{"id":265,"date":"2012-05-01T20:55:42","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T20:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/?p=265"},"modified":"2017-01-24T21:01:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T21:01:00","slug":"isla-dorada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/blog\/2012\/05\/01\/isla-dorada\/","title":{"rendered":"Isla Dorada"},"content":{"rendered":"

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C’est sans doute son c\u00f4t\u00e9 un peu dat\u00e9, un peu classique, qui fait que je suis si attach\u00e9 \u00e0 Isla Dorada. M\u00eame si ses m\u00e9canismes sont sur bien des points originaux, c\u2019est un jeu qui n\u2019aurait sans doute gu\u00e8re surpris s\u2019il \u00e9tait arriv\u00e9 sur les tables de jeu il y a une quinzaine d\u2019ann\u00e9es, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque des Catan, Tikal , San Marco ou autres Elfenland. Ce n\u2019est pas compl\u00e8tement un jeu \u00e0 l\u2019allemande, puisque l\u2019on y trouve un peu du chaos et de l\u2019interaction qui sont, para\u00eet-il, ma marque de fabrique, mais c\u2019est un jeu \u00e0 l\u2019ancienne, poids moyen, convivial et sans doute consensuel. Paru il y a dix ans, il serait peut-\u00eatre devenu \u00ab\u00a0un classique\u00a0\u00bb. Peut-\u00eatre peut-il encore le devenir, comme c\u2019est arriv\u00e9 \u00e0 un autre jeu fabuleux paru dix ans trop tard, Les Aventuriers du Rail, le chef d\u2019\u0153uvre de mon ami Alan R. Moon.<\/p>\n

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Les joueurs sont d’intr\u00e9pides aventuriers dont le zeppelin vient de s’\u00e9craser au centre d’une \u00eele myst\u00e9rieuse et inexplor\u00e9e, o\u00f9 la l\u00e9gende veut que d’anciennes civilisations aient laiss\u00e9 d’incroyables richesses.
\nPas d’autre choix, donc, que rester group\u00e9s et d’entamer l’exploration de l’\u00eele. Au c\u0153ur des t\u00e9n\u00e8bres, les explorateurs vont traverser la jungle \u00e0 dos de gorille, affronter pygm\u00e9es cannibales et monstres marins, faire face \u00e0 de terribles mal\u00e9dictions et, si tout va bien, rentrer dans le vieux monde avec de fabuleux tr\u00e9sors.<\/p>\n

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Si vous avez regard\u00e9 attentivement le logo d\u2019Isla Dorada, en haut de cette page, vous avez sans doute remarqu\u00e9 trois noms, en plus petits caract\u00e8res, en dessous du titre du jeu. Le premier est celui d\u2019Alan R. Moon, auteur notamment des Aventuriers du Rail et d\u2019Elfenland, et avec lequel j\u2019ai travaill\u00e9 sur Diamant et De l\u2019Orc pour les braves. Les deux suivants sont ceux d\u2019Andrea Angiolino et Pier-Giorgio Paglia, surtout connus pour le jeu de combat a\u00e9rien Wings of War.<\/p>\n

Elfenroads, d\u2019Alan R. Moon, et plus tard son successeur Elfenland, ont toujours \u00e9t\u00e9 parmi mes jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9s. Il fut un temps o\u00f9 j\u2019y jouais presque chaque semaine. J\u2019appr\u00e9ciais non seulement le jeu, mais aussi les superbes plateaux de jeu dessin\u00e9s par Doris Matth\u00e4us. Ces plateaux me plaisaient tant que je tentais d\u2019imaginer d\u2019autres jeux qui puissent se jouer sur la carte routi\u00e8re du pays des elfes.<\/p>\n

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Un soir, apr\u00e8s avoir jou\u00e9 pour la premi\u00e8re fois \u00e0 Ulysses, d\u2019Andrea et Pier Giorgio, l\u2019id\u00e9e \u00e9tait l\u00e0. Le plateau d\u2019Elfenland, les chemins d\u2019Elfenland, les cartes d\u2019Elfenland, mais un unique pion pour tous les joueurs, que chacun chercherait \u00e0 man\u0153uvrer \u00e0 son avantage, comme les dieux de l\u2019Olympe jouant avec les vents pour pousser le vaisseau d\u2019Ulysse. Je travaillais alors d\u00e9j\u00e0, avec Ted Cheatham, \u00e0 la Route de la Soie, qui utilise \u00e9galement un pion unique pour tous les joueurs, et j\u2019avais aussi jou\u00e9 \u00e0 La Fureur des Dieux, de Dominique Ehrhard, mais la mani\u00e8re dont le vaisseau d\u2019Ulysse \u00e9tait d\u00e9plac\u00e9 dans le jeu d\u2019Andrea et Pier-Giorgio convenait parfaitement au pays des elfes. Quelques jours plus tard, j\u2019avais r\u00e9dig\u00e9 une \u00e9bauche de r\u00e8gle et imprim\u00e9 les cartes objectifs de \u00ab\u00a0Ulysses in Elfenland\u00a0\u00bb, sans doute le meilleur titre de jeu depuis \u00ab\u00a0Merchant of Venus\u00a0\u00bb. Les tests suivirent aussit\u00f4t. Le jeu tournait bien, mais il n\u2019\u00e9tait pas exceptionnel, et je ne savais plus trop qu\u2019en faire. Cela valait-il la peine de consacrer du temps et de l\u2019\u00e9nergie \u00e0 un projet qui me s\u00e9duisait, mais qui \u00e9tait tr\u00e8s largement inspir\u00e9 de deux jeux existants.<\/p>\n

J\u2019en parlais donc avec Alan Moon, et avec les auteurs d\u2019Ulysses. Alan n\u2019\u00e9tait gu\u00e8re int\u00e9ress\u00e9 par un autre jeu jou\u00e9 sur le plateau d\u2019Elfenland, peut-\u00eatre parce qu\u2019il craignait que les joueurs ne comparent les deux jeux et ne pr\u00e9f\u00e8rent le mien. Le risque \u00e9tait pourtant bien faible, tant Elfenland (et plus encore Elfenroads) est un jeu fabuleux, alors que mon projet n\u2019\u00e9tait qu\u2019un assez bon jeu, en partie peut-\u00eatre parce que le plateau n\u2019avait pas \u00e9t\u00e9 vraiment con\u00e7u pour lui. J\u2019\u00e9tais en particulier g\u00ean\u00e9 par la cit\u00e9 isol\u00e9e de Kiroma.<\/p>\n

J\u2019entrepris donc de dessiner un plateau sp\u00e9cifique pour \u00ab\u00a0Ulysses in Elfenland\u00a0\u00bb, qui \u00e9tait entretemps devenu \u00ab\u00a0la caravane des marchands\u00a0\u00bb. Parce que l\u2019id\u00e9e m\u2019amusait, et parce que cela permettait de maintenir quand m\u00eame l\u2019id\u00e9e initiale, je concevai un plateau bien plus appropri\u00e9 \u00e0 mon jeu, mais sur lequel il restait possible de jouer \u00e0 Elfenland. Avec l\u2019accord d\u2019Alan, Andrea et Pier-Giorgio, je proposai \u00ab\u00a0la Caravane des marchands\u00a0\u00bb \u00e0 Amigo, sugg\u00e9rant qu\u2019ils le publient tout \u00e0 la fois comme un jeu \u00e0 part et comme une extension d\u2019Elfenland. Apr\u00e8s bien des h\u00e9sitations, Amigo d\u00e9clina l\u2019offre, sans doute avec raison car mon jeu n\u2019\u00e9tait pas aussi bon qu\u2019Elfenland et aurait souffert en comparaison, et car la nouvelle carte n\u2019apportait pas grand chose \u00e0 Elfenland. Je conservai cette version quelques ann\u00e9es, y jouant occasionnellement. Je l\u2019aimais bien, certains de mes testeurs l\u2019aimaient beaucoup, mais il y manquait toujours quelque chose.<\/p>\n

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L\u2019\u00e9tape suivante fut de renoncer \u00e0 ce qui avait \u00e9t\u00e9 l\u2019id\u00e9e originale du jeu \u2013 la compatibilit\u00e9 avec Elfenland. Cela me permit de r\u00e9soudre, en quelques semaines, tous les probl\u00e8mes que j\u2019avais depuis des ann\u00e9es avec la Caravane des marchands. Je r\u00e9duisis le nombre de cit\u00e9s, r\u00e9unis les routes de plaine et de for\u00eat, changeai la r\u00e9partition des terrains, et finis m\u00eame par faire du pays des elfes une grande \u00eele avec des ports de mer permettant de se rendre rapidement d\u2019un coin \u00e0 un autre du royaume. Andrea et Pier Giorgio s\u2019impliqu\u00e8rent alors aussi dans le projet, faisant de nombreuses suggestions de cartes et de r\u00e8gles, dont certaines provenaient directement de la nouvelle version d\u2019Ulysses sur laquelle ils travaillaient en m\u00eame temps. Nous implent\u00e2mes donc rapidement tous les ajustements qui auraient d\u00fb \u00eatre faits depuis longtemps, et ne l\u2019avaient pas \u00e9t\u00e9 tant que j\u2019\u00e9tais coinc\u00e9 par la compatibilit\u00e9 avec Elfenland. La capitale, Elfenburg, devint Kingsburg, ce qui me permit de rebaptiser d\u2019autres cit\u00e9s du nom de jeux de la ludoth\u00e8que id\u00e9ale. On pouvait voyager de Key Largo \u00e0 Yspahan, de Carcassonne \u00e0 Funkenschlag.<\/p>\n

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Cette nouvelle version suscita plus d\u2019int\u00e9r\u00eat chez les \u00e9diteurs, notamment chez mes amis de Days of Wonder. Le prototype finit par atterrir chez un des leurs amis et voisins, Philippe Nouhra, de Funforge, qui d\u00e9cida de le publier. Philippe appr\u00e9ciait le syst\u00e8me de jeu mais il trouvait cependant, avec raison sans doute, que d\u00e9placer une caravane de marchands dans un royaume m\u00e9di\u00e9val vaguement fantastique n\u2019\u00e9tait pas quelque chose de tr\u00e8s excitant. Il eut alors une id\u00e9e g\u00e9niale\u00a0: faire des joueurs des explorateurs sur une \u00eele oubli\u00e9e, dans un univers \u00e0 la Tarzan. De l\u2019avis de tous les joueurs, le nouveau th\u00e8me est bien plus amusant et tout aussi coh\u00e9rent que l\u2019ancien \u2013 m\u00eame si nous ne savons toujours pas tr\u00e8s bien pourquoi l\u2019exp\u00e9dition a install\u00e9 son camp de base au centre de l\u2019\u00eele et non sur la c\u00f4te o\u00f9 elle a d\u00e9barqu\u00e9 (bon, je viens de recevoir un mail de Philippe dans lequel il m’explique que le dirigeable des explorateurs, pris dans une temp\u00eate, s’est crash\u00e9 \u00e0 cet endroit l\u00e0).<\/p>\n

Je suis habituellement tr\u00e8s critique des \u00e9diteurs qui souhaitent modifier le th\u00e8me d’un jeu, mais je dois admettre que, cette fois-ci, cela a rendu le jeu bien meilleur, plus exotique, plus dr\u00f4le.
\nLe nouvel univers, plus d\u00e9cal\u00e9, permit aussi d\u2019imaginer de nombreuses nouvelles cartes, pygm\u00e9es cannibales, pandas tueurs, singes volants et m\u00eame dirigeables. Ces cartes ne rendent pas seulement le jeu plus th\u00e9matique, elles le rendent aussi plus fluide, plus dynamique, en ajoutant des possibilit\u00e9s d’interaction et en permettant des mouvements plus rapides. Et l’illustrateur des cartes Naiiade, s’en est donn\u00e9 \u00e0 c\u0153ur joie!<\/p>\n

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J’ai travaill\u00e9 plus de dis ans sur ce jeu. Il y a eu des dizaines de versions, des centaines de tests. Aucun de mes autres projets ne m\u2019a demand\u00e9 autant d\u2019efforts \u00c0 vous, maintenant, de me dire si cela en valait la peine. Le jeu publi\u00e9 a finalement bien peu en commun avec Elfenland, si ce n\u2019est l\u2019allure g\u00e9n\u00e9rale du plateau de jeu et le fait que les cartes y repr\u00e9sentent des moyens de transport. En revanche, on y trouve toujours l\u2019id\u00e9e centrale de Ulysses, les ench\u00e8res \u00e0 l\u2019aide de cartes pour d\u00e9terminer ou le navire, la caravane, l\u2019exp\u00e9dition va se rendre.<\/p>\n

Isla Dorada<\/span><\/strong>
\n Un jeu de Bruno Faidutti, Andrea Angiolino, PierGiorgio Paglia, Alan R. Moon,<\/span>
\nIllustr\u00e9 par Naiiiade et Gorg<\/span>
\n 3 \u00e0 6 joueurs \u2013 90 minutes<\/span>
\n Publi\u00e9 par FunForge (2010)<\/span>
\nTric Trac<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

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Isla Dorada is one of my favorite designs, probably because of its old style feel, its classic look. Even when some of its game systems are quite original, this game would not have surprised gamers if it had been published fifteen years ago, in the times of Catan, Tikal, San Marco or Elfenland. Isla Dorada is not completely a \u201cGerman style\u201d game, since it has some of the typical Faidutti chaos and interaction, but it\u2019s an old style, middle weight, convivial and family-fare boardgame. If published ten years ago, it might have become \u201ca classic\u201d. Well, may be it still can \u2013 after all, that\u2019s what arrived to another game published ten years after its time, Alan R. Moon\u2019s masterworks, Ticket to Ride.<\/em><\/p>\n

Players are bold explorers whose zeppelin just crashed in the center of a mysterious and unexplored island where legends tell that ancient civilizations have left fabulous treasures.<\/em>
\nTogether, players will enter the heart of darkness and explore the unknown island, cross the jungle on gorillaback, witness savage rituals, avoid the lake monsters and deal with the the many vicious animals and other dangers of Isla Dorada, the Gold Island. Then, if they are valorous and lucky enough, they will find the treasures and bring them back to the old world.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019ve had a close look at the game\u2019s logo at the top of this page, you\u2019ve probably noticed three other game designers names, in smaller fonts, under the Isla Doarada. The first name is Alan R. Moon, the author of Ticket to Ride, of Elfenland, and with whom I codesigned Diamant and For a few Orcs more. \u00a0Then come Andrea Angiolino and Pier-Giorgio Paglia, mostly known for Wings of War.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alan Moon\u2019s Elfenroads, and later Elfenland, have always been among my favorite boardgames, and there was a time when I played one of them almost every week. I liked the games, and\u00a0 I also liked the gorgeous Elfenroad and Elfenland boards, both painted by Doris Matth\u00e4us. I liked them so much that I wanted to use them more and started to think of other games that could be played on the Elfenroads or Elfenland board.<\/em><\/p>\n

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One day, after playing for the first time Andrea Angiolino & Pier Giorgio Paglia\u2018s Ulysses, I knew the game was here \u2013 the Elfenland board, the Elfenland tracks, the Elfenland transportation cards, but only one pawn for all players, like Ulysse\u2019s ship, that all player will try to move in different directions, to different cities, like the Greek gods playing with the Mediterranean winds. I was already working on the Silk Road, which also used a common caravan pawn for al players, and I had met another Ulysses Ship in Dominique Ehrhard\u2019s Odysseus, but the way this system was used in Ulysses obviously fitted perfectly with the Elfenland board. A few days later, I had written the rules and printed the cards of \u201cUlysses in Elfenland\u201d, which could have been the best game title since Avalon Hill\u2019s \u201cMerchant of Venus\u201d. The game was good, but not great, and I didn\u2019t really know what to do with it, and if t was worth working more on it, since it was mostly a deliberate derivative from two existing games.<\/em><\/p>\n

I talked about it both with Alan Moon and with Ulysses\u2019 authors, Andrea Angiolino and Pier-Giorgio Paglia. Alan didn\u2019t like the idea of another game to be played on the Elfenland board, may be because he was afraid some players will compare both games and prefer mine \u2013 which was, in fact, very unlikely since Elfenland is a real masterwork (well, I still prefer Elfenroads) and Ulysses in Elfenland was just an OK game, in part due to the fact that the board had not originally been devised for it. There was, among others, a problem with the isolated city of Kiroma.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, the next step was to make a board specifically designed to fit \u201cUlysses in Elfenland\u201d, which in he meantime had been renamed \u201cMerchants Caravan\u201d. Mostly because I found the idea fun, as a kind of tribute, I made a board which was much better for Merchants Caravan, but on which you could also playe Elfenland, and with Alan, Andrea and Pier-Giorgio\u2019s agreement, proposed it to Amigo, who already published Elfenland, suggesting they publish it both as an original game and an Elfenland expansion. After a long hesitation, Amigo declined it. They were probably right in doing so, since my game wasn\u2019t as good as Elfenland and would have suffered in the comparison. Also, the new board didn\u2019t add much to Elfenland. I kept this version of the game a few more years, playing it occasionally. I liked it, some of my friends liked it a lot, but I always had the feeling something was still missing.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This allowed me to solve quite easily, in a few weeks, most of the problems I had for years with Merchant Caravan. I reduced the number of cities, merged the plain and forest tracks, changed their distribution for something more even, moved the kingdom to a large island with seaports where you could take a ship to the other side of the board. Andrea and Pier Giorgio also became more involved in the design at this point, probably feeling the the game was, at last, becoming worth of all the work that had been put in to it. They took part in the tests, sent me some comments, suggested cards and adjustments, some of which came directly from the new version of Ulysses on which they were simultaneously working. So we made all the changes I should have made for years to improve the flow and balance of the game, and which I could not do as long as I was stuck by the Elfenland compatibility. The capital, Elfenburg, became Kingsburg, and I took the opportunity to rename all the other cities on the board from various boardgames I like. There were cities named Carcassonne, Yspahan, Elasund and even Funkenschlag.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This version raised some interest from several publishers, was very seriously considered by my friends of Days of Wonder. Anyway, they finally did not make it but it\u2019s a friend and neighbor of them, Philippe Nouhra of Fun Forge, who finally decided to publish it. Philippe liked the system and the flow of the game but he rightly thought that moving a merchant caravan in a half fantasy mediaeval kingdom was not something extremely exciting. Philippe had an idea for the new theme, an expedition of treasure hunters on a lost island, in a Tarzan-like universe, and asked me to implement it. This new storyline fitted as well as the original, except that we still have to find why the expedition has its base camp in the center of the island and not on the coast (Just got an email from Philippe in which he explains that the explorers’ airship was caught in big storm and crashed in the center of the island). <\/em><\/p>\n

Im’ usually weary of publishers trying to change the theme of a game, but I must admit that, this time, it was a really great idea which makes the game feel completely different, more fun, more exotic. The new setting allowed us to add cards such as airship, cannibal pygmies, shaman and tribe war make the game much more exotic, dynamic and eventful. Not only do these cards add to the exotic feel of the game, but they also make the system much more fluent and dynamic, with more opportunities for interaction and for fast movement. And they really inspired Naiiade, the illustrator who drew the card pictures.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n<\/em><\/p>\n

This game has been in the work for ten years. None of my designs have had so many versions, so many tests. There\u2019s no other game design on which I have worked so much and for so long. I hope it was really worth it. It has now very little in common with Elfenland, mostly the overall look of the board and the fact that it uses transportation cards, but it still has the core idea of Ulysses, the card auction to decide where the ship, or the caravan, or the expedition will move to.<\/em><\/p>\n

Isla Dorada<\/em><\/span><\/strong>
\n A game by Bruno Faidutti, Andrea Angiolino, PierGiorgio Paglia, Alan R. Moon,<\/em><\/span>
\nGraphics by Naiiiade & Gorg<\/em><\/span>
\n 3 to 6 players \u2013 90 minutes<\/em><\/span>
\n Published by FunForge (2010)<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/em><\/span>Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C’est sans doute son c\u00f4t\u00e9 un peu dat\u00e9, un peu classique, qui fait que je suis si attach\u00e9 \u00e0 Isla Dorada. M\u00eame si ses m\u00e9canismes sont sur bien des points originaux, c\u2019est un jeu qui n\u2019aurait sans doute gu\u00e8re surpris … 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":[47],"tags":[63,64,311,293,48,339,65],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isla-dorada","tag-alan-r-moon","tag-andrea-angiolino","tag-encheres-auctions-and-bidding","tag-funforge","tag-isla-dorada-2","tag-naiiade","tag-pier-giorgio-paglia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2HNOP-4h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","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=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6805,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/6805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}