Classic Lecture Series - Retrospective

The Classic Lecture Series is about great game mechanics in older board games.  Each lecture highlights a specific mechanic/concept and talks about what makes that mechanic great.  Below is a link to each article in the series with a one sentence summary about its topic.

Articles:

Introduction - Learning to Think Ahead - Tic Tac Toe, Checkers, and Connect Four
The Introduction explains the goal of the lecture series and how simple games, like Tic Tac Toe, teach new players to strategically think ahead.

Game Etiquette - Candy Land
Game Etiquette highlights the importance of using a simple game like Candy Land to teach proper behavior to board game players.

Dxterity - Hungry Hungry Hippos, Pick Up Sticks, and Janga
Dxterity explores what are the benefits for designing a game with a dexterity mechanic.

Telling a Story - The Game of Life and Clue
Telling a Story emphasises that board games are an opportunity for the players to create a story to share with each other .

Moves That Mess With Your Opponents - Sorry
Moves That Mess With Your Opponents points out how interaction with players comes from both corporation and by hindering other players from being able to succeed.

 Secrete Information - Clue (Most Read)
Secrete Information breaks down the three central questions that must be answered in a game that uses a secrete information mechanic.

Hand Management -UNO
Hand Management explains how card games, like UNO, is really a combination of multiple mechanics.

Communicating With a Partner Through Game Play - Euchre
Communicating With a Partner Through Game Play highlights how players can interact by working together through just their actions taking place within the game.

Real Time with Simultaneous Moves - Soccer, Speed, & Boggle (2nd Most Read)
Real Time with Simultaneous Moves demonstrates how to use the mechanic to create tension and relief within a board game.

Negotiations - Risk
Negotiations lists the ways that negotiation mechanics alters a board game.

Conclusion - Diplomacy
In the Conclusion I explain how and why the topics for the Classics Lecture Series originate from the game Diplomacy.

Classics Lecture Series: Conclusion - Diplomacy

We have discovered, as I argued in the first lecture, that even as Alpha gamers, we can look back at “old standards” and discover they do not have inferior mechanics.  Instead, they contain the mechanics that we rely upon today for the great games in our board game Renaissance.

What you may not realize is that I was not teaching you about great old mechanics just so we can play one of the games from the Board Game Renaissance.  Instead, I have quietly been subverting your defenses to draw you to a game that was around when Avalon Hill was still in business.

From the get go, I have been listing all the mechanics that drive the game Diplomacy.  That’s right, I used Candy Land to trick you to play Diplomacy with me.  Without practicing good play etiquette prior to playing Diplomacy, there was no guarantee you would still talk to me after we play Diplomacy.

Diplomacy is not a bland game where we just roll a bunch of dice.  Diplomacy is a game, like Life, where we collectively tell a story about our rise and fall as great leaders. Where brilliant negotiators actively mess with other players heads before crushing their armies on the board.

Each turn is tense.  Tense because each player has secrete information.  Tense because you only have so much time to negotiate with all the other players what you are going to do.  Tense because you have a hand of units to manage, each must move at the same time, and often in precise coordination with other units outside of your control, or your plans will fail.

You must look at the board before you submit your final orders and decide if you need to keep building trust or if the time has come to mess with your opponents.  You will be eyeing the board, thinking ahead of your next move, and eyeing to see what other players are communicating to you with their own game moves. What one says and what one does can be very different, and you have to decide at that moment who you trust.

And after all of that tension.  All of that thought.  After committing to paper your irreversible decisions, you become a pawn to fate as each player reveals their orders.

Why do I want you to play Diplomacy?

I want you to play diplomacy because I want you to acquire the skill to emulate the mechanics that make Diplomacy a great game and for you to learn from it how to engage me on how I can design a great game.

Diplomacy is an example of great game design. I want to make great games; and through Diplomacy I understand that great games are based on tension, strategy, interaction, and thinking in new ways.  In Diplomacy players achieve complicated outcomes with simple mechanics.  The game comes from people playing each other, not the game playing people.    Good mechanics are used in Diplomacy to reinforce other good mechanics.

Diplomacy is not the last great game.  Nor is this discussion about Diplomacy the last word on how to make a great game.  Quite the contrary, this discussion on what makes Diplomacy great invites a longer conversation about what can still be done to create a great game.

Classics Lecture Series: Negotiations - Risk

When I used to play Risk with the neighborhood kids the strategy was pre-determined, take Australia and South Africa, or barring that, take North America as fast as I can. The real game was how well I could get the other kids to allow me to do this.

Who wins and who loses in Risk is driven by negotiations. I’ll let you have Africa, you let me have South America.  If we do not work together then Sam over there is going to take over North America while we fight each other.

I still play Risk every once and a while online without anybody talking to anybody, and though the mechanics have not changed, it’s a completely different game. Player negotiations is a game component that adds multiple dimension to a board game.

Negotiations Create Player Options

Negotiations opens up options for players as how to pursues their goal.  Without negotiations a game of Monopoly is fixed by the roll of the dice as to who gets what.  To be honest, if players do not haggle, barter, and trade, then Monopoly is just a very long game of roulette.

With negotiations players create new property combinations that alter the balance of who is favored to win the game.  Players are no longer just waiting for the right die combinations.  Players are actively engaging each other, sizing each other up, as they look to find trades that will give them a chance to win.  The options created from trade changes the game from a game of just chance, to a game of skilled negotiations with some chance.

Negotiations Counters Runaway Winners

Through negotiations players are able to keep others from running away with the win.  If we can coordinate to not destroy our chance to win in Risk by fighting each other to the death than we can also negotiate to work together to prevent another player running away with a win.

Using negotiation to coordinate player action to prevent a runaway leader even occurs in games where negotiations may be limited.  In Settlers of Catan players will not only boycott trading with the player in the lead, they will also work together to move the robber, exchange resources, build roads, and settlements to contain the player in the lead.

Negotiations Personalize the Player Experience

Negotiations necessitate personal interactions.  I have to convince you to work with me.  That means success or failure becomes dependent on player personalities.  Are you vindictive?  Are you pragmatic?   Do you have trouble trusting people?  Do you have trouble trusting me?  Are you forgiving?  These personality traits alter game negotiations and alter game experience.

If you do not trust me in Risk then you might hesitate to enter an agreement with me to attack another player because I may exploit your undefended border.  Just finding my personality abrasive can alter what I can achieve in negotiations.  Someone might not trade with me in Monopoly because they just think I am a mean and horrible person.

Different players have different personalities.  Each time you play with a group of people you are dealing with a different combination that creates a completely different game experience.  That means a game with a heavy negotiation element plays as a new variant every time you play it, just like Risk Legacy.  Even if you play the same game with the same players, they will remember what happened last time and adjust how they treat the other players.

Winning and Losing Negotiations is a Game Itself

Navigating your personality amongst other player’s personality is a game within itself.  Which player can best navigate their personality strengths and weaknesses amongst everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses?

Take the game of Pandemic.  Players are constantly negotiating with each other to form a consensus on how to fight the epidemic.  Players who do not adjust well for the negotiating strategies and personalities of their teammates will not work well together and will fail to coordinate to save the world.

Risk and The Resistance shows that winning negotiations gamers are not just about building coalitions, they are also about negotiations that successfully destroys them.  Players are battling each other to either build trust or destroy it.  If you are not part of the coalition that appears to be winning the game then you need to use your best negotiation skills to break it up.

In Risk, the player leading the game sees everyone attempting to form an alliance to counter their growing power.  A good negotiator does not sit ideally by and let a new alliance form to prevent their rise to glory.  They walk over to the player with trust problems and remind them of all the times the other players stabbed a partner in the back. Next, they quietly stroll over to the players who are known for stabbing others in the back and tries to make them an offer they just can’t refuse.

While playing The Resistance, I need to figure out what is the best tactic to convince the leader that someone else is a traitor and not me.  I weigh the success of deflecting attention from myself by attacking others, versus using such aggressive tactics backfiring and drawing attention to myself.  At the same time I have to decide if vocally professing that I am not the traitor will lead more or less people to trust me.  If a group challenges my loyalty I must work to undermine the credibility of those who label me a traitor and sew seeds of mistrust within the group itself.

Risk is not Risk Without Negotiations

Risk without negotiations is not risk, its multiplayer chess with dice.  Negotiations turn simple mechanics into an intense meta game of wits among the players.  Players are no longer just trying to solve a simple puzzle, they are actively competing with each other to achieve a diplomatic victory that will hand them the game.

Classics Lecture Series: Real Time with Simultaneous Moves - Soccer, Speed, & Boggle

Taking turns is as old as board gaming, I go, and you go, wash and repeat.  Chess - I move my pawn you move your knight.  Tic-Tac-Toe - I mark X, you mark O.  Pretty Pretty Princess - I put on my earing, you put on your necklace.

But the most popular game in the word--soccer-- is played in real time and has simultaneous moves.  But wait you cry, soccer is a sport.  Sports have rules and victory condition just like any other board game.  Sports tend to be dexterity games that happen to be played on some of the largest tabletops in existence.

Soccer, like other board games, relies on players making simultaneous moves and a clock to increase pressure on players.  Great real time games with simultaneous moves use either simultaneous moves, a timer, or both to increase pressure on players. What are the benefits of pressure on players?

Rewards Quick Thinking And Punishes Analysis Paralysis

Simultaneous moves in real time are the anti Analysis Paralysis.  In Soccer you have to make strategic decisions in real time.  Real time games with simultaneous moves rewards players who can read a situation quickly and act.  If you pause, your opponent will jump and take advantage of your hesitation.

Mental mistakes are more likely in real time simultaneous games like Soccer and Speed than a sequential move game because pausing to think gives your opponent time to react.  In Soccer, if you pause to think, you risk missing your opportunity to act, it gives your opponent the time to get back on defense or prevents your defense from reacting fast enough to counter your opponent's offense.  In Speed if you hesitate your opponent might play a card and take your spot on the discard pile.

In sequential board games a mental mistake only results from you making the wrong move.  You never lose the chance to make the move in a sequential board game.  Unlike a real time simultaneous move game, an opponent or a timer does not take away your opportunity to act.  The game sits and waits for you to make that move.

Mental mistakes are so prevalent in real time games that players even devise strategies to increase the probability their opponents will make a mistake.  Soccer players understand that their opponents are more likely to make a mistake when they are forced to play a style they are not comfortable with.  Soccer teams built on speed and athleticism are not as comfortable methodically moving the ball down the field.  Opponents that recognize this will attempt to force the speed team to be slow and methodical. Why?  Because when you are force to doing something you are not comfortable with you are more likely to hesitate and make a mistake.

Creates Moments of Tension And Relief

Soccer, like all simultaneous moves games, perfect the art of tension in game play.  A clock is ticking, a team is down by one goal and is throwing everything they have to get the equalizer.  Even their goalie has moved out of goal to help his team as it desperately fights for the tie.

The crowd is tense.  The players are tense.  And whoever wins the battle, be the team up or the team down, is going to be in a state of euphoria when all is said and done.

These moments happen in sequential games, sure.  But not at the frequency, and rarely with the intensity as a simultaneous move game.

Just the act of having to reveal a decision at the same time creates tension and relief. In The Resistance players negotiate with each other in real time and the leader selects who will make the team for the mission.  After the team members secretly submitted whether they will support or sabotage the mission, the room is tense until it becomes apparent if the mission succeeded or failed.

Putting it All Together

Look at the real time simultaneous move game Boggle.  Boggle has a sand timer.  You are on the clock racing with the other players to find words.  If you panic and just sit staring at the board you give your opponents an edge by giving them more time to put words together relative to you.

As the timer starts getting close to the end you feel tension as you try to fit in as many words as possible before time runs out.  At which point the score is reviewed and the tension of the moment is relieved in either glorious victory or humiliating defeat.

Classics Lecture Series: Communicating With a Partner Through Game Play - Euchre

Euchre is a Michigan obsession.  At lunch time in high school there were Euchre tournaments in the cafeteria.  I carried a Euchre deck with me when I worked maintenance so we could play Euchre on our federally mandated breaks.  I met my wife in D.C. because she stated in her online profile she was looking for someone to play Euchre with and she spelled Euchre correctly.  Turned out she also had ties to Michigan too.

Why focus on a regional card game popular in the Great Lakes region?  In Euchre, the best players learn to read what their partner is doing without ever exchanging a word or hand signals.  Talking about your hand is illegal during gameplay.  Just imagine playing Pandemic without telling your teammates what you are going to do till after you have done it.  No pre planning.  No verbal hints of what you are about to do and where you are going next.  Only observations of what your teammates are doing on the board to give you any insights of what they are up to.  That is the challenge to the game of Euchre.

Below is a Quick Run Down How to Play If you do not know how to play.  If you do know how to play skip to the heading Euchre Communication.

Euchre is a four player trick taking card game.  You are paired up with a partner who is on the same team as yourself.  Your partner sits across from you and the opposing team players are split with one on your left and one on your right.

In each round 20 of the 24 cards are dealt.  The four remaining cards are placed in the middle of the table and the top card is flipped up.  Starting left of the dealer each player is asked if they want the card to be trump.  If anyone says ‘pick it up’ the dealer puts the card into their hand and then discards a card from their hand.

If the card is not picked up you go around in a circle to ask if anyone would like to call trump.  If everyone passes then the cards are throw in and the next person deals.  Once trump has been set upon the person left of the dealer leads in the first hand.  Players must follow suit of the lead.  Only cards from the same suit as the lead can take a hand (known as a trick in Euchre players) unless trump is played.  The lead changes within the round based on which player played the highest card that took the last trick.

If you and your teammate take all five tricks you earn two points.  If you and your partner take three or four tricks you earn one point if you called trump and you earn two points if the other team called trump.  When you call trump and you lose you have been euchred.  If a player calls trump and announces they are going alone, they play the round without their partner.  If they take every trick that round the team earns four points.  The first team to score ten points wins the game.

Euchre Communication

Communication is key in Euchre.  Without talking to each other you want to maximize the ability of your combined hands to take as many tricks as possible.  The biggest danger is you are going to nullify your partner's good cards by miss playing your own or call the wrong suite for the style of Euchre your partner plays.

To help new players they are taught a set of conservative rules on Euchre strategy.

1. Do not over trump your partner.

2. If you are starting a round lead with your highest non-trump card.

3. Do not draw out your partner's trump if you cannot take enough tricks on your own to win the round.

4. Do not call trump unless you have 3 trump cards and at least one is either the left or right bower.

Notice I did not claim that these rules by themselves always give you your best chance to win.  That is a fallacy perpetuated by even some experience Euchre players who consider it a mortal sin to violate these rules.

There are numerous times in Euchre with experienced players where you should break these rules.

That said, violate these rules as a new player and you risk a tongue lashing from your partner.  (Euchre is a serious game to Michiganders).

Why are these rules so important to new players?  These rules are important to new players, because if you follow them your partner knows what you are doing and can adjust their strategy accordingly.  If you are not taught to play in any sort of pattern your partner has no idea what you are doing and cannot plan any strategy based on your hand contributing to the teams success.

Advance players do not need the four rules.  Advance players learn during a game how to read their partner.

Why can advance players read their partner and not beginners?  Advance players understand enough Euchre strategy to read their partners playing patterns and are much better at counting cards to produce winning combinations.

Advance players, like advance diplomacy players know that the way you play your hand communicates to your partner what is in your hand.  In Diplomacy if you move your ship to the English Channel there is a good chance you are planning an attack on either France or Great Britain.

There are different levels of advance play.  There is the intermediate level of Euchre communication based just on knowing the rules.  Intermediate level of communication does not rely on any knowledge of deep strategy.

Standard strategy dictates that when a non Trump card is led; all the other player plays before you; and everyone has followed the suite that you play a trump card to take the trick.  When you do not trump the suit you are communicating to your partner that either you have no trump in your hand or you have only one trump in your hand that is the highest trump card not yet played.  This information will let your partner reassess their hand strategy to better utilize their own trump cards.

Advance intermediates start counting cards.  They are able to hand off trump to their partner by purposefully playing an off suite they know their partner does not possess.  They also realize that when their partner calls trump and does not lead with either bower that they are missing at least one of the bowers, possibly both.

Advance, not based on player patterns, recognize certain situations, such as trying to stop someone from taking all the tricks and start reading each other’s cards in an attempt to cover as many different suites as possible to increase the likelihood they have the proper suit led to have a chance to take the last trick.

Advance players can adjust how they communicate their cards by identifying the playing style of their partner. Advance players quickly figure out in the first few hands if their partner is a conservative play or an aggressive player.  Does your partner only call trump if they have a loaded hand or are they willing to rely on their partner to pick up a trick or try to win the hand with a bunch of off suites?

Once you figure out how your partner plays Euchre then you can start better utilizing moves to communicate that are appropriate to your partner's strategy.

In Euchre, if your partner calls hearts trump, they think hearts are their best shot of getting points.  Right away you can look at your own hand and think to yourself what do I know about my hand that my partner might find useful to know.

For example, if you have the left or right bower you decide you might want to find a way to let your partner know so they can play their hand more freely.  If your partner is a conservative player and your hand has little value for taking any more tricks you might play your high trump on a low trump to let your partner know its location so they do not feel constrained to act out the rest of their hand.  If your partner is an aggressive player you will only communicate to them you have a high trump if it appears they are not going to be able to take the trick since you cannot risk losing one of their trump cards if they called it on a weak hand.

None of this change in strategy is from talking to your partner.  All of it comes from watching how your partner plays their hands and adjusting how you play your cards.  By reading your partner you are able to more efficiently communicate with just your game play.

Classics Lecture Series: Hand Management - UNO

On top of a foreboding discard pile lies a yellow 1. In my hand of five cards, three are valid and I need to choose one. So why do I play the red 1 instead of the yellow 7? And why is Uno, a family and kid friendly game being played competitively by a bunch of college kids? Because, as simple as Uno is­­ - pick cards until you can play a card, be the first to go out ­- the games complexities in hand management make it a worthy experience.

In UNO, the player who wins will do so through playing the hand they were dealt to its maximum efficiently. Playing a hand to its maximum efficiency is more complex than it seems. Hand management games combine concepts highlighted in previous Classics Game Lectures. Good hand management games keep the game simple, smooth, and exciting to play.

Lesson 1: Thinking ahead. There is a heavy element of prediction in UNO that players need to make. While everyone knows what is in the discard pile, you have to guess what your opponents have, made more difficult because each player is not set to a fixed card draw rate. When a player finished drawing for a card to play, you know what they didn't draw, but what they just picked up might change their strategy. At the same time, guessing what cards you are more likely to get informs your own play.  All of this guessing means players are using their hand in an exercise of risk management, bluffing, and seizing the initiative.

Managing risk in UNO means having a variety of colors. This guarantees you have a card to play; but you need to think ahead about the order you play these cards since that decides if you succeed or lose.

Lesson 2: Managing secrete information. Bluffing in UNO is just as important. Constantly switching away from a color makes your opponent think that you don't have the color, when in fact you are saving it for the end. Meanwhile, if you are in a run of the same color it may feel great to be quickly dumping cards, but you might be playing right into your opponents hands.

Lesson 3: Messing with your opponents.  Seizing the initiative is the only way to win. Playing only one card per turn means that through misfortune or the actions of others, it’s easy to get behind.  UNO has a series of special cards that feature a number of ways to harm your opponent you can use to regain initiative.

Skipping, reversing turn order, the dreaded draw cards, and the glorious wilds. It's tempting to use these cards as soon as possible, but used best when held in reserve for changing who is dictating game play.

Hand management games always combines these principals to make tense games with weighty decisions. So, whenever you are deciding which dig site your opponent is really going for in Lost Cities. Choosing what building to build, and which to use as currency in San Juan. Or, picking the perfect time to launch that attack in The Aries Project. They all take the predictive skills, risk taking, bluffing, and timing necessary to win.