http://www.rule0.com/archives/150 We don't fight. We're Euro-Vikings. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:08:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 http://www.rule0.com/archives/150#comment-1302 John Fri, 06 Oct 2006 13:25:35 +0000 http://www.rule0.com/archives/150#comment-1302 "The goal could even be revealed to the other players. However, this seems like it would add a dissatisfying element of chance to the game." After reading this I began to think of ways to mitagate the sense randomness in such a game. Perhaps if a game were designed in such a way where several goals are chosen randomly for each player at the end of the game (decided by a time or turn limit) and players score VPs for how close they came to the goals they got. Here is the catch, all the goals are synergistic, to the extent that you can not progress meaningfully towards one with out advancing several others. I use something kind of similar when teaching strategy for M:tG deck construction and the importance of various elements in the game. For example you can not win a game of magic simply by maintaining massive card advantage (at some point you have to actually kill your opponent or convince them to concede), but keeping track of card advantage during shows where the advantage that allows a player to win comes from. That is a perspective that is often lost on new players. There is a variant of magic I have tried a few times where each player picks a deck and them a goal is selected for them, like deal 10 damage in one turn, or play 30 spells, or gain a ten card advantage over an opponent. It does not work so well because magic decks can be so varied that no matter how general the goals are some decks while valid for the regular game can not achieve some goals. “The goal could even be revealed to the other players. However, this seems like it would add a dissatisfying element of chance to the game.”
After reading this I began to think of ways to mitagate the sense randomness in such a game. Perhaps if a game were designed in such a way where several goals are chosen randomly for each player at the end of the game (decided by a time or turn limit) and players score VPs for how close they came to the goals they got. Here is the catch, all the goals are synergistic, to the extent that you can not progress meaningfully towards one with out advancing several others. I use something kind of similar when teaching strategy for M:tG deck construction and the importance of various elements in the game. For example you can not win a game of magic simply by maintaining massive card advantage (at some point you have to actually kill your opponent or convince them to concede), but keeping track of card advantage during shows where the advantage that allows a player to win comes from. That is a perspective that is often lost on new players. There is a variant of magic I have tried a few times where each player picks a deck and them a goal is selected for them, like deal 10 damage in one turn, or play 30 spells, or gain a ten card advantage over an opponent. It does not work so well because magic decks can be so varied that no matter how general the goals are some decks while valid for the regular game can not achieve some goals.

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