The Cape's great game inventor
Peter Olotka's 'Cosmic Encounter' first happened (and remains) in Centerville
In that dim, uncharted past – the 1970s – before there were games of thrones or apps transporting cellphone players across continents, Peter Olotka started designing board games.
He and his wife Cindy met in the Peace Corps, then came to Cape Cod where he became a rabble-rousing community organizer and she continued her nursing career. They moved to Centerville near Lake Wequaquet where they live more than 50 years later.
Early on, Peter stopped his organizing work and was wondering what was next. He saw a “Godfather” board game, inspired by the movie. He loved the packaging; it came inside an ersatz violin case, like how the Mob hid machineguns:
“I thought, Wait, people design games? I’d like to try that.”
Being a sci-fi head, big on Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert, his thinking inclined that way. But first he mused long and hard and developed some rules:
“The key would be to make a game no one else has done,” he recalls. “For example, no one would ever get eliminated – I mean, you go to the kitchen for an hour while others play, what fun is that?
“Next, this game can’t just appeal to guys.
“Next, it’s not just shooting people.
“And then, everybody in the game would have to be different somehow, some kind of special power, unique look.”
He settled on a simple sci-fi premise that would allow for myriad explorations, an open structure to fulfill his prerequisites:
“Two aliens meet in outer space. What happens?”
What emerged in 1972, with help from partners, was the first iteration of “Cosmic Encounters,” a board game also played online that has “lived well and prospered” (as Spock would say) for 50 years, many versions published, hundreds of invented aliens -- none identical.
Inventing one malleable, durable game is a remarkable accomplishment, but Peter and his team (including his son Greg) have done much more. They have diversified and contributed to the Dune world with “The Spice Must Flow” and “Dune Arrakis.” They joined the Star Trek firmament with “The Enterprise Encounter.” They are ensconced among the “Game of Thrones” coterie. The list goes on.
These creations have emerged from a small downstairs study in the Olokas’ home, with collaborators joining by phone and online. Peter’s desk sits toward one corner, windows revealing a rolling yard and big garden. His game designing shares space that might be 12 by 12; Cindy’s chair caning occupies the other side with “an invisible diagonal line between,” laughs Peter.
For half a century, designing games has been Olotka’s sole professional pastime, as stuffed shelves and bookcases can attest. Even as video screens dominate life and entertainment, he has stuck with board games as his canvas; he is almost as proud that he and Cindy have stuck with their Centerville homestead and community just as long.
Among Cape Cod’s strengths, two stand out: A relationship to the sea, and a quality that attracts remarkable people.
These people often live off the mainstream professional grid; chance encounters offer no telltales of how accomplished they have become, famous in their scenes and subcultures as they linger among pines and oaks.
Thanks for the visit, Peter. And thanks for the great homegrown lunch, Cindy.
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Love these stories about the unsung everyday folks who enrich our lives, even though we don't know they're doing it!
Glad you're game to cover --and uncover-- riches across the Cape and beyond... to the cosmos!