Odds and quads

This French board game is part of an archive of material relating to the Situationist International movement, which had a major influence on student protesters in the 1960s.

The game recreates the early days of the May 1968 riots in Paris, when left-wing students, teachers and workers marched through the French capital protesting against police brutality and demanding the fall of Charles de Gaulle's government.

Players take the role of either police or protesters and fight it out on the streets of the city's Latin Quarter. The protesters' goal is to lift 20 paving stones before daybreak to reveal an imaginary Paris below - a beach beneath the streets. The police aim to prevent them and restore order.

Pieces include the Compagnies Republicaines de Securite riot police, armed gardes mobiles, students, rioters, Molotov cocktails and barricades.

The rules encourage the players to feel the spirit of May '68 and experience the struggle between Utopia and order.

The game is part of the Situationist International: John McCready Archive, within the special collections at Liverpool John Moores University. It includes books, leaflets, posters, tracts and ephemera relating to the movement.

Send suggestions for this series on the sector's treasures, oddities and curiosities to: matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com.