Late last year, we hosted a 3-part series on an upcoming game called The Troubles: Shadow War in Northern Irelands 1964-1998. Through that process I came to appreciate the designer Hugh O’Donnell’s take on this difficult conflict and really felt he was going about dealing with the nature of this bloody war as tactfully as possible as well as simultaneously providing some enlightenment and understanding about some of the issues.
Here are links to those three posts:
Part 1 – Uncomfortable questions about a game on this subject
Part 2 – Look at the map and the process behind it’s creation and genesis of events
Part 3 – Design progress to date and what “victory” looks like?
After those posts were received well, we asked Hugh if he would be interested in doing a series of Event Card spoilers for the game. The game is not yet published and has just started playtesting so there is a long road yet to travel but we thought an early look would be a good thing.
*Please keep in mind that the artwork and layout of these cards is not yet finalized (although they are getting close) and is only for playtest purposes at this point. Also, as this game is still in development, card details may still change prior to publication.
#114 Birmingham Pub Bombings
On the 21st of November 1974 twenty one people died when two bombs exploded in two different pubs. One hundred and eighty two people were also injured. The IRA were continuing their campaign of terror on British shores, although they have never publicly admitted to having perpetrated the event that led to the wrongful convictions of six Irishmen, who were given life sentences. The ‘Birmingham Six’, as they would later be known as, had their convictions overturned 16 years later in 1991.
As of a few days ago, an arrest has been made in connection with the bombings. For more information, please visit the following link to the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-54989368
You can catch up on the series to date by following these links:
#24 RTÉ Television Centre Attack
#103 General Election 1974 & #130 Labour Government: No Confidence
#20 People’s Democracy March: Burntollet
#108 Dublin and Monaghan Bombings
Triple Feature including #166 Shergar, #169 Don Tidey Kidnapping and #154 Ben Dunne Kidnapping
#31b Bernadette Devlin Elected
As always thank you Hugh for this great insight into the history behind the game and the salient issues. One of things that draws me to these irregular counter insurgency games is the learning of something about history and this game is going to shed some really interesting light on the subject for many who do not know much about the details.
-Grant
The Players' Aid 