War on Terror Game Session at Housmans Bookshop, London

Next Saturday, 23 February, War on Terror creator, Andrew Sheerin, and illustrator, Tom Morgan-Jones, will be leading an open gaming session of War on Terror at Housmans Booksellers in London.

The event will take place from 1pm (The shop closes at 6pm), but you are welcome to turn up at any time, although we can't guarantee you'll understand what's going on if you do. We plan to give a short introduction to the game, followed by a Q&A session before running a number of games, to give those who have not yet dabbled in the War on Terror a chance to experience its joyous and paranoid intensity. There will be plenty of time for a full game if that's what you're looking for. Maybe we'll arbitrarily dish out some prizes too - depends what the annual office clear-out turns up. We will, of course, be on hand to sign games too if you really want your possessions defaced.

So whether you're a veteran War on Terrorer or just a curious aggro-merchant, wondering how to stir up some trouble, you're all welcome.

We plan to give those who have not yet dabbled in War on Terror a chance to experience its joyous and paranoid intensity If you don't know Housmans, you should come along just for a look at a very special shop. They specialise in radical books and periodicals and other bits and pieces of interest (hence they stock the game) or things that generally espouse progressive politics. They're located at 5 Caledonian Road, literally just around the corner from Kings Cross station - so out-of-towners have no excuse; it's dead easy to get there.

We'd love to see as many people there as possible, so tell your friends, get a group together, or an angry mob, whichever feels more appropriate on the day.

Those details again, for the short-of-attention-span: War on Terror open gaming session, Housmans Bookshop, 1pm-6pm Saturday 23 February - 5 Caledonian Rd, London, UK. And...as an extra special treat, here's a MAP too.

For more information, contact us or contact them.

Undercover at the London Toy Fair

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Last week was the end of January, which means time for our annual anonymous visit to the London Toy Fair. Since we were chucked out, we're reduced to attending incognito, slinking around in the shadows like the commercial lepers we are. It's not so bad; we can pretend we're James Bond inside an underground Russian military base and then the day just flies by.

The Toy Fair was the usual depressing mix of convention humdrum and people in suits talking about 'licencing opportunities' and 'marketing momentum' without any of the joy and excitement that you usually associate with toys and games. Seriously, most of these people could be selling kitchen units.

However, we did meet some interesting folk to help with future TBG projects and even a few friendly faces - yes, it's true, not everyone hates us. The should-be-sectioned, father-son bring-and-buy team from GenCon in Reading last August were there. Despite being scary bad men, they did write a very nice review of War on Terror in their excellent Games Gazette (established in 1980, no less), so we'd best be nice to them.

Biggest snub of the day was talking to the lovely smiley man at the Barnados stand. We played giant jenga with him and talked about Barnados' history at the Toy Fair and how they do really well out of donations from the other exhibitors. We tried to get out of him who the tightest companies were, but he was terribly diplomatic and refused to comment. "Ah, tell you what, give us your card and we'll donate a couple of games of 'War on Terror.", Andy S offered up. A brief, uncomfortable silence followed before Mr Barnados - without breaking his smile - replied "Better not." We can't even give the game away! You'd think we'd murdered someone's mother the reception we get...

All in all, a very productive day and we managed not to get thrown out this time. There's hope for us yet...

Breaking news! Check out the new EVIL Balaclava challenges which all have a brand spanking new prize, needless to say our generosity is growing...

The World's Most Controversial Board Game?

According to the rather entertaining list put together by Deputy Dawg, War on Terror is one of the world's most controversial board games, sharing an illustrious place alongside the likes of "Jews, Out!" and "Capital Punishment".

We have a curious desire to play all the games on that list, but we should also point out some important omissions, namely Junta and Nuclear War. In fact, Battle to Baghdad has no place on the list - it's not in the least controversial, subversive or shocking, being, as it is, a straightforward war game condoning and sanctioning the war as seen from 'our' perspective, ie. 'right'. A random sentence from the sales pitch confirms: "You will take out airports, night bomb cities, hunt down Saddam Hussein ... ". This is exactly the kind of war game we were railing against with War on Terror.

Proving that shock sells, it was this small injection of controversy that meant on 'Black Monday', as the world's financial markets went into meltdown, sales of War on Terror took a sharp upward turn. It's what the wise kids are investing in for long-term stability. War, I mean, not board games.

This is how the world ends, not with a bang but with a (credit) crunch.

War on Terror on Current TV

Last year we were invited to LA for the world's first War on Terror tournament. As we reported at the time, Al Gore's Current TV followed the event and the ensuing carnage, I mean, fun.

Well it took a while, but they've finally put the segment together and there are now two Current TV shorts featuring War on Terror.

The first states: "Politically themed toys are the new craze, with Axis Of Evil figurines and War On Terror, the boardgame leading the way" (It'd be nice if this were true, but sadly two things don't make a craze... yet): http://current.com/items/88808930_playthings_go_political

The second video is all about the tournament itself: http://current.com/items/88808929_war_on_terror_the_game

Overall, they've done a very nice job. I love the cut from Bill saying "it [the game] lets you learn about yourself and what you're willing to do" and then the guy with the impressive moustache-beard-combo playing the game says "All I wanna do is nuke somebody". Lovely editing.

Celebrating 3 years of bloggage

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Three years, It's true. Although our website statistics show that you ungrateful swines rarely care enough to explore it, there are now over three years' worth of blog posts in the archive. Click on the gallery to see some choice cuts from the past 36 months. What's even scarier is to think that we'd been testing War on Terror for six months prior to our very first post. It really was a beast to work on.

Still, we learn from experience, as we note over Christmas, due to the number of "how should we implement the 'WMDs take 45 minutes to launch' rule?" emails. Yes, we've learnt that you should never put a joke in the rule book.

we've learnt that you should never put a joke in the rule book We've also learnt that trying to replicate global Realpolitik in an open-ended game where rules can be made up is a recipe for prolonged testing disaster. In fact, if we knew then what we know now, War on Terror would be a very different game - probably a better game on some levels, but a worse game on many others. It's a nice reminder that occasionally ignorance is the best creative lubricant.

We're starting 2008 with big plans for TerrorBull Games. We have no fewer than 4 games at prototype-or-near stage. Simply referred to as Project N, Project FF, Project PP and Project CS, we're subjecting these games to some serious testing in the hope that one will rise above the others as a worthy contender for a follow-up to War on Terror, possibly even for release this year, but who knows?

To close this blog, here's a random gem from the interweb's highways: "Bush Was Right" by The Right Brothers. Please note: although laughter may be your natural response, this is not a parody. They mean every word - and what words. Just check out a sample of the lyrics:

Democracy is on the way, hitting like a tidal wave
All over the middle east, dictators walk with shaky knees
Don’t know what they’re gonna do, their worst nightmare is coming true
They fear the domino effect, they’re all wondering who’s next

As one of the comments on YouTube succinctly points out - if the Right Brothers are so convinced that Bush is right, why aren't they fighting in Iraq? What with the shortage of recruits, I'm sure that Bush would appreciate the extra canon fodder more than he would a supportive pop ditty.