The Isle of Cats: Part I - Cat stories

 

Game copy provided by Frank West, The City of Games

The ship is ready and about to set sail. It is time to turn off the music I have been listening to, about dirty paws and furry friends, something of monsters and men, as appropriate as it may seems. The sounds surrounding me will be quite different on the coming days: the murmur of the waters, the creak of the wooden deck, the drumming of cables slapping on the masts, and the wind high pitch caressing the sails. As we head for the isle, ready to start the exploration, looking forward to learning new lessons along the journey, to find treasures lost in time, and, foremost, to rescue cats, lots of them. 

There is something fascinating about these shape-shifting creatures, able to fully stretch under the warm sun, curl as a ball in winter, or snug into a box way too small. You may as well add the elegant leaps or the uttermost immobility, the soft purring, and, of course, that innate superiority pose.

I have heard of other islands inhabited by way more cats than humans, surrounded by another ocean, one known to be peaceful at times. Aoshima, is the name of one of them. Neko no shima, if you understand what I mean. Yes, that is right, Isle of Cats.

Please excuse me, as I am meandering… As you may tell, I do like cats! Not that it is a precondition to venture into the Isle of Cats, and to enjoy the challenges laying ahead. But well, if you do like them too, this journey will be seen under a different light, no doubt about that.

As the story goes, our scouts from Squall’s End have found that old legends were, after all, real. The Isle of Cats is, indeed, populated by ancient races of cats.  And you will quickly be learning how to tell them apart by a mere glance, mainly by their colours, ones you have never seen before on a cat, and by their tail. You may even learn their names, or at least some of them.

The naming of cats is a difficult matter

It isn't just one of your holiday games

You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter

When I tell you a cat must have three different names *

You see, there is the sensible name for daily usage, with some cats even sharing the very same name, just as we humans do. Then, there is that exquisite, distinct name, a name that never belongs to more than one single cat.

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo or Coricopat

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum *

Munk ... Munkust… what? Hmm, harder than you thought? Let us make this simpler. You will not be able to tell each single cat’s name on the Isle. We better stick to family names, not that different in tone from the Munkustraps or Jellylorums: the blue Hissnipers, the orange Mhoxxites, the red Teruvians, the pink Starry Vandemils, the green Crystal Garmins, and the even more unique stripped Oshaxs.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over

And that is the name that you will never guess

The name that no human research can discover

But the cat himself knows and will never confess *

Ok, that third name is clearly out of our reach!

Almost there, almost reaching the welcoming cove. And suddenly, the pressure hits me! This will not be a walk in the park, for this is an emergency rescue mission. Shadows are coming, fast, in the shape of Vesh Darkhand’s floating armies, that will spare no one in their way! We will not risk such an encounter, and as soon as the red hand over the unfurled black sails will be sighted on the horizon, we will leave the island to safely sail back towards Squall’s End.

This is, in fact, a race against time, rescuing as many cats as possible, gathering treasures, and taking advantage of lessons learned. Five days is the best estimate. Five hard-working days on the isle, from dawn to dusk, to fill-in the ship, fulfil the mission, and face public scrutiny upon arrival.

But how on earth will I lure those free-spirit cats onto the ship, you may ask. Not with city food for sure, as they are used to have fresh fish for meal! Well, I will fish for them, as cats will be cats. They will readily believe we were trained to feed and to serve them, getting increasingly confident, not to mention they will never turn away tasty food. Then, they will even dare to snatch fish from inside the baskets. That will be the moment! Snap! You got it, we just have to close the basket, and head for the ship.

Now, we did not bring along that many baskets, and it takes a basket for each cat … Therefore, we will have to come and go, one cat at a time, releasing them on board, as they will not jump into the water. Back and forth as necessary, upwards with empty baskets, downwards carrying felines. Baskets, fish, and ships will do the trick. Sooner than later there will be cats running on the deck.

Look! There already are cats wandering about, painting the fields with patches of colour. The left field of the island seems easy to reach, but you may well prefer to catch some of the cats on the right side, as this journey will not be about making the first catch, nor the easiest one.

After all, keeping cat families together and numerous, will prove worthwhile on the way back home.  That is the reason why there will be some cat picking, trusting that among you all, adventurers, many cats will be rescued, and ships will return fully loaded.

Have I mentioned treasures before? Are you sure? Yes, treasures, lost in time. Scattered all over the island. Why not get richer while saving cats? 

One tiny detail you must not forget: when the sun goes down, the cats still on the fields will quickly disappear in the growing shadows, not to ever be seen again! The sun will rise again, and cats will take on the fields, on the brand-new day. But these will be different cats, not the same from the previous day. So, choose well!

The time to explore the island has come. And these boots, as most ones, are made for walking. And I will walk. I may even run! A matter of picking up the right pace, as we will be here for five days, with different cats to rescue each day. Sometimes I will rush to be first on the fields, choosing a cat to rescue, while in other days I may take it slowly.

Always in my toes. Looking in front, to spot the cats on the fields; looking over my shoulder, to gauge the competition; looking backwards into the cove, to assess the loading status of each ship, while trying to figure out the rivals’ plans.

There will be lessons to be learned, along the way. Listening, or better said, reading scrolls from the ancient ones. They will be a guide throughout this journey, helping me to make my mind, to choose wisely, to plan a successful return.

Some lessons are to be shared with our fellow companions, and we may all put them into good use, each one of us, at our own discretion. Others will be kept in secret, for our eyes only. And others will even be of no use whatsoever. Read them carefully, and bear them in mind when devising the strategy for the coming days. 

Who will end up being recognized as the most successful explorer that ever ventured into the Isle of Cats?

Have I mentioned treasures before? Yes?! Sorry, I keep repeating myself... Must be because of this burning sun… As I was saying, there are treasures, and treasures. Some will be kind of common ones, not that large, and easier to find on the slopes. But there are also true rarities, made of large shinny golden gems. With luck on our side, we may grab a handful of those!

Fortunately, the ship is not that small, and there will be enough deck space for cats and treasures. Even if some thinking will be required when loading the ship, as there will be no time for rearranging the load later, and you may want to keep cat families together, while carefully stacking treasures on corners and vacant spots, and getting rid of those annoying rats who made all the trip in hidding.

A real treat would be to come across some Oshax, that rare breed of cats, with reddish stripes and green patches. They are not to be seen in the open fields, together with other cats. And they are know to eat a lot! Kind of royalty, around here.

Nonetheless, they are more friendly than you might have expected, and they really fit well within a regular cat family. That is why you must befriend Oshax with other cats, as soon as you get them on board, and they will become loyal members of that family, while retaining their own characteristic pose.

In this race to beat the approaching Vesh Dharkhand, and the other adventurers, I will no doubt have to resort to some tricks, here and there, to get an edge. Be it for fishing a bit more than usual, to use makeshift baskets, to explore further into the Isle, to chase cats from one field to another, to capture two of them at once, or to make a smarter use of ship’s deck space. All goes! You name it!

Cats go well in families, as we already know. But do not forget the lessons learnt, in private or as group, when deciding the whereabouts of cats and treasures on the deck. Cats, treasures, maps, and still some mice. Quite a sight! And we are not even finished yet!

You may now have a better picture of what it takes to embark in a cat-rescuing journey. But make no mistake: you must experience it firsthand! 

So, why not join me, for a full day in the Isle of Cats? You will be safe, having me as guide, while, eventually, disclosing some of the secrets of the trade. Is that a yes? Good! Meet me here at the third sun rise. See you then.

(to be continued)

* Cats Libretto, © The really useful group. From the musical based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, by T. S. Eliot.

Six Pack - N.º 7 - Rulebooks

Tsuro

 

Six.

The sides of a dice.

The sides of the hexagon.

Photographs without comments.

Gathered together under a common feature.

Peak Oil

Star Wars: Outer Rim

Castles of Burgundy

Cerebria: The Inside World

Squad Leader

Cloud of feelings

What feeling do you most often associate with playing boardgames?

Just one word, please 😉

That was the challenge.

Posted a week ago in facebook boardgaming groups.

And 200 replies came in, in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

This is the result, upon translation and minor standardization of similar wordings. 

Are you in this cloud?

Painting on canvas

 

Canvas. Canvas to paint on. This game appealed to me from the very moment of its launch on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, on April 21, 2020.

The beauty of the box cover, the original concept of creating paintings by overlapping transparent cards, the materials, the graphic design, everything led me to want to know more about it. The information available on the campaign page was clear and elegantly organized, in line with the game visuals.

Although I have only supported one game through Kickstarter before, and it is yet to arrive, it did not took me long to decide in the joining the project, opting for the base edition of the game, without the extras such as the mini easels to support and display the creations.

And that is how I became one of the more than 16 000 supporters of this game, a support which translates into a raised amount of 713,171 dollars, that is, almost 600 000 €! Expected delivery date for the final product: December 2020.

Despite the strange and difficult twenty-twenty, the whole process unfolded in an exemplary way, with a very well managed campaign, information made available in a timely manner, constant interaction, consideration of suggestions in the final phase of development of the game, for example, as to the variants for solo play, and the final production, in China. 

And so, in early 2021, Canvas arrived in Europe, and in Portugal. Congratulations to the game designers, Jeffrey Chin and Andrew Nerger, to the artist Luan Huynh, and to the publisher, Road to Infamy!

In Canvas, we are painters, creating works of art, imagining, combining motifs, playing with backgrounds, patterns, and their distribution over the surface. We must create not one, not two, not many, but exactly three paintings. Then, our work will be over, and we will become spectators of those still working on their canvas, until everyone has three finished paintings in front of them.

However, creations are not to be made at sole will of each painter. For it will be necessary to consider the motifs available at every moment, which cannot be hoarded and kept for later use in an unlimited way, and also to follow a uniform principle, to be used by all painters and on all canvases: each work of art must be composed by four elements, a base layer and three more superimposed layers. After all, this is a painting contest, and contests have rules!

The bases, presenting colorful patterns, in warm or cold tones, evoking light or welcoming shadows, hinting at shapes or misshapes, will provide the background for our paintings.

Each layer, in turn, will allow you to add one or more motifs, by highlighting or overlapping them. The choice is varied, amongst human and animal figures, landscapes and objects, reproductions of reality, or imagined things.

Each of the layers is a transparent card, and there are sixty in total, all different, without any duplication whatsoever. Sixty cards to combine into sets of three, in an order that also matters, as it will allow you to cover or highlight details.

There are, therefore, many possibilities, and while some may enjoy calculating the exact number of combinations and permutations available, I believe that most painters will not be thinking too hard about such numbers!

The layer bottom of the transparent cards, outside the paint zone itself, contains two additional elements: a word and a set of symbols.

Words, yes, because these works will have titles! As the layers overlap, so do words overlap or juxtapose. And, again, the order in which layers are placed will play its role on the final result.

The painting with the female figure in the rain, next to the lamp post, is entitled Wandering Warning, the shower of incandescent balls over the city, seen through the window, bears the designation of Imminent Complexity, and the figure with a mask and a spider web in the background, Masked Darkness.

As for the symbols, they are the elements that will be translated into points, mattering only those which remain visible once the painting is done. Those that have been covered will be disregarded.

But how do we get the transparent cards to use? Well, this is where the play mat, the deck of cards, the palette tokens, and the competition with the other painters for picking up motifs, come into play!

There will always be five cards available on the play mat on a player’s turn. On each of their turns, a painter must choose between getting one of those layer-cards or finish a painting, provided they already have all the material required. 

The leftmost card is always available free of charge, so the painter will never be prevented from getting one more motif for their canvas. To reach any other card, it is necessary to resort to inspiration, symbolized by the palettes of each player: you must place a palette token on each card to be skipped, from left to right, until reaching the desired card. Thus, to get the third card, you need to spend two palettes on the leftmost and the second leftmost ones. Once the intended card is withdrawn, the remaining ones are displaced to the left to fill-in the now empty space, and a new card from the deck is revealed and placed on the rightmost spot.

In case there are palettes on the chosen card, you pick them, therefore increasing your stock of inspiration, to give wings to your imagination in future turns. We must, therefore, manage this small market of inspiration and motifs, within reach of all painters. Palettes for choices.

When having three cards in hand, you must choose between getting additional cards, always one per turn, or completing a painting. That's right, at once, in quick brush strokes! Meaning we do not start creating paintings as we collect layers. Instead, when the painting time has come, we chose one of the backgrounds at our disposal, three layers, and the order in which they go over the background, leaving the whole set organized and protected inside a transparent sleeve. When we commit to painting, we do not stop until it is done! 

The painting contest must follow its course and the works must be revealed on the go. Therefore, we cannot have more than five layer-cards in our hand. When having five, the following turn will be a mandatory painting turn, as described above. There is no way to postpone the work, in search for the perfect match! The exhibition awaits your paintings.

But what is the purpose of all this? I believe that, for many painters, the main goal will be the sheer pleasure derived from composing, in search for specific aesthetics, implicit or explicit concepts, and the wordplay for the title.

However, in Canvas, the role of critics, or jury members, is represented by a set of objective cards, four of which are in use in each session. They define the appreciation criteria in place, that is, which combinations of symbols will be award-winning.

Take the example of Symmetry, which requires the presence of two equal symbols in symmetrical positions in the lower band of the painting.

In the case of Proximity, the adjacency of circles and frames, respectively representing tone and pattern, is the goal to strive for. The Heavy Purpose canvas, with its corals reminding background, an anchor on the left side, sea creatures at the top, and the human figure on the ladder trying to reach them, has an adjacent pair of tone and pattern symbols.

Therefore, the Proximity condition is fulfilled, earning the painting a purple award. At the end of the game, and as another canvas also earned a purple award, there are two of them. As such, you score five points in the Proximity criteria.

The final score is determined by adding the awards received by each one of the three finished canvas of each player, and determining the points related to all four objective cards in play. The painter with a higher score is the contest winner.

I bet that, most likely, you all will immediately sign up for another painting contest!

This is Canvas, an experience to taste layer after layer, literally, by overlapping transparent cards, and metaphorically, as you play with images, with the words that give title to the works, and with the combination of symbols.

It is a game where you may choose between different approaches, go for the ones you enjoy the most, be it in a more, or in a less, competitive spirit. The game is very simple to learn, it is played in no more than thirty minutes, may gather up to five painters around the table, or even be played in solitary. No doubt it will please people with different preferences.

In plus, Canvas has delightful design details, such as the possibility of hanging the game box in the wall, as if an ordinary framed painting, or the simultaneous use of colours, shapes and patterns, I suppose with the aim of making it accessible for those with colour vision deficiency. 

If you want to try it, you may take advantage of the print-and-play version available on the campaign page, provided you use transparent sheets for printing.

Happy paintings!

Tea time photoshoot

Where am I? Alice in a Mad Tea Party is an exquisite production of the Japanese publisher Gotta2, full of unusual components. Designed by Kazutaka Yanagawa, and with the art of Takuya Okabe and Yugo Katsumata, we revisit Alice's wonderland, in a game of bluff and deduction, where player identity is secret at the start. Being a truly multilingual set, I provided the Portuguese translation.

Let's make a mad tea party!

Stamps for sending the invitations

And our customized postcards

Let's get them ready

In blue, red, yellow, and green

This tea party requires our best porcelain tea set

4 dishes, 4 small ones and tea cups, tea pot, milk pot, sugar pot

Making its way to the table

Will four places be enough?

All set!

And it's tea time!

"Where are they? They should be here by now..."

"I seem to hear Alice's voice."

"Ah! There you are, white rabbit "

"Make way for the Queen!"

"Hmmm, milk and biscuits, are they?"

"Nice to meet you! And you, and you, and...."

"Let's have a seat, shall we?"

"Delicious, isn't it, Alice?"

"To jump or not to jump, that is the cat-stion."

"I wan't another cup of tea!"

"This place is rather strange."

This is a game, and there, literally, points for grab on the table

A flowchart in a social deduction game? Indeed.

No less than nine languages in the box!

And, yes, Portuguese as well ;)