Game: Hamlet!

Thread: Re: To be or not to be?

plpompey — 2007-02-01T18:01:18+00:00

Hee hee, yeah found the website about 5 mins after posting and forgot to delete it

Thanks for your help.

Thread: Re: To be or not to be?

Buggy — 2007-02-01T02:42:40+00:00

In fact, if my records are correct, you already have bought it from the publisher.

Thread: Re: To be or not to be?

Buggy — 2007-02-01T02:41:57+00:00

I know!

http://www.highcontentgames.com/
Specifically: http://www.highcontentgames.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&pr...

If you wish to buy directly from the publisher, it is available at http://www.interactivitiesink.com

Thread: To be or not to be?

plpompey — 2007-01-31T20:27:37+00:00

Anyone know where I can get a copy of this? Is it still available!?!

Cheers in advance

Thread: Re: Surprisingly good!

Esuh — 2006-08-23T23:01:01+00:00

Hmm, I'll have to check it out!
Also, a couple of clarifying notes, the goals here are secret (unless declared, which generally happens once someone has given up) and no roleplaying.

Another thing I should mention is that there is one token that is well produced (four of them in fact), which says "Be very quiet, I'm spying on Hamlet" . You have to supply 11 tokens, a six-sided dice, and a pencil to cross of things (and an eraser so you can play again).

Thread: Re: Surprisingly good!

monkeyrobot — 2006-08-23T12:10:31+00:00

Nice review!

I see some similarities with the card game "Lifeboat" by Fat Messiah games... a bit of role playing, different objectives (in Lifeboat, secret) for each player, low production values, cheap price...and good (actually great) game.

Thread: Surprisingly good!

Esuh — 2006-08-22T22:11:48+00:00

Ok, bought this game mostly because I thought the idea interesting, reworking one of the more well-known plays in history aiming for your own end, but I must admit that I was surprised.

First Impression
Horror! Shock! Analysis paralysis to a degree expected from a serious wargame! "What the hell does the stuff I do have to do with how I win" syndrome. Simply said, the first game you don't really understand anything. Expect the first round, or act, to take ages. To kill Laertes, for example, you can make him challenge Hamlet to a duel, which you can only do if Polonius is dead, if Ophelia is dead, or if she is insane. However, to arrange these things... You get my point. However, once you get past this, you actually start understanding things, and the game makes sense. Suddenly you feel that you are pushing against other players, manipulating your way towards your goal. Of course, someone marries Hamlet to Ophelia, which destroys your goal of marrying her to Horatio and arranging the death of blahblahblah, but then you go over to the other amusing goal of killing as much of the cast as possible in an attempt to make sure that no-one wins. With the right group, this is definitely a winner. In our group only two of us had any familiarity with the play, but the highly amusing summary helps. The writing is, all in all, very humorous. The game is based on crossing of boxes when you do certain actions and moving tokens. This, of course, means that you need to use a pencil or photocopy the game to use it again. However, this does not seem like a great hindrance to us so far.

Gameplay
Each "act" (turn) you have a certain amount of actions, varying with the act number and number of players. The later in the game, the more you can do. Each player spends their actions on their turn deciding certain things that each cast member does, as long as they are allowed to (Have fulfilled the requirements for it). Each player has a goal they want to achieve. If it is achieved by the end of the act, that player wins. Sounds simple, but the requirements for each action can make this conveluted. However, after the second play, this problem dissapears.

Components
You get rules and a sheet of paper (not white copy paper, but printed on paper that looks old) detailing each cast member and their possible actions, status etc (For example, Hamlet has many actions, a swordplay track which tells you how good he is with his sword, and a resolve track which decides how determined he is for revenge. Ophelia, on the other hand, has a sanity track, which tends to drop. Quickly).

Conclusion
At the price this is a great game. It is unlikely to be played more than 5-10 times, but this can be a game that you take out again after half a year for a play or two. Absolutely enjoyable, and as I say in the title, surprisingly good. As I say, however, it does not have too much replay value, but at the price it gives good value for money.

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Fromme — 2006-03-11T15:32:22+00:00

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bluepigeon — 2006-02-04T21:20:59+00:00

Readable sample dramatis personae card

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bluepigeon — 2006-02-04T21:20:20+00:00

Sample ending cards

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bluepigeon — 2006-02-04T21:19:14+00:00

Spying counters

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Nekura — 2005-09-02T12:39:16+00:00

Game played on CCGWorkshop.com

Thread: Where this game comes from

arthurcadams — 2005-02-09T14:31:19+00:00

Just thought I'd add an aside to this.

I helped inspire this game. (Though I will give ultimate credit to the Bard of Avon, of course.)

You see, I was a roommate of the designer at the time. I was also active in community theatre, and was in a production of Hamlet (playing the Gravedigger, to be exact.)

Being a supportive friend, the designed came to see the production, and, inspired by some of the stranger bits in the play, designed the game.

Thread: User Review

happycamper — 2004-10-14T16:16:12+00:00

[I]Having played it only once through, I've gotten a decent view of the game, but won't claim to know all its ins and outs

Players of this game are all muses within the brain of Shakespere himself. Each player begins with a secret ending they desire for the play and everyone competes to bring about their own special ending. If, at the end of the game, no player has accomplished their ending, BUT all the play characters are dead, it is considered a victory by all.

Players take their assigned ending card and then attempt to manipulate characters and events to their liking. One player might want to try to have Ophelia be in a nunnery, another character be dead, Hamlet to be insane, and the Queen to be alive. If, at the end of any full round of play, all those conditions are met, the game ends and that player is the winner.

The game is played by checking off various events on a whole list of cards, one card for each main character in the play. Many events are only usable once, while others can be done multiple times. Most events have prior conditions. Hamlet can go to England only if he's still in Denmark, however there is no limit to how many times he can be sent to England, and so on... Ophelia can drink poison, but she has to have it first, which happens if something else has happened previously, etc...

Each player can choose two events on their turn, so there are frequent "deer in the headlights" moments, particularly at the start of the game when no one knows how to accomplish their goals and haven't sorted through what or how they can manipulate the characters to do what they want. It is HIGHLY reccomended to get some of the available strategy guides that help players begin the game depending on what they require to happen.

In the end, the game is moderately fun for a play-through by fans of the play or playwright. The level of complication makes it very difficult for a player to feel as if they are accomplishing anything as a main character in your ending may be required to be dead in your neighbor's ending. I suspect the game will frequently end with a community victory of all characters dying off. The game would be very suitable for a classroom setting to help students learn the many characters and situations in the play, but a familiarity with the play is almost a must since the options themselves are complicated enough as it is.

Thread: Session Report

BruceGee — 2004-07-25T22:17:39+00:00

I got Hamlet! when it was available for download a year or so ago and wrote a preview for Boardgamegeek. I've been meaning to get a real copy for a while, but hadn't even gotten a chance to play my printout version yet. I was looking for the proper group to play it with, since it really doesn't work unless you're familiar with the play. I finally had one when my brother and niece came over to visit. The rules were easy to explain, figuring out what to do was less so, but after puzzling over the different options for a while we were ready to start.

The first game had three players. I had the "Denmark uber alles" goal, in which Claudius and evil reign supreme in Denmark; Sylvia had "Sister Ophelia," where she needed to keep Ophelia sane and in the nunnery and kill off the threats to her sanity; and Rick had "The Not-so-merry widows of Elsinore," where he needed to get Ophelia married and kill off her husband and Claudius.

With these three goals, no one wanted to see Hamlet survive, so he was pretty much a goner. The first round saw Laertes properly lectured by his father and shipped off to France, where his swordsmanship grew. Meanwhile the whispering campaign got started, with Hamlet seeing a ghost to boost his resolve, feigning insanity to Polonius, and Polonius talking to Claudius so that everyone was suspicious of Hamlet. Gertrude soon got access to poison.

I needed Horatio loyal to Laertes, so I sent him after him to France so he could swing over to Laertes' side; I also was able to get Rose and Guild over to Claudius's side without any opposition. (You can get a lot accomplished with only three players.) Meanwhile Rick was getting the play performed. Sylvia wasn't too successful at keeping Ophelia sane, because she'd missed the rule about the nunnery adding to sanity when I went over it.

In the third act, Rick had Polonius agree to spy on Hamlet, and he (Polonius that is, not Rick) was then promptly stabbed behind a curtain, so that was it for Sylvia's goal. Then I brought Laertes back from France, where he quickly challenged Hamlet to a duel for the murder of his father and dispatched him. That fulfilled all my victory conditions, but Sylvia still had to go, unable to win and thus in terminator mode. She tried to kill off two characters whom I needed -- I think she had Gertrude try to poison Claudius and Claudius try to execute Laertes. Fortunately both of these efforts would only succeed on a 1 or 2, and both failed, so I was able to announce victory at the end of the round as Hamlet breathed his last. If either one had succeeded then I would have gone into terminator mode too.

Thread: Session Report

BruceGee — 2004-07-25T22:17:39+00:00

In the second game the next day, we had my wife Lisa playing too. I had The Merrie Comedy (Hamlet and Ophelia marry, most major characters alive), Lisa had All My Friends Are Dead! (Hamlet alive, all the rest of his generation dead), Rick had Polonius' Ambiton, and I think Sylvia had Denmark Uber Alles again.

This time the anti-Hamlet forces never really got off the ground. The standard whispering campaign ended with Hamlet getting shipped off to England. I looked at the conditions for getting Hamlet married, and figured it would be a lot easier to have Hamlet and Ophelia elope than it would be to get Polonius killed off, so I shipped R&G off to England to help with the wedding. No one was messing with R&G or Horatio at all, so my job was pretty easy, and in the second act I was able to announce the wedding. I figured I'd have until the next act to bring Hamlet back to Denmark, but fortunately Sylvia did it for me, and my victory (and a happy ending to the play) were both assured at the end of act II. Everyone thought that perhaps my goal might have been a bit easier than some of the others. Of course, since I needed so many people alive it was also the condition most likely to go off-track early.

Final verdict: I like games that tell a story, and this one really fills the bill well. The learning curve is a bit steep, though -- I need to print out the strategy guide on the web site, that should help. We're also skeptical about the different goals being balanced, but that will take more plays to find out for sure. Like many games, I'm sure it would be more chaotic with more players -- that might make it more fun in the sense that it would be harder for one player to set things up for such an early win, but on the other hand perhaps less satisfying in that anyone who did win would probably just stumble into it from the actions of other players.

Of course, I probably liked it more because I won both games!

Thread: Re:Quick Comments

Hawklord — 2004-04-28T17:50:08+00:00

I heartily agree. This is a brilliant, bizarre game that is great for thespians and literature fans. The trouble is when you don't have enough friends who know the play well enough to play this game! Someday, I'll have to get all my different friends who studied studied Shakespeare with me in high school or college and my other friends who just happen to like Shakespeare (or at least Tom Stoppard's Rosy & Guildy R Dead) together in one room at the same time to play!

Thread: Quick Comments

Midian2000 — 2004-04-28T17:19:26+00:00

Yes, another English teacher is reviewing this game. Anyone surprised by that? Well, I no longer teach (I'm in engineering now...yes, I jumped ship), but I still game, and the moment I saw this game at Dragon's Lair in Austin, TX, I pounced on it. As a big fan of Mr. Billy Shakespeare AND of games in general, it seemed like a match made in heaven. The problem is: how do you get others not familiar with the play (or even one of the movie versions) to play this game. To this day, I've not been able to gather in a room enough people who know Rosencrantz from Guildenstern to play! Wah! So, my review is based upon the bits and the game's potential. I can see how easy it would be to produce this game for download on line. Frankly, I didn't even know it was available on line, and I bought it outright. Nearly all of the game is printed on light cardstock, except for some of the counters, which have been applied to the back of glass stones, creating a cool-looking, but hard to read set of counters. As for game play, in my humble opinion, don't even try this if you don't know the play. However, maybe you could play it with only people who DON'T know the play for comedic effect. One way or the other, do take advantage of the outcome grid available on this site, as determining the winner could be confusing without, considering the possible outcomes.

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nerotora — 2003-11-28T21:30:37+00:00

Thread: Session Report

LWinckles — 2003-01-27T15:21:06+00:00

I discovered this game on the Internet and downloaded the appropriate files, printed them off on card stock, and laminated them so that we could mark the cards as needed with an overhead marker. At that time there was a free download version, as well as a more complete retail version. It seems now that the free version no longer exists, but the retail version can be purchased at www.interactivitiesink.com.

I couldn't get anyone much interested in playing the game until we invited my son's English teacher, his wife, and the school's guidance counselor over for dinner one Sunday. We played the game with 7 players. It took a little bit of time to read and digest the rules, but soon everyone was standing up around the kitchen table, reading the options and trying to figure out what moves would advance the story to their particular desired ending.
My 15-year old son was a reluctant participant, but this soon changed, however, when it became impossible for him to meet the conditions of his ending card "Denmark über Allies". The victory conditions for this ending require that Hamlet be dead; Laertes, Claudius, and Gertrude be alive; Rosencrantz and Guilderstern loyal to Claudius, and Horatio either loyal to Laertes OR dead. What happened was that while some of the other players were moving Ophelia in and of the nunnery and driving her insane, someone caused Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a duel. The next player had Hamlet stab Laertes with his own sword, which resulted in Laertes' death at the end of the act. Thus my son could not possibly win.

What he then set out to do was to sabotage the other players by taking actions that would lead to the deaths of the other characters. He caused Claudius to plan to poison Hamlet, thus giving Gertrude access to poison, which then allowed Hamlet to foolishly drink from the poisoned goblet offered to him. In a similar manner he attempted to orchestrate the deaths of the other characters, so that the game concluded with the "Everyone Wins Everyone Loses" ending, in which all players are dead.

It took us about an hour to play the game, including time to comprehend the rules. Everyone had an enjoyable, albeit chaotic, time. The English teacher especially liked it, and appreciated receiving the copy of the game that I had made up for him. He hoped to be able to use it in his classes the next time they studied Hamlet. This seems to be the most appropriate setting for the game, as it is not one that would probably have much appeal at a game night (at least not more than once, as a novelty).

We noted two errors on page 3 of the rules, which state as a condition two times that Laertes be in England. However it is only possible for Laertes to be in Denmark or France. We decided that this condition should be that Laertes be in Denmark.

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bengkohn — 2002-08-14T11:47:31+00:00

Thread: Preview

BoardGameGeek — 2002-03-12T14:52:51+00:00

I just downloaded this free game. The site, Interactivities Inc., mainly focuses on a generic system for live-action roleplaying called Rules to Live By, but there are also several free board games that can be downloaded as well.

I'm an English teacher, so the subject matter of this one really intrigued me. Each player represents a "voice in Shakespeare's head" that wants the play to end up in a certain way. At the beginning of the game, you draw a card that states the condition that you want some of the play's characters to be at the end of the game. So your conditions might be "The Merry Comedie of Hamlet of Denmark," where all the main characters are alive and Hamlet is married to Ophelia, or "I, Claudius" where only Claudius is alive at the end, or "Sister Ophelia" where Ophelia is safely in a nunnery and Hamlet is dead.

The play is divided into five acts. In each act, every player takes a turn, which is called a scene. During your scene you can make any of the eight characters take one or more actions, like having Hamlet go to England, or Polonius chastise Laertes, or else scenes entirely different from the book, like Laertes leading an army to depose Claudius.

Various characters can get killed in the course of all this. When a character gets killed, his card gets flipped over and he can do no more actions. If a character gets killed whom you needed to have alive to fulfill your victory condition, then you get a new victory condition: that of the original play. At that point your new goal becomes to arrange for the plot of the original play to come true, by killing off almost all (other than Horatio) of the eight main characters. If that goal is achieved, then all the players win/lose equally.

I haven't played this yet, but it looks like a lot of fun. I hope to give it a go the next time I've got some gamers together. The production is pretty good, and it's certainly a good value!