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Description
From the publisher:
A year ago Dusia invaded.
There was a war and Dusia won.
Now your village belongs to Lord Gjerch Bravn and his wife, Lady Kløyk Bravn. The Dusians want to bring peace, order, and a sense of normality to the village, by the standards of Dusia. You are not going to like it, but they are in charge now regardless of your feelings. You play people who have lost a war and are being assimilated into a new polity - the polity of the victors. You will be put in the position of making impossible and unpleasant choices again and again. We hope it shines a little light on how cultures vanish. This is a harsh game, and one that includes robust safety tools to help players keep themselves and each other safe at the table.
The Blue Way is about lost stories, about a culture that is being forcibly assimilated into a victorious empire. It is a bleak take on colonialism and its cultural aftermath.
Logistics:
- Participants: 1-6, with 4 being ideal
- Time: About a half hour per player
- Genre: Gritty fantasy. The Norman Conquest is a touchstone, as is the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
-Playstyle: Designed for tabletop, GM-ful play but flexible. Play to fail/play to lift.
- Content Warnings: Oppression, violence (including sexual assault and harm to animals and children), intolerance, helplessness, cultural destruction.
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Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 5
This page: 5
Sentiment:
pos 1 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–5 of 5
Video nH6V3USBd3k
Beyond Solitaire Discussion at 0:45
video_pk 81382 · mention_pk 290706
Click to watch at 0:45 · YouTube ↗
Pros
none
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none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I run basically what Alyssa said, I run uh weekly programs at the library for teens.
- My role has very little to do with parents. I think um in a way that I intentionally curate.
- I'm I mean for my part, I'm honestly really surprised um whenever any like regular attendee seems to like remember me personally.
- Don't sell yourself short. You're actually really good at it.
- Um, and getting to know them over the years.
- Yeah. Um, and y'all have kind of implicitly brought in a good point which is so I'm so used to my own experience as a teacher like having an audience of the unwilling people who had to be there.
- Um, and uh, for, you know, for good or bad, I think during my work at the library, um, I get to skip past a lot of that and cut right to like the core of what I'm doing, which is trying to have fun and make a space for teens to have fun because I I know that if they're coming in, they want to be here.
- Please just tell us.
- Like Spirit Island is not the the the recommendation. Um although it's my favorite board game.
- So, non-fiction sciency book, not my usual wheelhouse, but you know, I don't limit myself.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video BGGUKOKhsME
Beyond Solitaire Review at 0:35
video_pk 81248 · mention_pk 289483
Click to watch at 0:35 · YouTube ↗
Pros
none
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none
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Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- the the question that I always got taught when I was in the classroom, was like, why are we learning this and what are we ever going to do with this?
- So I think that bringing poetry to a space where it gets to be collaborative, where it gets to be somewhat, um, somewhat together, you're doing it in a group sense, uh, but it's also, you know, more fun, it's more engaging, it's more interesting to kind of break away the the solitary nature of the art and and get people to be involved together.
- the mechanics can have meaningful socially constructed messaging beyond just the aesthetic layer of the game.
- the most valuable thing you can have in a job is the the ability to go to it every day without feeling terrible.
- Bird by Bird is not a book about poetry, but it is a book about writing and life.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video JAmU0ZhEyWw
Beyond Solitaire Review at 0:36
video_pk 80948 · mention_pk 333498
Click to watch at 0:36 · YouTube ↗
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
none
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- So, um, you know, it it is all a fiction, but I you know, I I do I have spent time engaging with other RPGs for this you know, for this purpose and for a lot of other older things from the period.
- The front cover of the adventure book implores the the reader or the player or or or whatever you'd call it to um Hang on, I have it here. I do to figure out the truth of this queer mystery and I used the word queer, you know, in two ways, one of which is is a very strange kind of thing going on within the fiction. And the other, of course, is you know, as a queer person who grew up in the '80s and '90s and had to try to figure herself out not entirely successfully during that time.
- Because for the most part writing in board games especially is quite bad. Like the the quality of of of the flavor of the literary writing is quite abysmal almost across the board. Here's the thing. I'm good at it. I know I'm good at it. I know I'm probably a better writer than most people working in board games and I'm fine with that.
- And then on top of all that, there's all these annotations of the person who owned it. And so, you also have to piece together like parts of the life of the author of the module and the person who owned that and the way that this book then interacts with these other personal effects.
- And so, each of those things led into another thing. And while I was doing that video, um, and a big part of that story involves his time at Parker Brothers uh during a time when Parker Brothers was expanding to also do video games and children's books and records. And and then they ended up, you know, destroying their company doing that and that's how they were sold to Hasbro eventually.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video qjhOA2AMN60
Beyond Solitaire Interview at 0:35
video_pk 80635 · mention_pk 285608
Click to watch at 0:35 · YouTube ↗
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- We're theming at mysteries. We're theming at games.
- Stars and wishes is uh just like a really great uh safety tool that you would play at the you would use at the end of a session
- So, yeah, it's a really great um it's it's it's a it's a it's a quick uh safety tool. It's not invasive.
- I am technically a professor of English. My PhD is in comparative literature.
- My mission has just been that board games are for everybody, right?
- There's the violence that does happen doesn't happen on screen.
- So, um, at least for my first book for Player Elimination, the part of the stakes is that um, Ren's business isn't doing so hot and she's worried that her business is going to close, right?
- I did have multiple agents tell me off the bat that Ren was not a good protagonist because she has a disability.
- Like, that in a cozy in a cozy in particular, you know, like kind of in a romance, it's kind of like the romance of of mystery genre in the sense of like, you know, at the end it's going to be okay.
- What's with the solo gamer hate
- I only really named like Katon and maybe Clue.
- It was just fun. It was just fun to to it's it's a fictional world. Why can't I make up fictional board games?
- you might not know about board games but you get it's a small town. It's a a niche hobby. Um, and it's a welcoming hobby that people are, you know, are there.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 4j3G1U03sHI
Beyond Solitaire Interview at 1:00 sentiment: positive
video_pk 37999 · mention_pk 114199
Click to watch at 1:00 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Strong classroom applicability for discussions of colonialism
- Clear safety and debriefing framework
- Accessible in a single-session format
- Tactile mechanic reinforces thematic points
Cons
- Content can be triggering; requires thoughtful facilitation
- Not a strictly historical retelling; relies on abstraction
- Potential misalignment with certain curricula if not framed carefully
Thematic elements
- colonialism, assimilation, cultural survival
- A colonial-era setting with two fictional cultures facing assimilation
- abstracted, two-sided document that is altered during play
Comparison games
- Night Witches
- Gray Ranks
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- GMless, collaborative storytelling — No single GM; players collectively shape outcomes and participate in a debrief after play.
- Hard-choice sacrifice — Players surrender elements of identity (name, language, faith, tradition) to avoid worse consequences.
- Safety tooling and debrief — Structured boundaries, guidance for handling traumatic material, and post-game reflection.
- Storytelling — No single GM; players collectively shape outcomes and participate in a debrief after play.
- Two-sided document / tactile defacement — A character-sheet-like artifact that players modify on one side while preserving the other, revealing what is lost as play progresses.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- The blue way is a tabletop role playing game about the impacts of colonialism and assimilation.
- The real drama and tension of the game is making those difficult decisions.
- Two-sided document… you flip it over and are surprised by what you've lost.
- The game lets you know that there are safety tools and guardrails to help handle the material.
- It's a GMless game. you don't need other people to provide adversity for you.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–5 of 5