Brian Train
Canada
Victoria
British Columbia
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This review originally ran in substantially this form in Simulacrum #15.
WEIRD GAMES YOU’VE NEVER PLAYED DEPARTMENT
DEMONO
Published by Frank Beat Keller, 1985
Designed by “P.M.”
A decidedly odd card game developed by the enigmatic Swiss anarchist known only as “P.M.”, author of the utopian work Bolo’Bolo: Substructing the Planetary Work Machine among others.
One player represents the Grey world of concrete, conformity and profit, while the other represents the Colored world of demons, imagination and playful destruction (!).
Players: 2
Playing time: about one hour
Period: post-modern
Time/Ground/Unit scales: abstract
Components
small rule book in German, French and English, with one sheet of additions and clarifications
96 double-sided cardboard tiles
26 single-sided money tiles
1 4 x 6 1/2” cardboard box
Counter Manifest
There are 96 double-sided tiles, 1 ¾” square, of thick well-cut cardboard like the standard “German” game component. One side of each tile represents a Grey element (mobile or static), while the other side represents a Colored element (though there are nine tiles that are Grey on both sides). The artwork is what I would call “crude but enthusiastic”.
Grey mobile elements:
36 workers (18 male, 18 female)
12 policemen
16 professionals
Grey static elements:
12 businesses
8 computers
8 households
4 schools
Colored mobile elements:
10 penguins (5 x 2, 4 x 3, 1 x 4)
4 spiders (1 x 1, 3 x 3, all 2x)
5 octopi (2 x 2/3x, 2 x 3/2x, 1 x 2/2x)
4 chimaeras (2 x –10/3, 1 x –10/2, 1 x –20/3)
1 sphinx (-20/4)
5 devils (3 x 5, 2 x 4)
6 dragons (3 x.4, 3 x 5)
2 hydras (1 x 5, 1 x 4)
5 apes (3 x 1, 1 x 3, 1 x 0)
2 snakes (1 x 1, 1 x 2)
3 mice (3 x –10/3)
5 turtles (5 x 0)
3 cats (2 x 2, 1 x3)
Colored static elements
5 death (2 x black square, 2 x cross, 1 x angel)
2 explosions (starburst)
5 ruins (2 x smoking ruins, 2 burning buildings, 1 computer with an axe in it)
9 nature scenes (sea, lily, forest, etc.)
10 miscellaneous scenes (magic box, puppet theatre, palace, etc. etc.)
1 free public radio station
Tiles that are Grey on the reverse side instead of Colored:
1 television
2 factories
2 policemen
2 professionals
1 computer
1 school
Money tiles (total 26):
7 x 1, 4 x 2, 2 x 5, 5 x 10, 5 x 20, 3 x 50, 2 x 100
Collector’s Value
This game is out of print and is hard to track down. I first saw mention of it in an ad in the back of a pamphlet distributed by Autonomedia, a publishing house devoted to wacko radical Communistic literature, in the late 1980s. In 2002 I obtained my copy from Marginal Distribution ( www.marginalbook.com), a radical bookstore in Peterborough, Ontario (how’s that for cognitive dissonance) for about US$17.00.
Player’s Value
The Grey player begins by selecting 200 money units of mobile and static elements, without looking at their colored sides. He arranges them in a single coherent group with the elements arranged in patterns that will maximize his profit. For example, a business tile only produces profit if it is combined with at least one worker tile, the more the better, while having a computer (with a professional tile to operate it) as part of the pattern will double the profit. Household-plus-worker combinations produce new workers (for some reason, hooking up a computer to a household also doubles the output of children!), while school-plus-professional combinations convert workers into professionals or policemen. Policemen deport or eliminate mobile Colored units, while professionals (acting as intellectuals, psychiatrists or politicians) can turn Colored elements back to their Grey sides. Grey can spend some of his profits buying new elements to add to his patterns, but he ultimately wins by accumulating profits equal to his initial investment of 200 money units.
Meanwhile, the Colored player does his best to subvert and destroy portions of the intricate socioeconomic machine Grey has built. He begins by turning over one or more mobile Grey elements and can, to a limited extent move some of his mobile Colored elements. There are 19 different types of Colored elements, each with different effects. Typically these consist of turning over or removing Grey elements, or preventing static Grey elements from functioning. If the Colored player’s actions separate the Grey “machine” into two or more groups, then the smaller groups are removed form the game. If the Colored player can turn over all mobile Grey elements, or prevent Grey from making any profit for three consecutive turns, he wins.
Some suggestions in the rules book and addenda imply that the Colored player is favored to win, and so it would seem: for while the Colored player cannot develop much of a coherent strategy, all he has to do is make things freeze up and all apart, while the Grey player must both make a profit and “defend society” against those meddling kids. Trying giving the Grey player more money to start.
Support material
None, of course.
Other games of this type
As an aficionado of politically-slanted “man in revolt” simulations, I’ve never encountered anything quite like this game. There are some games that approach it (like Chicago-Chicago or Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker) but not on such an abstract level.
Other games by this designer
In 1986 Frank Beat Keller published a more standard-looking board game called Bolo Bolo which attempted to explain in game form P.M.’s ideas about autonomous social groups and how they function in urban society. It is also out of print and apparently was available in German only.
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Dan Blum
United States
Wilmington
Massachusetts
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Re:User Review
Is the "one sheet of additions and clarifications" printed on red paper? I thought that was strategy tips, or something, but I didn't look too closely at it (it doesn't have English text, at least in my copy).
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Dan Blum
United States
Wilmington
Massachusetts
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Re:User Review
On a different note, if anyone wants a copy and Marginal Books doesn't have any (their website wasn't clear, it looks as if they might), Fata Morgana does ( www.fatamorgana.ch). They also have one copy of Bolo Bolo left, which I had considered ordering but didn't based on the information available in links from Luding (although now that it's CHF10, it might be worth a look).
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