The phantom board game 'GHQ' invented by writer Kurt Vonnegut is finally published
The board game ' GHQ ', invented by
Kurt Vonnegut's lost board game finally published | Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/board-games/467103/kurt-vonnegut-ghq-lost-board-game-publisher-interview
Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1922. He entered Cornell University in 1940 to study biochemistry, but was drafted into the U.S. Army while still a student and served on the European front of World War II in 1944. It is said that his experiences at this time were reflected in 'Slaughterhouse Five.'
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After being discharged from the army in 1945, Vonnegut worked as a reporter for a local newspaper in Chicago, writing articles and columns. In 1947 he moved to New York and began writing novels while working in public relations for General Electric. He published his first full-length novel, Player Piano , in 1952.
However, the 'Player Piano' was not well received at the time, and Vonnegut found himself in poverty. In order to raise funds, Vonnegut came up with the board game 'GHQ.'
'GHQ' is a two-player strategic tactical game. Players take turns moving their pieces on an 8x8 board and aim to win by capturing the opponent's HQ (headquarters). The following video explains the rules of 'GHQ' and shows the design of the board and pieces.
How To Play GHQ - YouTube
According to a letter discovered by game designer and New York University professor Jeff Engelstein in the Indiana University archives, Vonnegut was pitching GHQ to various publishers, and the letter also contained the original rules manual, typed by Vonnegut himself.
Below is the rules manual that was discovered, with Vonnegut's handwritten notes written in the margins.
The handwritten notes include detailed designs for the game pieces, and Vonnegut's doodles in the margins.
Vonnegut portrayed war cynically in ' Cat's Cradle ' and 'Slaughterhouse Five,' but in Vonnegut's letter selling 'GHQ,' he wrote, 'It would be an excellent training material for future military leaders, including officer cadets.' In response to Polygon's question, 'How will modern readers take these words from the same man who wrote 'Cat's Cradle,'' Professor Engelstein replied, 'There is no clear answer. He didn't write about it. No one asked about it while he was alive, so we will never know.'
Vonnegut came up with and marketed 'GHQ' around 1956. Unfortunately, 'GHQ' never saw the light of day, but two years later, in 1958, ' TACTICS II ,' said to be the world's first board wargame, was released, and one year after that, ' Risk ' and ' Diplomacy ' were released. Professor Engelstein speculates that if Vonnegut had marketed 'GHQ' a little later, history might have been different.
With permission from the Vonnegut Estate, Engelstein reorganized and revised the original rules for 'GHQ,' which was later released under the title 'Kurt Vonnegut's GHQ: The Lost Board Game.'
Vonnegut's son, Mark Vonnegut, told Engelstein, 'The success of Slaughterhouse-Five and the other novels would be wonderful enough, but I truly believe that my father, watching from somewhere, would take greater and purer joy from the success of GHQ. At a time when he was feeling discouraged about his own writing career, he had an unshakeable belief that GHQ would be a success.'
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