A few weeks back when I was working on the end to Book 2, I came to a part I've been planning for months. It was a really important part for me and I absolutely loved the preparation that went into it. It was a brief chapter than brought the themes of chances and coincidences to an end after discussing them throughout the book. It basically brought the main character to a battle of life or death through a board game. This is a brief glimpse of part of the chapter still in the works.
I spent a month preparing for this one part alone. I read about multiple games played in ancient Rome, Greece, Sparta, and other regions. I played some of these games with history professors and fellow students and read as much as I could about the rest. From there, I went to stores around town and found games that were traditional ones played throughout history. I spent a week examining Mancala and Memory. When it finally came time for my game, I created it with an aspect of those two games in it. It had the turning of cards aspect of memory in it and the chance of Mancala. The game was to be entirely unpredictable and relied only on chance. There was absolutely no skill in it. You couldn't practice and get better at it. You had only to trust chance. I absolutely fell in love with it. I even play it in my free time now. The game was made even more interesting by throwing a Spartan aspect to it by playing by high stakes. In Book 2, the stakes were nations' futures. In my games, it's usually dessert or extra homework time.
Perhaps when I have more time and feel less inclined to stop blogging and instead read or write, I'll share the game and write out a step by step game-plan to it. Until then, I'll just spend my time playing the game and listening to my new favorite artist, Two Steps From Hell.
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