Turnabout: An Origin Story

Turnabout

Asked about how I created Turnabout, I have a bunch of prepared statements that sound either irascible for laughs, or deeply humble to play the puppets of the board gaming world. But the simple fact is, I am an outsider, looking in. I do not play board games, for the most part. What I’ve built here wasn’t meant to belong to any community, it was a project I started working on to entertain guests, since the regular classic family board games had complications that made them difficult for people I knew to enjoy at the best of times. Other games, commonly popular contemporary games, seemed either too complicated and/or vague in the rules, or were simply meant for kids under twelve, and no mistake about it. This is not a failing of theirs, because people play them all the time and ask others to play with them. It’s not even my failing, as a middle-aged man with a weird sense of humor, a self-destructive lifestyle, and more friends than I deserve. No, I think the problem is just that board games, like a lot of things in my culture, aren’t made with anyone in mind.

When designing Turnabout, my behavior was ridiculous. Close Encounters with the mashed potatoes context of absurdity. It’s because I stumbled onto something wonderful. Years before, I had purchased a bumper pack of various dice at a large chain department store. It came with the usual six-sided guys in various forms, and among them were what I have only ever seen described as “color dot dice.” That’s it. Six sides, each with a different-colored dot, each representing the three primary and three secondary colors in the spectrum. That was at the back of my mind the day I played my last game of Monopoly, roughly the year 2018. I had had enough of lopsided, prolonged victory laps at the expense of the other players. Funnily enough, I was the one who landed on Boardwalk first, and I was bothered by how uncomfortable I made everyone while the countdown to each player’s demise remained uncertain. I was the winner, and I didn’t get that buzz that sadists normally get when beating their loved ones. Keep in mind, I realize that Monopoly was meant to be a teaching tool, to demonstrate how greed brings out the worst in people. Ironically, the creator of the game never got proper royalties or even credit for it until after she died, penniless. It was made popular by families who sought affordable entertainment during the Great Depression. WILD. I got to work on a game that was balanced in every way I could imagine. Color dice rolling system, simple scheme, the best elements of all my favorites, and the last part was unwittingly the type of game it would wind up being, which was a hybrid of a racing game and Rock/Paper/Scissors. I am oversimplifying, mind you, but this is more or less the mindset I was following on the path to a successfully balanced, fun, fair board game.

See for yourself! It has everything. Chance cards, a “jail,” purchasable items, players with RPG-like attributes. Every roll of the dice comes with an action. MOVING PARTS, for pete’s sake. The game weights 2.2kg and sprawls out to nearly a meter in length. The best thing about the game is the human element, I swear up and down. Play it for hours with many friends, or have quick games with just one other, and you will get everything you ever wanted out of a board game experience. Even the losers will be happy they played, unless they need the care of a good doctor. I am not ever going to reveal the full recipe for the secret sauce to this game. I will let the smartest among you enjoy it until enough of you put your heads together and figure it out. This might take a day, or might never happen, depending on how far it spreads and how many of you deem it worthy of cooler talk. Hey, maybe there is no secret sauce, and I am pulling the strings again. I urge you to try Turnabout at your first available opportunity. Be the first kid on your block!

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