An expansion for Exodus - VIII. Titan Diarchy

The new faction of the Exodus expansion we are presenting today is Titan Diarchy. Before we get down to business, we want to thank you once again for helping us choose the name of the expansion, Exodus: Edge of Extinction.

Titan Diarchy sketch by Odysseas Stamoglou

Titan Diarchy has a special appetite for science and while they are willing to share some of their knowledge with the others, their awareness that knowledge is power guides their philosophy of existence. Several unique technologies give the Diarchy the upper hand in the tech race and provide them with the means to assert they supremacy through technology. Even if war is not their main focus, with their almost limitless access to science, Titan Diarchy has all the means necessary to reach to an immediate or long term threat.

We know what war is, we have seen scars left on our lands time and time again. We were taught that the future lies not with the strength of arms, but with humanity’s true achievements: scientific discoveries. Over time we have learned to excel in what everyone needs to build a better life. And we will share our knowledge with those able to aid us in further research, to build a better future for all mankind.

Although many survivor factions claim to be the most technologically advanced, the members of the Titan Diarchy are the true masters of research and the leaders of innovation. With the skills and traditions of the scientific and academic Europe of the Old Earth, the Diarchy is able to use its specialized workforce with utmost effectiveness and precision, becoming the only faction able to come up with a few groundbreaking discoveries in the time it takes others to make a single breakthrough.

The technological lesson is, however, not the only one the Titan Diarchy decided to never forget. The 20th and 21st century wars left Europe destroyed and rebuilt time and time again, which taught the Diarchy that even though fighting on home territory comes with some advantages, the losses usually outweigh the benefits.

This approach has seeped into the Diarchy’s attitude towards armed conflicts. Although the leaders of this scientific faction will always choose peaceful coexistence, they will not run from combat when war is inevitable. In fact, the Diarchy will be the first survivor faction to aggressively attack an opponent, trying to ensure any conflicts play out as far from their own borders as possible.

The main goal of Titan Diarchy is not an all out war. Its members knows how to fight, but it is science they truly excel at. A strong belief that developing new technologies will allow all humanity to live in peace means that the faction’s leaders will always seek a peaceful resolution to any possible conflicts, trying to negotiate and share their technology for the greater good of mankind – and for a profit that will put them in a position of true power in the futuristic technological utopia they are hoping to build.

If you missed our earlier articles, you can read here about Sirius Theocracy, Arctic Dominion and Han-Xia Dynasty.


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Exodus: Edge of Extinction and a video

On behalf of the whole NSKN team I would like to thank every one of you who took the time to help us find a great name for our upcoming Exodus expansion. Whether it was a vote, an opinion, a piece of feedback or a proposal for the name itself, this could not have happened without you. So a big thank you for transforming the Exodus expansion into Exodus: Edge of Extinction.

We had five proposals on the table and one of them stood out, both here - on the NSKN Game blog poll - and on BoardGameGeek. While you were casting your votes, we had a 'secret' internal meeting and everyone in the team also favored this cool name. So, with this much harmony we will proceed to create online material for Exodus: Edge of Extinction and keep working on the upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

While we were busy looking for a name, our artists kept on working so that today we can show you 3 pieces of the final artwork...

On a completely unrelated topic, you can have a look at an interview recorded at Spiel 2014 by Paco from G*M*S Magazine with Agnieszka and Andrei, talking about the current and future games from NSKN.

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A Throne of Skulls Provokes Little Controversy

I sit atop a throne of skulls. Not all the time, mind you, only every few weeks, after I open my Descent Second Edition box to start a new campaign or continue with an old one. I open the box, set up the dungeon, climb upon my comfy chair perched on a bony mound and have fun, doing my best to be as horrible a person as possible.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

Contrary to what you might think, this post will not be about how much I prefer the new Descent over the old one (fans of Descent 1.0 are welcome to send their hate my way – but only after checking if I have no obvious spawn points close by, and cross-referencing their findings with the thirty-page FAQ and errata document), about how much I rock at being an Overlord (or the Overseer from Level 7: [Omega Protocol] for that matter) or how perplexing it is to have multiple skulls belonging to the same hero (albeit at different stages of their life) in my skull mound. It’s going to be about me happily becoming a power hungry and ruthless fantasy villain, while refusing to vie for the dubious honour of being the one kid that manages to inflict enough physical punishment upon other kids, to victoriously walk away with their Lunch Money.

Looking back at some of the recent debates and controversies in the boardgaming world (casually sacrificing slaves in Five Tribes, the idea of running a strip club in Lap Dance or our own little teacup tempest involving Progress and the Atheism card), I can only conclude that a lot, if not almost all, depends on sensibilities. And these can vary immensely, as some people will happily spread a supernatural plague in Chaos in the Old World, while others will shy away from literally shooting some crap or, to be more accurate, flinging some Poo. What’s more, you can also sometimes find that it’s not people, but one and the same person that will be able to commit acts much more heinous in one game, while refusing to do something seemingly more innocent in another.

With all that in mind, how can a publisher avoid creating a product with a theme that will be more a deterrent than an encouragement to play? 

First of all, a publisher should stay reasonable and, from time to time at least, perform a reality check. All people probably are ashamed of something they once said, but not all managed to manufacture their blunder in five thousand copies and put it on shelves of hobby stores around the world. That is exactly why, when theming the game, you should talk to people and see what they think not only of the mechanisms, but also about the thematic ideas of your game, before it’s all on paper.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

Secondly, while we’re on the topic of talking to people: talk to as many as you possibly can, preferably making your advisors culturally diverse, to save you a lot of grief. To give you an example, let me just say that I don’t know if creators of Carnival Zombie were aiming at making their game controversial, or if they placed a gun-wielding character named Columbine in their product simply because (much like me), they associated the name primarily with a Commedia dell’arte character, and not with a tragic shooting that took place in an American high school. I can only say that I was quite surprised when I stumbled upon Rahdo’s Runthrough of the game and discovered that to an American, what was my (a Pole’s) first association regarding Columbine, was merely an obscure reference, made completely superfluous by the relatively recent and tragic events.

Thirdly, while examining the theme of the game, take a look at the final message it sends – if it sends one, that is. And yes, I know that the jury’s still out on whether board games are actually capable of sending a message, as some say they are art (which implicitly grants them the aforementioned ability), while others find the whole idea preposterous. I’m not the one to judge, but – art or no art – I know that games can be built to be thought-provoking and meaningful, which allows them to at least give us some food for thought. And if you have any doubts about that, just take a look at the excellent Freedom cooperative game which (through some hair tearing and teeth grinding moments when sacrifices had to be made) did more to teach my group the history of slavery and the Abolitionists by putting us in their shoes than history books and, more recently, Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

Finally, if we agree that some games (not all by far) do have a message, there is one more thing you could consider – and I was made to consider it for the first time, while talking about CO2. As it happened, I was having a conversation about the game shortly after it came out and I (like a few others) expressed my doubts about its theme, considering not buying CO2 because of how one-sided it was in delivering its environmental message. The game finally ended up in my collection, but during that one conversation, I was asked a simple question: “But you had no problem playing Doom, right?”.

I will admit, it shut me up for a moment – I could feel that there was a difference, but at first I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Until it hit me.

Doom is mindless fun with no aspirations, and it’s certainly not trying to seriously convince me that decorating walls with blood and internal organs of a couple of futuristic jarheads (which is the essence of the game if you are the Invader) is something good, noble or outright necessary for the survival of human race. Simply put, it wasn’t trying to teach me a lesson. CO2 on the other hand was – by making a case in a real world issue, and by trying to force me to take something very specific away from the game table. And that made me (and some other people) question the theme and the ideas it was selling.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

All the above boils down to a relatively simple formula, which by no means has the ambition to become the ultimate guide on how to avoid controversies when publishing a game, but which may ultimately help you out a little bit. If you want to say something through your game – be sure you know the consequences, and if you don’t – be sure you are really not saying anything (for a simple solution just make a game about trading in the Mediterranean). And as for the nature of mindless violence not being controversial while environmental issues making some people uncomfortable – I recognize the peculiarity of this situation, but it’s a topic for a completely different discussion. And one that I do not feel equipped well enough to tackle.

Not yet, at least.

I would like to thank our Twitter followers, our Facebook fans and our Kickstarter backers for inspiring me to write this post. It’s nothing short of awesome having people like you around to sometimes be reminded of how diverse we can all be – and how our great hobby allows us to share thoughts and ideas… or just sit down at the same table and have fun together.

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The name of the game - Exodus expansion

We're taking a short break today from our weekly mini-series about the factions in the new expansion for Exodus: Proxima Centauri to ask for you help with a very important decision.

The expansion has almost everything it needs to bring an improved gaming experience and the one thing missing is a cool name. We have created a poll (right hand side of this page) with five proposals, most of them from our very kind fans and friends. Please take a moment and cast your vote, every opinion counts!

To have a better idea of what this expansion is all about let's see a few illustrations...

Arctic Dominion faction sketch by Odysseas Stamoglou

Han-Xia Dynasty faction sketch by Odysseas Stamoglou

You can also check our earlier posts about the making of the expansion and Exodus itself:

An expansion for Exodus - VII. Han-Xia Dynasty

An expansion for Exodus - VI. Arctic Dominion

An expansion for Exodus - V. Sirius Theocracy
An expansion for Exodus - IV. Victory
An expansion for Exodus - III. Asymmetric game play
An expansion for Exodus - II. Technologies (part 2)
An expansion for Exodus - I. Technologies
Live from Spiel Essen and Exodus makes it to Tom Vasel's top 100 games of all times
An expansion for Exodus: Proxima Centauri
Exodus Revised Edition in images
A review of Exodus by Michael Barnes
An expert opinion
Exodus - making the first prototype and more challenges
From Alpha Centauri to Exodus
The Story

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A Touch of Fate

“Dice are a thing now”, said one of my friends a few days ago, while examining my copy of Dice Brewing. I did not disagree out of fear of being disproven faster than paper disproving Spock. It would inevitably happen since Pandemic: The Cure and Nations: The Dice Game were conveniently sitting on top of my Essen haul pile, which I still failed to fully redistribute around my ever-so-packed gaming shelves. I didn't disagree, but I probably should have, as there is one thing he actually got wrong: the timing. Honestly, I am hard pressed to find a time when dice games were not a thing.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

It seems that dice games have been there always, either existing in the shadow of games they were merely the dice versions of (like Catan: Dice Game, Ra: The Dice Game, Alhambra: The Dice Game and dozens of others, including but not limited to – and I kid you not – Strip Poker Dice Game), or created from the start as titles that would use dice as the gameplay basis and stand on their own (like Kingsburg, Alea Iacta Est, the terribly overpunned Quarriors, the elusive Dice Masters series or the truly ingenious Alien Frontiers), without another property serving as a crutch.

But why are dice games so popular? Maybe it’s because the dice versions of other games are usually faster, simpler and lighter than their “bigger” cousins, so they may appeal to those of us who wish a similar experience, only in a shorter time frame? Then again, the same can quite often be said about “The Card Game” genre, which tries to distil full-blown board games into a smaller, more manageable, card-based experiences.

While the time and simplicity factor may be important, it is not truly distinguishing, and I believe it’s safe to say that the most important building block of dice games are (obviously) the dice themselves. And not only as a physical component, but as an unexpected randomizer that creates a specific dynamic to any game fully either dice based, or just using dice rolling as one of its cornerstone mechanisms.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

Although nobody would probably say that Castles of Burgundy, Troyes or Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia are “just” dice games, what makes those games what they truly are is the dice rolling and randomness management. The fact is that without dice none of these games would be what it is, and although we may argue over whether they would be better or worse, the dice based randomization is an element essential to each of them.

Whether the game revolves around pushing one’s luck or around careful dice manipulation, one thing stays the same: a player might be aided or hampered by what their dice come up with. And although the general consensus seems to imply that a good dice (or dice based) game allows low-rolling players to compete and even win, randomness always plays its part for better or for worse.

Modern board gaming is about smart designs that allow us to jog our brains and have fun while we’re at it, but it is not fully detached from the culture we live in. And that culture promotes the seemingly weaker, but determined individuals who fight against odds and win in the end thanks to their conviction, skill and a little bit of luck. Simply put: we like to see the underdog win, and sometimes, we are the underdogs.

Image source: 
BoardGameGeek

Although not exclusive to dice games, the randomness that levels the playing field is openly signalled by the use of dice rolling as a mechanism. For those, who like to play a decent turn despite a weak roll or to come back at the last moment thanks to a spectacular one, gaming is exactly the underdog fighting to the end – and sometimes even winning.

By no stretch of imagination am I trying to say that more randomness means better game. For some a luck based swing will be unacceptable, but for others chance helping them catch up after some botched turns is exactly what they need to feel invested in a game from the start right to the end. And it is still a win gained by wits and strategy, even if aided but a subtle touch of fate.

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