Final Straw: Planning the Insurgency, Bloc by Bloc

Final Straw discusses the brand new board game, Bloc by Bloc, which is a table top strategy game where the object is to win an insurrection against the State.

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This week, we are excited to share with y’all an interview with TL, the main artist and designer of Bloc by Bloc: The Game of Insurrection. From the website of Out Of Order games, which publishes the game, “Bloc by Bloc is a semi-cooperative strategy board game inspired by 21st century riots and revolutions. The game features hidden agendas, deep strategy, area control, asymmetrical player abilities, and a special method for randomly generating billions of unique city layouts.”

Well, now the second edition of the game has launched a kickstarter to pay for the new edition. This new edition includes streamlined game play, new pieces and new scenarios in order to improve the initial game. For the hour, TL & I talk about how the board game was developed, what study of real-world did to influence the game’s development, TL’s thoughts on how play can strengthen strategic thought, cultural means of spreading liberatory imagination with story-telling, and cooperation and more.

To jump in and get a physical, printed copy of the 2nd edition of Bloc by Bloc, search kickstarter and the title of the game. If you have the 1st edition and want the streamlined update, also check out the kickstarter for ways to update. If you want a free version of the game for you to print out by yourself and play for the cost of printing with your friends, you can download all of the elements.

TL mentions that Out Of Order games is looking for translation of the game into other, non-English languages, seeking a degree of fluency in game terminology and the languages in question. They are also always seeking review and design inputs. You can email the Out of Order crew here.

A few links we mentioned:

*Decoloniser Catan / Post-Colonial Catan (scroll down for English, a Chinese translation is linked as well)

* Riot: Civil Unrest video game (sort of like an insurrectional Sims
experience)

* Class Struggle (the boring-ass Trotskyist game’s wikipedia page)

* Calvin Ball (main ideas laid out by a fan of the comic strip)

Resources for people wanting to make games:

* Rules of Play book

* Analog Game Journal

* Board Game Geek

* Community Printers is a Santa Cruz-based, cooperative, eco printer that’s increasing game printing capability for short and long-run games