CREDIT: IDW
Orphan Black: The Card Game incorporates the popular Canadian TV show into a social role deduction game that will entertain even those who are not fans of the show, according to co-game designer and Fanshawe professor Sen-Foong Lim.

Orphan Black: The Card Game, is a social role deduction game based on the popular show of the same name. The Canadian science fiction series is a wildly popular and highly rated show starring Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany, who has earned critical acclaim for her ability to portray multiple clones, each with distinct personalities, seemingly with ease.

Set in Toronto, it only made sense for the game associated with the series to be designed by a Canadian as well.

That’s where Fanshawe professor Sen-Foong Lim came in.

A professor of Developmental Psychology at Fanshawe, Lim already had a number of games under his belt when the distributers to design a card game based on the series approached him and co-designer Jay Cormier. Lim said designing games was always an outlet for him and was never intended to become his day job.

“For me, it’s a method of getting all this junk, all this stuff, all these ideas out of my brain so I have room for important stuff, like psychology,” he said. “It was a release, a creative avenue.”

Lim said he and Cormier were excited to be able to work on a series they were fans of, but that didn’t mean it was an easy process. Lim said it was during playtests that a flaw in the original idea for the game was discovered and eventually altered.

“We were focused on ‘But everyone would want to play as a clone, why wouldn’t you want to play as a clone’,” Lim said. It was from player comments that the designers changed the foundation of the game.

Players now play as one of three factions: the Proletheans, Neolutionists or the Watchers.

The Proletheans are an extremist religious organization who believe the clones are an abomination and are determined to kill them all.

The Neolutionists are members of the scientific organization Neolution, and are considered the science side of the “science versus religion” theme that permeates the show. They are the scientists behind the cloning technology.

Finally, the Watchers, also known as the Bird Watchers, are people who were planted into the lives of clones without their knowledge, to keep an eye on them.

The purpose of the game is to have as many clones join your faction as possible all while keeping your opponents guessing as to which faction you belong to. The duplicitousness inherent to this style of game fits perfectly with Orphan Black, which boasts many characters with ulterior and deceptive motives.

Unable to stop his creative mind, Lim said he applies his game-designing mind in the classroom, often planning games for his students in order for them to learn.

“As a therapist games were always something I used with the people I was treating,” Lim said. “When I became a professor I [saw] how course designing was like one big game. The outcome, or winning, is students passing.”

Lim has a number of upcoming releases, including a game based on the TV series Outlander, as well as one based on the Godfather films and Godzilla.

Orphan Black: The Card Game is available to play at various board game cafes and for purchase at shops throughout London including LA Mood and Cardboard Café. It takes about 30 minutes to play and requires between three to six players.