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Friday, 21 September 2018

I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous



I knew if I waited long enough Brexit would give me something to laugh about, and this video is worth the price of -- admission isn't the right word, I guess. The opposite.

If you've been curious about my and Jamie's new gamebook Can You Brexit Without Breaking Britain? now is your chance to try it out as a free online PDF. (Oh, and incidentally if you need to backtrack you can use Alt + left arrow in a PDF just like the Back button in a browser. That's for PCs. There are options for other devices but you don't need me to tell you about those; you've got the internet after all.)

Share the PDF if you like. This book took us a year to write and, although I'm aware most gamebook readers would rather we'd done something with goblins, I think it's kind of important. Possibly the most worthwhile book we've written, in fact. With just six months to go before the UK and the EU part company, we now just want as many people as possible to get the chance to play it. And don't be put off by the sheer mind-crushing horror of Britain's current political fubar. Can You Brexit? may not be quite as laugh-out-loud as the Titanic video, but we've done our best to inject it with plenty of humour along with all the informative stuff.

And the print book is still on sale for another six months if digital gaming just doesn't do it for you:



And finally, as the newscasters used to say, there's this too. Oh, I can see Brexit is going to usher in a whole new era of deliciously bitter satire:

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22 comments:

  1. Muir22 September 2018 at 01:23

    I am rather amused that the pdf was made freely available a week after I purchased the book. So far, it seems very well done, though not to many, even gamerss, taste.

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    1. Dave Morris22 September 2018 at 16:06

      I hope you feel the physical copy was worth the extra, Muir. As an owner of the book you can also get the Kindle version free, which is probably a better format than PDF for reading it electronically.

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    2. johntfs26 September 2018 at 14:20

      When it comes to books, especially game books, I much prefer the physical format. I'll use a .pdf to look something up (where do you find that White Sword again?) but for actual play, nothing beats a "real" book.

      BTW, Dave, Elementary just finished an excellent season with a finale that could easily have been a series finale.

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    3. DM26 September 2018 at 14:23

      I can't wait to binge on that, John.

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  2. mundialecter22 September 2018 at 05:15

    Thanks a lot Dave (and Jamie) for this wonderful present ! I shall share it on Facebook.
    Though not as funny as the video, here was my humourous contribution just after the referendum : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153835194076878&set=pb.554166877.-2207520000.1537589451.&type=3&theater

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    1. Dave Morris22 September 2018 at 16:07

      They say that tragedy is comedy with distance. I certainly can't wait to put some distance between me and Brexit.

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    2. mundialecter2 October 2018 at 17:05

      Hi Dave !I've just read it. Excellent !It shows that the whole Brexit thing is like trying to square the circle : the worst I was negotiating with EU, the most popularity I was gaining.
      IMO, not all EU member-States can sue the UK before the World Court at the Hague; only those who have accepted the compulsory juridiction of the Court could (this is not the case of France, for example). However, since a debt towards the EU is a debt towards all its members, just one EU State might well sue for the whole sum (in solidum)

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    3. Dave Morris2 October 2018 at 18:06

      I think that's how it would work, Olivier. One state could bring the case for the whole. Hopefully we won't need to find out, but now that Britain actually has ministers seriously suggesting that we might choose to ignore our legal obligations -- who knows?

      Anyway, I'm glad you liked it. If there's one takeaway from the book, I'd say it's that winning has very little to do with negotiating a good UK/EU framework, and really it's just about keeping control of the Conservative party. That's pretty much how British politicians are treating it, too, more's the pity.

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    4. mundialecter3 October 2018 at 08:51

      Indeed that's how things work in our democracies : parties care about their electorate, not about the common good.

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    5. Dave Morris3 October 2018 at 10:06

      Hardly even the electorate, in Britain's case. Both major parties have their leader selected by the party members, who are more extreme in their views than the electorate as a whole. That means prospective leaders like Boris Johnson pander to those members. If Britain had an alternative vote system rather than "first past the post" then that would tend to defuse the extreme views, but our electorate rejected a change in system as "too complicated". Since the UK voters couldn't understand runoff voting, which I believe is used in Australia, France and New England, it's small wonder they thought Brexit could work.

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  3. John Hagan22 September 2018 at 11:49

    Don't do yourself a diservice Dave; your books have never been just "something with goblins" - "something with boggarts" perhaps (before the whole world and Harry Potter knew what they were), and howling barghests (I am fighting an epic, unseen battle with spell-check to stop that correcting to bar-guests every time I type it!) , and those barudaths tapping at the windows ! Parts of that 'beastiary' imprinted a sense of ghosts in my mind as effectively as a HPL short story; a sense of the real and proper "Halloween" that lurks beneath the plastic surface of 'Frankenstein & Dracula' masks.

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    1. Dave Morris22 September 2018 at 15:57

      Thanks, John. And funny you should mention Halloween... More on that shortly.

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  4. Unknown23 September 2018 at 21:09

    I wholeheartedly endorse buying the book - it's a great read, lots of dashes of humour and a real insight into what's involved for those of us without political science degrees.

    "I'm Michael Hartland and I approved this message."

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  5. Unknown1 October 2018 at 08:49

    Hi Dave, I hope you don't mind me asking you directly, but have Paul, Jamie and yourself signed any of the FL 7 books for the higher tier Kickstarter backers yet?

    You'll be well aware of the situation regarding Megara and shipping (or lack thereof), and I know it doesn't involve you at all, but I thought I'd check with you on this to help manage my expectations of delivery a little.

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    1. Dave Morris1 October 2018 at 22:32

      We haven't been sent any copies to sign, Michael. One option that was discussed was for us to sign bookplates for backers to stick into the books, but Megara would have to print those. Alternatively Jamie, Paul and I could buy some blank bookplates to sign, but obviously those wouldn't be as impressive as specially printed ones; nonetheless that's what we'll probably have to do.

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    2. Unknown2 October 2018 at 01:23

      Thanks Dave. Boy what a cock-up this has been (from certain parties). Fabled Lands really deserves better... as I'm sure in time it will have.

      PS. Apologies for the duplicate messages - I received a bounce-back on your email address initially.

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  6. Muir2 October 2018 at 02:44

    Oh, the work you put into this certainly deserves rumuneration. It is well-crafted. As I got the book to give as a present to an expat friend of mine, I certainly feel the physical copy well worth it. :)

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  7. Andy6 February 2019 at 04:15

    That was fun. I somehow managed to steer Britain to a not-too-disastrous Brexit, with poll ratings that "President Spetsnaz would kill for. Quite literally".

    Of course, I did it by being a lot more realistic and willing to compromise than our actual government, which does not bode well for the future.

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    1. Dave Morris6 February 2019 at 09:23

      I really should have sent Theresa May a copy, shouldn't I, Andy? When we crash out, I'm going to blame myself.

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    2. Andy6 February 2019 at 22:46

      There is probably a special place in hell for naughty gamebook writers, but you can console yourself with the thought that she wouldn't have had the imagination to read it.

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    3. Dave Morris6 February 2019 at 22:57

      As long as my special place is not next to Farage, Gove & co I can stand it.

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