Pulsipher Games

Games in Process
Published Games
Britannia
Games for Sale
Freq. Asked Questions
Articles about Games
Teaching About Games
Design Philosophy
Sweep Games Magazine
Conventions
Free Games

Welcome to PulsipherGames.com, a web site for supplementary material and playtesting of games designed by Lewis Pulsipher (Britannia, Dragon Rage, Valley of the Four Winds, Diplomacy variants, RPG material, etc.), and for teaching about games. Pulsipher.net is our sister site.

I do not run a public Web discussion board on this site, as Boardgamegeek.com serves the purpose very well. The Eurobrit Yahoo Group is the main location for Britannia discussions. Fantasy Flight Games also has a discussion board at their Britannia site. Most of my new writing about games is posted on my blog, http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/ or at http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com/

Click here for Recent Changes

I will be teaching curriculum game creation classes at Fayetteville Technical Community College (NC) beginning Monday, 18 August. "Simulation and Game Development" is a new Associates Degree program at FTCC. This is a program for artists and designers as well as programmers.

I have updated my list of Britannia-like games. I have posted mp3s of my talks at Origins 2008, Powerpoint slides are already posted. I've also posted a talk by Ian Schreiner. All here.

I have updated the "Games in Process" page once again, adding "Eurasia" among other things.

Most of my present gaming activity is in revising games and trying to write a game design book.

I am a contributor to Hobby Games: The 100 Best, an anthology book that came out at GenCon this year. Press release. Britannia is one of the "100 Best", I'm glad to say. I wrote about Stalingrad. Update: this book won the "Origins Award" in its category this year.

The initial print run of Britannia sold out last year, though some may still be available in stores. It will be reprinted in August 2008, according to FFG's Web site (as of 31 August 08). There will also be an international edition (German is the only language I know for sure) printed at the same time. I was involved in revision of the rules (only to incorporate errata that resulted from the original rules re-write by FFG, with one exception) in March 2007, and added a few more mods in January of 08.

Just for the heck of it, I developed a "broad market" version of Brit (the kind of thing that would sell with Risk and similar games). History may be too serious for a broad market, especially medieval British history, but it's an interesting exercise. I already have "Brit Lite" version, and that can be played by casual gamers, but I'm aiming at the sort of folks who might play Risk and Monopoly and a few other games, but not much else. I have liked the result so much that I am developing a series of games using the same rules (with exceptions), beginning with a new version of Barbaria that has turned out very well.

I've added a podcast (11 minutes) "Quick Guide How to Play Britannia."

I have started an announcement-only newsletter for new information about Britannia. This will include new editions, new variants, new articles, new reviews, new FAQ, anything that may be noteworthy for fans. Hence there probably won't be more than ten or so messages a year. To subscribe, go to http://pulsipher.net/newsletter/?p=subscribe. The information gathered will never be used for any other purpose.

I received a certificate awarded November 2006 to Britannia by the Viennese Games Academy: "Vienna Selection of Games, 2006" 99 games are selected each year. According to the accompanying letter, this certificate has been awarded annually since 1996. Their Web site: www.spielen.at (mostly in Austrian).

My article "Uncertainty in Wargames" appeared in "Against the Odds" magazine, #18, late in 2006.

Tom Vasel reviews dozens upon dozens of games, but he is not a wargamer, rather he's a Euro gamer. I have wondered whether he would review Britannia at all, but he has, very positively in the circumstances. See http://www.thedicetower.com/thedicetower/index.php?page=britannia.

This only reinforces my intention to make shorter versions of Britannia (and other games) that don't use the old combat system. I have played both "Britannia Brevis" (10 turns, no dice used) and "Britannia Minimus" (6 turns, much less luck in the dice system). Unfortunately, FFG has no interest in expansions, as the numbers just aren't there. But I have finally devised a version of Britannia using the same pieces, sides, colors, that lasts just six turns, yet seems to reflect everything that happens in the longer Britannia, just much faster (and with more attacking). When finished this will be posted (free) in as many places as possible. For now you can find the draft at the Eurobrit Yahoo Group.

There is a Wikipedia entry for Britannia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_%28board_game%29

Boardgamegeek has the following entry for Britannia: "Nominee for the 1987 Charles S. Roberts awards for Best Pre-World War II Boardgame (Charles S. Roberts Awards)." I had not known this, as by that time I had "left the hobby".

My blogs:

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/

http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com

General:

Published Games describes my published games . Games in Process describes my unpublished games and playtesting opportunities. (Both of these load slowly via modem owing to map miniatures and photos.) I briefly describe my design philosophy here. Britannia includes the original rules, appearance, victory points, and map for Britannia (interesting to show how the original developer changed some things).

I am looking for gaming groups in Fayetteville, North Carolina, who are interested in playtesting boardgames and non-collectible card games.

At some point I may be selling items in .PDF form, but not at present. I do, however, sell copies of the lithographed "Science Fiction and Fantasy Diplomacy Variant Package", originally published in 1975. Go here for details.

Most of my new writing about games is posted on my blog, http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/ or at http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com/

My games are generally representations, not simulations. That is, the game represents some historical (or imaginary) situation, but does not attempt to simulate the factors that were important in resolving that situation. E.g., Britannia encourages players to act "historically" through a point system, not through modeling the factors that caused nations to move as they did. (And that often amounts to chance, anyway....)

On the other hand, my games generally are not abstract: the game is affected by the requirements of the scenario, and could not be "re-themed" to represent something quite different with virtually the same mechanics.

In other words, I enjoy games as games rather than as simulations, but do want a correspondence between actions in the game and (some kind of) reality.

Unlike most video games and many Euro games, in my games there may not be a "role assumption". That is, you won't represent some castle builder or some adventurer, or even a general. You'll represent an omniscient presence that controls what goes on (as in Brit or in most abstract games).

My "Game resume" is also here. And the FAQ is here.

I post articles about games on this site, and a list and minireviews of books about games. See below, note about computer games.

I feel about the same way about games I design that Sir Winston felt about books:

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public. --Sir Winston Churchill

Useful links for boardgamers and designers:
http://boardgamegeek.com/

http://grognard.com/

http://consimworld.com/

http://www.bgdf.com/tiki/tiki-custom_home.php

Recent changes:

Almost everything I've written lately is in my blogs. http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/ or at http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com/

June 08: updated list of Britannia-like games, posted Origins talks

May 08: Updated Games in Progress again.

Mar 08: Updated the "Games in Process" page after a long interval.

Dec 07: Added review of Understanding Comics.

Sept 07: Added Twin Earths III Diplomacy variant rules.

August 07: Added WBC 2007 report. Added Normannia (TM) board to games in progress.

July 07: added slides and large podcasts for two talks about game design at Origins (see Teaching about games)

June 07: added one-page advice on playing Blue in Britannia, playing Yellow in Britannia

May 07: Podcast Quick Guide How to Play Britannia.

Apr 07: added reprints of two Diplomacy strategy articles of 1982. News about my talks at Origins.

Mar 07: added Britannia News newsletter links.

December 06. Added Diagram, Process of game design and development, "Something in it" (playtesting), and What's important when playing red in Britannia.

November 06. Sweep of History Games Magazine Issue 3 is available. Added What's important when playing green in Britannia. Added David Yoon's article Judging Who's Winning (Brit 1). (Was in Sweep Magazine #1.)

October 06. Revised the layout of the Britannia page and this page. Added What's important (in one page) when playing to win Britannia 2.

September 06. Added an article about the short 3-player version of Brit2 by Stephen Braund. Added an article about choosing up sides in Brit. This has proved to be very interesting to experienced players. Updated list of Brit-like games.

August. Added Jim Jordan's account of the WBC 2006 Britannia tournament. Added Reducing the Effects of Chance in Britannia.

Late May. Added Sweep of History Games Magazine #2. Enlarged the statement regarding rights to Britannia-like games.

Local (North Carolina) game links (video and otherwise)

Note about video games:

Why would I want to design electronic games? I'm better off as is:

The "AAA list" electronic games are really designed by committee. When I design a game, it is almost all MINE. (The rest is playtesters and publisher.)

For most of the age of video games, you had to work full time in the industry, yet the pay was poor )(and per hour worked, still is). I'd rather help young people as a teacher, get paid at least as well, and have lots of time to design games.

The working hours are bad. "Crunch time" (unpaid overtime) is common, though designers are not involved in that quite as much as programmers and artists.

Fighting with the electronics obscures the purity of design. You worry about what the computer can do instead of what the players can do. At worst, you "hide behind the computer".

I have never designed a published "computer game", largely because I have not known anyone able and willing to do the necessary programming and artwork. Nowadays, of course, computer games are the products of large teams, not of individuals. Back when one individual could write a game, I was a database programmer, which doesn't help much with computer games, nor do I have a hint of an artist in me.

People become computer game designers after working on computer games for a company in other capacities, especially level designer. Practically no one is hired directly as a computer game designer, though level designers (a subset of game design) may be hired directly from school. The production costs for "big" off-the-shelf games ($5-25 million) make a person without a track record too much of a risk.

Hits since August 07: Hit Counter

"Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest." Mark Twain

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

"A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst." (Martial Arts quote)

"Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest." Mark Twain

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

"A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst." (Martial Arts quote)

Send mail to webmaster (at) pulsipher (dot) net with comments about this web site. Last modified: 04/28/08. Copyright 2007 Lewis Pulsipher