44. The Blood of an Englishman

In The Blood of an Englishman, we see if Jack can steal the goose that lays golden eggs from the giant at the top of the beanstalk!

In 2016, Renegade Games published a two-player card game inspired by “Jack and the Beanstalk” called The Blood of an Englishman. One player takes on the role of Jack, attempting to steal the giant’s treasure through a series of quick little moves, and the other player is the giant, trying to stop Jack. The game was designed by Dan Cassar and he said in an interview that he read his young son the story one night, and the kid went around shouting “Fee fi fo fum!” for days. He wanted to capture a bit of that energy in a game, and The Blood of an Englishman is the result. As you’ll hear in this episode, the game had the intended effect in our house!

The Blood of an Englishman is a great introduction to asymmetric games, and it’s one of my favorite two-player games.

Links:

See my photos of The Blood of an Englishman.

Read about linguistic phylogenetic research on fairy tales.

Read Dan Cassar’s designer diary.

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Music:

“Open Road” and “The Concept,” https://www.purple-planet.com/.