Consentacle

{{Short description|Science fiction cooperative board game}}

{{Infobox game

| name = Consentacle

| image = Cover_of_card_game_Consentacle.png

| designer = Naomi Clark

| illustrator = James Harvey

| date = 2018

| genre = board game, science fiction, tentacle erotica

| players = 2

| ages = 18+

}}

Consentacle is a science fiction cooperative board game about negotiating consensual sex between two femme characters: a human astronaut and a tentacled alien. It was designed by Naomi Clark and illustrated by James Harvey.{{Cite web |date=2019-11-01 |title=Consentacle is a board game about having consensual alien sex in space |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/consentacle-is-a-board-game-about-having-consensual-alien-sex-in-space |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=SYFY Official Site |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Narcisse |first=Evan |date=2014-09-25 |title=Tentacle Alien Sex Card Game Isn't As Perverted As You'd Think |url=https://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/tentacle-alien-sex-card-game-isnt-as-perverted-as-youd-think/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926073456/http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/tentacle-alien-sex-card-game-isnt-as-perverted-as-youd-think/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 26, 2014 |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=Kotaku Australia |language=en-AU}} Consentacle was published in 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised $154,609.{{Cite web |title=Project Updates for Consentacle: A Card Game of Human-Alien Intimacy on BackerKit Page 1 |url=https://consentacle.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/project_updates |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=BackerKit |language=en}} The prototype for Consentacle won the Impact Award at IndieCade 2015.{{Cite web |title=Her Story takes home the top honor at IndieCade 2015 awards show |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-i-her-story-i-takes-home-the-top-honor-at-indiecade-2015-awards-show |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=www.gamedeveloper.com |language=en}}

Themes

Clark, who is part Japanese, was inspired by the idea of reclaiming hentai to represent positive queer relationships. In a 2019 interview with Alex Meehan for Tabletop Gaming, she explained, "I believed that the concept could be reclaimed and turned around; Consentacle is not what people expect from a game with tentacles in it."{{Cite web |last=Meehan |first=Alex |date=2019-09-26 |title=What can romantic board games (and tentacle sex) teach us about real-life relationships? |url=https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/features/what-can-romantic-board-games-and-tentacle-sex-teach-us-about-real/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=Tabletop Gaming}}

Gameplay

Consentacle is played silently and challenges players' nonverbal communication skills. Each player has a deck of cards. Players play cards in particular combinations to earn tokens representing trust and satisfaction. To earn satisfaction tokens, players must share their trust tokens.

Related Works

Following Consentacle's publication, Clark wrote the foreword to Honey & Hot Wax, a 2020 anthology of live action role-playing games on the theme of sex and sexuality.{{Cite web |title=Honey & Hot Wax |url=https://pelgranepress.com/product/honey-hot-wax/ |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=Pelgrane Press Ltd |language=en-US}}

References