His troops enter my city. With one swift move, he cuts me off from resources and recruitment opportunities. I’m finished. For the next hour and a half, I’ll be dying of boredom trying to gather an army, but I know I’ve just lost my chance at victory.

“You could have met him head-on, sent out a patrol, and stopped his march a province earlier. He wouldn’t have gotten into your city,” says Michał.

“Is that possible? Can you stop him during his turn?” I ask, surprised.

“Well, yeah, before any enemy troop movement, you have the right to launch a counter-attack and strike the marching column.”

“I didn’t know that,” I reply, both furious and embarrassed.

Furious, because I lost this game, I gave up my capital only because I didn’t know one rule. I could have stopped him on the way to the city, then reinforced it, brought in the rest of my troops – the whole situation would have looked completely different, and I would still be in the running for victory.

Embarrassed, because whose fault is it? Well, mine. I wasn’t focused on listening to the rules, I forgot about that rule, I’m the fool who’s losing not because I made poor tactical decisions, but because I’m an idiot who doesn’t know the game rules.

***

Nothing frustrates me more in games than a situation like this. A situation where a fool like me takes away the satisfaction of victory from an opponent, where I make such a basic mistake that the victory loses its flavor. The whole game shifts from “You really played well, congratulations!” to “If I had known that rule, you wouldn’t have won.” bullshit.

And there are two more guys at the table, disappointedly watching me as I wrecked the whole game, as I let the opponent seize my capital effortlessly, and now, with a cruel smile, he turns toward them. I’ve thrown off the balance of the whole game. I’ve ruined the game for all four of us.

I, the fool who sits down to play without knowing all the rules. The fool whose ignorance didn’t just spoil the fun for himself, but for everyone at the table.

So today, a plea – don’t be a fool. Grit your teeth, clench your fists, and when someone explains the rules, listen.

John Wick is one of the most important creators in the RPG games industry. I had the pleasure to meet him in person just once, for a short time, when he was a guest at one of the Polish conventions. I’m that guy from the board games industry, and he’s the star of the RPG scene, but we somehow always manage to pass by each other.

John designed some of the best games in the history of RPG—Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea. I had lots of fun playing both these titles, but what’s equally important, they heavily influenced my beginnings in the industry. John is also a great writer—his series of articles about Orkworld, published online in 2000, had a huge impact on my narration style and marketing of my first games. This legendary collection of opinion articles, printed and bound, proudly stands on my RPG bookshelf to this day. Right next to the Orkworld, of course.

It was a game of Elysium. I didn’t pay enough attention when the rules were explained and it cost me a lot from the very beginning—I had no idea what to do.

And then I saw a card with an artwork by my favorite illustrator—Vincent Dutrait!

I grabbed that card and looked through the deck if there were any other cards that he illustrated. Indeed, there were.

I smiled. I had my goal for that game! Collect cards illustrated by Vincent Dutrait. Those cards only, and none other.

As you can imagine, this tactic didn’t bring me many Victory Points, but my tableau looked amazing and I called the game a win!

***

We sit and play a board game with an obvious and clear goal—to win. If we play with a different goal in mind, we may ruin the game for somebody else at the table. Other players assume that our actions will be reasonable and lead us to victory. They adjust their strategy accordingly to that assumption.

If we start playing like a madman, doing random stuff, play in an unpredictable way—we will ruin the game.

That’s bad. That’s not why we play at all. But…

***

If we come up with a little twist for our strategy, if we announce that new goal and we make sure we will not spoil game for other players… it might be worth a shot. Build 7 buildings during a game of Citadel, each with a different value on it. Collect the most monsters in Kemet. Pick only the ugliest spouses possible in Legacy and build the ugliest family in the game.

Did you ever try playing outside the box?
Which game? What was your goal?

I’ve been there. I wrote Neuroshima RPG, put my heart and soul into it, made the game successful in Poland and then I became the main enemy of the fans of the game.

I couldn’t understand this. I was really shocked when I was reading mean comments on the Internet about me ruining the game. Fans were disappointed with the game’s expansions, or with the lack of expansions, or with the price of expansions, or with the artwork, or whatever. There was always–always!–a reason to complain about the Neuroshima series.

I was their main enemy. That jerk. That fucker. That Trzewiczek-the-asshole. The guy who ruined their beloved game.

I was sitting in front of my computer and I wanted to scream. Hey, guys! I am the one who created the game. I am the one who wrote the book you love. I am the one who gave you hundreds of hours of great RPG sessions. Why do you hate me?

That was tough. I learned the lesson. This year I’ll turn 40. A wise man, this Trzewiczek, has now become.

***

We are afraid of change. Change is always something unknown and we don’t like the unknown. We like the stuff we know. We feel safe with the stuff we know. There is this famous quote from a Polish movie that goes: 'The songs I like the most are the songs I already know’. Pretty accurate, huh?

Announcing a new edition of the game is announcing a change. A publisher is telling you that the game you know, the game you love, the game you spent hundreds of hours with is going to change.

Let’s face it. These changes cannot be good. It’s obvious that they will ruin the game. Why would they change it in the first place?! Leave the game alone, you [redacted]!

***

A couple of days ago we announced a new edition of 51st State. The famous Master Set. The BGG threads went hot.

„F**k, this is the one thing I wished they kept”

„Horrible changes, the hype for me is dead.”

„It just sounds like they gutted all the things I found most interesting”

and so on and so forth.

First of all: it’s not 'they’. It’s me. There is no Smoking Man who stays in the shadow and is ruining your game. It’s me. The guy who created the game in the first place in 2010.

I spent the last few months polishing the game and making it better. I removed a ton of rules that were not necessary. I rebalanced the cards. I made it quicker and more riveting. It’s either me or you now, there is no time for a 'we have five rounds’ stroll as in Imperial Settlers. Just this weekend Merry crushed me at the end of the third round. That was something I did not see coming. You feel the pressure from the very first turn. Either you make your engine going or you are out. It’s a gamer’s game for real.

But even though I know the game is better, I know I will disappoint many fans of the game. I have no doubts about that. Because…

***

I’ve been there. I designed 51st State, put my heart and soul into it, made it the game successful worldwide and then I became the main…

edited by Piotr, thank you!

So we were playing Sail to India and even though I liked the game, I had these moments of lack of concentration – when Merry and Ralph were doing their turn, I was checking my Twitter and Instagram feeds. At some point Ralph poked me in the arm. „It’s your turn, man” he said. „Oh, sorry. What did you do?” I asked him.

In response he gave me that look. He looked at me with his eyes telling me: „You were not paying attention and you were twitting all the time and now you want me to kindly describe you what I did in my turn?”

That look.

So I shut up and I did my turn. And then I put away my Iphone. No more twitter feed during the game.

***

I am active user of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I post photos of games I play, I banter about games on Twitter and I love the fact that I can discuss games with people from all over the world.

But…

At some point I might forgot that playing games is a social experience that involves real people sitting right in front of me. I might forgot that I should talk with them not with my Twitter feed. I might forgot that it is good – waiting for my turn – interact with them and have fun with them, not with my smartphone…

It’s cool to make a photo of the game and post it on Instagram. It is cool to post something interesting or funny about the game and share your thoughts with the world.

But it is not cool to sit with 4 friends at the table and stare at your Iphone all the time.

***

When I was at Gen Con I saw that sadly it was not only my problem. I saw that many geeks were distracted by their smartphones. I saw geeks who hold cards in one hand and their iphone in the other. I saw people checking their FB/Twitter/whatever every time they were done with their turn.

That sucks, people.

I say it loud and I say it honest – I was there too. I was social media freak too (well, I still am!). I was acting like jerk. But I am acting better now. Still, when I play board game, I take a photo at the beginning or at the end of the game. I post or tweet funny comment or my thoughts about the game after it is finished. But for the whole game I try to keep my smartphone in the pocket. I try to not get distracted. I try to be social… to people who sit with me at the table.

What can I say more. I poke you guys. It’s your turn to act.