July 15, 2012: The Chaos Of Revolution!

Did you know Bastille Day was celebrated yesterday? While I am not French (apart from a bit of supposed Huguenot heritage), I can appreciate a good revolution every once in a while. Maybe not the head-chopping affair we’re celebrating today, but a more general sense of shaking things up.

In fact, it is this spirit of barely-controlled chaos that I so enjoy while playing my game Revolution! I love games with fluid political situations ripe for manipulation. I crave the thrill of pulling the levers of power from behind the curtain and outsmarting the guy across the table.

Some have said Revolution! is too random, meaning that luck plays too great a role. I disagree. The game does not feature any random elements, strictly speaking. What it does contain is uncertainty. Humans have a very hard time pretending to act randomly. A careful observer can exploit this fact.

Revolution! is not about the French Revolution or the American Revolution -- and certainly not the Dance, Dance Revolution. It’s about revolution in the abstract, working through an unpredictable set of circumstances to grasp victory in the end! Fete de la Federation!

-- Philip duBarry