Who's On First?

Although there has not been a great deal of activity on the GE front there have been some developments to share with you. First, we have an overall coordinator for GE. John Greer has accepted the post of accepting the post from all of you who have indicated a willingness to help and an interest in developing GE.

John is a long time Europa player and used to work for SPI. His knowledge of the system is of a high caliber and his dedication to E-Europa makes him a good candidate for this rather thankless task. John will be building the files for backup to the GE Design Team to help them in the arduous journey between now and release point for the final design.

Some things to keep in mind would be to specify what your interest is within GE. If you have a field, speciality, or special part of GE that you want to contribute to, state it as briefly as possible. I would also recommend highly that you submit your letters and comments to John in typewritten or wordprocess form, double spaced. I will leave it to John to tell you the rest of the details. He will have a column in the magazine when he needs space to talk to you and keep you informed as to what is happening.

The second thing I want to talk about is related to Grand Europa and I believe it should be part of it. Discussions have taken place at each convention I have attended related to the static size of the Europa public and the need to produce an introductory game that would help bring more people into this fine system. Several proposals have been made but I have not been satisfied with the offerings as they did not do enough to represent the system. Recently I had an idea that I believe could solve some of these problems and possibly create a larger Europa playing group. It is tied into Grand Europa as the first part, or introduction to the series.

What I am proposing is Book I of Grand Europa - Introduction to the Europa System and Series. The format of the book would be simple, straight-forward and easily understood by anyone buying the book. It would be comprised of a description of each game on two pages, showing the game, listing the components on the front page and an article by someone giving a synopsis of the game and major points of interest about that particular game on the back side. Since there are twelve games in the line at this time it would require 24 pages for this section.

Next there would be a set of Europa rules based on the SE rules format. Integrated with the rules would be some graphics showing how to play given situations. The thought for this section would be to introduce the players to how the system works. Let them know that it they read and understand the rules they have mastered the system for virtually each game. Bear in mind that the special case of Narvik and Case White would have to be addressed, but John Astell and I have been discussing rewriting the rules for Case White to bring them up to speed in any event.

There would be a section showing the reviews that the system has received over the years that would give the future player an idea of the public reaction to the series. It would also help in the general description of the series as well.

Finally, there would be a wrap-up section discussing the various projects underway and giving the potential player the information about the future of Europa, the evolution of the series and where we expect to go from here. I would also like to give back to the buyer a series of coupons in the form of rebates equal to the value of the book that could be redeemed from GR/D to encourage sales of Europa titles.

I have been at the various Europa demos at Origins and GenCon/Origins and watched the gaming public as they approached the demo area. They are in awe of the game and intimidated by its size at the same time. The most frequently heard comment is that they would like to get into Europa but thay are afraid of the time and cost factor. We need this project done to show our future players that it is indeed unique and large, but it is also manageable and easy to digest in bite size bits. An introductory book at a modest price with the cost mitigated by rebate coupons seems like a good idea to me.

I am very interested in getting your feedback on this project. I need to know what you think of the idea, suggestions you may have to enhance the book and I need very much to get some volunteers to write the copy on the various games in the system. I know that there are a lot of you who like one game the best within the series and might want to write about the whys and wherefores of that particular game. The series is open (except for Narvik, which I want to write about since it is my favorite game).

Finally, the second communication is on its way to the design team. We will definitely have some news on the progress of the overall project for you in TEN 7 when it arrives in your mail box at the end of May. Look for more info as the year progresses.