I was listening to a TabletopBellhop podcast the other day, and one of the listeners asked what book or literary world would make a great board game. This is my pitch for a game based on one of my favorite science fiction novels.
Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction story where the Firemen are actually burning books and trying to eradicate the written word, while a handful of people are risking everything to try to preserve them. Players each are assigned a book and have to run around collecting chapters while the firemen are removing the books. Sometimes the firemen are getting close and you have to pick a chapter from a book other than yours. If the fireman catches you you lose one or more of your own chapters and are forced to replace them with whatever is at hand. Once you acquire enough chapters, you become the book. The story you tell from the bits and pieces you have acquired could be quite funny. For example, you can be “Oliver Twist”. Your story might take an interesting turn in chapter five because that chapter came from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and finally, end with Oliver replacing his Canoot’n valve because the final chapter came from “Reader Digest Home Plumbing Repairs”. Once the last book is read, the player with the most complete book will be declared the winner.
Ray Bradbury might not be impressed with the light hearted approach to such a serious topic, but the game might be quite fun to play.
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