Arete: The Philosophy Board Game 2015

The time periods covered in the game are Ancient, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman Greece.

The theme and focus of the game is on Ancient Philosophy and the various schools of philosophy that flourished in these periods, e.g., the Academics, the Stoics, the Epicurean Atomists, etc.

Players take control of a scholarch, or headmaster of a school, and will explore Athens and the world defined by these time periods. Players will move pawns through nodes and pathways on a board representing Ancient Athens. Landing on event spaces will allow players to draw and play from nine different decks of cards, with each card containing both historically and philosophically flavored text and mechanics to implement in-game. Additionally, some spaces will grant players access to various in-game functions, such as a market to buy and sell item cards, a gymnasium to restore health or a temple to supplicate and bid for the help of the gods.

The goal of the game internally is to be the player with the most virtue points. Virtue points are earned by triumphing over other players in the in-game battle system, Dialectics; successfully completing events; recruiting pupils; being in possession of specific items.

While dice rolling will determine successes and failures in the game's event trials, pupil recruitment and actions in battle, players may tilt the odds in their favor when they allocate more of their virtue points to whichever statistic or trait (depicted by the four Socratic Virtues in-game), wager or sacrifice unallocated virtue points for a temporary advantage or collect the abilities of various pupils and items in the game.

And taken from the back of the game's box:

Philosophy is a way of life and the sweetest of the Muses. She importunes you to seek excellence in virtue and cultivate your body and soul. Explore the Classical and Hellenistic periods of Ancient Greece along with its rich Traditions and charismatic Mythos, as you take part in Dialectical arguments in search of Truth, participate in the bustling civic life of Athens, and travel outside of your Mother City seeking opportunities to exercise your Wisdom and practice your Craft on. Aiding you in your Homeric quest for Socratic virtue are loyal pupils, capricious gods and your soul's affinity with the ordered cosmos. Virtue does not come from contemplation alone, but through the application of Reason to right Action.

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