Friday, October 16, 2009

Thou shalt...

I've had a list for a while now, that I've occaisionally talked about, but not written about, which is odd, in retrospect.

So. Here are the four games that I think should be mandatory to play, before anyone is allowed to write, design, organize, or run a game.

- a freeform RPG. No formal rules beyond "I have final say over what happens to my character"
- the social/party game Werewolf. In it's most basic structure; 10ish villagers, 2 werewolves.
- Diplomacy. I'm not responsible for any fallout among the people you play it with.
- a oldskool competative boardgame, like Risk. Caveat: play it hard-nosed, and strictly by the book, without table chatter or distraction.

So, having done all of these things, what's the point? And why these particular things? Because each of those games, or styles of play is fun, in it's own particular way. Those games are also two faced monsters that will deceive you if you haven't played them.
Because from the outside, freeform blends into werewolf blends into Diplomacy blends into Risk. But viewed from within, those styles of play are very different, and further, actively damaging to each other.

Worth saying again. Those styles of play are actively damaging to each other, and I'm absolutely certain that anyone who has played games for any length of time, has seen this, a thousand times over.

But for some incredibly baffling reason, we keep thinking that if we only design "well enough", that we can make all of those people happy.

You can't. Stop trying. Focus on one style of play, design for that style of play, and make it clear up front. Some people will, indeed, try your game, expecting it to be something it isn't, and declare that it sucks.

But the people who like what your game will like it very much indeed.

James

Labels: geekery, I think too much

3 Comments:

James said...: You know, depending on how strict you want to be on interpretation, I've only got 2 or 3 of those. I don't run/design games though.; 11:03 AM
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