A very talented designer with a very hard name… [http://files.neuroshima.org/ready7a.mp3] 😉

At the beginning Theseus was called Pandora. We really liked the name, it was easy to remember, it had great connotations with mythology, it was widely known word. And there was one tiny problem – there were 5 different games with that name in BGG database.

So we had to find something new. That’s how we found Theseus.

*

Pandora was inspiring word. At some point Michal came to office and said that he has this idea for fifth faction. It’s called Pandora. 

’It will be a disease’, he said. 'It will grow and affect enemy in a nasty ways. Very different, very unique faction.’

Yeah, idea was cool. But I had to make his dream collapse.

’We can’t afford 5th faction in the box. My budget is already very tight. We aim for 36 euro box. We have unique boards, lots of cards, wooden pawns… There is no way I can add something more. Keep Pandora for expansion. We design game for 2-4 players, we will have 4 factions. I can not put more cards and boards into box, sorry.’

Michal said he understand it.

We got back to testing 4 factions. Weeks passed. Finally we changed name from Pandora into Theseus. I forgot about 5th faction…

*

One Wednesday Michal came to office to play-test Theseus. 

’I have Pandora with me’ he said.

’It’s called Theseus now. Get used to this name, man!’ I said smiling.

’I mean fifth faction. Pandora. I have it ready.’ he said.

’I told you I can’t afford it. Production of the game is already very expensive with those all unique boards.’

’Let me show you’ he said.

He took zip bag and poured few tokens. He looked at me with pride with his eyes and smiled.

’Can your budget handle few more tokens?’ he asked.

’That’s it? Few tokens?’, I was really stunned.

’Yes’ he said.

’And it works?’, I couldn’t believe he really did Pandora faction.

’You will love it’, he said.

*

So here we are. We have game for 2-4 players with 4 different factions… and he have 5th faction in the box. It’s added because we have dreams. It’s added because we believe impossible is possible. It’s added because Michal is stubborn son of a bitch and couldn’t agree budget taking control over his game. He spent as much time as needed and used his talent and passion to design faction that will fit my budget.

We give you more than you expect. We want you smile when you open the box. We want you think: „These guys at Portal really love their job…’

***

Me and Michal have one history – we both have RPG roots. Portal Games was founded in 1999 as a RPG company. We wrote together few RPG, dozen of expansions, countless number of articles and adventures for RPG. 

We both love good stories.

However, our approach to board game design is totally different. I design story driven – often too fiddly – huge games like Stronghold or Robinson. He designs quite abstract, very clear games like Neuroshima Hex or Witchcraft.

(What is funny, both of us think that our games are super thematic.)

At some point, when I was talking with Michal about Theseus I was really surprised with his approach – it looked like all faction cards have not only rules but also a story behind them. Michal exactly knew why each card was in the game not only in terms of rules and balance, but also in terms of story of this faction.

He knew exactly what’s going on on this space station.

’We should show it to players.’ I said.

’What?’ he asked.

’Show them why these factions are on Theseus and why are they fighting.’ I said.

It took us few weeks to find a good way to show you this story…

*

Do you know term gamebook? Have you played or at least hear about Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy? Played Freeway Warrior created by Joe Dever?

We have RPG roots. We can tell stories. We can tell you what’s going on on Theseus in a really fun way…

*

I must say, it was not easy. I must say, it was much more work than we expected. I must say… I was crazy when I got this idea about writing 4 small gamebooks, one for each of the 4 main factions. 4 short stories that will unfold mysteries of Theseus. I admit, it was insane dream. Dream that showed me back of each faction board hiding QR code that heads player to small PDF file with a gamebook dedicated to this faction…

We didn’t have to do it. This is effort no one expect from us. This is something that isn’t industry standard.

It’s added because we have dreams. It’s added because we believe impossible is possible. It’s added because we want to raise bar.

We want to add more than you expect. We want you smile when you open the box. We want you think: „These guys at Portal really love their job…”

***

Dear gamers,
Yes, we love our job.
I believe that none of you, who read this blog doubt it.
Expect unexpected. And watch us raising bar.

Ignacy Trzewiczek
Portal Games

I was struggling for couple of weeks about this post. I knew that I need to tell you about Theseus. I knew that you wait for information about this brand new game designed by Michal Oracz. But I also knew that I love this game…

I can’t talk about it without passion and love. I can’t talk about it other way than just praise. I can’t pretend that I am not amazed with Theseus. I can’t convince you that my description of the game is in the slightest way neutral. I can’t state that anything I say about this game is objective truth.

Because it’s not.

These all words below are words coming from the mouth of a fan.

Everything I say today, you need to divide into half, because I am fan of Theseus.
Everything I show you today, you need to treat with reserve, because I am fan of Theseus.
Everything I point as a great in this game, you need to consider carefully having in mind… that I am fan of Theseus.

I am honest. I don’t want to give you some marketing bullshit that big companies would give you. I just want to tell you truth – why I am in love with Theseus.

***

Factions
We have Marines, Scientists, Aliens and Greys. Each faction has 3 action pawns and 25 cards. 

*

They all look quite the same… till the moment you start playing Marines…

…till the moment your Marines put Battle position on one of the Sectors and make hell to every single opponent’s pawn that will be so stupid to stop there.
…till the moment your Marines put Barricades card on one of the Sectors and become immune to opponent’s attacks there.
…till the moment your Marines put Mine card in one Sector, and second Mine card in other Sector and another one in yet another Sector… You’ll hear sounds of explosions every time your opponent moves his pawn. 'I love smell of napalm’ you’ll say. You play Marines. No f… doubt about this, right?

*

These cards look quite the same… till the moment you start playing Aliens…

…till the moment your Aliens use Vent shortcut cards and simply ignore rules of movement in the game. Shsh, shshs… you sneak in shadows and move among the sectors the way you want to move – ignoring every rules that would stay on your way…
…till the moment your Aliens put Tentacles in one of the Sectors making it damn hard to move through, making it trap for enemy, making it place where they will die… …till the moment your Aliens put Incubator card and start growing new small aliens that will infect enemy…

*

These cards look quite the same… till the moment you start playing Scientists…

…till the moment your Scientists use Camera cards and begin gather Victory Points in spite of the fact that enemy tries to kill them. Enemy shoots but you don’t give a shit, you’re dying, but you’re gathering data and enemy can’t do anything about this.
…till the moment you use Med labs to keep you alive, till the moment you use Remote control cards to make space station work for you every round! You use technology to outsmart enemy. Yes, he shoots but you are the smart one, you are not afraid of stupid marine, are you?

*

These cards look quite the same… till the moment you start playing Greys…

…till the moment your begin take Control over other player’s pawns and start messing with them. Telepathy is a strong weapon, trust me mate.
…till the moment you use Transfer card to steal life points from enemy and use them to heal your units…
…till the moment you simply use Teleport and do whatever you need… Yeah, Greys can do nasty things…

*

Just like with Neuroshima Hex, Michal took few cards (tokens in Neuroshima Hex) and make the impossible – unique factions that differ in a way that seems unachievable! They let you play different strategies and let you feel their unique theme even though there is only few cards in the game. 

This is Michal’s strength. This is his footprint. This is his mark. Factions.

***

Two levels of decision

When you activate one of your pawns, you move it number of spaces equal to the number of pawns that are in this very sector.

Let’s say there is 1 your pawn and 2 enemy’s pawns in the sector. If you move your pawn, you will move exactly 3 spaces and later on your enemy will move exactly 2 spaces. That’s the rule.

This is clear, right? How this influence game play? When you move, you change movement of the enemy. You move out from the Sector and his movement changes. This let you do amazing stuff.

Each round you decide:
– which Sector you want to reach with one of your pawns,
– which Sector you don’t want enemy to reach in his round with one of his pawns.

Every single round is important choice to be made. Every single round you have decision – if you mess with enemy and make his movement sucks or you focus on your goals and move your pawns to get maximum benefit possible.

This allows you to test different strategies – you can play more nasty and try to think about enemy future movement, you can play more focused on your goals and try to earn as much as possible with each of your moves.

And always, after each game it leaves you with this amazing feeling: 'I should play it differently at this particular moment…’

***

Living board

With nearly every move you make, you can put into a game one of your cards and install it on any Sector or you can discard one card from opponent’s reserve. Once again, you play nasty and discard enemy cards or you focus on your faction and install as many your cards as possible.

Board is changing, constantly changing into unique blend of new features and abilities. One of the Sectors is in Fire, other has Trap detector installed, in one sector Aliens installed Nest, in the other Roots, one sector is dominated by Scientists with Recorders, Med lab and Secret passage, other is in control of Greys…

Each time you play, board has different features and combos. Each time you play you try to make Sectors work for you. Each time you play you create some kind of deadly mechanism, you put cards into play, you put them in different Sectors so they begin to work together and give you deadly tools…

This game is about creating deadly tool. This is about reshaping board into your home, it is about making it safe place for you and deadly place for enemy. This is about slowing him in this sector and putting Mine there and then starting Fire in the next Sector. You make him cry each time he steps into this region of the board…

At some point the board is full. At some point board is working in it’s unique own way. At some point it will be clear – you did your job better or the opponent. Each time you move you cry or you smile? Moving among the Sectors makes his Faction die or your…?

During tests we were noting down some of the most amazing combinations we managed to create. We knew that they are unique, that replaybility from these 100 cards and 7 sectors is huge and we need to save this spectacular combos. We will make a small video about them. We want to show you how incredible things can be created with this game.

***

Theseus is amazing tactical game. It is unforgiving game. You need to be focused. You need to make important choices. It is a deadly challenge, with low luck factor. Challenge that may leave you after play with this sad feeling: 'He smashed me down, because he played better.’

Depending on your character you will say: 'Revenge!’
Or you pass and look for less confrontational game.

I say 'Revenge.’

First version of Theseus was ready very quickly. Michal told me about his idea and he began design different locations and cards. He is good at this stuff and he was working fast and efficient…

I, on the other hand, got this simple idea with Mancala rules – few days earlier I player Trajan and I really liked this 'mancala wheel’ there but in my opinion it lacked something. It lacked interaction. When thinking about space station for Theseus I got this cool idea – we take mancala wheel from Trajan, but we change it a little bit – we make every pawn matter – no matter mine or yours – each pawn changes number of spaces you can move from this location.

I showed it to Michal. It worked perfect. In a few days Theseus was basically ready…

***

For the next few weeks we were playing Theseus every Wednesday. I was giving Michal my suggestions, asking him to change things, I was looking for best game play, tweaking in the game and every week he got long list of changes I want him to put into game.

From my point of view we were doing great.

Unfortunately, it was only my point of view…

***

The thing I did not realized at that time was that Michal is not used to work in this way. For me it was damn obvious cycle, my daytime practice – change this, change that, move back, don’t change this, but change that in different way, remove special cards, add special cards, try to shorten game, try to make it longer… 

This is how I work. I play and I test, I play and I look what’s best. I am not wise ass. I don’t know all best solutions from the very beginning. I am testing animal. I play and I play, and I change things as many times as needed till the moment I feel that this is it.

For me all the changes, moving back and forth was fun. For Michal it was not fun at all. Every single week he was closer and closer to loose temper.

So one Wednesday…

***

It was just another testing Wednesday. But Michal that day looked strange. He was damn serious. He sat, put prototype on the table and before he set up the game, he said something like that:

’I think we are not moving forward. This is pointless. We play and change the game and nothing works. I did some changes, but if you don’t like it today I think I will abandon this project.’

Woow. That was shocking. For the past few weeks I had great time exploring different possible variants of the game and now what?! Abandon? Not moving forward? WTF?

’What do you mean?’ I asked.

’Let’s play. If you don’t like it again, we will talk and we will have to make decision…’

OK, that was kind of a shock. I didn’t expect that coming.

So we play. I am quite nervous. It was to be fun afternoon. But it isn’t! Michal is damn serious. I feel like I am playing with Christopher Walken. It’s not cool!

***

I don’t know how it was possible. Was it because of terror Michal introduced at the beginning? Was it because of the fact he spent countless hours on this new version? Was it just because everything finally clicked and jumped in right places…? I don’t know. The fact is – that afternoon Theseus was working damn good. I really liked it. 

I told that to Michal. He took prototype and continued his work.

I am not sure what would happen if I suggested him another portion of changes. His acting that Wednesday was only a bluff or he really was standing against the wall and had enough of my contrary suggestions of changes…

We will never know…

***

We argued a lot for the 12 months. We had many serious and bloody fights with me accusing Michal that he has no idea about design and with him accusing me that I had no idea about strategy… Fights with me explaining him that one faction is weaker and with him kicking my ass playing that very faction. Fights with me telling him that game is too fiddly and with him asking me if I have – by any chance – played Robinson Crusoe… 

We were struggling for every single card. We were struggling for every single rule. It was a one year war.

Both of us loved the game. Both of us wanted to do our best and make this game better. Michal was an author – he had full authority to do any changes he wanted. I was publisher and his friend and his loyal tester – I felt I had full authority to suggest him any changes I wanted.

So we both struggled.

***

Game is ready. War is over. I can say I was the worst tester ever. I was doing exact the thing I hate when my testers do. I was suggesting new rules, I was trying to influence the author, I was pushing my ideas and trying to make Theseus mine game. I was terrible.

If I had such a tester I would kick him off after two test games.

Michal was patient. He fight with me for a year. He kept ignoring most of my ideas and he was doing his job. He made this game the way he wanted.

Conclusion?

Never ever invite me for testing. And check out Theseus. Amazing game, even though most of my brilliant ideas Michal threw to the bin…

I think it was August 2012. I was extremely tired with testing Robinson, playing four or five test games every single day, playing all those six scenarios, all those different cards and player variants. I was low with fuel, terribly exhausted. I really dreamed about not playing prototype for a year.

One day, at moment of despair I called Michal Oracz. The guy who designed Neuroshima Hex, then Witchcraft and then abandoned new designs and turned to his other passions…

So when I understood that I have no strength to start working on new prototypes for 2013 I decided to make a call and summon him.

***

’Michal, I need help. I did 6 games in past 4 years, now I am finishing with Robinson and I am sick of playing my prototypes. I need break. I need one year vacation. I need you to give me game.’

’OK’ said Michal.

He then opened his drawer and next day visited my office.

’Here are listed some ideas I have.’ he said and passed me two sheets of paper. There were about 40 games listed. Woow. It took me a while to read it.

There were few interesting ideas. I asked about the one called Alien. I like Alien. To be honest, who doesn’t, huh?

Michal took piece of paper and began to draw…

***

’In all these sf games like Doom or Gears of War players are moving miniatures – one move 3 spaces, then the other guy moves 2 spaces and aims, and then the next guy moves 3 spaces and then first guy moves again and they are moving and moving…’

’…what’s your point?’ I asked.

’I want my Alien to be like Mall of Horror’ he said. Michal knows me. He knows that Mall of Horror is in my Top 10 games ever, spot 1. Best game on that very planet.

Yes, he got my attention.

’Mall of Horror?’

’Yes, you know, locations in Mall of Horror has rules, you move to Security HQ, and you see where zombies go, you move to Parking and you draw items… There is no I move three spaces. There is I run to Parking to grab some weapons!

I want few locations on this space station and you move between these locations, but there are no small steps. You move from Corridors to Armory, you move from Dock to Bridge, you move from Bridge to Med lab. Each time you move, it matters.’

I already liked it, but he kept talkin’:

’You move to Med Lab and you heal all your guys. You move to Armory and you got super weapon. You move to Corridors and you kill enemy. Huge actions. Every move matters. No: I move 3 spaces. I want: I move to Armory. This players pawns would not represent one soldier, but rather group. If you move to Corridors it means, your faction took control over Corridors and you can shoot enemy. You move to Med lab it means your soldiers took control over Med lab and you can heal now…’

He was talking more, but no need to report all of this. You got his point, right? This movement would be rather abstract, but on the other hand so much thematic. Just like Neuroshima Hex, war game that we all love and play a lot – there are units, battles, HQ and such stuff, but in its core this is great abstract game.

Michal got this new idea – one space station. Few rooms with powerful abilities. And your faction trapped there with enemy. Every time you move, you move to new room and you activate its ability.

’I want this for Essen 2013.’ I said.

***

More than year later I can say: I have it for Essen 2013. It’s called Theseus. Michal Oracz is back. I summoned him and we have great sf tactical game.

And me? Well, I didn’t have vacations. Perhaps next year…