There are many ways to improve the look or function of a game. As an example, I prefer to have some sort of large object to indicate "first player" rather than the card that many games use. Usually these upgrades are purely functional but every so often you'll find something that fits the theme perfectly as well. I've listed a few of these such finds below...
Kill Dr. Lucky - Since you need to supply
your own pawns to this game anyway, it makes sense to use
appropriate pieces doesn't it? I think that the pawns from
Midnight Party fit the bill very nicely. I haven't
played Clue in a number of years but if I ever dig
out the old classic it's a pretty sure bet that I'll
replace the generic pawns with these as well.
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 Merchant of Venus - The generic pawns
that come with the game are simply no good and so I
replaced them with the spaceships from an old copy of
Wide World. (Before you buy that old thrift store
copy though, make sure that it has the pieces you want.
Some versions had boring old plastic planes. The metal
ones pictures here are also available in Parker Brothers'
Conquest.) I think that the retro style matches the
tongue in cheek theme of the game very nicely. As an added
bonus they even have superior function-ability—you can
point your ship in the direction of travel as required by
the rules.
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Vom Kap Bis Kairo - While I
appreciate the nice compact size of the game (it's just a
deck of cards), I didn't like having to move the trains.
It would be much nicer if they were actual wooden trains
rather than just cards. Fortunately, these are readily
available at many craft shops. A quick coat of paint and
you're all set. The ones that I bought were a little thin
(1/4") and so I had to glue two of them together.
They're very cheap so this is hardly a problem. I also
used another of these trains to replace the "first
player marker" in Santa Fe Rails. The original
is small and looks more like a black blob than a
train.
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| Give Me The Brain - This one seems a natural. You need some item that the players must pass around to show which zombie currently holds the only brain at Friedey's fast food restaurant. It seems only natural that you use an actual brain then doesn't it? Well, maybe not an actual brain but a foam one at least. These are pretty common promotional items (go to almost any trade convention and you're likely to be given several). |
The Great Brain Robbery - Ok, so you got a large
foam brain for playing Give Me The Brain, but what
about this "sequel" game? You need lots of
little tiny brains.
Plastics For Games has just the thing—tiny little
brains in a variety of colours.
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Swashbuckler - I'm actually quite pleased
with the look of this Yaquinto game from the early 1980s.
The empty tavern is simple but very nicely done. The
furniture counters are plain but still work quite well I
think. The problem was with the pirate counters—the
overhead shots looked more like coloured blobs than
dastardly villains. Even though the counters are quite
thick, it was a little awkward moving them around all the
time. An easy solution is to use Steve Jackson Games'
Cardboard Heroes. Originally released in small
batches, you can now purchase the entire set of fantasy
figures in one package. There are about a dozen or so that
are appropriate for a swashbuckling setting. Using colour
coded bases improves them even more. I originally planned
on using metal miniatures but I found it difficult to get
any that were "just right". Most tended to be
too large for use in the 3/4" squares and the bases
made the figures "facing" a little ambiguous.
Even if you don't own Swashbuckler this idea can
come in handy in plenty of other games. The zombie
characters can be used in The Great Brain Robbery.
Even without the Cardboard Heroes, the plastic
stands make things much easier to move things around in my
experience. Deluxe Ogre (the 1985 version) included
these and I found it to be a tremendous improvement over
the original flat counters. I try to retrofit these items
to any games possible although sometimes it doesn't work
all that well. I'm hoping that the figures in Kampf der
Gladiators will be the right size, I'm not real fond
of the plastic "sleds".
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- Greg Aleknevicus
