Long time ago in a far away galaxy My Wife didn’t play board games. Then I showed her Cash & Guns and Citadels and she began to play games. My mates were jealous. My Wife played boardgames. Lucky me. It was great time. But months passed…

One day I came back home and said that I just sold Adel Verpflichted. 'What do you mean, you sold it?! Why haven’t you asked me?! I like that game! Bring it back!’ Man, I felt like hit by a big hammer. She was serious. She was damn serious. I wasn’t allowed to sell Adel Verpflichted!

That day I discovered that there are games she likes. Games she wants us have at home. That was something new. That discovery costed me 14 euro. I had to buy Adel Verpflichted back again. No more my games collection. It was our games collection since then.

We were in car, driving back from board games convention in Vienna and talking about games played there. 'I want you to buy me Ingenious’, she said. She was serious. She was damn serious. She wasn’t talkin’ about flowers. She wasn’t talkin’ about perfume. Nor about new dress, handbag, ring. She was talkin’ about board game. She wanted me to buy her a board game. Woow!

That day I discovered that My Wife – like my true gamer friends – fell in love with new titles. She play new game, she love it and she want it. That was something new. That discovery costed me 20 euro. I had to buy Ingenious.

Early September, few days after holidays. Kids sleep, silence at home. My Wife ask me to play Race for the Galaxy with her. In the last few weeks we played more than 50 games of RtfG. I am sick of it. I can not look at it. 'No, thanks’, I say. I hear my voice and I can’t believe it. I just refused to play board game. My Wife wants to play board game. I don’t want to play board game. This is crazy.

That day I discovered that I am not the only one at home who ask to play board games. And what is more, perhaps, I am not the truest gamer at home. It seemed that My Wife was more 'geeky’ than me. I was scared. Terrified to be honest.

Few days ago. 'Do you want to play The New Era?’ she asks. No way. I am sick of it. She knows it. I refuse to play it since few weeks. I am asked to play every day and I refuse every day. This is deep deep defense. I refuse and refuse. This is terror. No, seriously, I am in a corner, terrified. I feel like „a geek’s wife”, forced to play board game every single evening.

'Never mind’ she says 'I asked Tycjan to come. He will play with me’. She is serious. She is damn serious. They play New Era. I only watch. I don’t play. They play. I can’t believe this is real. I can’t believe this is happening.

This is my newest discovered. I created a monster. There is a true dangerous geek at my home. Help me.

This is it. I am done with The New Era. Since now for a few next months I will be – literally – bombarded with only bad news. I had a great time designing the game. Creating new cards. Finding new strategies. Watching testers having fun or not having fun. Recording results and spending hours for analise. That was fun. That is my beloved job. That is why I am waking up everyday with smile on my face.

This is it. Since now no more smile on my face. Since now I wake up and think what is the bad news today. What’s coming?

Cover.
The cover of the game is in progress. I am eager to see it. And you know, I have no idea if I like it or not. I like cover of my Stronghold, but I don’t like cover of my 51st State. I like cover of my Pret-a-Porter, but I don’t like Witchcraft. It is Russian roulette. So I am waiting. Will I like cover of my own game? Not for sure. It may be the good news or bad news for me.

Components
You wouldn’t believe how many things can happen with components. Components are a bad news generator. That is why I will not be able to sleep well till Essen, when I get my game in hands and play it. When Stronghold was in print I was terrified – there were so many tokens, I was absolutely sure that something will go wrong. No chances that everything will go smooth. Luckily, no mistakes with Stronghold. But we got screwed year later, with 51. State. You can easily forgot about one tiny token that is used in very rare situations. Your graphic designer may misunderstand some token and design it with some errors. Your printer may screw up cutting tokens and they will be wrong cut. Every time I open box with my new game I am terrified. What gone wrong this time…

Rulebook
OK, rulebook for my game… Should I write anything more? This is hardcore. I can’t write rulebooks. I hate rulebooks. I can not sleep because of my rulebooks. You can’t understand my rulebooks. OK, let’s stop it. No more about rulebooks. This is one big bad news.

Demo games
I love to teach playing my games. During conventions I spent endless hours showing my games to new players. I also love Essen fair. This is the moment. This is a culmination of many months of hard work. I love this crowd, I love meeting players from all over the world, I love this great event.

And still, at some point it will be nightmare. I will be happy doing hundred demo games. I will be happy doing another hundred demo games. But at some point I will be able to no longer talk about the game. No more. And I will be forced to say: „I hate my game. I really do.”

Joy will finally come back. Two years after publishing Stronghold, I am thinking about playing it again. I think I like the game again. I no longer hate it.

In a three years since now I will like The New Era again. I only have to wait.

’Mariusz sent us new artwork. Look at 'Mr. President’ card. It is awesome.’ , said Michał and showed me the artwork.

'You must be kidding’, I said.

'What?’, asked Michał. 'What’s wrong with this ilustration?’

The artwork was really nice. Smiled showman was pointing at us.

'Mr. President is a men who rebuilds the city. He is a tought guy. Not showman’

'What?!’

'Look at the card. He gives on free rebuild action and he gives you Victory Points anytime you do rebuild action again. He believes he is a new president of US. It is clear. Obvious. He is tought guy with mission.’, I explained.

'Do you, really, believe that anyone find it obvious?’ asked Michał.

Michał might be right. I may be the only one men on this planet who sees theme and story in 51st State. I am the guy who knows exactly why Excavator gives you – while Invaded – two bricks, and why Bulldozer ignores type of the card when you make rebuild action.

So here I am. I tell you about story in 51. I hope you will have more fun with the game when you will understand what is happening on your table.

Card icons
Every card in 51st State represents location that you can find in neighborhood. What you have in your hand, this few cards, represents locations that you’ve heard that are around your home. That is why the draft phase is called Lookout phase – when you take cards, you are looking for interesting places near your Base. When you have cards in your hand, it means, that you know about these locations and that you can try to make a contact with them.

That is why when you put Pub into play, you may – during every turn – take new cards. You have Pub, Pub is a place where people share information. You listen to stories from wanderers and you know what is interesting behind horizon.

If you have Noticeboard, you take more cards during draft – you have access to information. When you Invade it, which means burn and destroy, you take all announcements that were there and that’s it. You take 3 cards – that is all knowledge you get by reading these announcements.

If you put Tavern into a game, you will be able to sell information. That’s how it works – discard a card from hand (which means you share some information about interesting Location) and gain Victory Point.

What does Baby Swift? She discards cards, which means she sells information… I will not describe it in more details. You get the picture, do you?

Victory points
Victory Points represent power. Victory Points show how our faction is perceived by others. If you have Wreck of tank it makes impression, isn’t it? Size does matter. That is why you get 1 Victory Point when you have Tank. Everybody in neighborhood knows that you are the one with Tank at your doorstep. You do more, you put Wreck of plane next to Tanks and you will rock. You will be famous. You will get many VP.

What about Museum? You Invade it you get 1 VP – everybody’s heard that you was the guy who destroyed this big, famous building. And you get 1 card. Why? There were some old maps and you know something interesting now…

Guns
Arena gives you possibilites to attack other places. You have Arena, so you have thugs who can invade. That is why Arena produces Guns. Guns trader makes you famous in the area. You are they guy from whom everybody can buy a gun. That makes you rich. Powerfull. That gives you VP. Well, when you will build Gun shop, it will be something!

I really do like Kelly’s Pawn Shop. Kelly is a big fish, as you can see when you look at the card. If you have interesting Spoil, and you not use it, but you go to Kelly and give it to him – you will gain lots of VP. Everybody will notice that you are Kelly’s good buddy. You make business with big fish. You got 2 VP. Your power grows.

Other
In Old depot you will find lots of iron. With Radiostation you may contact other locations and sign deals. At School you will find free workers, in Old factory you have space to hide good stuff… I believe that 51st State has interesting rules but I also do believe that there is a great story behind cards. When I play 51st State I always imagine my faction growing stronger and stronger with new buildings, deals, and spoils…

Post Scriptum
About these Bricks in Excavator… You sent your thugs to bring you stuff. You say: 'Overe there, two miles from here, there is Excavator. Do your job!’

Few hours later they are back. They are happy as a hell.

'Boss, you will be proud of us. We hunted it down. You won’t believe! It had a locker in front, and lots of stuff there. We have it!’

And then they give you two backbacks full of bricks. Stuff, they found when destroying Excavator…

Browian, Grzech and I finally have the chance to meet and discuss 51st State, three weeks after they took the prototype. They live in Wroclaw, I live in Gliwice. With 200km between us the only contact comes courtesy of Skype. But thanks to Pionek, a convention for gamers, we can finally meet and play together.

“The Merchants are too powerful”, starts Browarion. “They win all the time.”

“It’s possible. You got the deck for testing, didn’t you? I never noticed it and perhaps you have found a way to win the game by using the Merchants.” We sit down and play. „Take the Merchants.” I say.

Browarion takes his Merchants. We play the three players version. The Merchants come third.

“Let’s do it again” says Browarion. Again we sit down and play. The Merchants come last. We play again. The Merchants come last for the third time in a row. I’m tempted to tease him but Grzech beats me to it.

“I told you but you wouldn’t listen. Don’t look at nations, look at players. When we played in Wroclaw you didn’t lose to the Merchants, you lost to me. I told you.”

***

The match has been on for good fifteen minutes now. Piotr has been moaning like a slaughtered calf for good fourteen minutes.

“The Merchants are too weak. They can’t do anything. The contracts are of no use to me, three spots and that’s it. This needs to be changed.”

“Stop moaning and play.”

“But they are. Can’t you see that?!”

“How many points do you have?”

“14.”

“How many do I have?”

“14.”

“So will you, please, stop moaning?”

“I’m being serious. Do you know how I struggle to get these 14 points?”

Another 10 minutes pass like the whole eternity, since Piotr manages to fill every one of them with ten minutes of moaning.

“The Merchants are weak, what a joke. I have the contracts’ spots blocked and you’re all over me.”

“Stop moaning, concentrate on the game. I’m finishing in the next turn.”

“I would finish too, but with those stupid Merchants I stand no chance. Maybe with a fourth contract spot, or a universal resource instead of the stupid fuel? This would bring some commerce mood and I would stand a chance…”

We’re done in the next ten minutes.

”How many points do you have?” I ask.

“36. And you?” he asks.

“36.” I answer.

“See? I barely managed a draw!”, he is moaning again!

“You have more cards left in hand, which means that you have won. It is tiebreaker. Merchants won.”

“Do you realize how tough that was? The Merchants are too weak, I’m telling you!”

***

After another series of tests I discard the Baby Swift from the deck. The players have too few cards in hand to afford discarding two more for a victory point. Baby Swift is an unplayable, dead card. We play without it and everything works well until the next rule change. Now the players have more cards in hand, so Baby Swift gets another chance. It comes back. We play subsequent matches and indeed, Baby Swift makes more sense now, even though it seems to be one of the weaker leaders. Players tend to put their money on Borgo or Greedy Pete, Baby Swift is usually a second or third choice. I make notes and analyse everything, constantly monitoring which cards come into play and which ones are regularly ignored during the draft. It seems to me that Baby Swift walks a thin line between being popular and being unused. It’s a little too weak to be a hit and slightly too strong to simply be discarded from the deck. It gets used sometimes.

In the meantime Michal Oracz prepares another version of the prototype for me – new graphics from the illustrators came in. We can finally play with the original Baby Swift artwork that will appear in the final game. The graphics are insane. Another wave of matches and tests commences.

Baby Swift is the most popular leader in the game now. It’s on the table every game. It’s always the players’ first choice.

I haven’t changed a single rule. I only changed the graphics.

***

Testing games is crazy fun. You get tens of contradictory conclusions and pieces of information. Every tester tries to pull in their own direction. Each one has a different view. Each one expects from the game something different. One tester plays well, another one is not that good. One tester claims that a certain faction is powerful, another finds it the weakest. Testers from Wroclaw catch me on Skype in the evenings and ask me not to listen to testers from Opole, because 51st State doesn’t need negative interaction. Opole rings me and says that the players from Wroclaw are little girls, and Neuroshima is for big boys. Wroclaw writes that Opole is biased, since they prefer war games there. And that the merchants are too weak.

Games’ reports. Results’ files. Statistics. Opinions and claims. A continuous flow of information.

I sit and filter through it. I pick recurring remarks. I check and thoroughly analyse opinions which seem to appear on a regular basis.

And everything else… into the bin.

Initially the prototype doesn’t work. It’s ugly, boring and crashes often. It takes a lot of effort to find people willing to play and test it. Friends try to avoid it, preferring other games from their collections. It starts working after a few months. It doesn’t crash. You are happy with it, after many weeks it’s finally there – your game works. You start thinking about sending the prototype to a publisher.

Stop. Before you do that, you need to answer two questions. The first one was covered previously, today the second one.

When your friends visit you, do they ask you if they could play your prototype? Do your mates say: “Could we play your prototype today?” If they ask for it, everything is just fine – send it to a publisher. If you have to persuade them to play it – throw it away. It’s not worth releasing.

A few weeks ago I came back from my holiday in Croatia, which I spent with friends and a big bunch of children. The friends are board games’ fans, so we had a substantial number of board games in the car boot, besides swim fins, swim trunks and goggles. The friends brought Dominion and Small World, and I brought Neuroshima Hex, Galaxy Trucker, Doom, Tichu, Havana and the 51st State prototype.

Throughout the entire trip we had one game of Small World, one of Havana, five games of Tichu and over 20 games of 51st State. I didn’t suggest playing 51st State once, I always waited for others’ suggestions. I wanted to see how quickly they would get bored with it, what its replayability was, how many games it would take for them to get fed up with it and play something else. I didn’t suggest playing it once. And the game has landed on the table over 20 times…

In the last evening of the holiday Piotr came to our room. They’d also had their stuff packed, their children in beds. And we’d had our stuff packed, our children in beds. We were to go back to Poland at 7am the next morning. 10pm, the last evening of the holiday in Croatia.

“How about a round of 51st State?”, Piotr asks.

“With pleasure” I say.

51st State is a winner and I’m feeling good about it. We already had sensational titles with us, the board game elite, from Dominion, to Small World, to Havana, to Galaxy Trucker. And yet in Croatia they have all gathered dust. The game on the table was 51st State, time and again.

My answer to the question: „When your friends visit you, do they ask you if they could play your prototype? – is “yes”. Yes, I sent Small World back on the shelf. Yes, my 51st State made Dominion stay in a suitcase all holiday. Yes, due to my card game we only played Havana once throughout the entire holiday.

Yes, 51st State is ready to be released. The prototype has been tested, pitted against the giants, which it’s trapped on a shelf. If your prototype is not up to such trial, don’t send it to a publisher. Nobody is going to release a game worse than the ones already present on the market. You have to be better. You have to lock the giants in the cupboards. You have to make the competition retire early.