The Trek to Tessalit

Transcription

1 The Trek to Tessalit By Leslie Calvert Background: This game is adapted from the short story The Delicate Prey by Paul Bowels. The story is about the journey of 3 Filala (leather merchants) and their encounter with the Moungari (a person from a holy place that is treated with respect). The Filala are family members, two uncles and their nephew named Driss and are traveling from Tabelbala to Tessalit. The Moungari basically tricks the 3 Filala into trusting him and letting him join their caravan. However, instead of being their friend, the Moungari first kills the two uncles in a trick making them think he was going to provide food for them. Driss, the younger Filala, was waiting at the camp for his uncles and the Moungari s return but gets spooked when no one shows up and gets on a Mehari (Camel) and runs away. He turns around shortly when he thinks he has just been a fool and scaring himself over nothing thinking that the older men were all probably eating their hunt and laughing at him. When he comes back to the camp the Moungari shoots at him, hitting his arm and hand. The Moungari then ties him up, strips him naked, cuts off his penis, slices a cut in his stomach, stuffs the penis into his stomach, and rapes him. In the morning, after surviving through the night, the Moungari slices Driss s throat with a razor until his windpipe is severed. It is a horrific tale the is resolved in the end with the town people of Tessalit figuring out that the Moungari has murdered the 3 Filala and in turn bury the Moungari in the middle of the desert up to his head in sand and leave him there to die.

2 Game Type/Genre: Board Game Adaptation from a Short Story/Adventure. Free-For- All. 2-4 Players. Age 18+. Scenario: You are on a dangerous trek to Tessalit traveling alone and encounter people along the way in a variety of ways. Each encounter either helps or hinders you from getting to Tessalit by increasing or decreasing your life level. Be careful in trying and befriending people, you could get stabbed in the back. Or have your penis cut off and shoved in your stomach more like. Game Board: Tabelaba/One Starting Point of Game Spaces to Move to/ Encounter Spaces Tessalit/Finish of Game Game Symbol Key

3 Game Play/Rules: Starting the Game: Everyone takes a character card and positions the corresponding character bit at one of the six corners of the board, marked in blue. The encounter pieces are to be turned facedown and placed at random on the white spaces. Each person moves along the board in a clockwise motion with the youngest person playing going first. You move one space per move and can go in any direction as long as you aren t going in a backwards direction (ie. You can go forward diagonally or else wise and you can go horizontally, just not backwards.) Picking Up/Using Encounter Pieces: When you land on a space that has an encounter piece you pick it up and place it on your encounter rack. If you land on a blank space nothing happens. Your encounter rack can hold up to 6 encounter pieces, so if you pick up an additional piece you have to discard one immediately. You use your encounter pieces throughout the game at the beginning of each turn, either on yourself or on an opponent. If your character is strong against what you are being attacked by see Character Cards (below). Encounter Rack Example Encounter Pieces Sing Consume Hashish

4 Character Cards: Each player gets a character card at the beginning of the game which has your strength on it. If an encounter is played against you that you are strong against, you can reveal your card to the opponent who has tried and injured you and bounce the encounter back onto the attacker, injuring them instead. Doing so, however, also reveals your strength to your other opponents who will most likely try not and attack you with said encounter. Other then attack pieces, there are also heal/help encounters that you can either use on yourself or one another player. If you play the Befriend encounter you chose a player who you are befriending and they gain the same amount of life as you do. Driss You are a Filala, or leather merchant, on a trek to get to Tessalit to sell your goods. Strong Against: Yelling and Being Tricked Winning/Ending Game: The goal of the game is to get to Tessalit, or the center of the board. The first player to do so wins. If time runs out, the player with the least amount of steps to the middle wins. You can lose during the game if your life level goes to zero. If this happens you are automatically out of the game.

5 Encounter Pieces (72 Total Pieces): Attack: Yell (12) = -2 life Trick (10) = -3 life Shoot (8) = -5 life Slice Open Stomach (5) = -10 life Cut Off Penis (3) = -20 life Rape (2) = -50 life Cut Throat (2) = -70 life Heal/Help: Drink Tea (12) = +5 life Befriend (8) = +10/+10 life Sing (5) = +20 life Play Flute (3) = +35 life Consume Hashish (2) =+50 life