Showing posts with label Clue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clue. Show all posts

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Great Board Game Mystery


What's is the biggest mystery in board games? No, not Mystery Express (and no, not Clue either), but something much bigger. We're talking BIG, like, who's face is on the front of St. Petersburg?!


Need some help? Here are a few close-ups...


Still need some help?

Well, the game rules indicate that the game takes place during the reign of Czar Peter (the Great) of Russia (Hence the name, St. Petersburg). Of course! The face on the box must be Peter the Great! Right?

Wrong! Well, sorta wrong.

The picture may represent Peter the Great, but the face is partly modeled after our mystery person, and I'm not talking about Col. Mustard.

Here is a good image of Peter the Great I found Online. Clearly, the hair is a match, and the eyebrows look good too, but is this is the same Peter that is on the front of the box? No!

But you might say, "This is a very young Peter the Great, surely the Peter on the box is just an older version of the man." You are right, of course, but here is another image of Peter, 20 years, and perhaps not a few military accomplishments later...

This mustache is a closer match than the teenage-stache of Peter the younger, but what about the hairstyle and the hard features? The actual Peter has a cleft chin and a long face. The artist did not just forget to add these details the box. No, this is clearly not our Peter.

But then....who is our Peter?! I will defer to the keen insight of the little boy Peter in the movie Finding Neverland, who, upon being asked if he was Peter Pan's namesake, shook his head and looked at Mr. Barrie (Johnny Depp's character and author of the play Peter Pan), and said, "but I'm not Peter Pan...he is!"

Little boy, you are right! No, our St. Petersburg Peter is not Mr. Barrie or Johnny Depp. Our Peter someone much more important and relevant to the game.

That's right, the man on the front of St. Petersburg is the author of the game, Michael Tummelhoffer.

But you may have trouble finding a picture of this mysterious man, because Michael Tummelhoffer is only a pseudonym. The real author is a man often shrouded in mystery: Hans Im Gluck lead designer Bernd Brunnhofer, pictured below...

Don't you see the resemblance!? No? Well, it might be a bit of a stretch, but just imagine Mr. Brunnhofer with a darker mustache, and no glasses, and a thick head of curly hair. Most of the facial features are a pretty good match, and the eyes and especially the chin are nearly identital.

And by the way, I can verify with certainty that Mr. Brunnhofer is the author of St. Petersburg, because I have met him. He was kind enough to allow me a picture with him when we visited the Hans Im Gluck headquarters in Munich two years ago.


Many thanks to Hans in Gluck and Bernd Brunnhofer for treating my friends and I to a fun evening of games, and for this fun mystery to unfold.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Residence Life Clue


Next year my wife and I will be the Hall Directors of a small (and very old) Residence Hall on campus, that will house about 250 students. The building has a rich almost nostalgic feeling--not in a haunted sort of way, but in a "theres a lot of history here" sort of way--and there are many unique rooms artifacts to look at. The idea came to us to adapt the game of Clue into a theme/game for the RAs and the residents to enjoy.

Although Clue is far from my favorite game, I think the best thing about Clue, and the reason people continue to enamored with it, are the feelings of warmth, mystery, and nostalgia that game evokes. I think these feelings could help to make a fun and unique environment for the RAs and residents of our building.

Several ideas we have so far include:
-Labeling rooms with names like: "Conservatory" "Study" "Billiard Room"
-Giving each RA an alias of one of the people from clue: "Professor Plum" "Colonel Mustard"
-Hiding clues throughout the building for RAs to find on their duty rounds or for residents to find and redeem for some sort of credit. These clues could also be integrated with a hall newsletter, which could encourage residents to visit and get to know their RA or myself
-Using the theme "Get a Clue" coupled with resources about campus to direct student to different campus activities
-Having a mystery or game night as a community builder

I'm not sure how far to take this idea, but I think at the very least it could become a good foundation for a host of creative ideas, and would give an extra sense of identity to the people who will live here, and of course it will be fun for me too.

If you have any other ideas, let me know!