The Game-players of Titan

About “The Game-players of Titan”

The Game-Players of Titan is a 1963 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The story follows Pete Garden, a resident in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the population has been sterilized by Henkel Radiation. In this world, people compete in a board game called "Bluff," organized by alien beings from Titan called vugs. Players, known as Bindmen, risk their property, marriages, and social status in the game. The vugs, silicon-based aliens, control the game and use it to encourage human exogamy and fertility. They maintain a paternalistic relationship with humans and use hallucinations to appear human. The vugs also prevent the use of human telepathy or precognition during the game.