Tabletop_Gaming__April_2019

R

eal-time games are among the

most fun and frantic experiences

the tabletop hobby has to oer.

Where most games come with

calm and orderly turn-based

structures, the likes of Captain Sonar, Magic

Maze and Escape: e Curse of the Temple see

players all acting at once – the results can be

tense, raucous, confusing and sometimes side-

splittingly funny.

Over the years, a host of designers have

oered their own distinct spins on the

concept. But one of the most beloved – and

hectic – real-time releases is 2012’s Space

Cadets. A tabletop tribute to the kind of

dramatic ship battles seen in Star Trek, it

casts players as the crew of a starship and

hands them each their own role and set of

responsibilities as they navigate the depths

of space, ght o aggressive enemies and

attempt to complete a series of increasingly

perilous missions.

We spoke to designer Geo Engelstein,

who created the game along with his children

Brian and Sydney, to discover the story

behind its creation and the secret of its long-

lasting appeal.

TO BOLDLY GO

Geo Engelstein is a lifelong gamer, and over

the decades he’s played titles of just about

every imaginable type.

“I always played games with my family,”

he explains. “We played a lot of chess,

things like that. But eventually I discovered

Avalon Hill games like Diplomacy and

Panzer Blitz, and then a couple of years later

Dungeons & Dragons.

“I was gaming all the way through high

school, then in college I was the head of our

gaming group. I used to play more complex

games in college. en I got married, and we

had kids, and that was right at the time that

Eurogames were starting to make inroads

into the US market. ere were a couple of

companies importing games like Settlers of

Catan and some of Reiner Knizia’s games and

things like that. So gaming has always been

part of what I’ve done.”

While tabletop games are a long-standing

part of Engelstein’s life, he also took an early

interest in the then-nascent eld of video

game development.

“When I was in high school I had an Apple

II computer,” he says, “and I used to program

some video games. I had a couple of computer

games published in the mid ‘80s, one of which

you can still play in a web implementation

to this day. It was called Star Blaster. Even in

college, we played around with coding games,

but then I got super busy and started working,

so that took a back seat.”

While his opportunities to make video

games were curtailed, Engelstein maintained

his interest in the tabletop side of the hobby.

“I was travelling a lot for business,” he says,

“and I would always try to reach out to people

and say: ‘Hey, I’m going to be in Cleveland,

I’m going to be in LA,’ or wherever it was. ‘Do

you want to meet up and play something?’ It

was a great way to meet new people and keep

things interesting on the road.

“en in the early 2000s I was travelling over

to Korea, and during one of the trips I looked

up Tom Vasel from the Dice Tower podcast,

who was living over there at the time. I said: ‘Hey,

I’m going to be in Seoul and I’d love to meet you,’

so we got together and played some games, and

then every time I went to Korea we’d get together.

at evolved into me being part of e Dice

To w e r and doing a segment where I talked about

some of the math and science behind games. So I

thought: ‘I’ve always been involved in the hobby,

I’ve enjoyed programming computer games; I

should just sit down and do a board game.’”

Engelstein’s rst release, developed in

partnership with his son, Brian, was the sci-

card game e Ares Project. It wasn’t the last

time they’d visit a futuristic theme; the idea for

their second title was inspired by one of the

most iconic science-ction series of all time.

“Space Cadets was actually inspired by a

Star Trek roleplaying game that came out in

the ‘80s or ‘90s,” Engelstein recalls. “In that

game, when you were on the bridge, each

player had their own console. One player

controlled the weapons and one player

controlled the sensors, and it was really

rudimentary, but I really liked that idea of

the asymmetry where every player had their

own responsibility.”

He developed the idea, envisioning a

game in which a group of players collectively

controlled a spaceship. One player would be

an engineer, generating energy to power the

ship’s systems. Another would be a weapons

technician, ghting o attacking enemies.

One would control sensors, hunting for

objects and potential threats in the cold,

black depths of space.

“e original idea was actually to do it as

a computer game,” he says. “Online games

were in their early stages, and I thought it

would be really cool if we could set it up

so that every person’s screen would be a

separate console. So I pitched it to a video

game company, and they said: ‘Oh, this is

just Puzzle Pirates in space.’

“Puzzle Pirates was a game back then

where each player had their own mini-game.

So I was a little dismayed, and I kind of put it

on the shelf. But it kept kind of germinating

in my mind and eventually I thought: ‘is

could make a pretty cool board game.’”

Each player

has a different

role aboard the

starship – the

crew must deal

with problems

together

tabletopgaming.co.uk 37

Return one

Active Jump

Flux card to the

inactive pool

(player choice).

Absorb 1

Energy assigned

to Jump.

FLUX BREACH

Return one

Active Jump

All shots do one

less damage

(not less than

zero)

DETONATION

FAIL

Active Jump

Flux card to the Flux card to the

Remove 1

inactive Jump

Flux card

(player choice)

from the game.

Absorb 1

Energy assigned

to Jump.

FLUX LOSS

Remove 1

inactive Jump

Flux card

(player choice)

from the game.

Absorb 1

Energy assigned

to Jump.

Flux card to the

from the game.

Energy assigned

Before Distrib-

uting Energy

(Step 1), lose 2

Energy that were

generated (player

choice).

CIRCUIT

BREAKER