Biggles the card game, revisited

[sholio]

Yeah so I bought a copy off Ebay and it arrived today. :D



Worth it.

The cover is actually just one of the cards with Biggles's face, glued to the box. It looked so after-market that I assumed it was done by a previous owner, until I looked up more pictures of the card game online and nope, they're all like that. A printing thing, maybe? The box is single-color printed, so perhaps it was cheaper to do that and then glue a card to the box at the factory (since they were already doing 4-color printing on those) than to do a full-color run of boxes of cards at a time when most packaging wasn't that colorful.

Anyway, so it contains two sets of cards, one with red backs and one blue, for playing the game.





They are honestly very pretty! Each one is a nice full-color painting (a lot of them from book covers or illustrations) and they're printed nicely, especially considering that they're over 60 years old.



Biggles, why is your life like this.





The instruction booklet is also very cute!



I love nifty little objects like this.

I haven't read it except just a quick skim, which suggests that the object is to block your opponent using red "trouble" cards to stop them from being able to play. However, as far as I can tell, the blue cards have just as much trouble happening. Also, the numbers are important somehow? I will report back after I actually read the instructions.

Meanwhile, I laid out all the cards to see what they all look like.



The red-backed cards (click to embiggen).



The blue-backed cards.

Each set contains desert cards and Africa cards (which are ... well ... definitely what they are). I was a little surprised to find that each of the two sets of cards (the red and the blue) has doubles of one set of images - the desert cards are doubled up in one set, the Africa cards in the other. Maybe just because they didn't have enough artwork to fill out enough cards to play the game? The cards fit nicely in the box, so it's clearly the intended quantity.

I liked the desert cards best. Especially these, which are beautiful. I think that's the ruined fort in Foreign Legionnaire?



So then I decided to see if the cards could be used for their hoped-for intended purpose: fic inspiration! I shuffled them and dealt out a few to see if inspiration was provided (discarding the racist ones). I got:



I definitely approve of its fondness for hurt/comfort cards here.

Comments

[philomytha]

Oh, those are gorgeous! And yes, excellent for plot generation cards, that looks like a fun story already.

The castle is technically from Biggles in the Gobi (as is the airplane-fighting bird; it's the cover), you can see the original art here: http://www.biggles.info/Details/46/Illustrations/. But it does do a good impression of the Foreign Legion castle too :-).

[sholio]

Ah, that's nice to know! But it does make a really good headcanon picture of the Foreign Legionnaire castle. Biggles has been to so many places that they probably run together for him too. :D

[leesa_perrie]

So glad you were able to get a pack of them! The quality of the artwork makes modern day cards seem somewhat lacking!

[sholio]

They are so pretty! They almost have the general overall effect of Magic cards or something, but a generation earlier.

[osprey_archer]

Oh these are such beautifully printed cards! SO much drama. They really do seem perfectly designed for fic brainstorming.

[sholio]

Some of them are immensely inspiring! I look forward to using it for brainstorming at a time when I'm not buried in a million WIPs.

[sevenall]

Beautiful art and SO inspiring!

I still don't really understand how to play the game itself (should go back and have a look), but that hardly matters when the cards look so gorgeous.

[sholio]

Yeah, I think playing the game is by far the least interesting thing about the cards (although who knows, maybe it's fun).

[snowynight]

They are so pretty!

[sholio]

I'm really happy! :D

[sartorias]

Wow, those are kind of adorable!!!

[sholio]

They're really neat! I love interesting vintage objects like this.

[sheron]

Lovely!

[sholio]

:DDDD

[madripoor_rose]

That is some gorgeous art! And in really good condition for the age. Great find!

[sholio]

They're in really good shape! The box is scuffed up but the cards look great.

[muccamukk]

Those are so fun! 100% worth it.

[sholio]

Absolutely worth it. :D

[rachelmanija]

Marvelous! I love the ruined fort card.

I guess in your spread, after the plane is brought down by lightning, Biggles needs to dunk someone in the oasis pond because he has heat stroke?

[sholio]

Clearly that person got heatstroke because they were forced to run after the plane on the previous card when Biggles tried to leave without them ...

[ellenmillion]

I'm glad you got them!! I volunteer as tribute if Orion doesn't want to play-test!

[sholio]

I just may take you up on that. :D It actually might be a fun thing to do with Guppy - does she know gin rummy? It looks to me like the game is basically a gin rummy variant but with pictures on the cards.

[brightknightie]

So neat! Thank you for sharing. When I was a kid, long before I knew the word "reskin," I was forever reskinning board games and card games in my head, picking the perfect character and scene for each piece and card (usually chess, but also other games). I haven't thought of that in a long time.

[sholio]

Oh, that's really cool and neat! What a fun game to play. I expect the only reason why my sister and I didn't do this was because it never occurred to us, but we did used to play games in which the chess pieces, cards or whatnot had lives and stories of their own, especially chess pieces, which are great for that.

[scioscribe]

These are beautiful! What a gift for brainstorming. And that little instruction booklet is so cunning.

[sholio]

I'm really delighted! I love small clever vintage objects like these.

[timespirt]

They are great looking cards.

[sholio]

:DDDDD

[cornerofmadness]

those are really cool

[sholio]

I like 'em!

[lokifan]

Gorgeous!! And such a fun story generator, hopefully :D

[silverflight8]

Pretty cards (though yeah unfortunate about the racism). But I like the art style a lot.

[sweetsorcery]

These are fantastic! So pretty. And what a great idea to use them like a tarot spread to 'predict' your next story. ;D

I'm not surprised both the blue and red cards are trouble cards. I mean, everyone in the books lives to cause someone a whole heap of trouble, that's why they're such fun. (Among other reasons.)

'Embiggen' seems a very appropriate alternative to 'enlarge' for Biggles cards. :D

[sholio]

Their lives are *constant* trouble, it's so true. :D I don't even know what a non-trouble card would look like for them, now that I think about it!

I hadn't thought of that for embiggen (I just ran across it years ago in a computer context and like it) but HEEEEE, you're right. They are embiggened, and also embigglesed. :D Like the current state of DW fandom!

[sweetsorcery]

Non-trouble card... a cosy cuddle on the hearth rug at Mount Street? :D

Embigglesed is even better! And very appropriate to describe fandom growth. hehe