Train (board game)

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Train is a board game designed by Brenda Romero in 2009. In the game, players are tasked with transporting passengers along a railway before their opponents. At the end of the game, it is revealed that the final station is Auschwitz concentration camp, and that the players had been participating in the Holocaust.

Development[]

Romero created Train over the course of nine months,[1] with the game releasing on April 29, 2009,[2] at a Games for Change conference.[3] Train is one of six games in a series she called "The Mechanic is the Message", which are intended to express difficult emotions through game mechanics. After finding that games were successful in explaining the emotional impact of the Atlantic slave trade to her daughter,[4] Romero went on to design Train as a way to explain the Holocaust in a way that was accessible to a child.[5] The main intent of the game was for players to feel complicit.[4]

Gameplay[]

In Train, players receive instructions from a typewriter to load people, represented by yellow pegs, to different railway stations.[1] The player moves their trains by rolling dice, and they can use cards to slow down their opponents' trains, or accelerate their own.[5] Once the player reaches the final destination, it is revealed to be Auschwitz concentration camp.[6] The game's rules state that "the game is over when it ends", meaning the player can stop once they have reached Auschwitz, or attempt to liberate the prisoners.[7]

Reception[]

Upon release, Train was met with controversy, and Romero received threats because of the game.[5] Destructoid praised the game's nuance and mechanics, noting that it makes effective use of the board game format: "The Auschwitz revelation is but one aspect of an entire experience designed to make players question the way they follow rules, and how they’ll behave once they understand what’s going on, and how complicit they’re willing to be."[7]

Train is considered one of Brenda Romero's best known works.[5] The game received the Vanguard Award at the 2009 IndieCade Festival of Independent Game Design, a category which was designed specifically so that Train could be awarded it.[8] Train has been displayed at museums in Georgia Tech University,[1] and De Anza College.[9]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "Brenda Romero's Train board game will make you ponder". VentureBeat. 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  2. ^ "Train". Brenda Romero. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  3. ^ Brophy-Warren, Jamin (2020-03-05). "The Board Game No One Wants to Play More Than Once". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  4. ^ a b Thurm, Eric. "Just Playing Along". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 2021-12-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ a b c d Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (2017-05-21). "Brenda Romero versus the systems of pain". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  6. ^ Chancley, Taylor. "Jacobin Packs Social Commentary Into Class War". TechRaptor. Retrieved 2021-12-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ a b Burch, Anthony (2010-03-13). "GDC 10: the Holocaust board game". Destructoid. Retrieved 2021-12-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Brenda Brathwaite: Message in the Machine, PopMatters". PopMatters. 2010-05-25. Retrieved 2021-12-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Wilson, Matthew (2010-12-02). "Visitors 'Learn to Play' at De Anza College's new exhibit". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2021-12-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links[]

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