A Different Way to Murder

September 9, 2009 at 11:48 am | In Game Chef 09 | 3 Comments
Tags: ,

Thank you for playing a match of Boile de Muertre.  Don’t fret that I trounced you, it was expected.  I am the teacher, am I not?

Now that you have played a match using the Diviseur method, we shall play with a more advanced method.  The scoring is similar, but the plays are much more… deadly.  Not to you and I, but to our masques.

This play method is known as the Fonce method.  The play is nearly the same as before (described here and here), except how the plays to damage your opponent’s glorieaux gladiateurs and the play space.  A play to murder is still a Numbered card play as an attack to the gladiateur of the same color of the murder card, but the way the number counts against your gladiateur differs.

In the Fonce method, when a player plays a card to murder, the number value of the card becomes the highest card the opponent can play for the remainder of the match.  so if I were to play a Green 2 in an attack, then your Green Gladiateur may only play Green Action cards and the Green 1.  Since plays to score are based on the highest Numbered card, your Green Gladiateur has been reduced to playing defense with Action cards or trying to murder with the Green 1 or hoping to score when I have declared I am playing to score.

In this method, the Zero card is needed to eliminate an opponent.  Since it is impossible to play a card below 0, a play to murder with a  card will kill an opponent’s gladiateur of the same color.

As you can imagine, the Fonce method quickly devolves into vicious games with a high amount of blood and death.  Another aspect of this method to note is that in the Diviseur method, you may only murder if your team’s Rank is higher than your opponent’s as it takes a card numbered higher than a team’s Rank to destroy a gladiateur.  But in the Fonce method, all teams of all ranks have access to the 0 card.

I also mentioned the play space is different in the Fonce method.  In the Fonce method, there are no longer zones, so plays to score or murder happen without placing the card in a zone.

The Game of the Royals

September 7, 2009 at 3:11 am | In Game Chef 09 | 2 Comments
Tags: , , ,

Now we discuss the second half of the game, which to many, including myself, is the most exciting.

The legends of the gladiateurs is most often associated with their escapades away from the court.  Some were involved with romances with their royals, or even each other.  Others were arrested and executed for crimes against the crown in pursuit of their royal’s  desires.  But many more were suspected but never convicted for crimes they committed in service of their royal’s whims.

I paint the royals as caricatures, do I not?  Perhaps this is cruel, but in the legends, they are nothing but excuses for the adventures of the Glorieaux Gladiateurs.  Even today, many royals are little more than old guarde rich with supersilious titles and little to no responsiblities other than maintaining a level of notoreity in court amongst their other counterparts.

Ah, but I am getting political now and we are playing a game.  We shall proceed.

Once a match is over, the winning player decides if his team has an interaction with his Royal or if he wishes to give the scene to the losing player.

You see, each of you have your own team of gladiateurs and during a chronicle, it would make little sense if the same two teams played each other again and again.  It would create this cycle of redundancy that results in a boring game and a story of ennui.

So yes, each of you have your own team and you take turns playing the opposition of the other player’s team.  When it is your turn to play your beloved L’oiseau Marin, I will protray not only the hated rivals of Les Faucons, but also the Countess Jean Maricelle of Nouveau Bonaparte.

We have already discussed how I would portray a match of Boile de Muertre.  I shan’t repeat myself. Now we speak of how Jean Maricelle would interact with your team.

After a match, Jean Maricelle would meet with your team and ask you for a favor.  As I speak with Jean Maricelle’s voice, I would offer you an Action card, most often a Wild card, one that is not in your deck already.  Yes, I take an Action card from your Uno deck and I offer it to you for this favor.

If your team accepts, then you will draw up a hand from your deck.  We then proceed to the story of your team’s mission.  During the mission, you will face obstacles.  I will describe the obstacle and set a difficulty to overcoming the obstacle.  If you are able to play a Number card equal to or higher than the obstacle, you tell the story of what happens.  If you are unable to do this, you discard your hand and draw up another and I tell the story of what has happened.

This continues until you complete the story, either through victory or defeat.  If you are victorious, you gain the card offered by the Royal and place it into your team deck.  If you fail, then you do not gain the card.  Either result, we play a new match of boile de muertre and continue the game.

Building your boile team

September 6, 2009 at 11:21 pm | In Game Chef 09 | 2 Comments
Tags: , , ,

I’m sure you are aching to create your own team of glorieaux gladiateurs.  The process is rather simple.

You begin by creating your masques.  You must first name your four gladiateurs and assign their color.  Then, you should describe their uniforms.  Since Boile de Muertre is inspired by the Aztec game of Ulama, it is common for the glorieaux gladiateurs to wear the Aztec loincloth and matching animal heads, often birds of prey.

This goes well with the boile paddles which are fashioned after the Aztec macahuitl (the chopping weapons seen in pictures of Aztec warriors).

The paddles are most often two-handed affairs, but there are some who wield them with one hand and keep a hand free for balance or to attack their opponents in the neutral zone.

Of course, the paddles are now fashioned from very light and powerful metals and many are adorned with light displays and in more gauche cities, advertisements.

A starting team is represented by team deck, which consists of a certain number of cards from your base Uno deck.  No, you will not have access to all one-hundred and eight cards with a fresh team.  You must earn this through play.

A beginning team of gladiateurs in a regulation chronicle begins at Rank Five.  A Rank Five team will consist of all four color cards numbered 0 through 5.  Yes, for the purpose of building your team, the 0 is a zero.  You may then pull one Action card of each color and as many of the Wild cards as you wish into your team deck.  However, Wild Draw Four cards and Wilds cannot be chosen when building a team, they can only be gained as prizes from your royal for performing deeds for them between matches.

In regulation play, a Boile team gains Rank after winning tournaments.  Tournaments are held by Royals and consist of matches between two to four equally Ranked teams.  The winner of the tourney will win the fleur-de-lis trophy for that tournament and gain Rank and notoreity for themselves and their royal.

For example, let us say that the royal Fabienne is holding a tourney in her city of Vieux Toulouse.  Your team, L’oiseau Marin, attends and plays matches against Les Diviseurs, Les Faucons and Les Chiens D’enfer.  Your team wins all three matches and is awarded the Fleur-de-Lis trophy for Vieux Toulouse for this year.  Your team is advanced one Rank.

This continues until your Boile Team achieves Rank Nine.  You are then moved into The League.

Again, I am tired and need more wine.  I shall continue anon and we will discuss dealing with Royals and how this is played.

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.