by partially overlapping previous cards.

A look at the rulebook, and at the components, allows to understand why this game has been so well received: quite original, by the way cards are used; a streamlined rule set, which is learned and explained in just a few minutes; and plenty of challenging choices.

It's time to give it a try, firstly in solo mode, then accompanied. In the meantime, you may want to look at a playthrough, by Richard Ham, better known as Rahdo, with all the characteristic enthusiasm!

This is not my first contact with games created by the duo Rôla and Costa.

In 2019, at Leiria Con, I had the privilege of being able to experience, by the hand of Rôla himself, Yinzi, then just published by Spielworxx, in a refined production and with an extraordinary work of illustration by Harald Lieske. This is an economic game, quite complex, full of interconnected processes and tight timing, where players are producing, transporting, and shipping goods, in the China of the Ming dynasty. It fits well among those games labelled "heavy", requiring progressive learning, and a good couple of hours to play.

A few months later, I had the opportunity to translate another games designed by this duo, 6 Castles, for the Portuguese publisher Pythagoras. A return to medieval times, in Portuguese lands, in the the region of Idanha-a-Nova, seeking to promote its development, in the shadow of the protective line of castles, six of them.

Now Café just came up, and it is begging to hit the table. Three games, three very different proposals. Looking forward to the next creations!

"I thought: the bloke isn’t going to turn up. And then I thought: I can’t call him a ‘bloke’, he’s a great poet, perhaps the greatest poet of the twentieth century, he died years ago, I should treat him with respect or, at least, with deference. ". In Requiem, by Antonio Tabucchi.

Yes, Pessoa finally arrived, later than anticipated, by circumstances inherent to this interconnected world, in times of manufacture in China, pandemic, and disturbances in the global logistics chains.

He arrived, and he did not came alone, because in Pessoa-Game the challenge is nothing less than to assume the role of one of four heteronyms, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Bernardo Soares, or Ricardo Reis. We will wander, in search of inspiration, represented by cards containing excerpts from their works, by Cafés-Places, such as A Brasileira or Martinho da Arcada. We will venture into the bookstore, to collect shelves full of books, sipping in the writing of others and expanding our library. We will write poems in the middle of Rossio Square, giving body to the work that will remain for posterity. We will sometimes alternate between the "I" of Pessoa and the "I" of the heteronym, between Person and Character made Person! 

With pauses to rest and recharge, with time to take advantage of the influence of astral maps, seeking to develop the styles most suitable to our heteronym, among Naturalism, Classicism, and Futurism, or addressing the book Message, there is much to explore. But time will soon come to an end, as in 1935 the poet dies, vanishing, and with him all his other selves, marking the end of the game. But their works will prevail!

Have a peek at the way Rahdo absorbed the theme and handled the game, no more than a week ago.

This was a long-awaited game. Not because I am a profound connoisseur of the work of Pessoa and the work of all the heteronyms. I may feel greater affinity with Álvaro de Campos, perhaps by the shared training in engineering and the fascination with skills and machines. Awaited not only for having such a delightful theme, for the notorious passion of Orlando Sá for this great writer, or for the way of incorporating so many traits into the game, reasons thaat would be more than enough. But it was eagerly awaited because I had the privilege of following and of taking a small part in the final phase of development, testing, analysing, and discussing. The arrival of the finished game, completed, illustrated, going far beyond concepts, sketches, and prototypes, is a very special moment! Perhaps only comparable to making it known to others!

Fortunately, these are moments that have been reoccurring! 

This was another short voyage in the company of Orlando Sá. We first came across through an exchange of messages in a Facebook group, when I knew little about his work: only that he had designed Porto, and I don't think I had even heard of his previous foray into these worlds, with Adamastor.

This was shortly followed by the invitation to participate in Rossio's playtests, and it was a pleasure to discover the way he worked on these games, dealing with themes of Portuguese inspiration, always looking for new challenges, increasingly sophisticated and demanding.

Then, there was a small collaboration, on proofreading and translating, for a project made in the early pandemic stages: Paper Roll & Write. A humoroustic approach, based on dice rolling and tracing off spaces in a sheet of paper, inspired by the news of hoarding toilet paper that then circulated! A project authored by Orlando, by Pedro Kerouac and André Santos.

And, afterwards, Pessoa begun to emerge. Once again I was involved in the final stages of playtesting and polishing. I was drawn from the start by the risky theme and the originality of the approach. 

Well, I hear there is no shortage of new ideas in development, so it is with great curiosity that I am looking forward hearing news about the next few projects!