I have always been fascinated with the tragedy that was the sinking of the Titanic, probably ever since reading “A Night to Remember” in high school. This was of course, many years before the movie came out. To me, the movie was more than just a love story, it was a deep emotional experience of sadness and tragedy. When the camera zooms out while she is floating on the wardrobe and you saw the ocean filled with the bodies of the dead and dying, it was very powerful.
This new game will allow you a certain number of turns (representing the time it took for the Titanic to sink after striking the iceberg) to get the passengers that you control to safety.
I will have to get a copy. I hope that the game will be both respectful, accurate, and maybe help us understand the disaster a little better. From what I have read so far, it sounds promising.
Here’s the description from Sir Chester Cobblepot:
April 14th 1912, 11.40 pm: in the dark and cold waters of the Atlantic ocean, the transatlantic RSM Titanic, during it’s first journey, sinks after a crash against an iceberg. The block of ice opens a fall in the right side of the hull and after two hours and forty minutes the Titanic is doomed.
After 100 years of those happenings, Sir Chester Cobblepot offers a refined board game that celebrates the unforgivable heroism and determination of the passengers of the english transatlantic: our main characters will be the survivors of the last lifeboat lowered into the water, the collapsible D.
Collapsible D™: The Last Minutes of Titanic is the first project from Chester Cobblepot. The idea comes from the mind of the italian author Gianluca Santopietro, already well known to have signed other games.
In this game the players will be on board of the Titanic during the night of april 14th 1912, when at 11.40 pm the ship collided with an iceberg, sinking in the ocean at 2.20 am of april 15th. Each turn represent 10 minutes of that lapse of time.
Each player, from 3 to 6, controls a passenger of each Class and a member of the Crew. Each character has a different starting point, trying to recreate the exact location they were on the ship, thanks to a historical research lead by the author, in cooperation with historian expert on Titanic facts like Claudio Bossi. Thanks to a very intuitive movement system, players will move their passengers through the ship, trying to reach the lifeboats on the dock.
Meanwhile, the water floods fast and the risk of drowning is very high. Each saved passenger will grant victory points, so the player with the highest score will win. Easy, touching and fascinating are three adjective that can be used to described Collapsible D: The Final Minutes of Titanic.
A game to be played with the family or with friends: the drama of the happening is dealer with respect and tries to be very historical accurate, like other products based on the Titanic.
The game is fast, never too tiring, thanks to a system based on a fixed number of turns.
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Having done a lot of reading in regards to the Titanic over the years (and, yes I went to the same high school as Elliott so I had to read Walter Lord’s book as well) I’d be interested in taking a peek at the game. I do have to say that I buck the current trend of despising the James Cameron movie when I mention that I bawled my eyes out in the theater the first time I saw the film (on a first date no less) and that I still cry when I watch the scene where Kate Winslet can barely bark out, “Come back…”
Having been an adult when Titanic first hit theaters, I can say – as my brother agreed with me then and now – walking out of that show left you with a good idea of what that fateful night may have been like. Sure, some folks may hate the hokeyness of the romance, as seen through 21st century eyes, but technically the film still stuns.
All in all though, I don’t know if I would want to play a board game based on the events of A Night to Remember…
You might be wondering how I, an avowed historical and war gamer, could say such a thing but I’ll explain. Wargames simulate battles, campaigns, and entire wars. Granted, one or more combatants may have been better prepared, more aggressive, or even immensely more heinous than the other but we’re talking about events that both sides had conscious choices to make that led them to that point even if the commonly accepted history presents it differently; disasters or tragedies don’t unfold in the same way.
Just as I’d be uncomfortable playing a game based on the Iroquois Theatre fire, Warsaw ghetto uprising, downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, or any other number of horrific historical events – victims don’t get to make choices. I just can’t see a game based on the sinking of the Titanic appealing to me. All in all I just think picking this topic is looking to score easy profits based on a built in non-gamer market. Just as with Letters from Whitechapel…
Maybe I’m coming across as a hypocrite, but I’m just presenting my honest thoughts that parlaying a real life tragedy or depraved killer does not a good game make. An easy sell maybe, but not a good game.
I think it really depends upon how the game is presented. As time goes by, people tend to forget about things. The book is no longer on school reading lists, and if it wasn’t for the movie many younger people wouldn’t even be aware of it (Heck, the movie was almost 15 years ago now). I wonder how many people are google-ing the Iroquois Theater Fire right now? I think if the game can be respectful, accurate, engaging, and informative then it could be worthwhile.
I can’t say the same for all tragedies, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to play an “Escape from the Twin Towers” game, so maybe that makes ME a hypocrite.
On Letters from Whitechapel though, I don’t know how I’d feel about playing a game as Jack the Ripper. A lot of people say it is a great game, but I have the same uncomfortable feeling you describe. I wouldn’t have my kids play that, that’s for sure, but I’d play it to see if it is any good. I have played Jack the Ripper Mystery Rummy a lot and it is a good game, of course you aren’t playing Jack though.