5 Board Game Characters That Need Backstories
Forget Mr Moneybags, which board game characters need a deeper persona piecing together?
The hipster board game renaissance is well and truly underway; simply mentioning Monopoly will have you laughed out of most East London pubs.
There are hundreds of great new games rapidly growing in popularity, each with their own unique theme and game world. But whilst video games can spend hours creating vast lore-filled worlds and developing rich and deep characters, the same is not true of their analogue board based cousins.
Sometimes, a vaguely humanoid wooden piece is not enough to form any sort of emotional bond to. Consider Cluedo. Do you actually care that it was Colonel Mustard who went on a lead piping battering rampage? Not really, because you don't have any idea what Colonel Mustard is truly like. There was no cut-scene detailing his honourable military service. No flashback explaining why he decided dressing in yellow to compliment his surname would be a good idea. No time is spent getting to know the real Colonel.
So for all the fun there is to have playing a board game, there are some characters who, after you take a step back, could really do with some fleshing out.
5. The Robber - Settlers Of Catan
Catan is a brutal game that can end friendships over a sheaf of wheat. The theme of Catan is that players are meant to be developing settlements on a previously undiscovered island, racing to create the largest trading community.
But if the Island was previously untouched, why is there already one guy chilling on the island by himself? What has he been doing on the island by himself and for how long has he been there alone? Why does he go by "The Robber" and who was he previously robbing off?
Players first encounter The Robber in a desert. Why pick there to live instead of the verdant pasture or woodland? And why the sticky fingers to begin with? Is there a reason that instead offering his thieving services for commodities, he does it pro bono for anyone who rolls a seven? It's a strange relationship to have with people trying to develop an island civilisation for the better.
Perhaps understanding The Robber's past is they key to understanding his flexible moral code and erratic plundering.