Thursday, June 9, 2016

Interview with David Thompson - Castle Itter

Hello! Welcome back to the PNP News! This post is part of a series of interview that I'll be conducting with game designers who are participating in board game design contests on Board Game Geek. Today, I'll be interviewing David Thompson who designed the game Castle Itter for the 2015-16 Wargame Print and Play Contest.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your gaming history?
Greetings. I'm an American currently living in the UK. I've always been a tabletop gamer, but grew up as an RPGer. About 8 years ago I started exploring the world of board games and set out designing one of my own - Skirmish Tactics Apocalypse. My move to the UK two years ago has been a fantastic boon to the design process, as I've joined a great group of fellow designers in Cambridge. Living in the UK has also made trips to Essen possible, which is priceless for an aspiring designer.

What is your favorite PNP game?
Wow. There are so many great ones. I suggest anyone looking for amazing PnP games head over to www.goodlittlegames.co.uk for an amazing collection of small PnP titles. My favorite among the group is probably Empire Engine or Pocket Imperium. Please don't make me choose one!

How did you first discover PNP design contests?
I joined BGG in late 2011 or early 2012 as a means of seeking out feedback and playtesters for my first design (Skirmish Tactics). In 2013 I entered the game in the 2 player design contest in the "best pre-contest game" category. Since that time I also participated in the 2014 two player contest (with Quest for the Open Tavern) and in the 2015-2016 Wargame Contest (with Castle Itter).

Could you describe your game from a thematic point of view?
Castle Itter is based on the historical Battle for Castle Itter, which was fought on 5 May 1945, in the last days of the European Theater of World War II.

In the game, you take control of a makeshift force that is defending a medieval castle, nestled in the Austrian countryside from, a Waffen-SS assault. The force consists of an American tank crew and infantrymen, Wehrmacht infantrymen, a former SS officer, French prisoners, and an Austrian resistance fighter.

The French prisoners included former prime ministers, generals and a tennis star. It may have been the only battle in the war in which Americans and Germans fought side-by-side. Popular accounts of the battle have called it the "strangest" battle of World War II.

Could you describe your game from a game mechanics point of view?
During a game of Castle Itter, you take the role of the force that defended the castle from 0400 - 1600 on 5 May 1945. The goal of the game is to last until a deck of SS cards is depleted, without allowing SS Counters to reach the castle. Additionally, you score points for each Defender that becomes a casualty - the lower your score at the end of the game, the better.

Castle Itter is divided into turns. Each turn consists of the following:
- Take five actions with Defenders
- Play three SS cards.

During each turn you take five actions with your Defenders. You can only take one action with a Defender on a turn. The actions include:

- Attack
- Suppress
- Move within a location (Free Action)
- Move to a new location
- Special Actions (Command and Escape)
- Recover
- Remove suppression

Once you have completed your five Defender actions for the turn, reveal three SS Cards from the SS deck, one at a time, resolving the effect of each one before moving to the next. After all three SS Cards have been resolved, the turn is over and the next turn begins with five new Defender actions.

There are four different categories of SS Cards, based on the card effect:

- Attacking Defenders
- Attacking a Location
- Placing SS Counters
- Suppressing Defenders

What were your design goals with the game?
I had two main goals: first, I wanted to expose players to the rich, interesting story of this little-known but very intriguing battle. Second, I wanted the game to evoke the emotional experience and tension the defenders felt when desperately defending the castle.

How long have you been working on your game?
I originally brainstormed and conceptualized Castle Itter in late 2015. However, other priorities forced me to wait until January 2016 for the initial design effort to begin.

Finish the sentence: “If you like , then you’ll probably like my game” and perhaps let us know, what the similarities and differences are.
If you like Victory Point Games' States of Siege series of games, then you’ll probably like my game. During the design process somewhere around 10 people suggested I reach out to VPG as a publisher for the design. The game deviates from the SoS in many regards, with the most obvious being the scope of the battle (Castle Itter is extremely tactical, whereas many of the SoS games are operational or strategic in scope and scale). It also introduces many mechanisms not found in the SoS series, such as suppression, new methods for introduction of adversaries, a unique action selection system, etc. However, the core concept of defending an area against an advancing enemy is one in the same.



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