# of Players: 4-10
Materials: game board, 2 dice, 2 stacks of cards labelled: “Prospero’s Magic” and “Character Relations”
Characters: Caliban, Ariel, Miranda, Prospero, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Alonso, Antonio, Gonzalo, Stephano
Instructions:
To begin the game, each player must select a character. Each player begins with 20 applause. Applause is the abstract monetary form that applies specifically to the realm of The Tempest. (Contextually, this refers to the epilogue of the play, where Prospero requests that the audience applaud him.) There is no physical monetary form of applause — it is only an intangible concept, as applause is in real life. Therefore, during the game, one player must act as the designated “keeper” who tallies each player’s applause total.
After distributing applause and determining the keeper, each player must roll the dice in order to determine who goes first. The player with the highest total takes the first turn. Each turn consists of the player rolling the die, then moving the corresponding number of squares. The goal of the game is to make it to the end of the board first with the most applause.
Possible Outcomes: (Or squares one could land on in any given turn.)
- Empty Squares.
- Upon landing on such a square, the player is safe for that turn.
- Progress in physical standing.
- The player may be sent backwards or forwards a few spaces.
- Applause.
- The character could gain/lose applause.
- Slavery.
- The character could become a slave. (Think of this as similar to getting sent straight to jail in Monopoly.)
- The character might choose to bail themselves out of jail for 400 applause immediately, or decide to instead take his/her time and roll the die in hopes of achieving a double to get out of slavery — i.e. roll two 3’s.
- Release from slavery.
- This endowment is automatically redistributed to whomever is currently in the throes of slavery. If the slaves’ quarters are empty, then the player who landed on the “release” square is safe (i.e. same outcome as an empty square).
- Prospero’s Magic.
- The player must pick from the stack of cards titled “Prospero’s Magic”. The card could entail any sort of action directly from the play. This includes anything from Prospero ridding someone of their memory (and thus, the victim player must pay out every other character 10 applause and move back 5 spaces) to a free release from slavery card that may be either bartered or kept for a time of need.
- Character Relations.
- The player must pick from the stack of cards titled “Character Relations”. The cards will always force an interaction between the characters in some way. This interaction will simulate actual occurrences in the play.
- An example card could include “Ariel does Prospero a favor” (in which case, Ariel would have to complete a task for Prospero or pay off one of his future debts) or “Caliban ridicules Prospero for his pitiful dukedom” (in which Caliban receives 30 applause from Prospero for his sneaky insult), among others.
- The Character Relations cards will always require that the actual characters involved in the card’s description complete their actions. This does not necessarily mean that whichever player landed on the Character Relations square has to be involved in the subsequent action. (Each character involved in the game will be a part of an equal number of negative and positive actions as compared to any other character in the game.)
- Return to the game.
- Any and all characters that are currently stuck in oblivion, outside of the realms of The Tempest are released and return to the game.
- For further clarification, see Special Circumstances > The Tempest > Item #7.
- The initial tempest (which begins the play itself).
- The initial tempest must occur once each character reaches or passes the halfway mark of the game. This takes place of everyone’s turn at that moment. Therefore, the tempest happens to each character at the same time, not unlike the sequence of events in the play.
- Each number on the die corresponds to a certain action, as listed below:
- 2: Distribute 40 applause to each player. If a player does not have enough applause, then they must take a loan from any or all of the other players in the form of a favor. A favor can qualify as payment to release a player from slavery or to pay off a debt of theirs. The quality of the favor is up to the receiving player’s discretion.
- 3: Pick two “Prospero’s Magic” cards.
- 4: The player who rolled the dice now owes each player a favor.
- 5: An alliance is formed. The player who rolled the die and the player to their right are now contractually obligated to aid one another if one runs out of applause.
- 6: The player scores a release from slavery card.
- 7: The player is immediately exiled from the game (i.e. their character is in a standstill on the board) and loses 50 applause (which is evenly distributed amongst the players). The player can only return to the game when someone lands on a “return to the game” square (see Outcome #8: Return to the game). One may also return to the game when anyone rolls a double.
- 8: An alliance is formed. The player who rolled the die and the player to their left are now contractually obligated to aid one another if one runs out of applause.
- 9: The player who rolled the dice now owes the person to their left a favor.
- 10: Pick two “Character Relations” cards.
- 11: The player who rolled the dice now owes the person to their right a favor.
- 12: The audience rewards the player who rolled the dice with 1,000 applause.
- Breaking the third wall.
- This occurs when a player reaches 500 applause.
- Each player picks one card from each deck (“Prospero’s Magic” / “Character Relations”) at random. These cards are shuffled. The player who just gained a total of 500 applause closes their eyes and picks three cards from a fanned stack.
At the end of the game, once one character reaches the final square, everyone counts up their final total to determine who wins. The following factors are noted:
- How much applause they possess.
- How many squares remain until they reach the final square. Double this and subtract it from the total applause one has obtained.
- The player who has reached the end first obtains 80 additional applause.
- The player who is last in the running to reach the final square loses 80 applause.
ANALYTICAL COMPONENT
When creating this board game, the general setup/landscape of The Tempest served as the conceptual starting point of the game. For instance, variables such as the tempest itself (at the beginning of the play) created an opportunity for a large event to intensify the game — not unlike the actual event in the play. The tempest, which occurs at the halfway mark of the game, bridges the two worlds present in The Tempest, from the mainland in Europe to the magical island, creating a comprehensive and interactive experience. In addition to this, the monetary format present in the game [applause] is intangible, just as the applause that Prospero demands is.
However, in aspects of the game such as “Character Relations”, specific portions of the play are drawn from in order to establish a textually immersive experience. For instance, Caliban’s line “For I am all the subjects you have” was inspiration for the first “Character Relations Card” mentioned (Shakespeare 1.2.341). However, though incorporating Character Relations into the game provides an inherently textual aspect to the game, enabling equality between the amount of cards each character must possess (in order to make the entire game fair) downgrades actions of the main characters such as Prospero, Miranda, and Caliban. Restricted by the minimal number of actions their peers have completed within the realm of The Tempest, main characters will lose a certain essence of themselves that is initially gained upon the audience’s comprehension of the entirety of the play. Additionally, by cautiously immersing these characters into the game in a 2D-like format, their realistic qualities fade away and are replaced with strict literal interpretations of their being. This interpretation is outlined by predetermined consequences which match the actions already displayed within the realms of the play, rather than leaving consequent actions to the discretion of the characters themselves (or Shakespeare, for that matter). On the other hand, because the characters of The Tempest are controlled by the players of the game, their minds are constructed by a combination of outsiders to the play itself, luck of the draw, and Shakespeare himself. As a result, the characters obtain novel qualities about themselves — as influenced by an outside source at present — each time the game is played.