{"id":1286,"date":"2019-05-27T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:38:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:38:46","slug":"five-or-so-questions-on-a-cool-and-lonely-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/05\/five-or-so-questions-on-a-cool-and-lonely-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Five or So Questions on A Cool and Lonely Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today I have an interview with Alex White about A Cool and Lonely Courage<\/a><\/em>, which is currently on Kickstarter<\/a>! This game is about women in occupied France in World War II and I asked Alex about the research involved. Read on to see more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell me a little about A Cool and Lonely Courage. What excites you about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer I was discussing the role of women in World War\nII with a friend, thinking about the courage which they had displayed and the\nencouragement that can give to us today. The next evening on the flight home I\nremembered a museum exhibit I had come across once about the women who worked\nas spies in occupied France, and the germ of an idea for the game formed – I\u2019ve\nstill got the half page of scribbled notes which are the underpinnings of the\ngame even now! I wanted to design a game with simple rules that would allow us\nto tell emotionally complex stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I followed this up by several weeks research into the women\nwho served as part of the Special Operations Executive and I was rocked back on\nmy heels by their history. They came from all kinds of backgrounds and faced\nincredible peril. A third of them were captured, tortured and executed, but\nthey performed a vital role in the liberation of France.  The photo below\nshows Violette Szabo, Noor Inayat Khan, Nancy Wake and Odette Sansom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Four
The four women the game is based on, Violette Szabo, Noor Inayat Khan, Nancy Wake, Odette Sansom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I decided that I wanted the game to remember and honour the\nwomen who had faced such dangers. I\u2019ve put as much history as I can as examples\ninto the rules and made every effort to help the players understand the kind of\ncircumstances these real women found themselves in. I\u2019ve been delighted that\nmany people have said afterwards that they want to find out more about these\nspies, and I\u2019ve included a book and film bibliography in the rules to help\npeople find our more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central mechanism of the game reflects the fates of war,\nand gives a tremendous replay value to it. Every time that someone plays, very\ndifferent stories will result. Because the game is interested primarily in the\nrelationships these women had with the people around them, and tracks the\nchanging relationships during their time, it has the capability to be very\nemotionally engaging – even shocking. As one player, new to story games, said\nduring a recent session \u201cI can\u2019t believe that I\u2019m crying over someone that we\njust made up in the last hour\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a long response to a short question! But in a nutshell I\u2019m excited about the capacity of this game to give the players genuine emotional experiences and a new respect for the women who did this for real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mentioned your research. What kind of research did you do? How did you find the right sources? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to research, happily there are many books\navailable! Historians have done all the hard work in research or working as\nbiographers. I started by looking at some authors who have covered a number of\nthe women who worked with the SOE such as Rick Stroud who wrote \u2018Lonely\nCourage\u2019 or Beryl E. Escort who wrote \u2018The heroines of SOE: F Section: Britains\nsecret women in France\u2019. I followed this up with more in depth biographies of\nwomen such as Pearl Witherington and Nancy Wake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I supplemented this real life history by looking into some\nof the fiction based on these activities. I really enjoyed the young adult\nnovel \u2018Codename Verity\u2019 by Elizabeth Wein, and I was able to obtain a 1988 TV\nseries called \u2018Wish me luck\u2019 by Lavinia Warner and Jill Hyem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A friend of mine is an amateur historian of World War II and he was able to give me a lot of additional context about the situation in occupied France too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you reach out to the families of the women who you based the game on, whose likenesses you\u2019re using, to gain their perspective or permission?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I didn\u2019t attempt to reach out to any of the families – None of the public resources I had available referred to any family members much, and trying to track them down would have felt too stalker-y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The pages within A Cool and Lonely Courage<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What happens in play of A Cool and Lonely Courage<\/em>? What do players do, and what are their hard questions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to playing A Cool and Lonely Courage, it goes\nlike this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a series of questions which each player answers to\ndevelop an initial view of their character – their background, how they speak\nfrench, the reason they joined up, a strength discovered during training and a\nweakness revealed by training. Whether they were going to be primarily a\ncourier or a radio operator. Their code name, and the name of the circuit\nleader they would be working with in France (who is their first supporting\ncharacter). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the play starts, the players have to picture themselves\nin neighbouring cells, captured by the Nazis. They briefly introduce\nthemselves, and they start telling each other their stories…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each player is dealt a hand of 6 cards, held face down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are going to be five chapters, and in each chapter\nevery player will have a scene. The chapters are arrival (meeting the\nresistance), a mission with the resistance, an interlude which is a period of\nquiet and getting to know people, the chapter where you are captured, and a\nfinal chapter in prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As each player is going to have a scene they draw one of\ntheir cards, and the suit determines whether the focus of the scene is one of\nlove, success, misfortune or death. The scenes will involve one or more\nsupporting characters, adding to a selection in front of each player or reusing\nexisting ones in later scenes. Other players take the role of the supporting\ncharacters in the scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the chapters progress it will be natural to revisit some\nof the supporting characters and depending upon the fall of the cards you will\nsee relationships grow, deepen, fracture or sometimes be tragically ended by\ndeath. Through playing out the scenes there is a real sense of personality in\nthe supporting characters… and when a spade is drawn and the players set a\nscene where a lovely person has to die… that can feel really tough – but true\nto the sense of the wartime story that is being told. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusion is a real point of decision. Everyone has one\ncard left. They then secretly decide whether to keep that card for themselves\nor donate it to another player. When these decisions are revealed, anyone with\ntwo cards is rescued! Anyone with no cards is killed out of hand. Anyone with\none card is sent to the concentration camps and if your card is black you die\nthere, if it is red you survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in the epilogue, the players think about what\nhappened next to the survivors after the war. And who remembers those who died. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is sometimes a little quiet at the conclusion of the game, as we think about the stories that have been told, and perhaps reflect upon the real women who the game is based upon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Images
Women working alongside Resistance fighters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do you support players who might find this kind of play overwhelming or upsetting once they\u2019ve jumped into it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things that has always been important when\nrunning the game is that everyone knows that there is an open door policy –\nanyone can excuse themselves for the game for any reason. They might want a\nbreak, or they might feel that they have to exit the game entirely. It is\nimportant that people know that this is an option at the start of the game, and\nthat if during the game someone feels they have to step out it is important for\nthe rest of the table to reassure them that is perfectly fine, and it won\u2019t\n\u2018spoil the game\u2019 for anyone else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve seen this used twice, once in a game that I was\nfacilitating and once in a game a different person was facilitating. In each\ncase it was easy to reassure the person that was fine, and they left with no\nworries that it would impair anyone else\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasionally someone finds one particular thing that is\nbrought up somewhat upsetting, and the game rules discuss right up front using\nRon Edwards \u201clines and veils\u201d or John Stavropoulos \u201cX-card\u201d mechanics to help\navoid troublesome areas up front or during play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you feel sometimes knowing the end of the story can affect play and the experience of the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that knowing the end of the story actually plays\nreally well. Although it may not be fashionable, I really loved the movie\nTitanic. We all know the ship sank, but it was interesting to see the stories\nleading up to that point. Indeed, it lent a bitter-sweet aspect to some of the\nstories. The same holds true in A Cool and Lonely Courage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that these stories end in capture can make the sense of small moments of joy or victory shine like candles in the darkness. And of course, the very end of the story isn\u2019t known. You know that you are all in prison, but there is the question about what you do with your final card… to keep it or to give it away, once you know everyone else\u2019s stories. The final end of each character isn\u2019t known until the epilogue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Images
Occupied France.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks so much to Alex for the interview! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you’ll check out A Cool and Lonely Courage on Kickstarter today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Note: As required by my standards, you’ll note that I asked Alex about whether he reached out to the families of any of those he’s writing this game based on. I understand Alex’s perspective, but as I have spoken of before<\/a>, I care about whose stories we tell, so I wanted to ask to get that perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I have an interview with Alex White about A Cool and Lonely Courage, which is currently on Kickstarter! This game is about women in occupied France in World War II and I asked Alex about the research involved. Read on to see more! — Tell me a little about A Cool and Lonely Courage. … Continue reading “Five or So Questions on A Cool and Lonely Courage”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[20,10,4,17,57,25,15,12,26,23,18,105],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-five-or-so","tag-game-design","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-history","tag-interviews","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-story-games","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs","tag-vintage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/four-women.jpg?fit=680%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-kK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1860,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/04\/behold-products-ultimate-micro-rpg-book-pre-orders\/","url_meta":{"origin":1286,"position":0},"title":"Behold, Products! 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