Tulip Birds and Daffodil Birds by Cally Trench

Not for Sale

‘Tulip Birds and Daffodil Birds’ is my tenth original board game; I designed the concept and rules as well as the pieces and board. I first had the idea for this new game over a year ago, but I made it during lockdown, starting with a prototype that I tested on my immediate family. 

It is a game that is relevant to our current times in that it concerns inequality. Board games normally start with all players in the same equal position, and winning is a matter of luck and/or skill. I wanted to make a game that was more like real life, with built-in inequality.

In this game, two players are designated - by chance - as Tulip Birds, and two become Daffodil Birds. Each bird moves around the board according to throws of a dice; depending on the square that the bird lands on, the player picks up a card from one of three piles - concerned with health, money and happiness. The vast majority of the cards discriminate unfairly between the two types of birds by giving different instructions to Tulip Birds and Daffodil Birds. Players are at the mercy of the assumptions, expectations and prejudices about the two different kinds of bird that underlie the instructions on the cards, but their lives are also governed by chance events.

I am looking forward to it being possible to hold another event where people can meet up and play my board games - including ‘Tulip Birds and Daffodil Birds’.