WHAT IS A WEASEL GAME? When I ask friends who use the term "weasel games" to explain it, they typically say something like, "You know, games for cold,hearted, sneaky, vicious people ... like weasels." Obviously, it's a difficult term to define. So let me approach it a bit at a time. Consider History You may have your own experience with the expression "weasel game" or a similar term, but I became aware of it initially about a decade ago, when gaming first became a passion in my life. Fortunately, I had a circle of friends who shared a fervor for playing competitive board games. We would spend entire weekends in the bliss of battling orcs, propelling space ships, commanding armies, manipulating stock markets, launching nukes and partaking of a host of other wonders. Often, upon my completing some particularly clever or devastating (or desperate and savage) move, would hear, "You are such a weasel." Before long, friends came to refer to many of my favorite games as weasel games. My own dear wife even went so far as to use the term in reference to one I designed: the Temple of the Beastmen board game, published some years ago by GDW as part of their Space: 1889 product line. Recently, after having been away from that game for a few years, I ran it again at a home-town convention. As I watched game play unfold from this fresh perspective, I was struck (okay, shocked) by just how "weasely" the session was. The players were ripping one another right and left, and I had to admit that the game design itself encouraged them to play hat way. The Space: 1889 RPG may advertise itself as venture in a "More Civilized Time," but Temple of the Beastmen board game shows a steel fist inside that velvet glove. And in doing so, it defines one central concept of the true weasel game: DON'T JUST RUN WELL, TRIP YOUR NEIGHBOR Ostensibly, the Temple of the Beastmen game is all about what happens to six heroes on individual quests to a High Martian "kraag" at the same moment in time. Each of the heroes has a different goal in mind, so in terms of background and story, there is no reason for them to compete. But what fun is a board game without competition! So this game was designed with rivalry built into it at the player level. The heroes may not be head-to- head competitors, but the players certainly are. As the primary example of "tripping your neighbor" in this game, most of the heroes' individual goals are tied to particular time cards. If you can draw these cards before those heroes' players do, and discard them, the items never materialize in the High Martian complex, so the hapless players are just out of luck. They may still be able to gain enough victory points in other ways to win the game, but you'll certainly have made things harder for them. As a result, when players see you discard their big point card, they are likely to grit their teeth and call you a weasel. But remember, of course, they're hoping to do the same thing to you. As a matter of fact, just to make sure that players don't miss this important strategy, the rules make a point of recommending it. Add in the fact that a couple of the heroes actually share the same goal (and can't both attain it at once), and a few cards designed to let you mess with other players - caving in a board section on their heroes, sending patrols of High Martians their way, blasting them with scatterguns and a black powder bomb, etc. - and you have the beginnings of a true weasel wrestling match. DON'T EVEN THINK OF MERCY Mercy has no place in a true weasel game. Don't even consider asking for it. But just as importantly, don't let yourself be tempted to give it. This is more than just a matter of optimizing your chances of winning: it is an issue of social survival. When my wife and I were newly married, we used to play Risk fairly often with other young Couples. But it wasn't long before we decided that, while the game is great for some groups, it can be dangerous for couples who want to maintain their marriage. Time and again, someone would be on a roll, wiping everyone else's armies from the face of the map, to hear a pained cry from his or her spouse, "Hey, give me a break. I wasn't that vicious in attacking you on my turn!" "But, Honey," the attacker would reason, "I'm trying to win here." "Well," the spouse would complain, "You aren't being very nice about it." Aha! That's it in a nutshell. Weasel games aren't about being nice. They aren't about taking turns being merciful. They are about being ruthless. Once, at a convention, I sat down with some strangers to play Circus Maximus. In that game, players take the roles of charioteers in a Ben Hur style race. The order of players is random each turn, and during one particular turn, the stranger sitting to my right ended up going last. That made things difficult for him. All of our chariots had left the straightaway and were negotiating the turn at the course's end, where it is easy for a chariot to flip if it is going too fast. Well, as each charioteer passed this fellow, they would whip his horses, trying to make his chariot speed up and crash. Each time, the fellow would slip his chariot to a lane farther out, where the turn was less sharp and the danger was less great. But finally it was right up against the outer wall and couldn't sideslip further. As my turn approached, I happened to glance over at the player, and I was startled to see tears standing in his eyes. My kindly side reacted first, urging me to pat him on the back and say, "Don't take it so hard." But I was afraid of embarrassing him. My weasel side was just a second later thinking, "Boy, is he in the wrong game." When the dice came to me, I did the best thing possible under the circumstances: I rolled my movement and ran my chariot past his ... and I whipped his horses along the way. Back to Shadis #23 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1996 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com