Grab ‘em by the Board Game

Conan: The Board Game and the Election of Donald Trump

Edit (11/20/2016): Since I first posted this, I have had a few people suggest to me that I left Asmodee NA because of Conan: The Board Game. This is far from the truth. Leaving was a difficult decision that took me many, many months to make, and was done for a variety of personal reasons which have nothing to do with the gender or racial politics of Asmodee or the gaming industry.

Edit (11/22/2016): Edits have been made to this post for accuracy and regarding the opinions and activities of other Asmodee employees. I have been informed by Asmodee that if I do not remove the post they may choose to pursue legal action.

This month Conan: The Board Game was sent out to its kickstarter backers. It will soon arrive in stores Produced by Monolith, designed by Frederic Henry who is known for, among other things, a racially exclusionary and inaccurate little game called Timeline: American History. Conan: The Board Game was one of the best funded board game kickstarters of all time, and numerous famous designers such as Bruno Cathala and Antoine Bauza contributed additional scenarios for stretch goals. I was part of the team who marketed it for Asmodee North America, but no longer am for a variety of reasons.

Conan is closely based on the books of Robert E. Howard, who was coincidentally a close friend of another highly influential author racist, H. P. Lovecraft. Howard’s Conan stories are sword and sorcery adventures that take place before the rise of the ancient civilizations we know. Conan is a Cimmerian, something akin to a Celt or Gaul. His foes include the Picts, who are not blue-painted Scots but rather based on the Iroquois peoples, and the Khitai, who are a magical people based on the Chinese. Conan never fights women unless he absolutely has to, and he always rescues damsels in distress. If you’re a privileged white male or subservient white female, or anyone, really who can just ignore racism and misogyny for a while, he seems like a great guy.

Women: What Are They Good For

The image above is the cover of the heroes’ rulebook for Conan. We see the hero triumphant from battle approaching a prone damsel in jeweled patnies and in… distress? Well, she’s not conscious.

To me, although perhaps not to others, it looks like Conan is going to rape her. Oh no, you, say, he’s going to rescue her. Well, why doesn’t she rescue herself? It’s not part of that setting, you say. So, why isn’t she conscious? Why is she naked? Why is she on some sort of rock bed/ altar and glowing, so that we the gamer focus on her physical beauty? To me, she looks like his prize, a reward for his violence with which he can do whatever he wishes- including grab her by the crotch and rape her before she’s regained consciousness. This cover is the scene of or before a rape. And you, my friend, are going to take on the role of the rapist.

This cover, I believe, represents a scene from one of the game’s scenarios, in which Conan and his friends must rescue a princess who is about to be sacrificed by the Picts. In that scenario, the princess token/figure is treated exactly as if she were an object. She has no abilities. You can even toss her across the board.

But there’s a playable female character in the Conan core set, you say. There’s Belit! Well, her mechanical function is to make the men better. That’s literally all she does is follow Conan around and boost his abilities. Because that’s what women are good for in this world: being fucked by men and making those men feel good. That’s the world that you’re choosing to have fun in.

(To be fair, in the Kickstarter exclusives and in possible expansions there are other, stronger female heroes. That does not excuse the fact that they are all depicted in a sexualized manner and that the only female hero in the core set, one of TWO female figurines in that set, is limited to a support role.)

Less Racist

In the recent Shut Up & Sit Down video review, which I generally recommend and which informs some of what I say here (and I write this with so much love for all of them), Quinns discusses the Conan source material and what the Monolith team have done with it, almost apologetically, suggesting that in some ways, they have backed away from the inherent racism of the original setting. “This game already paves over [the setting’s] original vision having to do with race.” He cites both the Picts and the Khitai as examples, stating that the Monolith team have de-racialized these fictional peoples. He says that the Picts are no longer Iroquois, but “a more troglodyte-looking people.” The Khitai have now been given “a more generic dark wizard look.”

Well. Let’s start with the Picts

Here, we have brown-skinned, feather-adorned, axe-wielding troglodytes who paint their skin in symbolic markings. And here is a depiction of an Iroquois man on a webpage targeted at schoolchildren. Sure, the Iroquois man is taller, and not wearing skulls, and more human. But all the trappings which would mark the Pict as Native American remain in place. What we have here is not a deraclialization, but a dehumanization of the Iroquois and other Native American people.

This is the art that Monolith is using for a wizard of the Khitai. Note the ornate clothing and its cut, the headdress, the Buddha-like smile and excessively white skin. Now, below is a traditional Chinese painting of the Imperial court that I pulled from a Google Image search. Note the headdresses, the patterned clothing, the long, wide sleeves, the whiteness of their skin.

In both cases, Monolith has decided not to reject Howard’s racism, but to attempt make that racism more palpable by masking it in fantasy. This is no different than Howard’s decision to translate the peoples he feared and hated into a pre-historic universe where he could defeat and dehumanize them without having to speak their real-world names. The result is not that the racism disappears, but that it remains in play supported by stereotypes and caricatures that belittle actual human beings.

How Did We Get Here?

So. What does Conan: The Board Game have to do with the election of Donald Trump?

Conan is a fantasy of White male power. A fantasy in which White male power dominates and holds moral authority. And as Conan, you are the biggest, strongest embodiment of that White male power, able to ruthlessly cut down all your non-White enemies, surrounded by the lamentations of their women and by White women falling at your feet. Or passing out at them, whoever.

That same fantasy is promoted by the campaign of now President-Elect Donald Trump. He will make America great again by expelling and/or imprisoning its dark-skinned enemies and grabbing its women by the crotch. Those men who have vocally supported Donald Trump envision themselves as modern-day Conans, perhaps more clothed and less strapping, but nevertheless warriors of righteousness seeking gold and glory, perfectly willing to, if necessary, spill blood.

The narrative promoted by Trump throughout his campaign and the narrative of Conan appeal to the same kind of people. They exclude and dehumanize the same kind of people. They endorse violence. They treat women as objects. And they have both contributed to getting us where we are today The narratives that we create, promote, and enjoy, from Conan to Star Wars to The Apprentice matter. They shape our deeds and perspectives. Even if the creators of Conan envisioned the game as being apolitical, there’s no such thing. Narratives create their own politics and sit within a political context –– in this case, a political context in which White power has just taken control of the United States. The fact that the Conan kickstarter did so well should have been a warning. It should have made us realize how many people are still willing, if not eager, to buy into the racist, misogynist narratives of the early 20th century. How many people are willing to perform the violence against others that they’ve watched or played at. How many people are willing to complacently enable violence and hate in return for a bit of recognition and/or money.

Start Fighting

It’s time to stop acting like promoting this misogynist and racist narrative through board games is okay. Time to start fighting for the inclusivity and equality that you sometimes talk about with your money, designs, and words.

As a gamer, start refusing to purchase or even play a game that objectifies women, excludes women, excludes non-White people, makes non-White people the enemy, etc.



As a designer, start making very deliberate choices about what themes you work with and how you represent people of other gender, races, and sexualities than your own. Start thinking about how you can create narratives that inspire positive change. Represent the equality and fight for justice that you want to see in the world. Conan has gained lots of acclaim for its mechanic innovations and the thorough realization of its theme and setting. But why can’t those innovative mechanics and immersive gameplay be matched with a setting that treats women as something other than sexual objects and minorities as something other than enemies? Why can’t we have that kind of excellence in a game in which we fight against misogyny and racism instead of embodying it?

As a reviewer, speak up about things that you or your friends find offensive. Tell us when there aren’t any playable women or minorities in a game, or when women are depicted in an overtly sexualized manner, or when a game has problematic historical and political implications. Hold the companies that you work with accountable. Stop thinking of yourself as an influencer who works on behalf of those companies and start thinking of yourself as an independent journalist.

If you don’t do any of these things, you won’t be helping anything to change, no matter how much you allege that gaming is for everyone and that this industry is inclusive. In fact, you’ll continue part of the problem. You can either have Conan or you can have a better industry and better world. But you can’t have both.