Biggles: A Pepys Game
Oct. 26th, 2023 09:20 pmEver since I saw ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sholio 's summary post with photos of this game I have coveted my own copy, so I was very pleased to nab a mostly intact set from eBay for a fairly reasonable price (twelve quid!) this week. The box is missing the closing... flap... bit (I know there's a word for this but it escapes me at the moment) but the cards are basically pristine and that's the main thing. I was expecting to use these mostly as objets d'art but as it turns out...
My main additional contribution to the fandom is that, because I am staying at my parent's house for half term (perks of being a primary school teacher they don't tell you about!), I was able to rope my dad into playing a few rounds with me. This is the actual play Biggles we've been waiting for.
It ended up being a surprisingly high-octane experience. The rulebook explains it in a very dry way, but essentially you are playing high stakes competitive Patience. Your goal is to successfully collect seven numbered cards in the correct order, then put Biggles on top. However, you are stymied in this by your opponent putting their own numbered cards on top of yours, resulting in a mad dash to rifle through your own deck for the correct number to undo this dastardly deed. When you successfully put Biggles on your stack you've won, and I personally enjoyed shouting 'I'VE BIGGLED!'. Because what's the point of being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
I won 3-nil for the record, which I am putting down to my status as the house's #1 Biggles fan and not anything as ephemeral as 'luck' or 'being faster at counting 3 cards out of a pack at a time'. My dad also has a reproduction of the Pepys Dan Dare game and having played this I am much more interested in playing that one - it was simple but I found myself really engaged in every round, even the one where the cards fell extremely my way and I had Biggles on the table in under two minutes. I would definitely recommend giving this a go if you're a board-or-card gaming household, but we may have to hound someone for a reprint because the standard eBay asking price is somewhat ludicrous.
Postscript: I adore the text on the card box. One side says 'A game to play with Biggles & Co' and the other says 'The adventures of Biggles as a game'. Neither of these descriptions is technically accurate. Frankly I'm shocked there doesn't seem to have been an official Biggles board game - possibly I need to dive back into TTRPG development just to right this heinous wrong.
Post-postscript: Today's procrastination tactic was finally editing the latest episode of my Classic Who podcast, which we recorded, genuinely, eleven months ago. Give it a listen if you enjoy lighthearted discussion of 60s sci-fi, or gay subtext. We do both!
sholio 's summary post with photos of this game I have coveted my own copy, so I was very pleased to nab a mostly intact set from eBay for a fairly reasonable price (twelve quid!) this week. The box is missing the closing... flap... bit (I know there's a word for this but it escapes me at the moment) but the cards are basically pristine and that's the main thing. I was expecting to use these mostly as objets d'art but as it turns out...My main additional contribution to the fandom is that, because I am staying at my parent's house for half term (perks of being a primary school teacher they don't tell you about!), I was able to rope my dad into playing a few rounds with me. This is the actual play Biggles we've been waiting for.
It ended up being a surprisingly high-octane experience. The rulebook explains it in a very dry way, but essentially you are playing high stakes competitive Patience. Your goal is to successfully collect seven numbered cards in the correct order, then put Biggles on top. However, you are stymied in this by your opponent putting their own numbered cards on top of yours, resulting in a mad dash to rifle through your own deck for the correct number to undo this dastardly deed. When you successfully put Biggles on your stack you've won, and I personally enjoyed shouting 'I'VE BIGGLED!'. Because what's the point of being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
I won 3-nil for the record, which I am putting down to my status as the house's #1 Biggles fan and not anything as ephemeral as 'luck' or 'being faster at counting 3 cards out of a pack at a time'. My dad also has a reproduction of the Pepys Dan Dare game and having played this I am much more interested in playing that one - it was simple but I found myself really engaged in every round, even the one where the cards fell extremely my way and I had Biggles on the table in under two minutes. I would definitely recommend giving this a go if you're a board-or-card gaming household, but we may have to hound someone for a reprint because the standard eBay asking price is somewhat ludicrous.
Postscript: I adore the text on the card box. One side says 'A game to play with Biggles & Co' and the other says 'The adventures of Biggles as a game'. Neither of these descriptions is technically accurate. Frankly I'm shocked there doesn't seem to have been an official Biggles board game - possibly I need to dive back into TTRPG development just to right this heinous wrong.
Post-postscript: Today's procrastination tactic was finally editing the latest episode of my Classic Who podcast, which we recorded, genuinely, eleven months ago. Give it a listen if you enjoy lighthearted discussion of 60s sci-fi, or gay subtext. We do both!
