The bottle cap rolled haphazardly across Mad Barrington’s knuckles, galumphing right and left before dropping under his fingertips and disappearing into the folds of his ragged fur coat. The coat alone would be enough reason to call him crazy, layers of clothes in the desert heat, but combined with his plan to restore his wealth and buy another sky castle with a few scrounged bottle caps and scraps of paper moved his condition towards certifiably insane. His former intern Flynt stood by his side, his gangly height towered over him and the crowd with an uneasy presence.
“The thing to remember, is that the Waggles-Roaches hate the Woggles-Roaches and the Wiggles-Roaches hate the Wuggles-Roaches. And those guys,” Barrington added pointing at a pair of roaches that looked exactly like all the others, “those guys just hate everyone.”
“Those guys?” Flynt asked pointing at the man-sized bugs dressed in patched elbowed tuxedos and wearing top hats. His own rainbow patched outfit of ill fitting clothes making him feel conspicuous amongst the well dressed cockroaches.
“No, the Roaches,” Barrington corrected, “Do try to keep up. We’ll need to exploit those conflicts to move ahead, incite some duels, feed the fires, ensure bygones are byheres instead. Rumours and the shadows of rumours will be our tools to wealthy ways.”
“And the Stock Market?” Flynt asked. On their long trek through the desert after jumping out of Lord Barrington’s exploding sky castle, he had laid out his detailed plan for gaining back his wealth as simply “The Stock Markets await!”
“Right through those doors,” once a Lord Barrington announced pointing through the throng of cockroaches at the colosseum gates that lay before them. “Fortunes gained and lost along with lives, legs and spare antennas. Gruesome stuff. Best not to be late for our first match.”
“What? Now?” Flynt asked noticing the life size poster of Mad Barrington and himself beside the gate caught with the authentic detail that one would expect from life size bugs painting humans, “That’s the plan?”
“No need to worry lad,” boomed Mad Barrington over the noise of the crowd, “between your mathematical prestijadouritusity and my natural capabilities we’ll crush these bugs underfoot! ” His solid frame moving forward with certainty he slapped Flynt’s back pushing him forward and into the arena ahead of him as the crowd scuttled to their seats in anticipation of the day’s contest.
Follow the continuing adventures of Mad Barrington and Flynt as they attempt to rebuild Mad Barrington’s fortunes on the Stock Market.
In “Mad Barrington’s Gyre” players build a deck to drive the bleak stock market of the future up or down to their advantage. Players must balance future rewards against their immediate needs each turn as they choose between buying shares, actions that affect the value of shares (to help themselves or hurt their opponents) and cards that increase their long term fortunes.
