Recently I wrote about The Great Hunger, a fascinating but opinion-splitting game about the Irish famine of 1845–52, and decided I had to find out more about its designer, Kevin McPartland.
Kevin has been producing games since 1994’s Tahiti: Clan Warfare, Polynesia 750 AD, with notable success in Amateurs, To Arms! In 2012. As well as this, a new edition of 2007’s Conquest of Paradise is coming soon. A common theme in his games is historical realism, something which comes through in The Great Hunger.
Kevin, thanks for chatting with me.
Thanks for the opportunity.
You’ve been brave (or do I mean rash!?) enough to be interviewed on Ireland’s RTÉ Radio about The Great Hunger. The interview, well worth a listen, felt painful at times—I wonder why you chose to do that, especially since you said you ‘don’t expect a single Irish person to buy this game.’ What were your expectations going in, and did the reaction you got come as a total surprise?
Well, the “not a single person” was a bit of hyperbole. My publisher was a little upset by my choice of words, and he informed me that we already had three pre-orders from Ireland! I knew that I was walking into a lion's den for that interview, but it was an opportunity to educate people about our little hobby. I couldn't have done it without Kieran's [the programme host] steady hand. Some of the callers (and listeners) might now know more about our simulation gaming hobby. But there were a lot of misunderstandings to overcome. One of the callers tried to shame me because the blight came from America. So the blight did come from the New World—just as the potato did. (Potatoes in their native Peru have developed a resistance to the blight.) There is no telling exactly from where or how—despite the lady on RTÉ claiming it was Philadelphia! But I read something interesting about that: it’s not a coincidence that the blight arrived in Europe around the same time as transatlantic steamship travel. Sailing ships took at least a month to make the crossing; often much longer. In 1841, the Columbia beat the Atlantic crossing record previously held by Great Western—just 11 days! Four years later, steamships were regularly making fast Atlantic crossings. Blighted potatoes in the cargo hold would not survive a passage of over a month. But just 11 days? Faster steamship travel allowed the blight to make it to Europe intact, and then spread. At least that’s the theory.
I think the, dare I say it, knee-jerk reaction to the game is in part because of terminology—‘game’ and ‘play’ equate to frivolous entertainment in some people’s minds, not to mention ‘roll of the die’ as a shorthand for something with many complex causes. The Great Famine comes across as more of an informative experience than a mere ‘game.’ Is there a good way to describe games like this, perhaps placing more emphasis on education? (I can’t help but compare them to dramatized documentaries, which can have similar reactions.)
The phrase you typically hear is “historic simulation game”. It’s not abstract, it’s not even a “theme”—the game is literally attempting to re-create the situation on your table. Most historic simulation games involve war, so you are put in the shoes of generals in the past making the decisions about troop deployments and such. So, the simulation must recreate the situation at the time. You can’t help but learn about the time and the place of the simulation when playing the game.
Of course, politics is another significant aspect of games like yours—as long as memories of grievances persist, there will be detractors. Not to mention that different people have different ‘truths,’ and some will be very critical of perceived mistakes, whatever your intentions. In fact, this had been suggested as a reason why there are so many ‘safe’ games around at the moment, such as nature-based ones; should games designers just avoid controversy? Do you, as the designer, find it useful to tackle difficult topics?
There do seem to be lots of nature-based games now—Elizabeth Hargrave really started a trend! But my personal interest is in history, especially the lesser-known episodes. It’s interesting that the only simulation game that we designed (that Jerry and I got published) which has not been controversial is our Amateurs, To Arms!, a game about the War of 1812. And that game includes, among the usual horrors of war, an episode that we now call ethnic cleansing: Andrew Jackson’s campaign (and peace treaty) against the Creek Indians. There are controversial politics behind nearly every episode in history; simulation games tend to focus on the events at hand. World War II is an immensely popular subject for simulation games; none of those games focus on Nazi or Communist party politics or the horrors they led to.
Compass Games, publisher of The Great Famine, is responsible for a lot of historical games, some covering events in World War II and the Vietnam War—why do you think your game is getting such a strong reaction compared to those in more recent history?
I must admit that I’m surprised by the reaction; I thought that the history was far enough removed—about 180 years—to allow for a dispassionate examination of the events. But tensions with Britain still remain in Ireland, and the time period covered by the simulation includes the first part of the fairly short time span when all of Ireland was swallowed up by the British empire. I clearly touched a nerve for some Irish folks.
What was it about the famine that attracted you to the idea? Could you have made a similar game about, say, the Black Death, or depression era America?
I was focused on studying Irish history in my spare time, and came across two stories that stunned me in their telling: Patrick’s mission to Ireland and the potato famine. In both cases, the actual events were much different from what we in America were led to believe. I designed Banish the Snakes (published by GMT Games) to tell Patrick’s story, and The Great Hunger to tell the story of the potato famine.
A game on the Black Death was actually the inspiration for my game, and there are several games on the subject. My favorite is Black Death, a small game published in the early 1990’s. It actually simulates the biology of the contagion, and demonstrates nicely how factors like virulence and mortality effect how a disease is spread. A game on depression era America would be interesting. Maybe focus on the “dust bowl”, and players can try to escape to California (instead of to America). But I don’t know nearly enough about the topic to design a simulation game on it.
More generally, how do you decide what subjects you want to work on, and what mechanisms to include in those games?
I work on subjects that interest me. I like to read history in my spare time; but to design a simulation game, you must take a deep dive into one subject. This takes me a few years, so I’d better be interested in the subject! I have no pre-conceived mechanisms; however, card-driven games provide an excellent opportunity to get lots of history into the simulation.
Based on what I’ve seen of The Great Famine, you’ve done a lot of research, though one criticism I’ve seen is the lack of involvement of any Irish people. Do you think the reception would be more positive if you demonstrated your research. (I’ve seen a few games where the rulebook contains a long list of references, for example.)
I really don’t see what is wrong with an American expressing his informed opinion on Irish history. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is a classic book because it’s an outsider’s observations and opinions. In my research I could not avoid reading first-person accounts and works by Irish authors. My favorite is Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland—even though it doesn’t say much about the famine! Unfortunately, in my family, no handed-down history from that time exists; in the late 1800’s my grandfather and his siblings were forced to speak English in school, cutting off the oral history.
You’ve compared The Great Hunger’s gameplay to that of Pompeii, which seems to be sufficiently distant in the past to not offend anyone? Should boardgames be limited to domains where personal histories no longer exist?
I sure hope it’s distant enough! Perhaps there were descendants of victims still living in Italy that protested the game. I don’t think there should be any time limits, subject to the availability of documentation of a very recent event. There are simulation games available now about the current war in Ukraine.
Are there themes which you don’t think should be represented in boardgames? I notice, for example, that The Troubles: Shadow War in Northern Ireland 1964–1998 exists in the catalogue of your current publisher, Compass Games, and Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001–? in GMT Game’s, both challenging topics, though I think I would take a close look before writing the games off. [Update: since discussing this, The Troubles has disappeared from Compass Games’ site.]
These games are not my cup of tea. I don’t play (and certainly don’t design) games about Vietnam or sooner; it's partially personal (I still remember the body counts reported on the TV news when I was a boy) and partially professional: some historians say that history cannot be written until at least 50 years after the event. It takes that much time for all the facts to come out and the passions to settle down. But there are certainly many simulation games covering modern topics. I don’t play them, but I will defend the right to express an opinion on these topics in the form of a simulation game. To me, it’s no different from writing a book on the subject.
Stepping back a bit, how do you go about designing games—what triggers interest in a particular subject and how does that get from idea to prototype?
It’s all about the topic. In my reading I’ll think, “Wow, that would make a great game!” and then start ruminating about it. The hardest part is starting—getting something down on paper. Then, it usually takes a lot of testing to figure out what actually works. Then even more testing before it works well. That will sometimes require throwing out some of your favorite early ideas so that the simulation flows smoothly and efficiently.
Can you hint at what games you’re working on beyond The Great Hunger, and when they might arrive?
As was mentioned, the 3rd Edition of Conquest of Paradise is due soon. The graphics are completely different for this edition, and that necessitated some tweaks to the game. Besides that, I’ve just started on a design on an entirely different subject; we’ll see if it becomes something that works.
Some of your games have been crowdfunded and others not; how do you determine which route to use, and do you have a lot of involvement with the minutiae of the campaign?
It’s not my decision; the publisher decides. They set up the campaign, create the videos, decide on the price points and marketing. I just answer design questions and give interviews.
What else can you tell us about Kevin McPartland, the person outside the game industry? What do you do in your spare time, if such a thing exists?
This is my spare time! And I belong to a group of guys that gets together to play board games once a week. My profession was as a registered architect, but some years ago I stepped back and now teach architectural technology at the local community college. It’s very rewarding, helping the next generation into the profession!
Where can we find out more about you and your work?
You can order The Great Hunger now at Compass Games, here.
The Gamefound campaign for the 3rd edition of Conquest of Paradise is over, but you can make a late pledge here.
Banish the Snakes is currently out of print, but it will be reprinted sooner if lots of people place a pre-order here!
Thank you, Kevin. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.
It was a pleasure for me, too! Thank you for the opportunity.
