Sphinx

A minor update, ‘cos I’m sitting on a train with nothing to read but student essays, on the ongoing development of Thucydides-related games, this time the card-based rock/paper/scissors variant that’s become known as the Peg Game because players accumulate (or lose) clothes pegs and display them as a sign of their power (or lack of it). I ran a version of this at a student Classics Society games evening tonight – it was supposed to be a debate, but not enough people signed up – and because I didn’t have any pegs to hand I tried using the cards themselves as the tokens of power.

This is quite entertainingly fiendish, as it ensures that successful players have the full range of options while losing players find their choices ever more constrained as they lose cards. I started everyone off with the standard three cards plus one random extra – and of course a couple of players started with an additional advantage. What I could have made clearer is that they should choose which card to hand over (or maybe their victorious opponent should choose one at random), rather than automatically losing the one they’ve just played, if only because that gives extra knowledge to the conqueror of what tactics to follow next time. Though maybe that’s fair enough…

And maybe one could start everyone off with a completely random selection of cards, rather than having the full range of options at the beginning. If we’re simulating classical Greece, should we assume that every polis was equally able to pursue any strategy?

In any case, the game followed the usual pattern: rapid emergence of a limited number of great powers, with defeated subjects in tow, slugging it out inconclusively until everyone gets bored and they start up the Mario Kart tornament instead…