Buy Dog Eat Dog for $15

Buy Dog Eat Dog in PDF for just $10

Dog Eat Dog is a game of colonialism and its consequences. As a group, you work together to describe one of the hundreds of small islands in the Pacific Ocean, defining the customs of the natives and the mores of the outsiders arriving to claim it. One player then assumes the role of the Occupation force, playing their capable military, their quisling government, and whatever jaded tourists and shrewd businessmen are interested in a not quite pacified territory. All the others play individual Natives, each trying in their own ways to come to terms with the new regime. The game begins when the war ends. Through a series of scenes, you play out the inevitably conflicted relationship between the two parties, deciding what the colonizers do to maintain control, which natives assimilate and which run amok, and who ends up owning the island in the end. The game will come in the form of a book, with the full rules, author’s notes that explain the design process, and a brief historical overview of colonization in the Pacific.

I originally began working on this game in 2005, thinking about my own history as a second-generation half-Filipino growing up in Hawai’i. I playtested it with a few of my friends and tried it out at a couple of local conventions, and got great reviews as well as great feedback for future drafts. It lay fallow for a while as I ran short of time to work on it, but I’ve decided I’d like to finally finish developing it and get it out there.

Here are some comments from people who’ve played it:

“Dog Eat Dog isn’t a game about how colonialism steals resources; it’s a game about how colonialism steals identities.  Who you were, who you are, and who you can be?  That’s what gets stolen, and Dog Eat Dog is about how much of that you can hold on to.” — Chris Chinn, Deeper In The Game

“Dog Eat Dog is an extraordinary breakout game….It presents colonialism stripped bare of any fantasy, without apologies or excuses. Playing it is an emotional roller coaster of power and suffering, presenting both the unconscionable consequences of a dysfunctional society and the violent consequences of breakdown.” — Ben Lehman, Polaris

“This game is fun. Really, really fun. Thanks to the pervasiveness of institutional racism(!) and systematic oppression in science fiction, this game is a great fit for sociological sci-fi in a rules-light, super accessible package.”* — Elizabeth Shoemaker Sampat, elizabethsampat.com

“Dog Eat Dog shook me to the bones. The first time I played it, it hit me so hard that I couldn’t sleep that night….It’s a game, an experience, a work of theory and a work of art. It’s also a lot of fun. It should be required playing for activists, thinkers, politicians, marginalized communities, students, and dreamers.” — Jennifer Flowers, International Development Project Designer

A physical copy of Dog Eat Dog is $15, with free shipping inside the United States. A PDF is just $10.

Buy Dog Eat Dog for $15

Buy Dog Eat Dog in PDF for just $10