Small Talk – the game…coming to BIGCON

Small Talk has been in the works for over 6 months now.  It is not a complex game nor a tough game to prototype.  I hope to have it prototyped by the end of next week and have it play tested somewhat before BIGCON in September.

SMALL TALK

Overview:

Small Talk is a family game for 3 to 8 players.

Small talk is meaningless conversation that in many ways is socially important.  How good are you at having those conversations that mean nothing but count for everything?  Small Talk, the game, tests your ability to chat while quickly skipping between topics without really saying anything!  How quick are you?  How creative are you?  How funny will you be?  Play Small Talk and watch people laugh as you segue between the craziest of topics.  Who is the King of Small Talk?

Contents:

200+ Topic Cards

100 Situation Cards

1 Timer

1 Player Selection Spinner

8 voting cards

Game Play: (basic)

Deal 5 Topic Cards to each player.  Each player selects one Topic Card and places it face down in front of them.  The four remaining cards are passed to the left.  Another card is selected and placed down in front of the player.  This is repeated until the players have five cards face down in front of them.  These five cards become the players discussion topics.

A start player is selected by using the selection spinner.  The start player chooses a partner for the first conversation.

The two players who will now partake in a Small Talk quickly look at the cards and when ready another player flips the timer and the Small Talk begins.

Players get one point for each Topic Card they include in the conversation and one point for each greeting and end of conversation salutation they complete before the timer runs out.

The player to the start player’s left is the next to choose a partner.  If this person has already taken part in a Small Talk then choose the next player to the left and so on…

A round is complete, when in a game with an even number of participants, all players have completed a Small Talk or in a game with an odd number of players, all but one player has participated in a Small Talk.  In a game with an odd number of players, the player who did not participate in the last round becomes the first player in the next round.  In a game with an even number of players the Start Player Spinner is used.

All cards used during the round are discarded and a new set of five is dealt to players for the selection process for the following round.

The players determine how many rounds make up the game before the first Small Talk starts.

When starting a new round players should not select the same player to complete a Small Talk for consecutive rounds.  Alternately, teams can be organized and Small Talks can be performed between team members rather than playing individually.

Scoring:

If playing as an individual you can score a maximum of 6 points per Small Talk.  Five for all Topic Cards used and one for the salutation (either the hello or the goodbye) before the timer runs out.

In a team game, the team can gain a maximum of 12 points per Small Talk.  Ten for all Topic Cards used and two for the salutations before the timer runs out.

Game Play (Advanced):

If you want to add a twist to the basic game then shuffle the Situation Cards and before a conversation begins the participating players get to look at the Situation Card before they are ready.  A suitable amount of time should be given to the players so that they may assign roles.  Then the timer is flipped.

The Situation Cards put the Small Talkers in a scene which they must act out.  Examples include – ‘In the confessional with a priest’ and ‘Meeting an ex-girl/boyfriend in the Mall’…

Scoring is the same but the voting cards are used by the other players to award bonus points for the ‘quality’ of the acting and how ‘hilarious’ the conversation was…these points are only used to break ties at the end of the game.

Email subscription and some other stuff added

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Advice from Tom Lehmann

Tom Lehmann’s greatest success, so far, is the very popular card game, Race for the Galaxy.  Race for the Galaxy is ranked 13th on BoardGameGeek!  My favourite game of Tom Lehmann’s is the expansion for the popular cooperative game Pandemic, Pandemic: On The Brink (which he co-designed with Pandemic designer Matt Leacock).  While Pandemic is ranked at #32 on the Geek, Pandemic:On The Brink has a higher rating by users (and an N/A ranking).  There is no doubt for me that when you add the expansion to the original, Pandemic ranks more highly.  It seems whatever Tom touches adds that little bit of gold.  Two games in the Top 50 is excellent!  Thanks Tom for your designs.

Tom’s advice is below.  I would like to thank him for his extended reply and wise words.  Here is Tom Lehmann’s advice to aspiring gamers:

Advice for Aspiring Game Designers
by Tom Lehmann

I’ll split my advice into two sections: first, design advice; and second, advice on how to break into the field.

A) Keep your designs simple.  I tested several games from aspiring designers last year that were loaded with different mechanisms — an auction, an action-point movement system, a rock-scissors-paper conflict mechanic, and so on.  When I asked why all these different things were in the same game, I was told, “I didn’t want to use the same idea twice.”  The resulting games felt like bloated mish-mashes and were difficult to teach.  As Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

B) Related to this is the principle that a designer (in any field) should feel “equally uncomfortable” with every aspect of the design.  Surrounding a brilliant mechanic with a clunky, boring game may get a game published, but the game won’t be played after a year or two and then another designer will take that mechanism and surround it with a better game that does better and enjoys lots of replay.  When looking at your game, examine everything and ask, “How can this be improved?”

Does the game work but overstay its welcome?  Find a way to end it earlier, so players want to play again.  Are the first few turns “scripted”?  Start the game later, with asymmetric starting positions.  Does the player who goes first have a significant advantage?  Find some way to balance start positions.  Are there obvious “no-brainer” choices?  Eliminate them.  Does the game bog down in “analysis-paralysis” near the end of the game?  Add some hidden information.  And so on.

This is why designers are always saying, “Test early, test widely, test often.”  Until you get better at spotting potential problems (and you will get better after 5+ years of designing games), you need to test a game over and over again to find all the problems.

Experienced designers will spot 90% of these problems during the early design, but will still overlook something (because they are too close to it), and then when it rears up during testing, will smack their foreheads and wonder why they missed it.  Consider and test alternatives to everything.

C) To create interesting strategic games, “Mind the Gap” and introduce “Steeples of Excellence”.

If the granularity of choices is too fine, a game becomes almost entirely tactical.  Having “gaps” — where a player has to spend more for a big advantage or just a little for an small but efficient power, but can’t buy something that is “just-right” for a medium price — means that a player has to trade-off long-term versus short-term advantages.  If you supply all three choices, then the game becomes one of tactical optimization, instead of strategic planning.  You can “dial” these “gap sizes” to make a game either more tactical or more strategic.  Which is better for your game?

Steeples of excellence, goals that pay off 10-20% more than they “should” pay, are targets that guide players down different strategic paths.  Because these “steeples” pay off better than they “should”, a player can profitably “switch” from one path to another if the opportunity arises.  This keeps a game dynamic, instead of being one where players pick a strategic “path” early on and then are stuck with it (when the switching cost is too high relative to the reward for switching).

Advice on breaking into the field:

A) You have to get the game out there.  Test it beyond your local gaming group by taking it to conventions.  Get lots of feedback and make adjustments.  Polish your rules.  If the game can’t be easily played once you do submit it to a publisher, it won’t get played.

B) Some publishers attend conventions and are willing to play new games after the dealer’s room closes.  Ask politely if they’re willing to play your game.  If not, send inquiry letters for publisher’s submission guidelines (do not send your game unsolicited).  If they do send you submission guidelines, follow them!  Newer, smaller publishers may be more open to outside designs.  Some events allow designers to present prototypes to publishers, perhaps by competing against other games in design competitions.  Sign up for them.

C) If you decide to self-publish your game, keep the first print run as small as you possibly can (300 copies or less).  Use 100 copies as review copies, sent free to interested reviewers and publishers (publishers can look at already published games, as opposed to unsolicited unpublished games).  Sell the other 100-200 copies individually to game enthusiasts who will play it and help your game build positive word of mouth.

The worldwide market for semi-professionally produced games that play really well is around 200-500 copies these days.  If the game is good, some publisher will likely want to publish it.  If not, you will still learn all the things you need to improve for your second edition, should you decide to keep plugging away as a small press publisher.  Once you have established a name and some buzz around your game, then you can use sites such as Kickstarter to get money for a polished second edition that can, hopefully, reach those customers who won’t buy semi-pro quality games.

In any event, the self-publishing route is very, very hard.  Don’t undertake it lightly.  Usually, you are better off making 10 high-quality prototypes, improving your rules, and showing your game at conventions and gradually making connections among existing publishers, until you find one or more who are willing to evaluate it for you.

Good Luck!

A discussion with Reiner Knizia

Mention Reiner Knizia’s name to a fellow gamer and you will usually get one of two responses.  First, that he is an amazing game designer – this is the camp that I fall into.  Second, that his games are too mathy, abstract and have no theme.  No matter which side of the Knizia fence you stand, there is no doubt that he is a prolific game designer, has has a huge impact on the gaming industry and on people’s exposure to and enjoyment of board games.

My current favourite cooperative game, Lord of the Rings, was designed by Reiner Knizia and other games I own and have played by Reiner Knizia include: Abandon Ship, Attention Pirates, Battle Line, Blue Moon, Dead Man’s Treasure, Hollywood Blockbuster, En Garde, Excape, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Lost Cities, Modern Art, Penguin, Pickomino, Priests of Ra, Razzia, Queen of the Cupcakes, Scary Tales: Little Red vs Pinnochio, Taj Mahal, Tigris and Euphrates, Too Many Cooks, Tor and probably a few others I have forgotten about!  These are more games than by any other designer.  Gamers are going to ask where are some of his other games like Through the Desert and Keltis?  And I can only answer that I will play them sometime soon.

As with other established game designers, I sent Reiner an email asking for three pieces of advice for aspiring game designers and received a prompt reply asking if I would like to talk over the phone with him.  Wow – the ‘great’ Reiner Knizia wants to talk to me?  Of course we are both just regular guys but when someone you admire and hold in esteem wishes to converse with you it is a great honour.  It didn’t take me long to reply with a YES and a date was fixed for our conversation.  This morning at 7:00am PST.  I awoke had my obigatory cup of tea and phoned Reiner.  Here is our conversation (I have tried not to edit the conversation as I want the natural flow to be evident.  I have added some explanations/clarifications in parentheses and also removed or added a word when needed to make the text easier to read.  It is hard to transcribe a conversation as a lot of repetition and pausing and ummm and ahhs occur.  I am sure you will be able to follow our conversation and hopefully you will find it as interesting and informative as I have.)

THE CONVERSATION:

(After introductions)

The direction I am coming from is that of an aspiring game designer, like thousands of other people in the world.  I have a blog and am interested in your early days and what your obstacles were, so my questions will be related around that if you don’t mind.

That’s perfectly fine.  There are millions of people who have these questions.

So, to start with, why game designing?  What attracted you to game designing?

Everyone becomes a game designer because they enjoy playing games.  You come a bit more ambitious and start making variants of games and then more ambitious and you start designing your own games and once you have done this for a while you become even more ambitious and try to sell them and place them and publish them.  And if you are not so ambitious but very brave you start your own publishing, which I do not recommend.

So, what were the first games you remember playing that excited you about game designing?

I have actually game designed for almost as long as I could think.  I have game designs from when I was 10 years old that have never been published and should never be published but it was a subject that has always interested me and has always been with me.

Do you remember one of those first game designs?

Oh yes, initially it was always about knights and armies and castles and fortresses and rivers and bridges and you had to play very willingly so that the game worked.  You couldn’t just sit in your own castle and not do anything.  But if you played willingly it was an interesting game, at least for us boys there.

So that was a game you just played amongst your friends?

Yes, absolutely.  Initially for many, many years I just played for fun.  I never had any intention to publish.  It was just, I like it let’s try this out – I like designing stuff and that was it.

What was the spark that decided that you would try and publish a game?

It was only in my 20s when I…when I started working for a large German bank, who I worked with for quite a while.  And when I was in the credit department for a while then I saw those people who go there and say, “if you gave me the money then I would do this and I would make a nice business plan and so and so on” and these people never got the money.  And there is the other type of people that said, “here is the business plan and I know exactly what to do and you just need to give me the money and then I can get going” and they assumed that they would get the money and they did get the money.  So, what I learned from this was that if you want to be successful you have to be serious you need to essentially assume that you will be successful and put everything in place and not hesitate and not try to do one step and see how it goes…half-heartedly…and then try another step half-heartedly and maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t work.  I think I learned very clearly from that point that if I want to make something work then I decide I will make it work and whatever comes up I’ll make it work.  At that time I said okay now I know what I need to do.  I need to add more aspects than just playing some nice games and maybe writing up the rules for myself.    I knew that it takes much more to have a presentable prototype.  It takes much more to talk to the publisher to understand them and the whole world of publishing.  So, I decided to do that and really go for it and it wasn’t a bad decision I think.

What do you think the ratio was from ideas to successes at that point?

That’s very difficult to say.  I am not even sure if this is answerable in this way because the question is when do you call an idea a game?  It was a challenge at that time as it is a challenge today because I have no problem when we work on for half an hour on a game and decide not to pursue it any further.  This happens on a daily basis, so to speak, but I would not call these unsuccessful games.  I would just call these the process of creativity.  I think, where thing become more serious is when we spend a lot of time, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200 hours on a game – then it is a game – play test it – and then we come to the conclusion that it is not working.  Again, I would then say that this is still the design process and some of the designs work and some of the designs don’t work.  And if you don’t catch it early and it doesn’t work then you suffer for all the wasted time.  I think when you really ask what games are successful or not then I count them when they take my own hurdle [meet his expectations] – I now have a finished game. I think it is perfect. I think this is publishable. I now want to publish it.  My success rate is from this point of time because everything else is design process.  The marketing process, the selling process starts from when I have a product.  I have actually got only a handful of games which I think have become a game and which were not published.  You see how big the answer is?  From thousands of ideas I have until I have a few games to almost all of them [being published].

I understand and realize that my last question was a broad question and you actually answered my next question within that answer.  So, moving on, what were the biggest obstacles for you when you decided to become a game designer?

Well, firstly, I assume when you become a game designer…I am talking in more general terms because I think my obstacles are no different from anyone else’s obstacles…I assume when you become a game designer or when you start designing games then you have the love and drive for the games and you want to do it and I also assume you have a certain degree of ability and experience to do it…so this is the prerequisite or you are not a game designer.  If you have all these internal components – with gathering experience over the years – then the main obstacle is really to find a publisher: to find a good publisher.  I think a lot or people make the mistake and this is actually my biggest advice…a lot of people make the mistake that they try to go to bigger, well known publishers and they [the big publishers] receive an enormous stream of offers that they don’t take all seriously.  The big publishers are looking for specific things and sometimes you can’t even talk to them directly – you need to go through an agency.  I think that does not work.  I have more by accident taken what I think is the right route.  I talk to some small publishers and the small publishers, they are open and I had some designs that they wanted.  And through the small publishing I learned much more.  First of all you have a much closer access to small publishers, you learn much more from them and the small publishers take the game much more to their heart because they cannot afford to have a flop.  So, they will…once they have decided to go for it…will really accompany the game and because you are so close to them you can learn a lot.  I still believe that is the right strategy.  I have taken that strategy – more accidently when I started to publish my games – and I have very deliberately taken that strategy again when I moved into the smart phone market where I work with lots of small publishers and still look for lots of small publishers because it just gives me a certain access to the different market and lets me learn things.  Then I know how the market works and I can think again.

That is very interesting.  There are a lot of small publishers out there that I believe are underappreciated.  So, you have designed hundreds of games. From my perspective being a designer – that has never had anything published – when I think about game ideas it often comes from a theme that I enjoy or I think up a mechanic and wonder how that mechanic can fit.  How do you keep that motivation…where do you get ideas for new games?  Is it a new mechanic you think of or is it more of a theme or something you notice?

Initially when I started it was always a fascinating theme that brought me into a game design.  It’s kind of funny because people call my games more the abstract side but not the richly thematic.  I think what comes together here is that my starting point of the theme and me being a scientist and trying to make the rules very simple and to bring everything down to a few general rules and principles…as a scientist to reduce information and to reduce redundancy.  I am not a big storyteller in this way.  I am not inventing big worlds or inventing thousands of detailed rules which I believe make the game less accessible but which of course is then perceived to be very rich.  These people that do that are so to speak the people who create redundancy and I am more a reducer of redundancy.  So, originally it was always inspiration from the theme but over the years, now that I am doing this full time and professionally and design a lot of games, I have learned that a scientific approach to game design is actually, ultimately not working.  I strongly believe that game design is an art not a science and the ambition is always to create something new and I think if you have a scientific method and have a methodology on how to do it you always start in the same corner, you always take the same steps, and you move along- trundle along – the same path, and why should you be surprised when you always come out at the same end.  So, my conclusion from this…I always try to start with a new entry point and that can come from a new character during a book or from a new film or it can come from a new game mechanic which I see…or very well, it can come from new production possibilities or new technologies which are now available or affordable for games… (unclear what was said here) …like mobile phones.  So I try to take these new inspirations and these new things because they challenge me to think new, to take new approaches and that for me is the safest way.  Not the guaranteed way but the safest way to come up with a design which that is very new and publishable.  But this approach may be different for a designer who only designs one or two games a year because he may have a methodology.

If you don’t mind I have another question for you.  This one – and I am sure you have included the answer in your responses – I have been asking of other game designers and was in my original message to you.  What three pieces of wisdom or advice would you pass on to aspiring game designers like myself?

I have already given you one of my biggest recommendations.  I give you two more biggest recommendations because biggest doesn’t mean there can be several ones.  I think the first recommendation is to follow your heart.  Don’t do it for the money and don’t expect to earn money with it.  If you look at the money you will see it as work and it will never work.  Number two, you will only be successful as a game designer if you have good product.  A good product is not a product which you like to play with your grandmother under the Christmas tree and it is always brilliant.  A good product is a robust product that is liked by a target group and which has many criteria to satisfy…from a game play point of view, from a material point of view, from a production point of view; from a marketing point of view, and the work from just designing game play is not the product.  So, a game designer lives and dies with having good product.  If you have good product then the next thing [that you need to know is] how do you access it [the market place].  That is my third biggest recommendation which I already said.  Then the questions is, how do I place the product and I believe if you think long term then go with small publishers and then learn and build the momentum.  Don’t shoot for the big lottery.  It may happen but it’s very unlikely.

Thank you.  I appreciate your time.

Well, I appreciate your interest in contacting us and I hope you got some interesting answers and that you have fun using the material and that you are successful with whatever you want to do with it.

Good luck in your future endeavours and I am looking forward to getting my hands on Star Trek: Expeditions some time soon.

Oh yes!  Interesting and I hope you will enjoy the game.

Thank you and if you could thank Karen too for me, have a great day.

Good to talk to you and good luck.

Advice from Wolfgang Kramer

The chances are if you have been gaming and don’t know who Wolfgang Kramer is then you probably will still have played one of his games without realizing it.  Wolfgang has designed 100s of games and has been nominated and won the Spiel des Jahres.  The Spiel des Jahres is probably the highest award for a board game in the world.  Wolfgang Kramer has won it five times since 1984!

Gamers will recognize games such as Princes of Florence, Tikal and Torres while those who play games now and again with friends and family might recognize titles such as Daytona 500 (my favourite racing game), Around the World in 80 Days, Category 5, Midnight Party, Slide 5 or Take 5.  Wolfgang Kramer has provided much enjoyment around the world!

Here is his reply to my request for advice to aspiring gamers:

Hi Clive, 

my three advices are:

1. Test and test and test! Test your game so often you can. Each test could bring you new knowledges and new ideas.
     Test your game with many persons. New rules test with same persons which know the old rules. 
      Watch the players during the tests, give no advice, write down all what the players say. Document each test.
       Notice: Only critics help you to a better game.

2. When you think your game is very good and ready, then improve it! 
     Don’t stop developing when your game testers say it is ready.  
     Notice: If you have a  new, original game mechanism make the best out of it.
      If you don’t do it, other game designers will do it.

3. Rules: The less and simpler the better! Take away so many rules you can till you have only your basic mechanism of your game.
    This basic mechanism should be very interesting. Now add the best rule and test the game. Is the game much better, take this rule.
    Now add the next rule and test. In this way add rules till the game will not be much better. All the other rules you don’t need. 

Much greetings and much success to all new game designer.

Wolfgang Kramer

My 2010 Game Awards

I know we are over half way through 2010 but in gaming terms we are still awaiting all the 2011 releases and many of the 2010 games I had not played until earlier this year.  So, here are my Game Awards for games released in 2010 that I have played.

MY TOP BOARD GAME OF 2010:

Position your ships (dice) on various locations to gain points and area control over the planet your are orbiting.  Dice don’t get much more fun than this!

 

 

 

Honourable Mentions for Board Game of the Year:

         

 

 

 

 

 

MY TOP CARD GAME OF 2010:

A hand management game that is simple to play but complex to master.  A great 2 or 3 player game.  Thank you Mr. Ross!

 

 

 

 

Honourable Mentions:

Advice from Michael Schacht

I was excited to get a message back from Michael Schacht – yes, you guessed it!  Another one of my favourite designers.  BUT, in this case, not only mine but also my wife Pam’s!  Michael has designed two card games that my wife loves and if you visit us she will badger you into playing.  These games are In Limbo (also known as Diabolo) and Coloretto.  Coloretto also boast one of my favourite card/resource drafting mechanisms which Michael has incorporated into the great gateway game Zooloretto (a nice light Euro about building your own zoo) and the similar Aquaretto (building an aquarium but with a few more twists added).  Zooloretto is another favourite of Pam’s.

If you want light to medium weight Euros that are easy to play but at the same time make you think then Mr. Schacht is your man.  I own Valdora and cannot wait to get my hands on, or at least play, the two other games in his Gold-Trilogy: The Golden City and Felinia.  Also worth trying are California, Fist of Dragonstones (co-designed with Bruno Faidutti) and Mondo.

Without further ado, here is Michael Schacht’s advice for aspiring game designers (I like his sign off – wish I had though of it):

Clive,

Thanks for the interest.

If you have further questions maybe in some weeks it would be easier for me as i’m in the middle of preparing two fairs.

Here’s what i can offer at the moment:

– Don’t trust your friends, they will like your prototypes anyway. Test with new neutral test groups.

Publishers hate to hear: “my friends do like it very much”, then they know it is not tested in realistic situations.

– Don’t take part in all the test games. And if you don’t take part don’t give advice during the test game, just answer rule questions. Otherwise you may influence the way of playing and get adulterated results.

– Put your finished design away for some time and the play again. If you still think it is finished you can offer it to publishers.

nice dice

Michael Schacht

Thrifting

I think it annoys my wife when we are traveling and I make us stop at every thrift store we see.  Certainly, to her the time spent in the stores and the amount of games found do not equate.  And I tend to agree.  Though it might surprise you when I tell you what brings me back.  I have found 4 copies of Settlers of Catan, 4 copies of Blokus, a copy of Zooloretto and 2 copies of Vegas Showdown.  BUT it is not these larger finds that bring me back (though I am more than happy to find them).  It is the small, unknown games that I enjoy.  I have found In Limbo designed by Michael Schacht, Dead Man’s Treasure by Reiner Knizia and Auf Achese: Das Kartenspiel by Wolfgang Kramer.  These are games that I might otherwise not know about – these are the hidden treasures – these are the finds that keep bringing me back.

Advice from Bruno Faidutti

I would like to make a couple of things clear before I introduce the next game designer who has offered advice for me and other aspiring game designers.  I admire many game designers and I have many favourites.  I do not believe in praising someone just to get their attention.  I will he honest about how I feel about the game designers and their games.  I am not looking to win ‘brownie points’ in the game design world. It may seem that the responses I am getting are from designers that I think are remarkable…well, they are!  The first round of requests sent out were to designers that I have an affinity for having played many of their games – it makes sense to me.

With that said, I am excited to receive advice from another great designer who I admire immensely.

Bruno Faidutti has designed (and co-designed) many games. I have five in my collection:

• Citadels
• Mission Red Planet
• Mystery of the Abbey
• Incan Gold
• Queen’s Necklace

If you have not played a Faidutti game then I suggest you get your hands on either Citadels (scales well from 2 on up) and Incan Gold (a great push your luck game).  If you want something with more ‘weight’ then the mix of role selection and area control in Mission Red Planet should fulfill your needs.  Mystery of the Abbey is a deduction game in the Clue mold but SO MUCH BETTER!!  And the Queen’s Necklace is a great bidding game.

Bruno’s advice is the following:

Dear Clive,

I’m sorry for the short answer, but I’m a little overbooked at the moment.

Anyway, my three advices are :

1) Don’t be paranoid. Don’t hide or try to protect your creation, don’t even think of it. Play your game with everyone, show it everywhere, that’s the best way to get some publishers interested in it.

2) Don’t hope to make a living out of it. May be you will, but the odds are very, very low. Actually, so far, I don’t. But the odds are good that you will make some money from it, if you follow my third advice.

3) Don’t try to self publish. It will cost you some money – much less now that a few years before, thanks to the internet, but some money anyway – and lots of time that would be better spent thinking of other game designs.

Another mechanic…another idea

Reading about Risk: Legacy got me thinking.  Risk: Legacy is a new version of Risk that pushes the boundary of game playing beyond the single game.  The decisions you make in today’s game may influence what happens in future games.  While this could be seen as just adding an element of role playing into the board game, the decisions you make in Risk: Legacy permanently alter game cards etc…  Therefore, when playing in a future game the decision you made in an earlier game may come back to haunt you if that card is played again.  A very interesting idea that got me thinking about how this could be used in a single game.

Of course, any decision you make in a single game can come back to haunt you but I am thinking about how a decision influences the game in a different way.  In the video game Black/White you can take the role of a good or evil deity that influences the people of the land by good or evil.  The decisions you make create different reactions.  What if decisions made in a board game linger?  Maybe I am being unclear.

Think of a basic map of regions in which the goal of the game is to amass riches and have the most influence (area control) but you can control areas by making decisions that oppress the people or allow them to live freely.  Each will give you control but depending on the actions you take you leave some kind of permanent influence in the area even if you still do not ‘own’ the area.  These permanent influences can hinder or help another player if they move into the area and can either hurt or hinder you if you move back into the area.  Oppress and the area is likely more favourable to some other player and may cause a resistance to further influence by you no matter how beneficial your actions may be to the area.

The key being the mechanic of leaving permanent or non-permanent influence behind in an area that affects you if and when you have to return.

NOW THAT WAS CONFUSING – if anyone can make more sense of the above than me then I would love to hear your thoughts.