Board games have been an entertainment and education medium for centuries. Without the distraction of high-end graphics, new user interfaces and 3D audio, board games must rely to rely on solid game mechanics, storytelling, and the players' imaginations in order to create an enjoyable, compelling, and immersive experience. The purpose of this blog is to serve as an extension to the Tabletop Game Studies Working Group, a collaborative project being undertaken by faculty and students at Georgia Institute of Technology and Michigan State University. The blog is intended to serve as a venue for discussing the game mechanics used in designer board games & other tabletop games, their relationship or possible influence on digital games, and a meta-level discussion about the intersection of non-digital games and digital games within the context of academic game studies.
Fury of Dracula is a 4 vs. 1 game. Even if only two people are playing, 1-4 people will control the vampire hunters who moves across an undirected graph connecting cities in Europe (shown below) and one player controls Dracula. Dracula moves secretly through the map, laying down traps in the cities he visits or resting (aka draining the blood from local villagers) to regain health. Hunters move through the map and can choose to draw cards that provide them buffs for fighting Dracula in combat or that affect the game in various ways (which usually means that some of Dracula’s recent cities visited are revealed or Dracula’s movement is hindered in some way). Gameplay works with Dracula taking a turn then each of the four hunters.
Fury of Dracula Map
A round of everyone taking a turn means that time passes during the day. When it is night, Dracula gets added powerful attacks to use during combat, which generally mean the Dracula player will be more aggressive when the sun is down and hide when the sun is up. Every full day that passes increases Dracula’s “vampire counter” up one and the hunter’s “resolve” goes up one (which the hunters can spend to do special actions for transportation or Dracula path reveals).
Gameplay is essentially reduced to:
- hunters getting buffs and possibly avoiding Dracula during the night
- Dracula laying traps, some of which can “mature” if they stay on the board long enough and give him additional buffs or increase his Vampire Counter, and avoiding the hunters during the day / trying to obfuscate his path and possibly attacking at night
The last time we played, Dracula (me) matured a particular trap worth 2 Vampires, bit a hunter who already starts off with a bite, given him even more points (2 bites = a ‘dead’ Hunter who has to restart the game basically), and very quickly ran off the clock to get the additional three vampire points to win the game (7 points = a victory).
Published only two years ago, Dominion is a card game that already boasts three expansions (and another coming out this summer), a number of awards (including the distinction of BoardGameGeek’s game of the year in 2009), and a huge following. Though not a CCG, the style of play is similar in that it is essentially a deck-building game in which a deck is constructed on the fly. After a few solid sessions of gameplay with a range of expertise levels, we’ve been looking at some of the usual questions:
What are the main game mechanics?
What makes this game fun and interesting?
How would this work as a computer game? (Also, how does it work as a computer game, since this is one of the game available a the online site BrettspielWelt)
Check out Brenda Braithwaite’s piece from last year. I’ve been meaning to post about this for ages now…
http://playthisthing.com/train
Train is not your standard board game. It comes on a full-sized window, not in a cardboard box. There is no company logo on the rules, because there is no publisher. You cannot buy it, because only one copy exists in the world and it is not for sale. You cannot play it, unless you see it in person. If you do see it in person, it will not be at a game store but at an art gallery. And when you do play it, you will only play it once because it was intentionally designed to have no replay value. This goes way beyond the “indie” aesthetic, beyond perhaps where many so-called “art games” have gone, to something that is such uncharted territory for games that we don’t even have a name for it yet.
I’ve been particularly interested in group decision making since undergoing research on improvisational theatre. A big facet of improv games is the disparity of knowledge. Improv scenes typically involve the actors having different models of what is going on and trying to come to an implicit agreement as to what the scene is, who has what character, etc. Some games go to the extreme and have certain actors be given privileged information that other don’t have.
Non-digital games have similar kinds of games. Mafia / Werewolf is a prime example. We are currently playing Battlestar Galactica at Georgia Tech as a foray both into multiplayer games and into a knowledge disparity board game (zero or more players MIGHT be Cylons). I’ll have more to post after we play a complete game without screwing up half of the rules
Check out Gabe’s experience with the WoW CCG and MMO character he built here. He notes that “the card game is built so well that I was actually able to construct a deck that matched my WOW character exactly.” He comments on how surprised he was that “they managed to model all the PC game spells and effects with cards.” Not being a CCG or MMO kind of guy, I really can’t comment. It seemed right in line with the thoughts we’ve shared in this group though.
We tackled a large scale game in Starcraft this past month (though not nearly as large scale as Twilight Imperium by far). Starcraft is an appealing adaptation of an enormously popular real-time strategy game on the PC. We thought this would be an interesting game to study (much like when we played Doom) since it is a tabletop adaptation of a digital game (and a popular one at that).
Published by Fantasy Flight Games (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/), Tannhauser (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/tannhauser.html) is, at its core, a tactical miniature combat game. Players take control of soldiers either from the Army of the Union or the Reich’s Obscrura Korps in a paranormal infused alternate reality in which WWI never really ended (refer to the promotional video released by Fantasy Flight games at the bottom of this post for a more robust presentation of the game’s storyworld). There are 10 characters (miniatures in the game (5 for each side), each of which have unique abilities and equipment (and who can be further customized if the players wish).
While the documentation says that the game can be played by 2-10 players, it is really optimized for 2 players. As more people play, it becomes harder to equally distribute the characters/miniatures between them. As a result, there always seems to be a slight imbalance between the players from the same side. In the grand scheme of things, however, this doesn’t really have an impact on he game’s mechanics, just its flow. In fact, a multiplayer experience (and by multiplayer, I mean more than 2 players) is responsible for an interesting game mechanic which is not present is a standard 2 player game (more on that later in the post).
At the beginning of the game, each player equips their character with abilities, equipment, and weapons. Its its at this point of the game where the vast majority of customization comes into play. Each character has a series of pre-configured “packs” of equipment (usually containing three items, abilities, or weapons). Each “pack” is designed to optimize a specific facet of the character. For instance, the Combat Pack makes the character more offensive, while the Stamina Pack makes the character more defensive.
The goals of each individual game are determined by the mode the players choose. In total, there are 4 modes: Story Mode, Deathmatch Mode, Capture the Flag Mode, and Domination Mode. Story Mode games have missions, which are specific objectives that your characters must complete. A Story Mode game ends once either player accomplishes two of his Main Objectives, or one of his Main Objectives and two of his Secondary Objectives. The player with the most Victory Points when this happens is the winner. Victory Points are accumulated by defeating opposing characters in combat as well as completing certain objectives (such as reaching a specific location on the board). Victory Points are interesting as they are both a part of the victory condition as well as a resource. In addition to determining the winner after the story mode’s stated objectives have been accomplished, Victory Points can be used through the course of the game to purchase temporary benefits. For instance, players can spend victory points in order to heal their characters, counterattack an opponent during combat, or move farther than their character would normally be able to. This mechanic creates a situation in which a player might spend their victory points in order to gain an advantage over their opponent during gameplay, but ultimately lose because their opponent has more Victory Points after the Story Mode’s objectives have been met. In this regard Tannhauser features a resource management mechanic in which Victory Points are the resource.
Combat in Tannhauser is fairly straight forward. Ranged combat, close quarters combat, and hand to hand combat are all facilitated by attack and defense values that are modified by the character’s current equipment. Each character has a limited number of what effectively amounts to hit points that are drained if an opponent is successful in their attack. As a character takes damage, all of their statistics (such as movement, attack, and defense) decrease. In this regard, Tannhauser is similar to HeroClix or HorrorClix.
One of the more interesting features of Tannhauser is an innovative new system for tracking movement and line of sight called Pathfinding. Each area on the game board is represented by a circle, and each circle possesses one or more colors which will indicate which Path (or Paths) the circle is on. Circles that share colors and are on the same Path have line of sight to one another – for the purposes of either ranged or close quarters combat.
What Makes This Game Fun?
There are two things that stand out with this game. First off, the theme/storyworld is well thought up, detailed, and quite entertaining – which leads to a interesting line of thought. Can a game’s theme/storyworld be considered part of its mechanic? At its simplest, a game mechanic is a construct of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game or gameplay. A game’s theme/storyworld constrains the gameplay, provides structure, flow, victory conditions, etc. So, in this regard, one might argue that a game’s theme/storyworld is a construct of rules. As a result, one might think of a game’s theme/storyworld as a meta-mechanic, constraining and defining the game’s more traditional mechanics.
The second thing that makes this game particularly interesting and enjoyable is an unintended consequence of playing with more than two people. As mentioned earlier, while the game can technically be played by up to 10 individuals, it is really optimized for two players. However, when you play with at least two people on both sides, an experience emerges which is distinct from that which exists with a 2 player, head-to-head game – cooperative turn based strategy. The enjoyment gained from planning strategy with your fellow player during your off-turn is quite compelling – and, given how it appears that the game was optimized for two players, probably not the intended focus of the game’s design.
A third thing that makes this game fun is the expandability. Fantasy flight never intended Tannhauser to be a standalone game. Instead, as with many other games in the market, they intend to release a series of addons and expansions. These addons range from new characters (miniatures & associated unique equipment), boxed sets (with additional characters, items, locations/boards), as well as downloadable scenarios. While the commercially available expansions are not a unique thing by any stretch of the imagination, the free downloadable content is noteworthy. A wealth of free scnerios (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/tannhauser_support.html) as well as bonus tokens (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/tannhauser_tokens.html) is very akin to downladable content for digital games.
How Would Tannhouser Work as a Digital Game (or What Aspects of Tannhauser are Important for Digital Games)
To be honest, Tannhauser has all of the hallmarks of a digital game already – character “creation,” equipping, RPG, dice rolling combat mechanic (which, if you look under the covers of most RPGs, is the standard hit/damage/combat mechanic for digital games). There are some interesting aspects of Tannhauser that bear discussion in the context of a digital game.
First off, setting/storyworld. Heavily themed boardgames often feature robust storyworlds (that may or may not extend into other properties such as books, comics, other games, etc.). My own research strongly suggests that the depth, detail, and expansiveness of a game’s storyworld has an impact on the player’s level of enjoyment. While there are digital games that feature deep storyworlds, they are arguably in the minority. As a result, digital game designers might consider a greater investment in developing a storyworld (which would easily be extended into the realm of transmedia) to be a worthwhile pursuit.
Second, as mentioned earlier, the turn-based cooperative tactical strategy nature in Tannhauser is one of the most enjoyable features of the game. This mechanic is something that, to the best of my knowledge, we don’t see that often in digital games. Yes, we get cooperative real time strategies, cooperative real time action games, cooperative real time RPGs – but we don’t see cooperative turn-based strategies.
Myself and Brian Magerko are organizing a session entitled “From the Keyboard to the Game Board: Exploring Non-Digital Tabletop Games” at the Meaningful Play conference (http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu) in the fall. As a result, we’re looking for session participants. Here is the *very* preliminary session description:
“Non-digital tabletop games have been an entertainment and education medium for millenia. Without the distraction of high-end graphics, new user interfaces and 3D audio found in modern digital games, tabletop games must rely on solid game mechanics, storytelling, and the players’ imaginations in order to create an enjoyable and compelling experience. As such, they represent a game experience that is somewhat distinct from that found in digital games, and are worthy of study and exploration. It is within this context that this session will present a variety of current work which explores the scope, character, and direction of non-digital tabletop game studies.”
We will consider any papers that have anything to do with tabletop games (boardgames, Pen & Paper RPGs, CCGs, CMGs, etc, etc, etc) – either from an education standpoint, a ludological standpoint, a design standpoint, or a commercial standpoint. We’ll consider papers that are pure research, case studies, etc, etc, etc.
So, we’ve covered digital game-to-board game adaptation briefly in our game session in the past (re: Doom the Board game and currently Starcraft) and intend to focus more so on it in the coming weeks with the Starcraft board game. Ian Bogost posted recently about a fun find in board game history: http://www.bogost.com/blog/zimmer_base_ball_and_cigars.shtml
This quick card game is for 2 to 4 players. The premise of the game is that each player is a goblin mechanic (because goblins are obviously mechanically inclined). Each player starts with the same amount of cards that are placed in a draw pile. These cards allow the player to create a Machine, basically a series of cards that cause actions which affect their own cards and the cards of other players. The purpose of these machines is to force other players to exhaust their draw pile before you. Once a player’s draw pile is depleted they lose the game. So the last player with cards in their draw pile wins.
I found it to be a fun and easy game to play, except you need to understand what cards are available in the game. I’ll go through the major rules of the game and the card types next.
