El Pulpo
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El Pulpo explores the widely unknown and deeply sordid history of the United Fruit Company’s exploitation of and interference in various Latin American nations throughout the first half of the twentieth century. During this period of history, the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) established a greater than 80% control over the import of bananas into the United States. This was only possible through an ongoing, concerted, and often violent effort to interfere with the political and economic affairs of Central and South American nations. By the 1930s, United Fruit held in its possession 3.5 million acres of land across the region and owned more land than any other person or entity in the country of Guatemala. It not only held massive tracts of land but also controlled railroads, telegraph lines, ports, and other critical infrastructure. The company was so intertwined with the social, economic, and political structures of the region that local workers, journalists, and leftist groups nicknamed it “El Pulpo”. In the game, each player pursues three private interests. You could be invested in the welfare of a nation’s political and economic stability, in the growing labor movement’s desire for just working conditions, or in United Fruit’s bottom line. Or in some cases, all three. Each round, you draft a hand of cards to play on your turns. Each card has a mandatory event and is associated with one of four suits: Labor, Political, Force, and Export. Although you can use each turn to take any action, each suit connects to a specific set of actions, and acting within the played suit allows you to be more efficient in your work. Your work, of course, is that of positioning the countries on the map (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Colombia) to serve your own ends. Attempt to prop up democratic governments, or nudge things toward more business-friendly authoritarian regimes. Help solidify the local economy by investing in nationalized banana enclaves, or make them tax exempt to send all that precious revenue to United Fruit. Every choice you make could mean you are furthering your own goals or attempting to sabotage those of your competitors. But the one thing almost all players want to do is export fruit and drive the economic engine propping up the whole house of cards. The incentives are fully intertwined, but you are never quite sure who else at the table you are working with or against. The game ends after 5 decades, at which point all player interests are revealed and all objectives are evaluated. National interests must achieve a majority of their country's objectives, the labor movement must successfully strike in the final three decades, and United Fruit wants to maximize its profits through exporting as many bananas as possible. The player with the highest total score based on their three hidden interests wins the game. —description from the publisher
