The Bell of Treason 1938 Munich Crisis in Czechoslovakia

The Bell of Treason is a fast-paced, card-driven board game in which two players experience the existential crisis faced by Czechoslovakia in response to Hitler’s territorial demands. One player represents the ideal of trying to Defend the country, even without allies and at any cost. The other player represents the historically victorious ideal of agreeing to Concede the Sudetenland territory, in order to prevent bloodshed and hoping that Hitler’s demands would stop there. The game adapts the crisis modeling system originally introduced in Mark Herman’s Fort Sumter and then further developed in Fred Serval’s Red Flag Over Paris. The game does not make any judgment about whether it would have been the right choice for Czechoslovakia to defend itself in 1938, nor whether such a defense could, in any sense, have been successful. Instead, it allows you to experience for yourself this crisis period of 1938, which forever influenced Czechoslovakia’s path and the eventual course of World War II. The game can also be played solo, using an adaption of the innovative and elegant system originally designed by Jason Carr for Red Flag Over Paris.