{"id":17581,"date":"2025-02-12T09:22:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T09:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/?p=17581"},"modified":"2025-03-14T17:18:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T17:18:17","slug":"trollympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/blog\/2025\/02\/12\/trollympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Trollympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Comme la majorit\u00e9 des parisiens, et la quasi-totalit\u00e9 des bobos intellos, j\u2019\u00e9tais plut\u00f4t hostile aux jeux olympiques, dans lesquels je voyais un spectacle co\u00fbteux et un peu vulgaire et, surtout, la cause de l\u2019annulation de la quasi totalit\u00e9 des habituels \u00e9v\u00e9nements culturels estivaux de la capitale – y compris, dans le domaine du jeu, Paris est Ludique. J\u2019en voulais beaucoup \u00e0 Anne Hidalgo, la comp\u00e9tente et courageuse maire de Paris, de s\u2019\u00eatre laiss\u00e9e entra\u00eener dans cette gal\u00e8re.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apr\u00e8s coup, m\u00eame si beaucoup des causes de mes r\u00e9ticences sont toujours l\u00e0, j\u2019ai un peu chang\u00e9 d\u2019avis. Cela a commenc\u00e9 avec la c\u00e9r\u00e9monie d\u2019ouverture. M\u2019attendant soit \u00e0 un festival de mi\u00e8vrerie bien-pensante, soit \u00e0 des \u00ab reconstitutions \u00bb historiques lourdingues fa\u00e7on Puy du Fou, je ne l\u2019ai regard\u00e9e int\u00e9gralement que quelques jours plus tard, apr\u00e8s en avoir vu des extraits int\u00e9ressants, pour d\u00e9couvrir un spectacle provocant et intelligent, m\u00eame si, comme l\u2019\u00e9ternit\u00e9, c\u2019\u00e9tait un peu long, surtout sur la fin.<\/p>\n\n\n

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J’aurais bien aim\u00e9 que ce type soit repr\u00e9sent\u00e9 dans notre jeu, mais les illustrations ont \u00e9t\u00e9 faites avant<\/em> la c\u00e9r\u00e9monie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La fronti\u00e8re entre le sport et le jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est extr\u00eamement t\u00e9nue, et parfois arbitraire Curieusement pourtant, le sport ne m\u2019a jamais vraiment int\u00e9ress\u00e9, ni comme activit\u00e9, ni comme spectacle. Si certains sports ne sont que de simples et ennuyeuses mesures de performance, o\u00f9 l\u2019on cherche juste \u00e0 savoir qui court le plus vite ou saute le plus haut, beaucoup, notamment ceux o\u00f9 s\u2019affrontent deux joueurs ou deux \u00e9quipes, sont structurellement des jeux. Ce qui diff\u00e9rencie le sport du jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est bien s\u00fbr l\u2019importance de la force physique, mais la tactique, la strat\u00e9gie, la chance et m\u00eame le bluff sont loin d\u2019\u00eatre absents des comp\u00e9titions sportives. Certaines activit\u00e9s, qui mettent souvent en jeu la dext\u00e9rit\u00e9, comme la P\u00e9tanque ou m\u00eame le Mollky, ont un statut ambigu, class\u00e9s tant\u00f4t parmi les sports, tant\u00f4t parmi les jeux. Il n\u2019y a pas qu\u2019en fran\u00e7ais que le m\u00eame verbe, jouer, est utilis\u00e9 pour les jeux et pour de nombreux sports, et on parle d\u2019ailleurs des jeux olympiques. Si de nombreux sportifs professionnels sont aussi adeptes des jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9, c\u2019est parce que les deux activit\u00e9s r\u00e9pondent \u00e0 la m\u00eame angoisse, au m\u00eame besoin de sortir du r\u00e9el en se fixant des objectifs totalement arbitraires et d\u00e9nu\u00e9s de sens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Une autre diff\u00e9rence importante entre sport et jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9, et c\u2019est elle qui me g\u00eane un peu, est l\u2019importance donn\u00e9e \u00e0 la victoire. Le champion sportif est f\u00eat\u00e9, peut m\u00eame recevoir une m\u00e9daille, devenir c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, ce qui rompt le \u00ab cercle magique \u00bb, la s\u00e9paration stricte d\u2019avec le monde r\u00e9el qui est au c\u0153ur du jeu. Cela peut arriver dans certains jeux, et c\u2019est sans doute la principale raison qui m\u2019a fait renoncer au jeu d\u2019\u00e9checs, mais c\u2019est quand m\u00eame plus rare et moins pr\u00e9gnant. Il y a des tournois de jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 mais, d\u00e8s le lendemain, on a oubli\u00e9 qui a \u00e9t\u00e9 vainqueur. Il y a des joueurs, des auteurs, des \u00e9diteurs de toutes nationalit\u00e9s, mais personne n\u2019y attache trop d\u2019importance. C\u2019est diff\u00e9rent dans le sport et, pour les jeux olympiques, j\u2019avais peur que la combinaison de la comp\u00e9tition exacerb\u00e9e et du spectacle flamboyant am\u00e8ne \u00e0 une mise en sc\u00e8ne un peu obsc\u00e8ne des nationalit\u00e9s des athl\u00e8tes, voire \u00e0 une sorte d\u2019hyst\u00e9rie nationaliste. C\u2019est visc\u00e9ral, je n\u2019aime pas les nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayant pris soin de quitter Paris pendant les jeux, je n\u2019ai donc pas assist\u00e9 aux \u00e9preuves, et ne suis pas all\u00e9 jusqu\u2019\u00e0 en regarder \u00e0 la t\u00e9l\u00e9vision, mais il me semble que ce pi\u00e8ge a \u00e9t\u00e9 largement \u00e9vit\u00e9. Les athl\u00e8tes vedettes, ceux dont les images tournent en boucle sur les r\u00e9seaux sociaux, ne sont pas toujours les vainqueurs mais aussi ceux dont l\u2019attitude a sembl\u00e9 particuli\u00e8rement sympathique, comme ce tireur turc avec la main dans sa poche. Si j\u2019en crois les amis qui ont assist\u00e9 \u00e0 une ou deux \u00e9preuves, et quelques images vues ici et l\u00e0, le nationalisme des supporters \u00e9tait aussi tr\u00e8s ludique, personne ne prenant \u00e7a au s\u00e9rieux. Les spectateurs maquill\u00e9s aux couleurs de leurs drapeaux en deviennent m\u00eame sympathiques, quand ils montrent, voire crient, que l\u2019id\u00e9e m\u00eame de nation ne peut et ne doit pas \u00eatre prise tr\u00e8s au s\u00e9rieux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bref, je ne vais pas me mettre \u00e0 faire de la boxe ou regarder des matchs de foot, mais c\u2019\u00e9tait finalement un beau spectacle. L\u2019intelligence de la c\u00e9r\u00e9monie d\u2019ouverture a aussi finalement fait passer le fait que tant d\u2019autres spectacles culturels ont \u00e9t\u00e9 annul\u00e9s l\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9 dernier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Au fait, j\u2019ai con\u00e7u, avec mon amie Camille Mathieu, un jeu de cartes et de d\u00e9s sur les jeux olympiques, ou plut\u00f4t Trollympiques. L\u2019action de Trollympics se d\u00e9roule dans le m\u00eame univers que celle de notre jeu Trollfest<\/a>, avec des \u00e9preuves de rodeo licorne et de lancer de nain. Nous n’avons pens\u00e9 que trop tard au crowdsurfing synchronis\u00e9. Rien de si extraordianire, en fait – saviez-vous que parmi les disciplines repr\u00e9sent\u00e9es aux vrais jeux olympiques ont figur\u00e9, \u00e0 une date ou une autre, le tir aux pigeons vivants, le toilettage de caniches, le tir \u00e0 la corde, le plan d’urbanisme et la peinture artistique ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trollympics avait \u00e9t\u00e9 imagin\u00e9 avant Trollfest, mais nous avions d\u2019abord sign\u00e9 avec un \u00e9diteur hollandais qui a cess\u00e9 son activit\u00e9, nous rendant les droits sur le jeu. \u00c9tant tr\u00e8s heureux de l\u2019\u00e9dition de Trollfest, et notamment des splendides dessins de David Hartman, nous avons  r\u00e9cup\u00e9r\u00e9 les droits, nous avons tout naturellement contact\u00e9 Trick or Treat games, et tout est all\u00e9 assez vite \u2013 pas assez cependant pour rattraper le retard d\u00fb \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9pisode hollandais et sortir au moment des jeux olympiques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comme Trollfest, Trollympics est un jeu \u00ab poids moyen \u00bb, ce que l\u2019on appelle parfois un jeu \u00ab familial \u00bb, m\u00eame si l\u2019on y joue surtout entre amis. Tout comme Trollfest a parfois \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9crit comme \u00ab les Aventuriers du rail avec de l\u2019humour et de l\u2019interaction \u00bb, on pourrait d\u00e9crire Trollympics comme \u00ab Seven Wonders avec de l\u2019humour et une brouette de d\u00e9s \u00bb. Une partie se d\u00e9roule en deux manches, les jeux d\u2019hiver puis ceux d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9. \u00c0 chaque manche, les joueurs se constituent en \u00ab draftant \u00bb une \u00e9curie d\u2019athl\u00e8tes qu\u2019ils vont ensuite assigner aux diff\u00e9rentes \u00e9preuves, qui ne sont pas toujours exactement celles qui \u00e9taient pr\u00e9vues. Bien \u00e9videmment, un nain sera plus performant dans l\u2019\u00e9preuve de coupe de bois, et un elfe dans celle de patinage artistique. Ajoutez \u00e0 cela quelques cartes pour emb\u00eater ses adversaires, voire tricher un peu et corrompre les jur\u00e9s, et un syst\u00e8me de paris, et cela donne un jeu de cartes et de d\u00e9s rapide et mouvement\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C’est apr\u00e8s avoir termin\u00e9 cet article que j’ai r\u00e9alis\u00e9 que j’aurais peut-\u00eatre mieux d\u00fb comparer les jeux de Trollympics \u00e0 ceux de la Gr\u00e8ce antique qu’\u00e0 ceux d’aujourd’hui. Les jeux des trolls, des nains et des elfes sont en effet sans doute plus proche de ceux des Ath\u00e9niens et des Th\u00e9bains – on arr\u00eate de se foutre sur la gueule une quinzaine de jours et pour pouvoir se saouler la gueule ensemble au soleil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trollympics<\/strong>
Un jeu de Camille Mathieu et Bruno Faidutti
Illustrations de David Hartman<\/a>
3 \u00e0 6 joueurs \u2013 45 minutes
Publi\u00e9 par Trick or Treat Studios<\/a> (2025)
Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like most Parisians, and almost all Parisians intellectual hipsters, I was originally hostile to Olympic games. I considered them an expensive and rather vulgar event and, most of all, the reason why almost all Parisians summer cultural events had been cancelled, including boardgame events such as Paris est Ludique. I was a bit angry against our excellent and courageous mayor, Anne Hidalgo, wondering how she got lured into this mess.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the event, while some of my reservations are still there, I have nevertheless changed my mind. It started with the opening ceremony. I was expecting either a soppy and cutesy ballet, or a succession of clumsy Disneyish pseudo-historical reconstructions, something at which French parks like the Puy du Fou are very good. As a result, I didn\u2019t bother to watch it at once, and only saw it a few days later after having seen a few strange extracts. It was a clever and thought-provoking spectacle, even if, like eternity, it felt a bit long, especially near the end.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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I would have liked to see this guy featured in our game, but the art was made before his appearance in the ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly, while the distinction between sports and games is razor-thin and sometimes arbitrary, I have never been much interested in sport, neither as an activity nor as a spectacle. Indeed, while some sports are just plain and boring contests on who runs the fastest or jumps the highest, many, especially those in which two opponents or two teams are facing each other, have the same structure as boardgames. Of course, what makes them different is the main role of physical strength or ability, but tactics, strategy, luck and even bluff are also part of most matches. Some activities, often based on dexterity like Bocce or Mollky, even have an ambiguous status and depending on the social context are called sometimes games, sometimes sport. In many languages, the same verb – to play in English \u2013 can be used for both activities. And, of course, we\u2019re now talking of the Olympic \u201cgames\u201d. The reason why so many sportsmen are also avid boardgamers is indeed that both activities give more or less the same answer to the same existential anguish, being an opportunity to leave reality for a while with focusing on arbitrary and meaningless goals.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What has always bothered me with sports, and it\u2019s a difference with boardgames, is the excessive importance of victory. The winner is celebrated, can even win a medal and become a star, which breaks the \u00ab magic circle \u00bb, the strict separation with reality which is at the heart of any game. It can happen with boardgames, and is probably the main reason why I gave up chess, but it\u2019s not as systematic and never as strong. There are boardgames tournaments, but no one ever remembers who won them. There are gamers, game designers, game publishers from different parts of the world, but no one tries to oppose them and find out who is better. I was really afraid that, with Olympic games, the mix between exacerbated competition and public performance could lead to an unhealthy staging of athletes\u2019 nationalities, or even to a kind of nationalist hysteria. I viscerally dislike nations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why I carefully left Paris during the games, didn\u2019t attend any olympic event and didn\u2019t even watch a single one on TV. I might have been wrong, since it seems that the nationalist competitive trap has mostly been avoided. The most celebrated athletes, those whose image I saw on social networks, are not always the winners but also those whose attitude looked nice, like this Turkish hand-in-pocket shooter. If I am to believe my friends who attended a few events, and the pictures I\u2019ve seen here and there, the supporters\u2019 nationalism was very lighthearted and playful. This even makes the spectators with make-up in their national flag colors look nice and clever, showing that the nation idea itself cannot and should not be taken seriously.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to start watching boxing or football matches, but I must admit that it was, by all accounts, a nice and healthy show. And the clever opening ceremony made me forget that so many other cultural events had been cancelled last summer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And, by the way, I\u2019ve designed with my friends Camille Mathieu a card and dice game about the Olympic, or rather the Trollympics, games. Trollympics is set in the same universe as our Trollfest<\/a>, and has events such as Unicorn Rodeo, Dwarf Tossing, and Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. Unfortunately, it was too late when tought of adding synchronized crowdsurfing, which would have fitted well.<\/em> Nothing so outstanding – did you know that, at one date or another, Live pigeon shooting, poodle clipping, tug of war, town planning and artistic painting have been olympic sports ?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trollympics was designed before Troillfest, but we had first signed with Dutch publisher which went out of business before it could publish it. Since we were really happy with the edition of Trollfest, Camille and I then logically contacted Trick or Treat games. Everything went relatively fast, but not fast enough to make for the delay caused the Dutch episode and publish the game in time for the Paris Olympics.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like Trollfest, Trollympics is a light and casual game, more suited to family and friends than to hardcore boardgamers. Trollfest has sometimes been described as \u201cFantasy Ticket to Ride with humor and interaction\u201d, Trollympics could similarly be described as \u201cFantasy Seven Wonders with humor and tons of dice\u201d. A game of Trollympics is made of two successive parts, Winter and Summer games. In both parts, players first draft a hand of athlete cards which are later sent to the various events, which are not always the ones originally scheduled. Of course, a Dwarf is likely to be better at Timber Cutting and an elf at Figure Skating. With a few action cards to meddle with opponents\u2019 plans, or even cheat and corrupt the jury, and even a betting system, it makes for a fun and fast paced card and dice game.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s only after having finished this article that I realized I should may be rather have compared the Trollympics to the ancient Olympice games than to the modern ones. The games of trolls, dwarves and elves are indeed probably more similar with those of Anthenians and Thebans – people just stop fighting each other for real for one or two weeks to have fun getting drunk together in the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trollympics<\/strong>
A game by Camille Mathieu & Bruno Faidutti
Art by David Hartman<\/a>
3 to 6 players \u2013 45 minutes
Published par Trick or Treat Studios<\/a> (2025)
Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comme la majorit\u00e9 des parisiens, et la quasi-totalit\u00e9 des bobos intellos, j\u2019\u00e9tais plut\u00f4t hostile aux jeux olympiques, dans lesquels je voyais un spectacle co\u00fbteux et un peu vulgaire et, surtout, la cause de l\u2019annulation de la quasi totalit\u00e9 des habituels … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[533],"tags":[494,495,496,493,535],"class_list":["post-17581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trollympics","tag-camille-mathieu","tag-david-hartman","tag-trick-or-treat-studios","tag-trollfest","tag-trollympics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2HNOP-4zz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17581"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17804,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17581\/revisions\/17804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}