| Gamers Can Visit Venice Again | |
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by Erik Arneson
Alan R. Moon is well-known in gaming circles as the creator of games like Elfenland (a personal favorite for me), Union Pacific, Airlines, Wongar and many others.
Over the past several years, Alan has teamed with fellow Massachusetts resident Aaron Weissblum to design some wonderful games. One recent Moon/Weissblum game is San Marco (compare prices), a game of territorial control that features a simple, unique Solomon-like mechanic that adds a great deal of flavor to the game.
San Marco, which has won a lot of early praise, is played on a stylized map of Venice divided into six districts. Players (the game plays with 3 or 4) attempt to place aristocrats in the districts so that they have either the most or second most aristocrats in enough districts to win the game. (When scoring takes place, only those in first or second place in each district win points -- this is similar to the 1-2-3 scoring of El Grande.) One bridge per player also is added, each connecting two districts.
To start, each player places eight aristocrats on the board randomly (via a die roll). After that, players are treated to a series of tough decisions as one player draws eight cards (five "action" cards, three "limit" cards) and chooses how to divide them into two piles. A second player then selects one of the piles to take and use. In the 4-player game, this process is repeated with the other two players; in the 3-player version, 10 cards are divided into three piles. This is the core of the game.
The action cards allow players to place aristocrats, add bridges to the board, replace opposing aristocrats with your own, banish aristocrats, or cause scoring to take place in one of the districts. When a banishment card is played, that player rolls the die and removes that many aristocrats from the district. It's possible the player will have to remove his own aristocrats in addition to his opponents'.
Recently, Alan and Aaron were kind enough to answer some questions about San Marco. Alan's responses are marked with ARM; Aaron's with AW (Aaron's also are italicized).
Which came first for San Marco, the Venice theme or some of the mechanics for the game?
ARM: San Marco started with two different elements. One was the "I divide, you choose" mechanic. We both remembered this from when we were kids. The older brother had to cut the brownie in half. The younger brother then got to choose which half he wanted.
The other element was bridges. We had been talking about a game with bridges and several different ways of using them for weeks. Bridges naturally led to the Venice theme. The prototype was actually called Venice Again, the story being that there had been an earthquake in Venice and players were rebuilding the city. The aristocrats in San Marco were buildings in Venice Again.
What made Venice a setting that you wanted to explore? Has either of you ever been to Venice? Why did you decide to match this particular theme with these particular mechanics?
ARM: I'll answer these three questions together. I have never been to Venice but I desperately want to go, and I hope to visit for a few days this fall. It has been one of my "fantasy cities" for years. But the real reason we set the game in Venice is far less romantic. Venice simply has canals and canals work well with bridges.
AW: I was in Venice in 1979 and I have great memories of running around the city with my little sister. However, as Alan said, the theme idea just came from the bridges.
I was at first disappointed to find out that there was another Venice-themed game which came out this year. How dare they usurp our theme? (Doge, by Leo Colovini) But I met Leo in Essen (very nice guy) and I found out that he lives and works in Venice. Guess I can't complain about that...
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