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Getting in contact with Reiner?

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Anonymous

Whew. Long time, no posts for me.

These past several months have been extraordinarily productive for me. Several games came gushing out of my skull in rapid succession, and I've hardly had time to even finish a prototype for one before another comes knocking at the door. I'd complain, only I like it that way.

The issue now is that I have developed a card game adaptation of a popular game by Reiner Knizia, and I need to contact him regarding whether or not he would approve of such an animal. If not, that's fine: I still get to play it, and so do my friends, but I feel this particular design deserves to exist, and it is follows that I would need to discuss the matter with the good Doktor.

My question is, does anyone have any way to contact him? I've scoured the web and have come up empty. Apparently, he's not even teaching anymore, so I can't even get a faculty email address.

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Getting in contact with Reiner?

The best way to go would be to contact the company that produced the original game of which yours is an adaptation. Chances are the company still holds the rights to the game, so you'd need to contact them anyway. If it's an older game the rights may have transferred back to Knizia. In that case the company could probably help you get in contact with Knizia.

Good luck!

- René Wiersma

Anonymous
Getting in contact with Reiner?

Wouldn't it be great if some of the big names of game design lurk the BGDF (even if it's under a disguides name)!

BTW--congratulations on the confluence of ideas!!

Anonymous
Game title

If you could share the title of the game you think this is similar to, I may be able to provide some insight.

GM

Anonymous
Getting in contact with Reiner?

It's not that it's "similar to." It's "directly inspired by." I'm temporarily calling the card game "Nineveh & Ur" which should give you a vague idea about which game it is based on.

Much of the gameplay and mechanics are very similar, but with the two player setup, and the fact that it's just cards, many elements are very different. The two-player aspect makes for a lot more fighting for control, while the cards allow for non-obvious sneaking up on an opponent.

Every aspect of the board game carries over to the card game, with the exception of the specific geometry of the board, which is carried over conceptually. The structure of the rules is almost identical, with phrasing changed to make allowances for the mechanics of a card game. There are some small differences, and a very few big ones.

If Reiner has a problem with it, I won't be offended. That just means that I'll be the only person with a copy, and anyone who wants to play will have to play against me. If he's okay with the idea, then obviously, I would want to try to get it published. It's a fun game, but it's an adaptation of an existing game. I'll put it this way: Nineveh & Ur more closely resembles its parent game than San Juan or The Settlers of Catan card game resemble their respective parents, but less than Café International: The Card Game resembles its parent. It is a different game, but it is the same structure and flow.

The only real advantages it has over its parent are A) It's smaller and more portable, B) It would cost much less, and C) It is a bit more tense than the 2-player version of the board game. I'll post more about it after some more playtesting.

jwarrend
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Joined: 08/03/2008
Getting in contact with Reiner?

It's definitely an interesting idea, and I could definitely see a Tigris card game doing well. The real question is whether having a "sequel" game designed by someone other than the original designer would be marketable. As you probably know, there were, as I understand it, a couple of prospective versions of San Juan in existence but rather than publishing one of those, Alea let Seyfearth design the game that they actually released (although I think that he based San Juan on one of the prospective versions).

Then again, Knizia designed "Carcassonne: the Castle", but the key there was that Knizia is actually a much bigger name than Wrede, so in a sense it was probably a big plus to have his name on the box. A Tigris game designed by a new designer may not have as much market appeal, but obviously that's a company's call and you should still try to get it published!

Perhaps one of the things that you might propose, if you can get a hold of the good Dr., is that you become co-designers of the game. In a sense, that's already the state of affairs, since you say that you've borrowed from Tigris pretty liberally already. What you really don't want to happen is to have Knizia say "nah, I'm not interested, but instead, I'll just design my own 2 player version of Tigris and sell that." I think you wouldn't have to worry about this, since he's probably got enough on his plate anyway, but you might send a pitch of your game to Mayfair on the same day that you contact Knizia, just to protect yourself? I don't tend to be paranoid about these things, and while I assume Knizia is a straight shooter, his sense of fair play is simply an unknown quantity to me. But given how excellent and prolific a designer he is, I would, were I you, want to make sure that just as you wouldn't put out a 2 player Tigris game without his blessing, so too he wouldn't take your idea and run with it with putting your name on the box as well. Probably just being overly cautious here...

In terms of actually contacting him, post this same question at the SAZ yahoo group (groups.yahoo.com/group/saz); I believe Knizia is a member, and someone should know how to get in touch with him.

Good luck!

-Jeff

Anonymous
Getting in contact with Reiner?

Actually, I wouldn't be all that upset if Knizia did just turn around and make his own version, although I strongly doubt he would do so. I'm more interested in good games getting made than my own idea taking the spotlight.

In all actuality, my contact priority would be Reiner Knizia, and assuming things go well with him, it would basically be a toss-up between Hans im Glück (since E&T is actually their game) and Kosmos (since Nineveh & Ur would fit right in on the Spiele für Zwei product line).

It's all up to the good Doctor. If he says not to go forward with it, I respect him enough to just make other games.

sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Getting in contact with Reiner?

Hmm... I just learned how to play Tigris & Euphrates last weekend (I'd been avoiding it, along with all the other 'big' games- for no good reason). And if this is Tigris and Euphrates we're talking about then I'm unsure how you can get the same feel of the game without the spacial relationships of the board. Are we talking about laying cards out on the table? I'm unsure how this game would work. Though I AM sure that if it did it would be great!

- Seth

P.S. Mind if I inquire as to your methods?

Anonymous
Getting in contact with Reiner?

Without giving too much away, the card game is not simply a tile-laying game with cards. Not only would that not be a new game, it would take up far more space than is needed.

There are differences, mainly in the fact that Nineveh & Ur is a lot more brutal than T&E. Conflict is far more likely to happen early in the game, on both the internal and external scale. The pace is a lot quicker, and the tension goes up fast. Scoring is only semi-secret, as in Puerto Rico: There are aspects which players can easily see at all times, and aspects which are hidden. There are 12 treasures in N&U, but not all of them will be claimed (Between 9 and 11, depending on how things pan out in any given game). Disasters are slightly less powerful in N&U. The order in which you perform any given actions is a bit more significant in N&U than T&E. Trust me, Nineveh & Ur will be a very familiar game to anyone who has played Tigris & Euphrates, but it is a different game. In playing one, you will be able to quickly and intuitively learn the other, in much the same way that some people use San Juan to teach Puerto Rico.

I really don't want to go too much into detail at this point until I know how Dr. Knizia feels about it, and besides, I still need to do more playtesting (Like at the local Gaming Society meeting this Wednesday). If Reiner likes the idea, you will definitely see it in one form or another. If he doesn't, I'll just post the files for it here.

Anonymous
Getting in contact with Reiner?

Well, the carrier pigeon is officially off. One kind contact was nice enough to connect me with Reiner, and now a message is winging its way to him.

I was surprised at the professional interest that contact expressed in the project. Here's hoping that Dr. Knizia says it's okay.

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Getting in contact with Reiner?

Cool. I think a lot of people will be interested in "E&T: the card game". I know I am. Let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

- René Wiersma

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Getting in contact with Reiner?

It now turns out that there will be an E&T card game, but unfortunately it will not be thedalek's.

Here's the scoop: http://www.gamefest.com/news/news_detail/2860_0_4_0_C/

Now we can all speculate whether Knizia got "inspired" to create his own version of an E&T card game by thedalek contacting him about it, or not :)

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