Siege of Troy

Game Development

Cast List - Game Development - Game Setting - Historical Background - Pictures & Reviews

The development of the Siege of Troy freeform game was inspired by a conversation between Nathan Richards and Richard Salmon during a long car journey returning from the freeform game Shakespeare’s Lost Play. The pair had noted that female players often lamented the lack of good roles for women in freeform games and began to ponder what setting for a freeform would rectify the problem. The realization that the Greek and Roman myths identified just as many, if not more, Goddess figures than male divinities suggested it would make a good setting and further thought identified the events of the siege of Troy as combining the dramatic elements, character interaction and potential for conflict necessary for a viable game.

The authors had no experience in writing freeform games and therefore involved Carol Johnson, one of the original members of the Cruel Hoax team responsible for writing both The King’s Musketeers and the Casablanca freeform games. Unfortunately, Carol was forced to drop out of the project after only one meeting due to the intervention of outside events. The authors decided to recruit Richard Perry to the team and the triad began to meet every six months to develop the game.

Progress was initially slow, except for a sudden burst of activity when Nathan was able to write all of the characters at work. The authors soon realized that they would require more than just three referees to run the game and decided that it would be sensible to invite Nickey Barnard to join the team so that she could contribute to the writing process and could familiarize herself with the game as it evolved rather than have to learn all of the plot mechanisms from reading the documentation.

Due to the physical distance between the authors, it was impractical to meet regularly. The team therefore allocated specific spheres of responsibility to each referee who would prepare the necessary documentation and then submit it electronically for consideration and discussion by the rest of the team.

Nathan Richards           -           Characters, plot summary and referees briefing;

Richard Salmon            -           Website, item cards, minutes of meetings;

Richard Perry               -           Wilderness map, proof-reading;

Nickey Barnard            -           Romance matrix, prophecies.

The project was evolving steadily, albeit slowly, until August 2003 when the authors were persuaded (blackmailed?) by Sue Lee into agreeing to run the game in 2004 in order to re-establish the tradition of one major costumed freeform game in the UK each year. In return, the UK Freeforms team has agreed to undertake all of the necessary administration to enable the game to be run for the first time in November 2004. We hope it has been a success!

Cast List - Game Development - Game Setting - Historical Background - Pictures & Reviews