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Adventuring in the Jungle (Themestorm) · Pick Up and Deliver

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast where I
0:06
Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as a step out for
0:08
Speaker 1: a walk and deliver an episode two while I stroll around.
0:11
Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Reiley. Well, greetings, listeners. It's a beautiful day
0:23
Speaker 1: here in suburban Chicago. It is blue sky with nearly
0:26
Speaker 1: no clouds in sight. There are just a couple of
0:28
Speaker 1: wisps on the horizon, but otherwise it is pure blue uninterrupted.
0:35
Speaker 1: My apps say it's in the low thirties, and I
0:38
Speaker 1: guess I can see maybe it is, but with the
0:40
Speaker 1: sun out, it sure feels nice. So I'm taking a
0:43
Speaker 1: walk because i'm working from home today. Well, let's be honest,
0:46
Speaker 1: I'm doing a little bit of work and a little
0:48
Speaker 1: bit of relaxing spring break, so I'm taking one day
0:51
Speaker 1: to really be on break, and then the rest of
0:53
Speaker 1: the week I'm actually going to be productive. So I'm
0:55
Speaker 1: out for a walk and I thought I would talk
0:57
Speaker 1: about some board game stuff. I was looking around and
1:00
Speaker 1: I realized I hadn't done a theme storm in a while.
1:03
Speaker 1: And I also realized after playing a game yesterday that
1:06
Speaker 1: there was a theme I hadn't really touched on much.
1:09
Speaker 1: This is adventuring in the jungle. So let's just jump
1:12
Speaker 1: into it theme storm adventuring in the jungle. So, I
1:15
Speaker 1: guess I want to start with a note about the
1:20
Speaker 1: cultural history of the idea of adventuring in the jungle.
1:23
Speaker 1: I come from what I am white, I come from America.
1:28
Speaker 1: We have a cultural tradition of the idea of the
1:32
Speaker 1: adventurer as a predecessor or an early element of the
1:36
Speaker 1: colonial era. A lot of adventure tales focus on a
1:41
Speaker 1: variety of different kinds of stories told about usually white
1:46
Speaker 1: guys going into places where that are seen as untamed
1:51
Speaker 1: or wild, exploring those places, often violent, often hunting, often
1:56
Speaker 1: interacting with the people who live there in ways that
1:59
Speaker 1: from a mine modern perspective at the time were particularly
2:02
Speaker 1: from a modern perspective, they feel even worse. And so
2:06
Speaker 1: there's this kind of history of the distinction between civilized
2:10
Speaker 1: and uncivilized places, the idea of the adventurer going into
2:14
Speaker 1: an untamed wilderness, the people who live there being seen
2:17
Speaker 1: as inconsequential to the taming or untaming of the wilderness.
2:21
Speaker 1: This is a challenging structure as we think about how
2:25
Speaker 1: we understand the world, because at its heart it is
2:28
Speaker 1: a dichotomy of viewpoint. It is a way of thinking
2:32
Speaker 1: about who the other people are that others them, that
2:36
Speaker 1: makes them seem like people different and often depicted as
2:42
Speaker 1: uncultured or unsophisticated. That said, there are places in the
2:47
Speaker 1: world that are pretty wild, that there aren't a lot
2:50
Speaker 1: of human beings living for various reasons, or that to
2:54
Speaker 1: a European somebody of European descent feel very distinct or adventurous.
3:00
Speaker 1: The best example I can think of is the Amazon
3:02
Speaker 1: Rainforest feels very different most of the places one would
3:05
Speaker 1: go in say North America or in Europe, and so
3:09
Speaker 1: it holds this sort of cultural mystique. So as I
3:11
Speaker 1: think about stories that are told that are sort of
3:14
Speaker 1: adventure stories, they often include this kind of escape to
3:20
Speaker 1: or journey to a place where Western culture has not
3:24
Speaker 1: into the land for lack, and stories are sort of
3:27
Speaker 1: built in that regard. Often they're structured in like the
3:31
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, which is sort of the last age of
3:35
Speaker 1: this kind of adventuring. That technology was still not worldwide
3:40
Speaker 1: enough that there were it wasn't easy to get to places.
3:44
Speaker 1: Air travel was still relatively new and very expensive, and
3:48
Speaker 1: the but the technology that was there involved. They did
3:52
Speaker 1: have cars and binoculars, and so I thought I would
3:56
Speaker 1: talk about So I don't know what I have to
3:58
Speaker 1: say about that. I mean, I think, on the one hand,
4:03
Speaker 1: one has to be very careful in thinking about how
4:05
Speaker 1: one makes or plays a game like this to be
4:08
Speaker 1: thoughtful about the nature of these stories. But I think
4:13
Speaker 1: that there is still a space or value in storytelling
4:17
Speaker 1: for the story of people going into a place unknown
4:22
Speaker 1: to them with the spirit of exploration. And I think
4:25
Speaker 1: all human beings can do that and have on that.
4:27
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of how the person thinks about
4:30
Speaker 1: that space they're going to do they think of it
4:32
Speaker 1: from an acquisitional perspective, I'm going there to find and
4:36
Speaker 1: take stuff, or are they thinking of it from the
4:41
Speaker 1: idea of intellectual discovery. I'm trying to know about the world.
4:45
Speaker 1: So these are questions that we should keep thinking about
4:48
Speaker 1: as we tell these stories. But I think that there
4:50
Speaker 1: is the template for this. I'm keen to hear your thoughts.
4:52
Speaker 1: Does this arise to you when you think about these stories?
4:55
Speaker 1: How does your group handle exploring the I think it's interesting.
4:59
Speaker 1: So under the game, what if I would do is
5:01
Speaker 1: I have a list of seven different games that I've
5:04
Speaker 1: played that sort of fit in this genre and I
5:08
Speaker 1: think are worth talking about. So I will talk about them,
5:12
Speaker 1: and there are no particular order. I'm just going to
5:14
Speaker 1: talk about them in the order that I have them
5:16
Speaker 1: on my sheet here, So in no particular order. I
5:18
Speaker 1: wanna start with the Adventurers. The Adventurers is very explicitly
5:23
Speaker 1: in the space of the people going to look for treasure.
5:27
Speaker 1: These are capitalist adventurers, people who see the remote and
5:32
Speaker 1: wild places with ancient structures as being a place for
5:36
Speaker 1: finding treasure in the classic sense of the story, which
5:40
Speaker 1: is perhaps the most exploitive wildly or interestingly. The art
5:45
Speaker 1: for the Adventurers is also not great. It comes it's
5:48
Speaker 1: designed by I mean, it's very well done, but I
5:55
Speaker 1: think that the art was done as part of the
5:57
Speaker 1: game design, which feels French to me. I'm not sure
6:00
Speaker 1: why I say that, but the characters are all sort
6:03
Speaker 1: of hyper exaggerated. The men have just sort of giant
6:08
Speaker 1: muscle thin waists and giant busts, and generally the look
6:14
Speaker 1: of the characters is sort of comic book exaggerated. So
6:17
Speaker 1: that's my least favorite part of the game. Everything else
6:20
Speaker 1: about the game is pretty dang fun. So in the
6:22
Speaker 1: Adventures there are two games. There's The Adventurers the Temple
6:25
Speaker 1: of Shock and The Adventures The Pyramid of Horus, and
6:29
Speaker 1: each one has its own charm. Both games have really
6:32
Speaker 1: good table presence. They have miniatures, they have little pieces
6:36
Speaker 1: that you put on. Temple of Chalk is sort of
6:38
Speaker 1: maybe higher table presence because it has this boulder. So
6:41
Speaker 1: in the Adventurers Temple of Talk, you are going into
6:44
Speaker 1: this ancient temple. They don't really say where it is.
6:47
Speaker 1: I don't know. A c chac implies a particular kind
6:51
Speaker 1: of place, and I wouldn't say the art does either,
6:55
Speaker 1: although I had to guess, I would say Central America.
6:58
Speaker 1: And in the temple, you start in this one room
7:01
Speaker 1: that's got these treasures, and you're running through the temple
7:04
Speaker 1: trying to find treasures, trying not to fall in the
7:07
Speaker 1: lava or drown in the river or get crushed by
7:11
Speaker 1: the boulder that is rolling after your group. At the
7:14
Speaker 1: end of the game, you have a couple rounds for turns,
7:16
Speaker 1: and then this boulder starts rolling through, and if you
7:20
Speaker 1: get stuck in one of the side passages and the
7:22
Speaker 1: boulder passes you and you don't get out before the
7:25
Speaker 1: boulder hits the end, you're out. It's a competitive game
7:29
Speaker 1: where you're trying to find as much treasure as you
7:31
Speaker 1: can and get out before you're trapped inside. The same
7:35
Speaker 1: is true of second game, which is called The Adventurement
7:38
Speaker 1: of Horrors. In this one, you are trying to get
7:40
Speaker 1: loot from a pyramid. There are three animated mummies lurching
7:44
Speaker 1: around that cause you trouble. There's all sorts of Basically
7:47
Speaker 1: what you're doing is you're trying to give as much
7:48
Speaker 1: stuff as you can and then get out, but every
7:50
Speaker 1: time you pick up something it slows you downs. Meanwhile,
7:52
Speaker 1: the ceiling of the temple is falling in, and when
7:55
Speaker 1: the temple is blocked, everyone who's inside done. It's a
7:59
Speaker 1: fun game, a good time is had by all. I
8:02
Speaker 1: think this one's are really These are really fun. They
8:04
Speaker 1: embody the spirit of those adventurous movies from the twenties.
8:07
Speaker 1: I think the game sort of slyly acknowledges you are
8:11
Speaker 1: not on great moral footing by taking all the treasures
8:14
Speaker 1: from these temples. But I think the characters are seen
8:17
Speaker 1: as pretty unethical characters. Lots of fun both of these.
8:20
Speaker 1: I think Temple of Horace or the Pyramid of Horace
8:23
Speaker 1: is a better. Temple of Chalk is a little too
8:26
Speaker 1: twitchy for me, don't know how else. Too easy to die.
8:28
Speaker 1: You actually get two lives in that one because it's
8:30
Speaker 1: so easy to die. But yeah, good time. That's the Adventurers.
8:34
Speaker 1: I think they are doing a new print run of them.
8:37
Speaker 1: I saw a Kickstarter game found for that a while ago.
8:39
Speaker 1: I don't know how that's gone. I did not back
8:41
Speaker 1: it because I have the two games, and the two
8:43
Speaker 1: games that I have are out of print. Next up
8:46
Speaker 1: the question for Eldorado. This is the game that made
8:48
Speaker 1: me think about this subject to begin with. This is
8:50
Speaker 1: a writer Kanitzia deck building game where you are trying
8:52
Speaker 1: to run through the jungle and find your way to Eldorado,
8:55
Speaker 1: the be of Gold. The theming is nineteen twenty six floors.
9:00
Speaker 1: You have various kinds of support you're trying to get.
9:04
Speaker 1: The game is sort of I would say, standard European.
9:10
Speaker 1: What sort of insensitivity towards the people of the region.
9:13
Speaker 1: The game doesn't seem to particularly care that it is
9:15
Speaker 1: depicting a kind of caricature of the people of the
9:19
Speaker 1: jungle or the gul itself. But it is a pretty
9:21
Speaker 1: straight straightforward race. If you made it, you could make
9:24
Speaker 1: it be about racing through alien planet and it would
9:28
Speaker 1: work just fine. They sort of set it up and
9:30
Speaker 1: you could understand. Again, the game doesn't really spend much
9:36
Speaker 1: time on what it is you're trying to do, but
9:39
Speaker 1: there is a little bit of interesting narrative there in
9:41
Speaker 1: that the things you have the way that you go through.
9:45
Speaker 1: As with a deck builder, there is a currency generating
9:49
Speaker 1: card gives you money that you can use to buy
9:51
Speaker 1: more cards, but there are also spaces where you can
9:53
Speaker 1: spend money to move on to that space, and those
9:56
Speaker 1: spaces are depicted as having villages, So there's a kind
9:59
Speaker 1: of narrative there where sometimes you'll encounter a village and
10:02
Speaker 1: you have to pay to go through the village, which
10:04
Speaker 1: I kind of like the idea that the locals they
10:06
Speaker 1: see all these dumb people running through the forest and
10:09
Speaker 1: they soak them on their way through. It feels like
10:11
Speaker 1: a little bit of exploitation back. I don't mind that
10:14
Speaker 1: at all. But Quest for El Dorado might be my
10:18
Speaker 1: favorite game in the list here. It's a really good
10:21
Speaker 1: deck building game with interesting mechanisms, and you're trying to
10:24
Speaker 1: make an efficient deck squeak ahead of the other players
10:27
Speaker 1: really works. Quest for Dorado. Next up, we've got the
10:29
Speaker 1: Lost Expedition. I talked about this recently, so I won't
10:32
Speaker 1: go into it too much, but this is a survival game.
10:34
Speaker 1: This is based on a real expedition. If you read
10:37
Speaker 1: the nonfiction the creative nonfiction book The Lost City of Z,
10:42
Speaker 1: David Grand does a really good job exploring what people
10:46
Speaker 1: went through in trying to find the City of Z,
10:49
Speaker 1: what it was like to go into the Amazon Jungle
10:51
Speaker 1: in the twenties, and what that journey was like. It
10:55
Speaker 1: seems pretty terrible, and the book or the game highlights
10:58
Speaker 1: that really well. The art is great, that gameplay is great.
11:02
Speaker 1: It really focuses on this idea that it is very
11:03
Speaker 1: difficult to be the jungle if you don't know what
11:05
Speaker 1: you're doing, and that these characters don't know what they're doing.
11:08
Speaker 1: I think this is probably the most It feels the
11:10
Speaker 1: most respectful of the people there, because it feels like
11:15
Speaker 1: it is aware of itself. Also, is the most recent
11:18
Speaker 1: game here that actually takes place in the real jungle,
11:21
Speaker 1: except we have Costa Rica. This game is more about
11:24
Speaker 1: being a tourist in the jungle than being an adventurer.
11:26
Speaker 1: In this game, you are leading groups of groups on
11:29
Speaker 1: tours into the jungle to take pictures of animal and
11:32
Speaker 1: the people who collect the best collection of photos animal
11:35
Speaker 1: photos wins. The theme is almost non existent here. It
11:38
Speaker 1: could be anything and the gameplay wouldn't change much. It's
11:41
Speaker 1: hard to comment too much about it, except the idea
11:44
Speaker 1: that the jungle just becomes something you explore for the photos. Literally,
11:50
Speaker 1: what you get out of the journey are the photos,
11:52
Speaker 1: and you win if you have the best photos. That
11:54
Speaker 1: does feel particularly representative of the way that many ecotourist
11:59
Speaker 1: systems operate with regard to the jungle. At the same time,
12:03
Speaker 1: a lot of those systems are set up to help
12:05
Speaker 1: preserve the jungle, recognizing it as a cherished resource for
12:10
Speaker 1: the world, but the people who live there need to
12:12
Speaker 1: be able to make a living, and so making it
12:15
Speaker 1: so that going there helps pay for the jungle to
12:18
Speaker 1: be kept around. It feels like a fair trade even
12:21
Speaker 1: if it does be, although the worry, of course, it
12:24
Speaker 1: becomes exploitative costa Rica. I like that one a lot.
12:28
Speaker 1: It's a really light game, pretty easy to play, this
12:31
Speaker 1: little bit of push your luck to it it's a
12:33
Speaker 1: simple one, so it's costa Rica. Next time we have
12:36
Speaker 1: inc and Gold. Incan Gold is one of my favorite
12:39
Speaker 1: light games. It's excellent for you have a half an
12:42
Speaker 1: hour and you want to play a game that everybody
12:44
Speaker 1: can enjoy. Plays up to eight. In the game, you
12:47
Speaker 1: have a card or token or something that indicates whether
12:51
Speaker 1: you are continuing into the jungle or into the temple,
12:55
Speaker 1: or whether you're stopping. When we narrate what's going on
12:57
Speaker 1: in the game, we always say we are archaeologists to
13:00
Speaker 1: recover treasures for the Museum of Natural History owned by
13:05
Speaker 1: the company or the country where the museum is, so
13:08
Speaker 1: we're very explicit that we are not taking these treasures.
13:11
Speaker 1: The game just depicts you exploring the temple, but ultimately
13:14
Speaker 1: it's a pretty interesting game. It's a push your luck game.
13:17
Speaker 1: You are trying to get as far in then get
13:19
Speaker 1: as much treasure as you can without the temple collapsing
13:22
Speaker 1: on you, and there's a variety of different trouble you
13:25
Speaker 1: find in the temple. Of course, like a lot of
13:27
Speaker 1: these games, it plays into the sort of European idea
13:30
Speaker 1: of these places being mystical and scary. There's natural fear
13:36
Speaker 1: like fire and rock slides and bugs. But then there's
13:39
Speaker 1: also like animated mummies in the temples for some reason,
13:44
Speaker 1: which is delightful from the game, but perhaps a little stereotypical.
13:49
Speaker 1: That's how I think Inking Gold is pretty great, and
13:51
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. There's also another version of
13:53
Speaker 1: the game called Diamont, which I haven't played to the theming,
13:57
Speaker 1: but it seems to be the same. Theming are very close.
14:00
Speaker 1: Perhaps my favorite theme wise are the games that maintain
14:04
Speaker 1: the idea of adventuring, but they have worked out a
14:06
Speaker 1: way to remove the colonialist element, at least in part
14:11
Speaker 1: by making a specific setting that's not real. In Forbidden
14:16
Speaker 1: Island and Forbidden Jungle, as well as Forbidden Desert and
14:19
Speaker 1: a little bit Forbidden Skies, although that one's a little
14:21
Speaker 1: less clear. In these games, you are in a place
14:25
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to be, but there are no inhabitants there.
14:28
Speaker 1: It's long ago abandoned, and you are encountering what's left
14:33
Speaker 1: by the people who have long since gone away. The
14:38
Speaker 1: In Forbidden Island, the island itself is trying to expel
14:41
Speaker 1: you by sinking. In Forbidden Desert, there's a storm that's
14:45
Speaker 1: trying to overwhelm you and bury you in sand. In
14:47
Speaker 1: Forbidden Jungle, there's literally aliens. In Forbidden Skies, you're being
14:52
Speaker 1: plagued by lightning. All these games are great. They're cooperative
14:55
Speaker 1: games are you're trying to solve a puzzle and get
14:57
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff so you can leave. I like
15:01
Speaker 1: them all. Forbidden Skies is my least favorite. I think
15:05
Speaker 1: it's all just a little clunky. I think the other
15:08
Speaker 1: three all work really well. I haven't I only played
15:11
Speaker 1: Forbidden Jungle once, so I can't say whether I like
15:13
Speaker 1: that better than Forbidden Desert or not. But Forbidden Desert
15:16
Speaker 1: is really good, and I thought Forbidden Jungle was pretty good,
15:19
Speaker 1: So we're also pretty good, really good, pretty good somewhere
15:23
Speaker 1: in there. That's the Forbidden games, and they are pretty fun.
15:32
Speaker 1: And I think engage with this idea of adventure while
15:37
Speaker 1: trying to think about what it means to represent a
15:40
Speaker 1: place as somewhere that people would go and explore, as
15:48
Speaker 1: a place that people would go and exploit. Which brings
15:52
Speaker 1: me to my last games that I want to talk
15:53
Speaker 1: about today. Before I mentioned that, I will say there
15:55
Speaker 1: are three games that fit in this category that I
15:57
Speaker 1: haven't played that I want to. We have to by Keysler,
16:02
Speaker 1: Wolfgang Kramer, and Michael Keisling. We have Karuba and we
16:05
Speaker 1: have Tabongo. I think Karuba is Rudiger Dorn. Maybe these
16:10
Speaker 1: are all games that sort of have this adventure in
16:12
Speaker 1: the jungle looking for treasure approach, and I think it's
16:16
Speaker 1: really They all look pretty good, so I would like
16:18
Speaker 1: to try those at some point. So the last one,
16:20
Speaker 1: and perhaps my favorite of the games is The Lost
16:23
Speaker 1: Ruins of Arnak. Now, this game, they very explicitly just
16:26
Speaker 1: made it be a place that no one is from,
16:28
Speaker 1: where no one lives, now that it's an ancient place.
16:31
Speaker 1: It's an island that no humans have inhabited for any
16:34
Speaker 1: in the recent history, and it's guarded by giant mythological monsters.
16:40
Speaker 1: So it's very clearly sort of set in the age
16:42
Speaker 1: of exploration, the age of adventure. But it's also magical.
16:47
Speaker 1: So I like that approach. I think it's still fun.
16:51
Speaker 1: Nothing's lost by the fact that it's not a real place,
16:54
Speaker 1: and so I find that good. I will bring up
16:57
Speaker 1: the point that was made by Princess Bana, who is
17:00
Speaker 1: one of the people behind Burn the Fort. When I
17:03
Speaker 1: talked with her about that game, she did talk about
17:06
Speaker 1: these games that a game about colonizing a place where
17:10
Speaker 1: there are no people still has a colonizer attitude about
17:14
Speaker 1: the land itself, that is a place for people to
17:17
Speaker 1: go and take and control and use and own. And
17:21
Speaker 1: these are specific cultural perspectives that may or may not
17:24
Speaker 1: be reasonable and cause particular kinds of worldviews that then
17:29
Speaker 1: interfere with or shape how those same people act when
17:34
Speaker 1: they find creatures or people who claim that land as well.
17:38
Speaker 1: This is nothing new, I don't think, and I'm probably
17:42
Speaker 1: not as eloquent as she said it, but I did
17:45
Speaker 1: want to raise that idea. Even a game like Lost
17:47
Speaker 1: Ruinsavarnak is still about going to a place and exploring it,
17:50
Speaker 1: and the idea that that's that you have the right
17:53
Speaker 1: to do that, as opposed to recognizing if it's not
17:56
Speaker 1: your land, you shouldn't go there. I do feel like
17:58
Speaker 1: exploration of the unknown is part of the human experience.
18:02
Speaker 1: It's part of what makes our species strong. But what
18:05
Speaker 1: do I so? Anyway? I think Lost Ruins of Varnack
18:08
Speaker 1: is the best of these games. It is it came
18:10
Speaker 1: out at the same time as a couple other games,
18:12
Speaker 1: and it's it is a deck building game. With worker
18:15
Speaker 1: placement also and some tracks to manage. So it's kind
18:18
Speaker 1: of a smorgas board of a variety of different mechanisms,
18:21
Speaker 1: but it works really well. I think it's very well themed,
18:24
Speaker 1: it's fun to play, beautiful artwork, and just a joy.
18:28
Speaker 1: So that is the Lost Ruins of Arnach. Well, thank
18:30
Speaker 1: you for joining me and my Walk today. What jungle
18:33
Speaker 1: games do you like? Which ones have I not mentioned?
18:35
Speaker 1: Which ones would you like to play? Head over to
18:37
Speaker 1: board game Geek Guild three six' nine and share your
18:40
Speaker 1: Thoughts jungle? GAMES i loved? It which ones you to? Play,
18:43
Speaker 1: well that's about. IT i want to say thanks for
18:45
Speaker 1: joining me and My walk. TODAY i hope your next walk.
18:47
Speaker 2: Does mine was Good, bye
19:09
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