Board Game Design Laboratory: Igor, get the meeples

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Board Game Design Laboratory: Igor, get the meeples

Guildencrantz: May 1, 2012; Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

xopods posted:

As a possible lighter topic, does anyone have any mechanics they feel are underexplored? (As opposed to, say, worker placement, which seems a little overdone these days... the roll-and-move of the early 21st century?)

Voting! I find the area of decision-making in democracies fascinating, and it's one that board games could explore very well on a small scale. Take a basic multiplayer game of, say, economics, add an element of rules changes by vote, and you have a whole open-ended dynamic of decisions and interactions for the players. And there are plenty of parameters the designer can screw around with, such as secret vs non-secret ballots or veto power, that can massively change the way players make their choices. Sadly, I can't think of any current games that really use voting.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2012 17:22

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 18:14

Guildencrantz: May 1, 2012; Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

PaybackJack posted:

The problem with voting in games is that the guy winning, or in the position of the most power is the one who gets screwed. Because the game lasts a finite number of turns there is rarely a good amount of incentive to work with the winner. Thus most times voting, or diplomacy occurs it's to unkingmake someone.

That's a problem that can be circumvented, though. Hidden victory conditions come to mind.

Now I have a conspiracy theory-inspired game in my head.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2012 18:31

Guildencrantz: May 1, 2012; Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

modig posted:

Role drafting is a fairly common element now, but I want to see/try something with role giving. I especially enjoy the Citadels version where there is some deduction and guesswork involved. So instead of taking your own role, you give a role to someone else.

I tried to start by coming up with a theme rather than just writing down mechanics, because I really don't have much to go on aside from that one idea. So far I've come up with the idea of a hippie commune where everybody shares work, but all they really want to do is get high. That leads me to having some element of either doing a good job at your role, or doing a crappy job and getting high instead. But thats about as far as I've gotten so far.

A hippie commune doesn't strike me as a very competitive environment, is there a victory condition other than chilling out? Because so far I'm envisioning a meta-boardgame where you draw a few cards, then get high, forget about the game and say everybody wins. And I think we've all played that one a few times.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2012 20:01

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