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Volker Hirscher
Germany
Heidelberg
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Hi all,
played my first game of London yesterday, and to be honest - I was very underwhelmed 
While I think I understood the mechanics, they just are not my cup of tea - too much tactics, too little strategy I fear.
BUT: The thing that annoyed me most was the theme. Maybe I just got it wrong: Why on earth do I get poverty-cubes when I run a city? What does "run a city" mean, anyway? And why do I earn money by doing so, and get poverty points in the same moment?
That really confused me, probably there is an explanation....
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Richard Ham
Malta
Msida
One of our beagles (Taloula) is a bit of a camera hog
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I look at it like this: when you're drawing and playing cards, that represents city planning. Nothing is happening, you're just laying how the city will develop. When you "run your city", that represents letting time pass to see how your plans for the city have actually panned out. And while that time passes, income is generated (in taxes and whatnot), but so is poverty (depending on how you've chosen to let the city develop).
Seems thematically solid to me 
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Volker Hirscher
Germany
Heidelberg
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Ok, but then you play two sides: One time you play "You" as the administrator of the city, and one time you play "the people" and get poverty points for them.
Seems many politicians today would not care about poverty points, maybe that's the confusing part, that it is mixed up 
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Richard Ham
Malta
Msida
One of our beagles (Taloula) is a bit of a camera hog
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I guess the conceit is that you are a city administrator that does care about poverty, and wants to minimize it (which is why you're penalized for it)
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Snooze Festival
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
We love our pups!! Misu, RIP 28 Nov 2010. Tikka, RIP 11 Aug 2011.
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You care about poverty, but more about competition: you just want to have less poverty than those other city leaders who are also rebuilding London. Part of the thematic explanation is, I think, in the rulebook (but I can't remember for sure).
Anyway, think of poverty cubes as representing the average poverty in your area of London. Running your city represents all the activity related to the buildings/prisons/monuments/etc that you have built in your part of the new, post-fire London. If you build a lot of buildings (stacks), you attract a lot of people back to the city ... more poverty. Cards in hand is sort of an indication of time -- more cards = more time having passed = more poverty. If you buy boroughs, you spread the poor out into more areas of the city = lower poverty (per area). And I don't think it's a conceit that you want to minimize poverty ... what kind of city planner wants the homeless all over their city? Better to send them to school or prison, right?
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Andy Holt
England
Rayleigh
Essex
This is not the cat you're looking for - some other cat maybe?
tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse
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Note that absolute poverty is irrelevant - it is poverty relative to the other players that matters.
Perhaps a subtle hint that the risk of unrest/revolution increases with inequality!
"You've never had it so good" and "we're all in this together"
(ooops, don't want to move this to RSP) 
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Richard Ham
Malta
Msida
One of our beagles (Taloula) is a bit of a camera hog
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You guys are making me want to get it out and play tonight!
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Volker Hirscher
Germany
Heidelberg
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Thanks for the input - I think your explanations sound ok (though I would still not say that the theme is deeply tied to the game).
Will give it a last try today, hope it is better than yesterday...
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I've always viewed it very simply: as the city gets, poverty increases. The poverty is only reduced when city leaders actively try to cut it back.
Hope your next play goes better!
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Wim van Gruisen
Netherlands
Maastricht
Unspecified
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mavo wrote: Ok, but then you play two sides: One time you play "You" as the administrator of the city, and one time you play "the people" and get poverty points for them.
Or you play as the city itself. You keep growing through the centuries and you keep getting developed economically and industrially, but the riches are not equally distributed along all your parts. Poverty in certain quarters is the result of unbridled growth without enough concern about social conditions.
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Snooze Festival
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
We love our pups!! Misu, RIP 28 Nov 2010. Tikka, RIP 11 Aug 2011.
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In my mind, players are simply wealthy benefactors. Or, more likely, wealthy benefactor families. Over the years, they build famous buildings and monuments while trying to earn themselves the greatest fame/reputation.
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Richard Hutnik
United States
Poughkeepsie
New York
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mavo wrote: Hi all, played my first game of London yesterday, and to be honest - I was very underwhelmed While I think I understood the mechanics, they just are not my cup of tea - too much tactics, too little strategy I fear. BUT: The thing that annoyed me most was the theme. Maybe I just got it wrong: Why on earth do I get poverty-cubes when I run a city? What does "run a city" mean, anyway? And why do I earn money by doing so, and get poverty points in the same moment? That really confused me, probably there is an explanation....
Poverty in the game is an abstraction of the problems a city accumulates when it runs. Think of it as a mix of crime, pollution, sickness, etc... It is "bad things". When you "run a city" you cause it to do what it would do normally. Your clock for running is different than other people. In short, it represents creating problems that happen when you have a lot happening in a small space. If you spread things out (buy more regions on the map) you reduce this. Like with a norm for Martin Wallace designs, pollution represents an abstraction of a number of things connected with reality somehow.
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Brian Boyle
Australia
Sydney
NSW
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I have also thought London as a role selection game
When I take any of the actions, I am in fact selecting a role.
Play cards: Planner
Buy land: Developer
Run city: Councillor
Take three cards: Speculator
With each cycle of the actions/roles representing approx 50years (6 complete cycles per game over period 1667-1939). Buildings, institutions, infrastructure, land all becoming avaialable at exactly the right time. Its marvellously evocative and thematic. Pure Genius from a brilliant game designer.
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Volker Hirscher
Germany
Heidelberg
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I sold the game a while ago. Did not work for us...
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