Play as the Head of a Spanish Colonial Era Family in This Filipino Board Game
Only one family can survive.
(SPOT.ph) Making a Philippine-version of the social deduction card game Coup started as a late-night idea.
“Madalas kasi hinahatid ko si Mr. Store pauwi, matatapos kami at work siguro mga eight o’clock, tapos sasabay siya sa akin. Tapos we would just randomly chat in the car tapos kuwentuhan lang kami,” Chief Meeple of the Gaming Library a.k.a your friendly-local game store, said during a Game Night live stream on Facebook. “Until one night we had this crazy idea three years ago. [We said] You know what would be fun? If we could make a Philippine edition of Coup.”
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How the Philippine edition of Coup started
ICYDK, Coup is a popular board game for two to six players who will play as “the head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court.” Your mission is to destroy the influence of all the other families—and only one can survive. It's a game of dominance and, really, who has the best poker face.
Coup: Philippine edition has notable characters whose stories every Filipino knows very well, having studied, and ideally taken them to heart during our school days: Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra of one of Jose Rizal's magnus opus, the Noli Me Tangere. Yep, this board game will take you to the Spanish colonial era.
"You are the head of a family during the Spanish colonial era," the game description says. "The town was governed by a weak and corrupt regime. Indeed, that was life during those times; full of deceit, oppression, and coercion. In the midst of this destructive kingdom and its tyranny, the seeds of revolution were sown."
"Will you perish without witnessing the glorious dawn in our town or will the influence of other families crumble, forcing them to exile?"
Chief Meeple had then reached out via email to the designer Rikki Tahta and the Indie Boards & Cards. Tahta loved the idea.
“It’s not our usual project na ita-translate lang namin ‘yung rulebook or kaunting adjustments tapos ayun na. Eto talaga, we needed to look for an artist; look for how to make the game,” he explains. “It’s basically from the ground up. Ang binayaran lang namin is royalty to the designer, and then everything else—from scratch na siya.”
The box cover has Maria Clara on it. The art of the Philippine-version is by Camille Chua Tan. Pre-orders have already started and is expected to arrive the first quarter of next year.
How to play Coup:
The game has 15 character cards, six summary cards, 50 coins, and the rulebook. It has a 15-minute playing time.
Each player starts with two coins and two influence. The influence are two face-down character cards. The deck has three copies of five different characters with a set of skills: Duke, Assassin, Contessa, Captain, and Ambassador. For example, the Contessa can block an assassination attempt against yourself.
The actions a player can do are: the Income, which is to take one coin from the treasury; Foreign aid, take two coins from the treasury (can be blocked by the Duke); and, of course, Coup, which allows you to launch a Coup against another player if you pay seven coins.
In the Philippine version of the Coup, Maria Clara is the Contessa while Ibarra is the Duke. Padre Damaso is the Ambassador. Elias is the Assassin, and the Gobernador Heneral is the Captain. Each card has art that reflects the character, with each character's play written in Tagalog. You can spot easter eggs as you go by.
Players take turn perfoming actions (no passes here), and the other players can challenge or enact a counteraction. You can bluff or call bluff, and if they can't or don't want to prove it, they lose the challenge and their influence. When they lose two of their influences, they are eliminated from the game.
They already have plans for Reformation, which is an expansion of the original Coup game and will be taking on El Filibusterismo. "But to do that, we need to make the base game successful," Chief Meeple said.
There are no prototypes for the board game available at Gaming Library's All aBOARD XP branches yet, but you can already pre-order in stores and online for P1,299.