Key Largo (board game)
Encyclopedia
German-style board game
German-style board games, frequently referred to in gaming circles as Euro Games or Euro-style, are a broad class of tabletop games that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction and abstract physical components...
designed by Paul Randles
Paul Randles
Paul Joseph Randles was an American game designer who designed German-style board games. His games Pirate's Cove and Key Largo were published first in Europe and then in the United States...
with Mike Selinker
Mike Selinker
Mike Selinker is a game designer whose design credits include Pirates of the Spanish Main and Fightball with James Ernest, Axis & Allies Revised Edition with Larry Harris, the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game, and Risk Godstorm. He was a creative director for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
and Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti is an historian and sociologist, living in France, who is best known as an author of board games. His best known games include Knightmare Chess , Mystery of the Abbey and Citadels . He is also involved in the boardgaming community with his "Ideal Games Library" website and...
. It was published in 2005 by Tilsit Editions
Tilsit Editions
Tilsit Éditions is a French game publisher started in 1997 by Didier Jacobée. It makes board games, strategy games, games for kids, and other such games.Tilsit also distributed a number of French versions of Kosmos games, but the collaboration ended in 2006...
and in 2008 by Paizo Publishing
Paizo Publishing
Paizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
. The game takes place in 1899 in the Key Largo
Key Largo
Key Largo is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and, at long, the largest of the Keys. It is also the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the Keys connected by U.S. Highway 1...
area of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, where treasure-hunting companies seek gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and artifact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
s from shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
s before the hurricane season
1899 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1899 Atlantic hurricane season ran through the summer and the first half of fall in 1899. The season was average, with 9 tropical storms, of which 5 became hurricanes and only two became major hurricanes....
. The players hire divers, buy equipment, and search wrecks throughout the game. The game has a simultaneous action sequence which lets players choose locations for their ships to go twice per day, in the course of a ten-day game sequence.
Though not published by the same companies, in many ways it is a thematic sequel to Randles' game Pirate's Cove
Pirate's Cove
Pirate's Cove is a board game designed by Paul Randles and Daniel Stahl, and published in Europe in 2002 by Amigo Spiele and in the United States in 2003 by Days of Wonder...
.
The cover of the French edition, by artist David Cochard, is a parody of an illustration in the Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
comic Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure is the twelfth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin...
. Hurricane Katty is named for Randles' widow, Katty Pepermans. The faces on the money are caricatures of Randles, Faidutti, Selinker, Cochard, and game editor Nicolas Anton.