12 ms·

Board games have a number of interesting problems to solve. As a designer, you are often trying to simulate a particular kind of 'interesting' system in a way t

Board games have a number of interesting problems to solve. As a designer, you are often trying to simulate a particular kind of 'interesting' system in a way that's fun, engaging, and simple enough to run by moving a few pieces of cardboard around (while perhaps slightly drunk). It's a fascinating design space. Occasionally a new game comes around with a fascinating new core game mechanic, which often solves a core design problem in an entirely new way. And then you'll see a few years of other games imitating the initial innovation... Often the 'originator' game may be pretty simple, to show off the new technique, and the followers steadily add complexity. People who play a lot of board games tend to pick up rules faster, due to knowing a lot of common mechanics already, and have a higher tolerance for complexity. Here's four great games which are pretty easy to learn and solved a problem in an interesting way. Settlers of Catan: Introduced 'early stopping' via victory points to avoid having 'dead' players stuck at the table, waiting for things to draw down. (Think of how terrible the end-game is in Risk or Monopoly.) Seven Wonders: It's really awful playing a turn-based game with more than four players... What if everyone takes their turns at the same time? Dominion: The best part of magic the gathering is building your deck, but - because of the CCG format - the playing field is really uneven. What if building your deck was part of the game? Hanabi: The worst part of cooperative games is that guy who just tells everyone what to do. What if you hid some really important information from each player, so no one can run the table?

vmception 5y ago
> And then you'll see a few years of other games imitating the initial innovation... Often the 'originator' game may be pretty simple, to show off the new technique, and the followers steadily add complexity. People who play a lot of board games tend to pick up rules faster, due to knowing a lot of common mechanics already, and have a higher tolerance for complexity. Thanks for that explanation! Yes, it seemed like there were some scene assumptions and complications that I had no idea existed. Very different from the time tested Monopoly and Scrabble. Now everything has phases, multi-variable resources, multi-variable point systems dependent on the phase, etc. Its just hard for me to discern where any of this came from, why people are aware of some of these mechanics, and which games just have really bad designs and bad product market fit - if the whole scene is just indie producers winning a popularity contest once on a crowdfunding site. There is a real skepticism for me on whether any set of rules or mechanics is "good" or just absurd - due to that last observation.
- Jedd 5y ago
  > What I learned is that the board game scene is ridiculous and obtuse. That's what you took away from your brief encounter, but I'm not sure it's something you (should) have learned as the general case. > Very different from the time tested Monopoly ... Monopoly is truly awful. It's been around a very long time, and is still a regular in supermarkets and postoffice shops, but nonetheless it's long been eclipsed, and to people who've played basically any other half-way decent board games it's a sadly regrettable mystery why it's still cited as an archetypal board game. > Now everything has phases, multi-variable resources, multi-variable point systems dependent on the phase, etc. This is why I think your experience into the 'board game scene' was a little skewy. Not everything has all that stuff. There's myriad games with comparable complexity to Monpoly, but far superior mechanics and replayability. And go just a little upwards in the complexity scale (Monopoly has a complexity rating of 1.64 / 5 on BGG [0], and an overall score of 4.4 / 10) you'll be well rewarded on the boardgame experience front. > Its just hard for me to discern where any of this came from, why people are aware of some of these mechanics, and which games just have really bad designs and bad product market fit - if the whole scene is just indie producers winning a popularity contest once on a crowdfunding site. Your conclusion at the start of that sentence is based on the evidently false premise at the end of it. [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1406/monopoly https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1406/monopoly
  - JoeAltmaier 5y ago
    It would be helpful to suggest a couple?
    - otachack 5y ago
      Machi Koro is one of my favorites. Easy to learn and play. It's a bit like Monopoly but has some turns mid-game where you can't depend on early game properties and instead make rolls that can compound from them. For a deception-type game, Secret Hitler has a beautiful official boardgame but you can print out the assets for free if you wanted to try it out. Coup is also a good and easy deception game and extremely fast. Illimat was backed by The Decemberists and has a fun, ouji-like theme to it. It uses a modified deck of cards and has 4 quadrants that players "plant" and "harvest" cards from. Your main objective is to collect goal points from clearing these fields, and obtaining tokens/tarot cards. Azul is a very pretty boardgame and has a Spanish/Middle Eastern inspired theme. Players need to pick tiles for their murals strategically and gain points from certain chains. Sushi Go is my go-to (puns) for new comers and is a deck building game. Get the party edition for max replayability and contains the base, but if you want to try it go for the base. Careful playing it with beverages because spilling can occur and there are A LOT of cards. Try to buy boardgames from local shops rather than Amazon or big box stores. Workers there can also help you choose a game if you have ideas! The boardgame field is immensely diverse today and there's something for everyone IMO. We're living in a golden age of options, much like video games in the past 20 years.
mbg721 5y ago
You could also try having six or seven of the recent novel mechanics at once, and then you get Terra Mystica. Not that it isn't fun to play, but for the rules, best to have a couple hours and a pot of coffee.
AfterShave 5y ago
>The worst part of cooperative games is that guy who just tells everyone what to do I'm always conflicted when it comes to cooperative games because of this. The goal of the game is to win, and you have to win as a team. So debating decisions would be for the best. It just never feels like much of a debate. One player spots the optimal move and points it out. You lose agency on your own turn. I certainly want to make my own moves to some extent. But of course I also want to win. Especially in how brutally difficult most of the cooperative games I have played are. Such as Eldritch Horror or whichever Warhammer Fantasy card game. Going against the group seems foolish.
- sdenton4 5y ago
  Yeah, co-op games really need some hidden information (or something) to make it interesting. Another common fix is to have a traitor, but I feel that undermines the co-opness. Hanabi is really brilliant, though!

vmception 5y ago

> And then you'll see a few years of other games imitating the initial innovation... Often the 'originator' game may be pretty simple, to show off the new technique, and the followers steadily add complexity. People who play a lot of board games tend to pick up rules faster, due to knowing a lot of common mechanics already, and have a higher tolerance for complexity. Thanks for that explanation! Yes, it seemed like there were some scene assumptions and complications that I had no idea existed. Very different from the time tested Monopoly and Scrabble. Now everything has phases, multi-variable resources, multi-variable point systems dependent on the phase, etc. Its just hard for me to discern where any of this came from, why people are aware of some of these mechanics, and which games just have really bad designs and bad product market fit - if the whole scene is just indie producers winning a popularity contest once on a crowdfunding site. There is a real skepticism for me on whether any set of rules or mechanics is "good" or just absurd - due to that last observation.

Jedd 5y ago
> What I learned is that the board game scene is ridiculous and obtuse. That's what you took away from your brief encounter, but I'm not sure it's something you (should) have learned as the general case. > Very different from the time tested Monopoly ... Monopoly is truly awful. It's been around a very long time, and is still a regular in supermarkets and postoffice shops, but nonetheless it's long been eclipsed, and to people who've played basically any other half-way decent board games it's a sadly regrettable mystery why it's still cited as an archetypal board game. > Now everything has phases, multi-variable resources, multi-variable point systems dependent on the phase, etc. This is why I think your experience into the 'board game scene' was a little skewy. Not everything has all that stuff. There's myriad games with comparable complexity to Monpoly, but far superior mechanics and replayability. And go just a little upwards in the complexity scale (Monopoly has a complexity rating of 1.64 / 5 on BGG [0], and an overall score of 4.4 / 10) you'll be well rewarded on the boardgame experience front. > Its just hard for me to discern where any of this came from, why people are aware of some of these mechanics, and which games just have really bad designs and bad product market fit - if the whole scene is just indie producers winning a popularity contest once on a crowdfunding site. Your conclusion at the start of that sentence is based on the evidently false premise at the end of it. [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1406/monopoly https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1406/monopoly
- JoeAltmaier 5y ago
  It would be helpful to suggest a couple?
  - otachack 5y ago
    Machi Koro is one of my favorites. Easy to learn and play. It's a bit like Monopoly but has some turns mid-game where you can't depend on early game properties and instead make rolls that can compound from them. For a deception-type game, Secret Hitler has a beautiful official boardgame but you can print out the assets for free if you wanted to try it out. Coup is also a good and easy deception game and extremely fast. Illimat was backed by The Decemberists and has a fun, ouji-like theme to it. It uses a modified deck of cards and has 4 quadrants that players "plant" and "harvest" cards from. Your main objective is to collect goal points from clearing these fields, and obtaining tokens/tarot cards. Azul is a very pretty boardgame and has a Spanish/Middle Eastern inspired theme. Players need to pick tiles for their murals strategically and gain points from certain chains. Sushi Go is my go-to (puns) for new comers and is a deck building game. Get the party edition for max replayability and contains the base, but if you want to try it go for the base. Careful playing it with beverages because spilling can occur and there are A LOT of cards. Try to buy boardgames from local shops rather than Amazon or big box stores. Workers there can also help you choose a game if you have ideas! The boardgame field is immensely diverse today and there's something for everyone IMO. We're living in a golden age of options, much like video games in the past 20 years.

mbg721 5y ago

You could also try having six or seven of the recent novel mechanics at once, and then you get Terra Mystica. Not that it isn't fun to play, but for the rules, best to have a couple hours and a pot of coffee.

AfterShave 5y ago

>The worst part of cooperative games is that guy who just tells everyone what to do I'm always conflicted when it comes to cooperative games because of this. The goal of the game is to win, and you have to win as a team. So debating decisions would be for the best. It just never feels like much of a debate. One player spots the optimal move and points it out. You lose agency on your own turn. I certainly want to make my own moves to some extent. But of course I also want to win. Especially in how brutally difficult most of the cooperative games I have played are. Such as Eldritch Horror or whichever Warhammer Fantasy card game. Going against the group seems foolish.

sdenton4 5y ago
Yeah, co-op games really need some hidden information (or something) to make it interesting. Another common fix is to have a traitor, but I feel that undermines the co-opness. Hanabi is really brilliant, though!