Name: Luke Hay
Course: Computer Games Technology
Year: 2nd Year
What made you choose to join the Tabletop Society?
Before coming to Abertay I was interested in more complicated hobbyist-style board games but never had any way to engage with them or find a group to play with. Joining the society was a perfect opportunity to both meet new people and play cool board games with them!
What’s your all-time favourite board game?
It's hard to choose, but I think it's Hegemony, an asymmetric strategy game of macro-economics and class warfare. It’s a titan of a game with such well researched systems modelling real economics that the game comes with a concepts book that talks about all the research they’ve done for it. Its strategic depth combined with the need to compromise and make deals with other players is extremely engaging and fun to me.
If you could live in the world of any board game, which one would it be?
The Quacks of Quedlinburg would be fun if and only if I got to be one of the quack doctors you play as. Tossing random ingredients into a pot only to sell it back to the people to buy more ingredients to make more absurd concoctions – all while risking my pot exploding in my face? It’s so absurd that it’d be the best life until I got done in for fraud.
Is there a game you’ve always wanted to play but haven’t yet?
I’ve technically played Diplomacy already, but only over the internet. Diplomacy is a game of negotiation and international intrigue that, while functional and engaging when played online, I think will shine so much brighter when played in person: I imagine it’s a completely different feeling when the people you need to convince to work with you are standing right in front of you and aren’t hidden behind a screen.
If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future, and why?
Future. It's both more useful and fun than the past: it lets know everything that will happen between now and whenever you travelled to. Assuming you time travelling doesn’t change the course of history, this perfect information lets you do all sorts of things: Gamble against impossible odds and win! Prepare for the next global catastrophe years in advance! Prophesise the most minor things to your friends and *always* get it right! Et cetera.
What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done or would like to do in the future?
I’ve been going bouldering for a while now, but I’ve only ever been to indoor bouldering gyms. At some point I’d like to try climbing actual cliffs and rock walls outdoors which will be much more dangerous but also, I think, more thrilling and satisfying.
