Ghoulash: The Last Game on Earth

Last updated

Ghoulash: The Last Game on Earth is a paper-based game that bills itself as "a fast-paced action-adventure game for two players, played entirely on paper, using specially designed charts." [1]

Contents

Ghoulash is, at its heart, a scaled-down role-playing game, or RPG, mimicking the mechanics of a typical RPG in that each player serves as the game master for the other, hiding obstacles and items to be discovered. Its simple hide-and-seek game mechanics more closely resemble that of the schoolroom game Battleship: One player describes a move; the opponent describes the consequences of that move.

The game uses a back-story mythology to support the game-pack scenarios and has received favorable reviews at BoardGameGeek [2] and Joystiq. [3]

History

The first version of Ghoulash was published in 1982 by creator Mike Suchcicki, who was attempting to create a dungeon-crawl-type RPG for two players. Originally it was going to have a post-apocalyptic setting, with the players battling zombies, packs of vicious dogs and bands of ruthless scavengers. In his notes for the game, Suchcicki had written the word "ghoulish." When he looked back at his notes later, he read the word as "ghoulash," a pun that inspired him to change the monsters of the game from zombies to Ghouls — large, green, soulless monsters — and to give the game a new name. The original version was played using a variety of charts, printed on letter-size paper; no dice, spinners or playing pieces of any kind were required. Each player used two City Charts — a grid representing an urban landscape with several buildings — and a Tally Chart, used to keep track of supplies, ammunition, wounds and Ghouls killed. The game was self-published, as a packet of pre-printed charts packaged in a simple white envelope with the logo and description printed in black ink.

The game was marketed through adventure gaming magazines of the day and through local game stores. A favorable review appeared in the now-defunct Adventure Gaming magazine.

After selling only about a dozen copies, including some to a game enthusiast in Australia, Suchcicki put Ghoulash aside, hoping one day to refine the game into a version that was both faster to play and also would allow for a more practical marketing plan. In the late '90s, he returned to the game, working on more streamlined designs of the grids and quicker game mechanics. In his redesign, he made two significant changes to the game: One, he fit two player grids, Ghoul battle graphics, wound meters and instructions all on one page; two, he designed the game in a series of scenarios, each with its own grid and victory conditions. For instance, in the scenario "Gun Shy," the players begin the game without a weapon, and must find it as they travel the grid. In "Immunity," players can use talismans to avoid obstacles.

To test the viability of the game, Suchcicki decided to give away his early scenarios for free. In 2001 he launched Ghoulash.com, a site from which players, after registering, could download free PDFs of the dozen or so scenarios available. Players were asked to indicate their countries of origin. Based on the registration records, within months hundreds of players from all over the world had downloaded the scenarios. Fans of the game eventually translated Ghoulash into six different languages: French, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Spanish and Catalan.

Related Research Articles

<i>Call of Cthulhu</i> (role-playing game) Tabletop horror role-playing game

Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.

<i>Ringworld</i> (role-playing game) Science fiction tabletop role-playing game

The Ringworld science fiction role-playing game was published by Chaosium in 1984, using the Basic Role-Playing system for its rules and Larry Niven's Ringworld novels as a setting.

<i>Arduin</i> Tabletop fantasy role-playing game setting

Arduin is a fictional universe and fantasy role-playing system created in the mid-1970s by David A. Hargrave. It was the first published "cross-genre" fantasy RPG, with everything from interstellar wars to horror and historical drama, although it was based primarily in the medieval fantasy genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chill (role-playing game)</span>

Chill is an investigative and modern horror role-playing game originally published by Pacesetter Ltd in 1984 that captures the feel of 20th-century horror films.

<i>HeroQuest</i> 1989 fantasy-RPG-themed board game (re-released 2021)

HeroQuest, is an adventure board game created by Milton Bradley in conjunction with the British company Games Workshop in 1989, and re-released in 2021. The game is loosely based around archetypes of fantasy role-playing games: the game itself was actually a game system, allowing the gamemaster to create dungeons of their own design using the provided game board, tiles, furnishings and figures. The game manual describes Morcar/Zargon as a former apprentice of Mentor, and the parchment text is read aloud from Mentor's perspective. Several expansions have been released, each adding new tiles, traps, artifacts, and monsters to the core system.

<i>Zombies Ate My Neighbors</i> 1993 video game

Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a run and gun video game developed by LucasArts and published by Konami for the Super NES and Sega Genesis consoles in 1993.

<i>Warhammer Quest</i> Board game

Warhammer Quest is a fantasy dungeon, role-playing adventure board game released by Games Workshop in 1995 as the successor to HeroQuest and Advanced HeroQuest, set in its fictional Warhammer Fantasy world. The game focuses upon a group of warriors who join to earn their fame and fortune in the darkest depths of the Old World.

<i>Memoir 44</i> Board game

Memoir '44 is a light wargame or war-themed strategy board game for two players. It was created by Richard Borg and published in 2004 by Days of Wonder. Illustration done by Julian Deveil and Cyrrile Dejuan. The game can be played with up to six players if played in teams and up to eight players in the "Overlord" scenarios. However, "Overlord" requires two copies of the game. It received the 2004 International Gamers Award for General Strategy, 2-Player category and The Wargamer 2004 Award for Excellence. The game is published in English and French by Days of Wonder.

<i>Triplanetary</i> (board game) 1973 Science fiction board game

Triplanetary is a science fiction board wargame originally published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1973. The game is a simulation of space ship travel and combat within the Solar System in the early 21st Century.

<i>Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game</i> Tabletop fantasy role-playing game

The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a fantasy role-playing game published by Palladium Books in 1983.

<i>Descent into the Depths of the Earth</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Descent Into the Depths of the Earth is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game coded D1–2. It was written by Gary Gygax, and combines two previously published modules from 1978, the original Descent into the Depths of the Earth and Shrine of the Kuo-Toa. A sequel to the first two modules, Vault of the Drow, was also published in 1978. All of these D-series modules were produced for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules.

<i>Beyond the Supernatural</i> Horror role-playing game

Beyond the Supernatural is a horror role-playing game published by Palladium Books. It has seen two editions released, both of which have introduced innovations to Palladium's standard mechanics. A versatile horror-themed game, it lends itself well to wildly different play styles and narrative tones, from schlock splatter-horror to intense psychological horror, with an entire spectrum of terror in between. Beyond the Supernatural is implicitly set in the modern day, wherein magic and psychic powers are real and monsters and demonic cults exist, but out of the public eye. This, however, is not set in stone, and most of the character classes are flexible enough to account for variant settings or time periods.

<i>Doctor Who – Battles in Time</i> Board game

Doctor Who – Battles in Time is an out-of-print trading card game and fortnightly magazine from the partwork publishers GE Fabbri, who acquired the license to produce Battles in Time. The game and magazine were first released in mid-April 2006 in two 'test-regions' in the United Kingdom and was made available across the UK on 20 September 2006. The magazine was released in Australia a few months later. However, only in South Australia was it made available in newsagents; in the rest of Australia it was available by subscription with the distributor only. The subscription and back issue services have now been removed from the official website. Battles in Time magazines are no longer available and the last issue was released on 13 May 2009.

BattleLore is a strategy board wargame for two players, created by Richard Borg and initially published by Days of Wonder in 2006. The game is based on the same mechanics as Battle Cry, Memoir '44 and Commands & Colors: Ancients, but has a fantasy and medieval theme.

<i>Lords of Darkness</i>

Lords of Darkness is the name of two accessories for the fictional Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Last Night on Earth (game)</span>

Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game is a survival horror board game that was first published in 2007. Players can play on the Hero team or as the Zombies. A modular board randomly determines the layout of the town at the start of each game and there are several different scenarios to play. Seven supplements have been released.

<i>Skylanders: Spyros Adventure</i> 2011 video game

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is a 3D action-adventure platform game and the first video game in the Skylanders series. It is played using with toy figures that interact with it through a "Portal of Power" that reads their tag through NFC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game</span> 2011 fantasy strategy card game

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games since 2011. As part of the Living Card Game (LCG) genre, it is a cooperative and strategic card game set in Middle-earth, a fantasy world featured in literary works by J. R. R. Tolkien, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

<i>Balastors Barracks</i> Fantasy tabletop role-playing game supplement

Balastor's Barracks is a tabletop role-playing game adventure for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1978. Set in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, against the backdrop of an ancient ruined city, the adventurers search for a lost artifact.

<i>City of Mist</i> Tabletop role-playing game

City of Mist is an urban fantasy neo-noir detective tabletop role-playing game (RPG) designed by Amít Moshe and published by Son of Oak Game Studio. The game is set in a modern-day metropolis where ordinary people of all walks of life become modern-day reincarnations of myths, legends, and fairy tales, gaining magical powers and abilities.

References

  1. ↑ Ghoulash: The Last Game on Earth. Official Website.
  2. ↑ BoardGameGeek review of Ghoulash. 1 Mar 2008.
  3. ↑ Off the Grid reviews Ghoulash. Joystiq. 14 Feb 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.