Azad is a fictional game played in the Empire of Azad in the book The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. The word Azad translates to mean "machine" or "system", but is applied in the empire to any functional entity such as animals, plants or artificial machines. Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. ... Cover of an early edition of the book The Player of Games is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1988. ... Iain Menzies Banks (born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. ...

Although the actual rules are not given in the book, the game is primarily tactical and played on three-dimensional boards of various shapes and sizes. Typically the boards are large enough for players to walk around inside them to move or interact with their pieces. The number of players differs from game to game and also influences the tactics, as players can choose to cooperate or compete with one another. As well as skill and tactics, random events may influence gameplay (often as card or other games of chance), and sometimes may change the outcome critically.

Game elements

The game consists of a number of rounds which are vaguely described, such as card games and elemental die matching, which allow the players to build up their forces for use on the game's three giant boards and a number of minor boards.

The game uses a variety of curious pieces to represent a player's units (military, resource or even philosophical premises). Many of the pieces are genetically engineered constructs, partially plant and partially animal, which may change form during the game according to their use and environment. These respond to their handling by a player and appear difficult to understand - at one point in the book the protagonist is encouraged to take greater care of some of the more important pieces so he can better understand them in play. The main character is the central figure of a story. ...

The league and position within the empire

In the empire, the game is the main determinant of one's social status. The game is played in a league, initially consisting of some 12,000 players in the main series. Through the various rounds, these are all whittled down until the final one on one game, the victor of which becomes emperor. Players knocked out from the main series may take part in further games to determine their careers. The complexity of the game aims to represent reality to such a degree that a player's own political and philosophical outlook can be expressed in play (the idea being that rival ideologies are essentially "tested" in the game before the winners can apply them in reality). In the novel, the protagonist ultimately finds that his (successful) tactics come to reflect the values of his own civilisation, The Culture, specifically a dogged refusal to throw away pieces for short term gain when they can be preserved in any way. The Culture is a fictional anarchic, socialistic and utopian society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and described by him in several of his novels and shorter fictions. ...