-
Survive! and Escape from Atlantis are such wonderful games that share many fundamental similarities yet play quite a bit differently from one another. Bear with me as I go through a bit of backstory while I get to my point.
These games have gone through many incarnations over the last 30 years. In North America we were offered Survive! by Parker Brothers for a good portion of the 80's. In Europe the slightly altered title was offered as Escape from Atlantis (or just simply "Atlantis") through the 80's and into the 90's as well by many publishers from Waddingtons all the way to Schmidt Spiele.
Julian Courtland Smith's prototypes for the two games.One of the more interesting versions of Escape from Atlantis came after Hasbro bought the British game company Waddingtons in the 90's. It is arguably one of the most over produced games ever made, yet the visual appeal is just as considerable. It was the 1996 Waddingtons edition of Escape from Atlantis.
It was notable not only for its vast quantities of petroleum by-product components inside the box, but the odd visual theme that it utilized.There is a popular theory that Atlantis as described by Plato is in fact the island of Thera (now known as Santorini) in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea had gained much momentum after the excavation of the Akrotiri site which yielded a time capsule similar to what was found in Pompeii.
Coincidentally or intentionally, the similarities to the architecture found on Santorini with what is found in the 1996 Waddingtons edition of Escape from Atlantis I think you will agree is is quite profound.
"Yeah. Congratulations, Sherlock Holmes." I hear you say? "So what is your point?"
Well the point of all this is that while the components for this edition of Escape from Atlantis is quite good, the game play in comparison to the original Survive! I felt was somewhat lacking. The key was the tiles. Or more specifically, the rules that each of the tiles contain.
In Escape from Atlantis, when a tile is revealed you put a piece of fauna set aside onto the board or a whirlpool. Nothing more. In Survive this occurs and more. Some of these tiles get held in hand and can affect the game greatly in later turns which adds depth to the game and more strategy in such a way.
It was not until Stronghold Games reprinted Survive along with Escape from Atlantis did we see a really great revision of the two. But I am a fan of overproduction and while the Stronghold Games version is very nice, I wanted my cake and to eat it too.
So following the very nice rules layout that Stronghold Games made and the theme present in the 1996 Waddingtons edition (or at least the assumption of the thematic similarity to a real world locale), I set to work to create my own uber pimped version of Survive! which I call "Thera's Ruin".
After a bit of research on the Pelasgians (Those who peopled the Aegean who were possibly the ancestors of the greeks) I came up with a bit of possible background for the game in that theme...
...as well as a system to replicate Survive! using a deck of cards as a replacement effect for the effect beneath the plastic tiles.
There are a few variant cards in the deck as well. Since Artscow prints 54 card decks I went ahead and made a few. They are not the most balanced of game effects, but have nevertheless proved interesting and the local game group seems to enjoy them.
Serendipity occurred with the card backs which also allowed for randomization of the tiles as well when using the tile setup for Survive! Just shuffle all the cards and draw the top card and place the corresponding tile on the board. Repeat until all tiles are placed then divide the cards by their type (Lowlands, Midlands and Highlands). Place Midlands stack on top of Highlands and Lowlands on top of Midlands. Every time a tile is removed draw a card from the deck and apply its effects immediately or place into the hand as appropriate.
I have made the deck available from Artscow for those who might be interested in updating their old european version of Escape From Atlantis as well as a redesigned rulebook using Stronghold Games rulebook as a template:
Thera's Ruin Artscow Deck
Thera's Ruin Rulebook
All of this is not without it's faults however. You still need a few more pieces to complete the game, the meeples are not very stable and since there are different sculpts using the score beneath them as in Survive! is nearly impossible. That and the game screams to be painted, which is a fairly major undertaking. But these things will be fixed in a later blog...
|
|
|
