1. Eventually The Lords of Skoog grew old and weary and
realised the futility of constantly waging
war on each other across the aeons. They
declared a truce and settled down to enjoy
their old ages.
2. After a while
they became bored and agreed that they
needed to find a less strenuous but equally
stimulating way of enjoying the competitive
challenges that they had posed for each
other throughout their very long and active
lives. And so they decided to pool their
considerable resources and set out to
create the Games
of Skoog.
3. After some
thought and a great deal of very heated
debate they came up with the germ of an
idea. Agreed at last they went forth in a
great blaze of enthusiasm and energy and in
just six days they created the universe as
we know it today. On the seventh day they
terraformed the Major Game Board and the
Minor Game Board on a little used part of
the Skoog Astral
Plane. And in
the evening they agreed their rules of
engagement.
4. On the first
six days of each week they play Skoog Major during the daylight hours and
attend to other matters during the evening.
On the seventh day they rise at their
leisure and meet in the afternoon to play
the fast and furious game of Skoog Minor. In the evening they gather at the
Round Tower Restaurant for dinner and to
brag about their exploits during the
earlier part of the week. After dinner they
settle down to play Skoog Cards while enjoying their brandy
and cigars.
5. Skoog Major is a complex game of conquest,
diplomacy, economic activity, exploration,
politics and trade. Skoog Minor, on the other hand, is a simple
and quickly played game of small military
engagements. And Skoog Cards requires a quick brain, a
steady nerve and a thoroughly inscrutable
expression.
6. What makes
both Major and Minor versions of Skoog a
little unusual is that the Lords of Skoog
use living personalities and warriors,
plucked from the universe they have
created, as live
game pieces. Of
course their universe contains a rich and
varied mix of what people on Earth would
call historical, fantasy, sci-fi and alien
cultures. In the interests of fairness and
comparibility the Lords of Skoog have
agreed to use their magic in their games to
equalise the effects of weapons from
different ages and different cultures.
7. So in either
version of Skoog it would not be unusual
for Roman Legions to be pitted against orcs
from Middle-Earth or Napoleonic Divisions
to be pitted against Grak from the Kendo
Planets. The possible permutations are almost endless and the Lords of Skoog
are determined to try them all. They use a
very simple method of motivating the
personalities and armies they
transport to the Skoog Astral Plane.
The victors get to return to their home
world and loved ones. The vanquished are
consigned to the horrors of the void for
all time. Of course some of the victors
become adicted to the game and their
successes and remain on the Skoog Astral
Plane forever!
8. In creating
their universe the Lords of Skoog could not
resist one great irony. The Skoog Games are
played by the inhabitants of every planet
they created using inanimate game pieces. Most of those players are
completely unaware of the games’
origins. So, unlike the Lords of Skoog you
will have to play these games with
inanimate game pieces. This might not seem
to be quite as much fun as the Lords of
Skoog enjoy but it is an aweful lot less
messy!
