During family gatherings at Chinese New Year or when traveling with classmates or friends, Monopoly was always a fun way of bringing people together and passing time.

The aim of the game was to accumulate wealth, thinking of ways to build houses, hotels and collect high toll fees so that any of your opponents entering your sphere of influence would lose all their money. The element of luck in the shape of the Chance and Community Chest cards also added to the fun. Players could be lucky and make money and also receive an arrest warrant and end up in jail. Even though we have now grown up we still remember those happy members very clearly. Indeed,  “We grew up playing Monopoly!”

However, with the passage of time, new games appeared and Monopoly slowly disappeared from our lives. There is though, at the present time in Taiwan, a group of people who are striving to add new elements and creativity to board games; Academia Historica’s ROC themed board games is one example.

“Road-building pioneers”, “Ten major construction projects”, “Central Plains War” and “Xinhai Revolution" are four board games that renowned board game design company 2Plus Studio began developing in cooperation with Academia Historica in 2008 and that won a positive response throughout the board game world.

To learn more about the content of the games and design ideas we visited 2Plus Studio and talked to the company’s person-in-charge, Wang Ya-wan, and game designer, Gong Yi-zhao, (Little Gong) to learn all about the process of developing the board games.

Combining games design and historical expertise

What gave them the idea to combine history and board games? Wang Ya-wan said “Some members of staff of Academia Historica had previously had some contact with and had an understanding of board games. To promote their collection they had the idea of combining historical subjects and board games to give young people an important channel through which they could easily learn about history. Academia Historica formulated a plan and, after a tender process, we were selected;this is how our cooperation began.”  

In the process of combining history and board games there were many obstacles that had to be overcome. For game designer Little Gong, having to digest a large amount of historical material was one, but an even knottier problem  was deciding which material to include in the board game. He said: “Some things might have seemed very interesting but couldn’t be included in the game.There was a lot of discussion with Academia Historica personnel regarding this matter and they would use their expertise to tell us what could be included and what couldn’t.” The space for imagination is often where the fun and effect of a game lies, but excessive changing of historical fact can easily be controversial. Consequently, the process of designing a game is wrestling match between game fun and historical fact; achieving a balance between historical fact and fun is the objective of the designers of a historical board game.

In the rules for every game Academia Historica releases, the background and the ins and outs of the historical incident are described briefly and the cards have the photographs and introduction to related figures on them, so, even games players who don’t know much about history can acquire an understanding of the incident in question through the game and quickly get into and enjoy playing the game.

The board is also a battleground

Of the four games, Central Plains War and Xinhai Revolution are related to war so the designers made these games war type games. Taking Central Plains War as an example, the background is the Chinese civil war from May to November 1930 and the main leaders of the two sides are Chiang Kai-shek and He Ying-xian, of the Central Army, with Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren leading the anti-Chiang camp. Players can choose the commanding role they want to play and use strategy in the game to bring victory for their camp.

“Xinhai Revolution,” brought out to coincide with the centenary of the ROC, has the crucial battle of the revolution, the Battle of Yang Xia, as its main backdrop.

After the success of the Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionary forces took Hankou and Hanyang in succession, taking control of the three cities of Wuhan;the Qing government immediately sent forces south to quell the uprising and the two sides met at Hankou where a battle lasting more than 40 days ensued.In this key battle, that would decide the fate of the revolution, players play the roles of Qing military commanders or revolutionary army commanders, commanding one of the opposing camps.The revolutionary army has to hold onto Wuhan, Wuhan and Hankou and wait for the revolution to take hold in other provinces, while the objective of the Qing forces is to crush the iconic Wuhan revolutionary army before the revolution spreads.

To enhance the feeling of actual “being there” and recreate the “smell of cordite” of the battlefield,  “realism” became the focus of the design of game accessories;taking the pieces as an example, taking into account the equipment of the time, 2Plus made infantry, cavalry and armored car pieces to allow players to experience the fun of commanding military forces.

In addition, to closely combine the actual terrain the incident took place in and the game and reproduce the effect of the landforms on the battle situation, pieces have to be moved in different ways to show the difference between moving by water and on land and the hard to attack, easy to defend character of hilly terrain. Apart from these rules, great care was also taken with the design of the board. Taking Central Plains War as an example, because the number of provinces involved is quite high the designers used a point-to-point connection method to display the main strongholds, transport networks and regional map of China of the time, aiming to give the board dual historical map and game map function.

Devise strategies, have fun rewriting history

However, the difference between a game and historical fact is that the winner in the game won’t always be the Central Army and the Revolutionary Army. In the game battle, as long as the player uses strategy effectively, it is not impossible that the actual historical result can be overturned. From the designer’s standpoint, the games are played by several or more players so players can enjoy engaging in a battle of wits and using strategy and one side can’t always win, consequently, the game designer must constantly adjust the various data in the game to ensure there is a balance and give all players a chance of winning.    

Many factors decide the outcome of a battle, including the number of troops, terrain limitations and the effect of people and incidents (like support from students in the Xinhai Revolution, the gatherings in various provinces, recognition by the great powers and the effect on morale of Huang Xing’s arrival at Wuhan,)each capable of influencing the outcome of the incident.Wang Ya-wan said: “Through the design of various cards and game mechanisms we hope to let players, through directing troops, having a feeling for an incident and the effect of transport conditions, as they play the game,  understand why there are winners and losers in war and ponder such questions as whether the result of the war would have been different if Huang Xing hadn’t made a timely appearance on the battlefield and raised morale? We want players to ponder historical possibilities like this.”

The time required for the process of making a game, from research, formulating of a plan, designing a mechanism, adjusting the balance of the game (the chance of victory of each side), making accessories to completion is beyond what we imagine. Designers, for their part, must complete this task within a set time and budget. Little Gong said with a smile: “The Xinhai Revolution was completed in eight months, not long at all considering that Dr. Sun Yat-sen led eleven failed uprisings. Game designers like myself always hope to make them better and better and, time allowing, I’d really like to keep adjusting them.

The release of the Academia Sinica’s themed board game series has received a positive response in various circles and a computer game operator wants to turn Central Plains War into an APP version;some university professors use them in teaching and history buff dads have had some fun time with their children playing the games. In addition, the games have attracted the attention of games players in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada etc. This bold attempt to carry out history education using board games has opened another window through which young people can understand history.

Introduction to 2Plus Studio

2Plus Studio was established in 2008 and has since been dedicated to the design, production and promotion of board games;as well as developing own-brand games it has also developed games in cooperation with government organizations and well-known enterprises, such as Academia Historica,  the National Archive Administration and Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation etc aiming to give the public a variety of fun, creative and cultural board games.