No, I Didn’t Change How Britannia Plays

No, I Didn’t Change How Britannia Plays

 (Though I had the urge to . . .)

FantasyFlightGames edition of Britannia (the second printing of the second edition) went out of print in 2012, and rights reverted to me. The latest issue of Britannia, not a third edition, is now on Kickstarter through August 1 along with a separate 60-90 minute two player Duel Britannia game that uses a different map.

After some thought, because there are aspects of the second edition that I don’t like, I decided to change no rules in Britannia, though I did change the interface. First, plastic pieces are used for armies, leaders, and perhaps more (depending on stretch goals). Second, there are no nation cards: instead, each player has a sheet that lists how all the nations score points. This means no one has to ask to see someone else’s nation card (which might give away strategy as well as being time-consuming). There’s a separate appearance sheet for everyone, as well (it’s not on the board, you’ll notice). No craning your neck to look at the board.

So Classic Britannia (as I hope everyone will call it in the long run) is a hybrid, same rules, different interface. This will suit people whose old copy of Brit is worn out, as well as people who have discovered the game since 2012 and want a copy for themselves.

I chose a continuation of second edition Brit, rather than change things. Duel Britannia provides enough change for the package.

Another reason not to change anything was lack of time. The entire project was proposed in later September 2018, and I’ve had to concentrate on creating Duel Britannia from scratch since then.

I decided not to change just a few things, because I have a lot of changes in mind. They are in a 3rd edition of Britannia that is in the works (though I’ve done little with it for some years). It will be a better teaching tool (more realistic, if you will), but may increase playing time, and will certainly impose more constraints on the players - and players don’t like constraints, even though a game is by definition a set of constraints. I’d rather make changes in that 3rd edition than in the reissue. But it’ll be several years before that is released, if I’m fortunate enough to live that long.


Kickstarter Britannia: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1992455033/lew-pulsiphers-britannia-classic-and-new-duel-edition