As I’m sure you’ve realized, I love games. All sorts of games. Here, I generally focus on board games because they’re a nice compact way to get in gaming and introduce new people to the hobby. They don’t have the buy in requirements of trading card games, the sometimes prohibitive system requirements of computer games, or the huge time investment of RPGs. This post, though, is more genre agnostic.
I want to talk about mechanics.
Mechanics are a critical part of all games, since they’re the engine on which the game runs. Some argue that they should be nearly invisible, others like being able to tinker. Everyone has their tastes, and that’s a good thing!
The problem is, some people think they don’t matter. You can play any game with any mechanics and it’ll work out the same. That’s just not true. Especially as time goes on and more mechanics are added to the pile of things we’ve tried with games.
Go and Othello are a good example. They’re both traditional territory control games, but their mechanics make them wildly different. A good example is the fact that the extreme corner spaces in Go are very bad places to play, but the most powerful places to play in Othello.
But what about RPGs? This is where the debate appears the most. That the rules don’t matter, it’s the role playing that is most important. I used to agree with this view point. I liked so-called ‘universal’ systems. Over time, with experience in more games, I came to appreciate why the mechanics mattered. A game of fear is better if the mechanics reinforce fear. The game Dread does this by using a Jenga tower for conflict resolution. As the tower gets higher, the risk goes up. A game of heroes is better if the characters have heroic capabilities.
This is why I like game design for the sake of the design. Seeing how a designer developed the game for their goal is interesting to me, and reinforces why mechanics matter.
Have you ever played a game where the mechanics were as important as the theme or setting the tone? What did you think of it?
Great topic, Patrick.
The game that has struck me most strongly recently with respect to mechanics is The Speicherstadt. It has a bidding mechanic in the “Demand Phase” of each turn in which players take turns committing three “workers” (bidding pawns, really) among several cards that are up for auction. If only one person places a pawn next to a card, then when the “Purchase Phase” comes along, that player can buy that card for one coin. But if another player has put a worker in line next to the same card, now the first player would have to pay two coins for that card. If the first player declines, that worker drops out, and now the second bidding player can buy it for one coin. So by bidding, players can drive the price of cards up for their opponents. Since money is so tight in that game, the bidding mechanic is a real driver for prioritizing which cards to pursue. Great stuff.
That’s a really neat bidding mechanic, I’ll have to check that game out now. Thanks for stopping by, Paul.