By Andrew Dodson on September 11, 2014 at 3:02pm
"The Cones of Dunshire," a board game created by Ben Wyatt in the sixth season of Parks and Recreation, is being developed as a retail board game. What company took up this task? Mayfair Games, creator of the classic game "Settlers of Catan." It is difficult to really explain what the "Cones of Dunshire" actually is, so I think it best to just let the game's creator explain it:
Presenting: “The Cones of Dunshire:" a brand new gaming experience. Eight to 12 players: two wizards, a maverick, the arbiter, two warriors, a corporal, a ledger-man. The ledger-man just keeps score, and he wears this hat. The goal is to accumulate cones. Four cones wins. To get cones you need to build a civilization.... Ben Wyatt, as portrayed by Adam Scott
Did you get all that? Are you ready to play? "Cones of Dunshire" is an outrageous, highly detailed game with mechanics pulled out of just about every tabletop genre and thrust into a rule book, along with different character classes for the player to be that, I'm sure, affects gameplay in some super specific manner. I haven't even gotten into the challenge play (basically the game, but in reverse) or the trivia cards.
Mayfair's take on the game was originally premiered at GenCon this year, where a massive version was set up as a charity event. In order to play, you had to pay and it was enormously successful. Mayfair raised over twenty thousand dollars for charity at the event.
Currently, Mayfair is considering crowd-funding a super deluxe version of the game before releasing a "normal" version. According to Mayfair CEO Pete Fenlon, any crowd-funding campaign will also have a charity component.
We want to continue to support charity and keep it within the bounds of cross-media storytelling because we want to be in sync with Ben [Adam Scott's character]. We're just putting details together for Kickstarter, but we think it'll resonate well with the Parks and Rec community and with the gaming community, too. Pete Fenlon, CEO of Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games plans on releasing the deluxe (not the super deluxe) version of the game at $100 and a normal version for $60-$70. There is no release date yet for "The Cones of Dunshire," but we have to imagine that if they were playing it at GenCon this year that it can't be that far off - especially with Parks and Recreation entering its final season this Fall.
Don't forget the essence of the game. It's about the Cones. Never forget that.
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