While attending SPIEL Essen last fall, we became aware of a new narrative driven book wargame coming from PHALANX and designer José Luis Barca. We were supposed to get together with José to discuss the game but due to changes in our schedule and another meeting we just couldn’t break away to get over there. I felt bad about that, and want to apologize to their Marketing and Crowdfunding Director Adrian Turzański, but we did get copies and Alexander has since played it several times. In place of the sit down discussion, I reached out to José to see if he wanted to answer some questions in a designer interview. He was willing and that has led us her to this post.

If you are interested in A Bridge Too Far, you can order a copy form the PHALANX website at the following link: https://phalanx.co.uk/games/a-bridge-too-far/#game-multimedia

Grant: José welcome to our blog. First off please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job? 

José: Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here. Okay. So, I’m a big fan of wargames, role-playing games, and board games who, three years ago, left my regular job to work as a freelancer in translation, layout, and writing for board games, role-playing games, and wargames—making a dream come true: working in a field I’m passionate about.

Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far? 

José: Well, in addition to what I mentioned earlier, I’m a novelist. Right now I have three novels and two short story collections written. As part of my work, I translated gamebooks, so I wanted to try writing a different kind of “novel” that’s tied to the game. Also, on my Instagram, I interact with readers through “choose your own adventure”-style story games. All of this led me to the decision to write a gamebook in which the narrative aspect was the most important thing. From the very beginning, I really enjoyed the experience. Being able to give the main character choices was something that wasn’t possible in a normal novel, and I really enjoyed all the options, including killing him off in many different ways. It was something fresh for my writing.

Grant: What is your new game A Bridge Too Far about? 

José: A Bridge Too Far depicts the war as seen through the eyes of a private. The protagonist is a Polish soldier from the 1st Polish Independent Brigade who will try to survive in Driel and Oosterbeek. His decisions will shape his future in the Battle of Arnhem, which was a military failure for the Allies. Thus, the gamebook explores the harshness and cruelty of combat in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.

Grant: It is described as a paragraph-based game. What does this mean?  

José: It’s another name for a gamebook, or, in this case, a wargamebook. The narrative unfolds through paragraphs that, depending on your choices regarding the options presented, lead you to other paragraphs. In this way, you aren’t reading a book in a linear fashion, as you would with a novel, but rather you have to follow the storyline through the paragraphs indicated by the game.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?  

José: The goal was to immerse the reader in the combat, allowing them to witness a battle and its various stages firsthand. It was also to explore the character’s psychology—how their morale and willpower gradually break down. In short, the aim is to paint a realistic picture of combat, or as realistic as possible using nothing but the pages of a book—something no one would ever want to experience.

Grant: What research did you do to get the historical details correct? What one must-read source would you recommend?  

José: This was undoubtedly the hardest part. Most books today about the Battle of Arnhem cover the battle in general terms, without providing the level of detail needed for a novel or gamebook. Those of us who write historical fiction always face this problem. When we go into such detail in describing places, people, or objects, we run into a problem that no general overview can solve. For this book, I consulted the two most famous books: A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan and Arnhem, the Battle for the Bridges, 1944 by Antony Beevor. From the first, I drew some anecdotes about the fighting, and from the second, the general overview of the battle, but I needed something more to fully immerse myself in the epic story of the Poles. So I discovered The Pegasus Archive: The British Airborne Forces, 1940-1945, which contains the transcript of all the orders given by officers during the battle, hour by hour. This source was the definitive one for understanding what really happened to the Poles at Arnhem.

Grant: What role does the player take on in the game?   

José: The player is a rank-and-file soldier in an elite unit of the British Army, which is where the Polish Brigade was integrated. As I mentioned earlier, your goal is to survive, and how you do that is up to you: whether you make it to Nijmegen safe, desert and go into hiding, or end up as a prisoner. If you don’t survive, there are plenty more options, hahaha.

Grant: What role does the player play in the creation of the soldier?  

José: The character must be created at the beginning. You simply need to assign three numbers to its main attributes. The rest is set by default.

Grant: What are the three attributes focused on? What does each represent?  

José: The soldier has the following attributes: Body, which indicates stamina, strength, and hand-to-hand combat ability; Mind, which reflects intelligence, reasoning, and the ability to use weapons; and Will, which reflects morale, willpower, courage, and sanity.

Grant: What does the phrase “choice-driven, demanding gameplay” mean? 

José: Well, exactly what it says: every decision matters and could mean the difference between life and death.  The player is presented with various choices from time to time and the story will branch off from those choices into a new direction.

Grant: How did you go about creating a tense and decision filled experience?   

José: Well, that was my intention, but I’m not sure I pulled it off. It’s up to the readers to decide. But my writing style certainly helped. Many of my readers say I write as if I had a camera slung over my shoulder, and that my scenes are action-packed and very visual. You can easily picture the scene without needing lengthy descriptions. What some experts call “dynamic description.” My descriptions of the situation are woven into the dialogue or the character’s actions, as if the reader were watching a movie. These days, I think that’s the best way to write, since there are almost more viewers of movies and TV shows than readers of books.

Grant: How many different branching options are possible? 

José: The book has about 20 alternate endings

Grant: How long did it take to make sure these were all consistent and that there weren’t loops?  

José: That’s not enough. Let me explain. These days, there are tools available to help you with the process of checking for loops and errors when writing a gamebook. I used a program called “Librogame Creator,” where you type directly, just like in Word. The real benefit is that you can create the paragraphs within the program and link the choices to their respective paragraphs. In the end, you’re left with a paragraph map that makes it much easier to review and see if any are incomplete, if there are loops, and if any lead to a dead end. In any case, it’s not foolproof, and in a work of this type, errors are inevitable. I apologize in advance.

Grant: How are dice rolls handled for the game?   

José: The game tells you when to roll the dice. Basically, you roll a number of dice equal to the designated attribute, and you need to roll (in at least one dice, unless otherwise specified) a total greater than the difficulty level specified in the text. It’s very easy and requires almost no rules.

Grant: Where did you get this idea from? How do you think it works?  

José: The idea comes from another Spanish gamebook called Ulrica. I borrowed the core of the system with the authors’ permission and then had to adapt it from a fantasy setting to World War II.I think it’s a system simple enough to let the story take center stage. And that’s what convinced me to use it.

Grant: How does the player manage things like ammunition, morale and life points? 

José: You have a character sheet where you can track your remaining ammunition, morale, and health points. You won’t go through much ammunition unless you start missing your rolls, of course. In any case, you’ll find more ammunition during the game to add to your inventory. You might have a harder time finding it in the second part, in Oosterbeek, because that’s exactly what happened there. Health is something that’s bound to go down. There are first-aid kits in the game that let you boost that value, but the risk of dying is real and very easy to reach. Morale is something the game really puts pressure on. That was my intention from the start. The player will be tempted to use those points at every turn, but I suggest using them only in matters of life and death. Because morale points rarely go up during the game 

Grant: What is the layout of the character sheet at the back of the book?  

José: On one side, you’ll find the stats you’ll use during the game: attributes, morale, health, diary, etc., and on the other side, you’ll find your inventory, which will also change as you acquire new items and/or weapons or lose them. I suggest printing it out for a better experience.

Grant: How is victory determined?  

José: Victory points are determined by your diary entries. Depending on your actions in battle, you will be remembered and decorated—or you will end up as an anonymous soldier. Your final score depends on your decisions, not on how many fights you win or lose.

Grant: What do you feel the game models well?   

José: I think what the game captures best is the intensity and morale in combat. You’ll see soldiers breaking down mentally, civilians suffering the consequences, and your character experiencing combat stress. I think that’s well reflected in the book

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?  

José: The ammunition consumption system and large-scale combat are my favorite parts of what I’ve designed.

Grant: What other topics or engagements are you considering for use of this system?   

José: Any setting from World War I or World War II, as well as all modern wars, is suitable for this system.With a few adjustments, this system can be used for any military conflict in history.

Grant: What other designs are you contemplating or already working on?  

José: Right now I’m working on a different system. I call it a “bookgame,” the opposite of the current one. There are already games where the book itself serves as the game board, like Mike Lambo’s games, for example. Well, my next project will be in this format. I’ve created my own system with some familiar mechanics, which are integrated into the rules to add more gameplay to the narrative. Unlike Mike Lambo’s games, my new game will be much more narrative-driven, and its protagonist will be a historical warlord, I can’t say anything more, sorry. I want the historical aspect to be as accurate as it is in A Bridge Too Far. I hope to achieve that.

Thank you for your time in answering our questions José and we look forward to seeing more from you in the future.

If you are interested in A Bridge Too Far, you can order a copy form the PHALANX website at the following link: https://phalanx.co.uk/games/a-bridge-too-far/#game-multimedia

-Grant