The first time I came across this term was in 2007 during my interview with Bruno Faidutti for Polish magazine “Swiat gier planszowych” (World of board games). I asked him how many games he had in his collection. „More than five thousand, hard to say. I cannibalize many games.”

„What?” – I asked, clearly not understanding what he meant. My conversational Polishenglish combined with his Frenchenglish … I think you can sympathize.

„I cannibalize. I take components from other games and use them in my own prototypes. Thus, a lot of my game boxes are incomplete and will never be playable again.”

„Oh.” I said. That was something absolutely new for me. And it was two years after my conversation with Bruno, when – during my works on Stronghold – I finally fully understood what he meant.

***

I have used wood from two Mykerinos boxes, two Glik boxes and one box of Elasund for my Stronghold prototype. I’ve added a cartload of Lego bricks as walls, pots, cannons, hooks… The castle looked like a vast construction site. For a moment it even seemed possible that five incomplete game sets and a pile of my son’s bricks was enough for me to work. Unfortunately… During the final stage of my work on the game I had to send the prototype to testers, and had I not discovered a store with wooden beads I would have been in serious trouble and Ystari company would have been over the moon with twenty more Mykerinos boxes sold.

While working on Prêt-a-Porter I’ve cannibalized copies of Arkham Horror. This game has wonderful cash tokens. I’ve borrowed one of the copies from the club in Gliwice, the other one was lend to me by Tycjan from Opole. I have tarnished the sanctity during my works on Stronghold: Undead – I’ve used chess pawns for priests. I have also made use of green cubes from Space Alert. They have worked so well that eventually we contacted our friends from the CGE and with their help the final version of Undead is equipped with the same tape of cubes as in Space Alert, however they are blood-red colored…

My 51st State was created using wood pieces from Light Speed, and Light Speed was created on the basis of Ikea glass markers. I designed Witchcraft with the usage of damage indicators from the first edition of Neuroshima Hex, and Machina (Machine)… To be honest, I’ve created Machina from scratch, all by myself. It was my first game. I didn’t know then that one should steal the components, and not cut them out with scissors from cardboard…

***

I write about all this all as now working on my Robinson game I’ve cannibalized without even noticing my favorite CGE game – wonderful and crazy Galaxy Trucker. And now, not only I cannot fly into space and experience great adventures there – I also had to splash some paint on my brave Czech astronauts for the sake of Robinson. In my prototype I needed meeples in four different colors, so I had to paint the astronauts. Their resemblance to Neil A. Armstrong is lost.

Galaxy Trucker is one of my son’s favorite games. And what will I tell him now? How can I admit what I have done? Even if I finish my work on Robinson pretty soon, even if none of the astronauts is lost during the tests and they all eventually return to Galaxy Trucker’s box, space trips will never be the same again. Robinson has left a considerable mark on them …

Essen fair has ended, stress level has fallen- finally a moment to catch a breath. I can play in the newest releases, see what the other authors have prepared, take a gulp of new ideas. I’ll note the interesting solutions that may be inspiring and I’ll allow my mind to be stirred by others. Sometimes – quite unexpectedly – something completely new is born from all this commotion.

Finally, after several plays, the commotion came. Oh yes. And as a result, within two weeks after Essen the brand new prototype has landed on the table. We play. Turns come and go. Step by step Merry is gaining the upper hand and finally I can see nothing’s going to change that in the following two moves before the end of the game. I was beaten. The prototype seems to be cool, yet the cards have little to do with balance.

I draw my last card. It’s named Commandos, yet there is no text nor symbols with rules on it, only the title and cool graphics. I didn’t have a slightest idea for the mechanics, only a cool title, so I just tossed this card into the deck. Very clever. „Trzewiczek style” they call it – the story always comes first, then you’ll have time to worry, dude, about the rules.

And so I draw this stupid Commandos and with a poker face I put it in New York saying „Commandos. I won.”

Merry’s eyes widen.

If I had to buy her some contact lenses just in that moment, they would have to be the bottom of a jar size.

„What?” she asks almost completely speechless.

I lost miserably. The only thing left for me was to tease her a little bit. „Well, I pulled Commandos. Didn’t I tell you that when Outpost draws that card, it wins? And so I won.”

Merry didn’t believe in what she’s just heard. „There is no such card.”

I keep my face straight. „There is. As you can clearly see here. Commandos wins the game.”

„Ignacy, there is no such card!” Merry furiously rushes to the other side of the table, grabs the Commandos and throws it away. The card lands besides the window. „Ignacy, there is no such card.”
All I could do is bursts out laughing.

Two days later, the Commandos has its abilities described. Maybe it does not win the game, but… but still gets to be my favorite card in the whole deck.

Somewhere at the beginning of January, Steel Police got on my nerves and I snapped. The army’s made an incredible carnage on the table in Portal’s office. Won most of the battles. You see, it was not only winning all the battles – it was beating other armies into a pulp. Again and again. Results’ sheets from the turn of December and January are filled with such results as 17:0, 12:0, 13:1, and even 7: -4.

The day when we were to close our tests and start preparing files for printing was getting closer, and the army was behaving ridiculously. Finally I couldn’t stand it. I called Michał Oracz.

„Michał, come to the Company. We must weaken the Steel Police. What we have here is a mockery of a balance. „- since from January 2011 Michał no longer worked in Portal, we had to call him to the Company if we wanted to mix with Neuroshima Hex. And it seemed that we had to mix a lot. Michał had to come. Two hours later he stood in the doorway of our office.

„Michał, the army is not balanced. I have the entire file of results – and it looks very bad. ” I greeted him quickly getting to the point.

Michał took the printout. Looked. And nodded.

„You’re playing it wrong.”

I gaped at him.

„What?”

„The army is balanced. You’re playing it wrong. Who’s watching the rules during the tests? „

„Maciek.”

Michał sat down with him and began to question him from rules. Just like during the exam. He pulled from his sleeve the most bizarre situations and asked how he would interpret them. Such thing has yet never been seen in Portal. The situation was peculiar.

Maciek’s passed the test. He answered all the questions. And so Michał invited him to play.

„Show how you play the Steel Police.”

Michał took the Hegemony. And took victory over Steel Police in stride. They played again. Steel Police has lost a second time. They played a third time. Steel Police has been beaten the third time in a row.

„The army is balanced. Learn how to play.” He said simply and went home.

***

A few days later Steel Police tests moved to the next stage – we sent the file to the most trusted and experienced Neuroshima Hex players in Poland. Those guys who win tournaments. The ones that go to conventions and organize game shows. The biggest NS HEX geeks in the country. They were obliged to send daily packages of results, along with a description of their plays. The results ended up in Michał Oracz’s mailbox and a copy was sent to me. I watched them. They made my hair stand on the end.

The Steel Police was almost unbeatable. The results were frightening. We had 3 weeks to the tests’ closing date and the army had absolutely nothing to do with balance. It won all of the battles.

During this time I called Michał almost every day.

„Michał, did you get the latest results? We are weakening the army, huh? Introduce a few changes, please.”

„They have to learn how to play against this army. It is balanced. Do not change anything. „

Just 3 weeks left. I was close to a heart attack.

***

Have you seen Moneyball? There is an extraordinary scene where Brad Pitt, manager of the Oakland Athletics is called along with his assistant on the carpet by chairman of the club. Team results are a catastrophe, Oakland lost eighteen games in a row. They are last in the group. The chairman asks what they’re going to do.

„We estimate that we will begin to win in mid-season.”

„I beg your pardon?”

„The team will start to win in mid-July. We will qualify to the playoff. Trust us, please. „

They’ve just lost the eighteenth game in a row. Trust us. Yeah, they certainly have the nerve.

***

It was several days ago. Two weeks before the zero hour. After the weekend I received from our testers another large batch of Steel Police results. Resigned, I gave it a glance. And immediately, I mean immediately grabbed the phone.

„Did you see the results?!” I almost shouted to the receiver.

„They’ve learned how to play.” Michał replied calmly.

The bastard was right. He had known from the start what would happen.

„They’ve learned how to play.” I said and nodded. „They’ve learned how to play…”

In this story Michał has played the part of Brat Pitt. I was only the chairman who withstood the pressure and didn’t start to tamper in the team …