Congress of Gamers Preview 2014: Austin Smokowicz

There is an unwritten rule (until now since I am writing it down in this post) that I do not do a game preview unless I have seen/played the game myself.  Excitingly for me, all the games that I know of that will be at the UNPUB ProtoZone at Congress of Gamers 2014, September  27th & 28th will be new to me.  Sadly that means I have no one to interview to get us all pumped for two days of board game playtesting heaven...or so I thought until I realized there was one game that will be in the UNPUB protozone that I have personally playtested in the past, my own.  So today one half of Dr. Wictz (Aaron) will interview the other half (Austin) about the games Austin is bringing to Congress of Gamers.  

Dr. Wictz:  Well Austin, I have known you since my freshman year of high school and I have seen many of your game designs over the years, including U.N. the Card Game. What new exciting game are you presenting at Congress of Gamers?

Austin Smokowicz: For this years Congress of Gamers I’m bringing the first in the ‘New Jersey’ line of games called Hoboken.  Players play as real estate developers building luxury hotels in the city of Hoboken, catering to the tourists coming to New York City.  Unfortunately the construction costs are too high for any individual player, so they must partner with each other to raise enough capital to complete construction, and negotiate over the ownership and profits of the new building.

Dr. Wictz: Where did you first show the game to Dr. Wictz? (I had to ask, apparently my questions are part of some sort of standardized form).

Austin Smokowicz: Huh? Where did I first show it to me? Well, I first playtested with some friends over the summer, but Congress of Games will be the first open-to-the-public testing of Hoboken.

Dr. Wictz: How has the Hoboken changed since you started playtesting it?

Austin Smokowicz: There were two major changes after that first playtest, one mechanical, and one componital. For the components, every round tourists are drawn from a deck as they enter the city and try to find a place to sleep. Because this deck is supposed to be random every round, I spent the entire playtest shuffling the cards! I decided no one should be stuck with that burden, and so changed it to chit pull, one simple shake of the bag, and you're good to go. On the mechanical end I had it so that once all of the hotels were available to be built, players drew from a hurricane deck that would end the game. But, I found that by then the game had already been won, and the extra deck drug the game out with little change in players positions.

Dr. Wictz: What inspired the current game theme, I mean New Jersey of all places, was New York City taken already? 

Austin Smokowicz: Well, NYC does have rent control…Honestly it was a mistake of geography on my part, I really thought it was by the beach, and thus the hurricane talk, and when I visited a few years ago I really, really, liked the street clocks.

Dr. Wictz: So you picked the name because you have trouble with geography, even after visiting the place, what next, a cattle ranch in central jersey?  

Austin Smokowicz: Well yes, but we’re here to talk about Hoboken.

Dr. Wictz: If you could see my face you would see a look of puzzlement.  So before you send our readers into a freezie by claiming all of Dr. Wictz games are set in New Jersey I am going to ask you a new question.  How did you get into designing board games?

Austin Smokowicz: I started back in middle school. In my first attempt at making a board game I tried to recreate the computer game Wolfenstein 3D using grid paper. And shortly thereafter I attempted to re-purpose my Stratego set to run football plays. If only I knew Space Hulk and Bloodbowl existed!  

Dr. Wictz: Why do you love making games, other than to profuse your love for New Jersey? (I always thought you would have some sort of grudge against Jersey, aren't you originally from New York state?) 

Austin Smokowicz:  Let’s go Buffalo, but I moved away many years ago. as for my games, nothing was intended to be in Jersey, just like everything else in Jersey, they ended up there. 

For myself, when it comes to the choice between being a consumer of content, or a creator, I’ve always chosen to be the creator. After a while it has become second nature to look at the world and ask ‘what can I make with this?’

Dr. Wictz: This will be your 3rd, 4th Congress of Gamers.  So at this point you must have some favorite past moment from previous Congress of Gamers?

Austin Smokowicz: My favorite past moment of Congress of Gamers came during the first time I attended. I spent the entire day in a room featuring unpublished games for a contest. And had a blast playtesting and discussing the games with their creators. It was only years later I learned that that event was the impetus for the Unpub network.

Dr. Wictz: What draws you to Congress of Gamers?

Austin Smokowicz: I enjoy the people who attend, the location is great, you can’t beat the price point for entry, and I get to play a lot of great published and unpublished games.

Dr. Wictz: Any shout outs to your most dedicated game testers (cough  cough, wife, design partner, etc.)?

Austin Smokowicz: I would like to thank my supportive wife Rebecca, and her good friend Zhanna, who while having never played any of my games likes to be recognized for these sorts of things. 

Dr. Wictz: Is that all? (cough, cough)

Austin Smokowicz: Oh, umm, yes, I forgot to mention my good friend and design partner Aaron Honsowetz. Without whom I would still be sweeping the streets of Trenton…. I mean...

Dr. Wictz: Anyway, If someone wishes to follow you and your game designs where can they go to learn more? (I know, I know, we are in essence interviewing ourselves, but its on the form so I have to ask it).

Austin Smokowicz: If you want to follow me (and Aaron), congratulations, you have. You can check out our profile, twitter, and facebook page through the links on the right side of this web

page.

A Dr. Wictz List: 10 Ways to Procrastinate within a Board Game

After having a hard time getting this weeks post down on paper I decided in a moment of panic to think of all the different ways I could procrastinate writing this post within a board game.

1. Engage in no trades in the game of Monopoly.


2. Only conquer one territory a turn in Risk.


3. After castling in Chess only move your king back and forth for rest of the game.


4. Hoard resources in Settlers of Catan by never turning in any cards to get anything.


5. Never move your back line in checkers.


6. Order all units to support in Diplomacy.


7. Every move of Clue goes between the Kitchen and the Study.


8. Shoot no one in Bang!


9. Do not complete any objectives in Firefly.


10. Play Twilight Imperium.

Prototype Question: Should I include money with my board game prototype?

On twitter I posed the following question:

When sending a board game prototype that uses money to a publisher do I include the money or will they want to use their own play money?
— Dr. Wictz (@drwictz) August 7, 2014

I was curious because I am preparing to make prototype versions of Post Position to send to publishers. 

Why might I think that publishers would not want me to include play money with the game?  Well, I naively thought some publishers prefer to use poker chips over paper money and they would pull out their own poker chips to play the game.

Quickly, other game designers corrected me of this fallacy.

@drwictz Include everything, when possible. Less effort on their end. They can swap out what they want.
— Gil Hova (@gilhova) August 8, 2014

@drwictz include everything. Don't make them search for components.
— Michael R. Keller (@vhgames) August 8, 2014

They make a good point.  These folks are being inundated with submissions from other aspiring board game designers.  Time spent trying to setup my game with their own poker chips is time lost playtesting other games.  Even worse, missing an important game component starts the playtesting off on the wrong foot, reducing the chances of my game being picked up.

And if there was any question to doubt other game designers, Crash Games, Dice Hate Me, Stronghold Games, and Tasty Minstrel Games confirmed that they want play money included with the prototype.

To be honest, Tasty Minstrel liked The Cardboard Jungle's idea even more.

@dicehateme @Crash_Games @drwictz @StrongholdGames @jameystegmaier @TastyMinstrel send some actually money too... ;)
— The Cardboard Jungle (@CBJPodcast) August 8, 2014

Tasty Minstrel never said which currency I had to use, so I am going to see if I can get my hands on Zimbabwe dollars.  The currency is so worthless that Zimbabwe officially abandoned it, meaning it should fit nicely into my prototype budget.

Market Mechanic Lecture: Auctions

Unlike the other market mechanisms mentioned thus far, an auction is one of the market mechanics that board game designers properly label. But, just because game designers can properly label an auction mechanic does not mean their game needs or is better because it induces an auction.  To understand the benefits and limits of an auction mechanics in board games I will look at how auctions are used in the economy and some of the reasons auctions in board games can differ from auctions in the economy.

Auctions in the Economy

A big question in the back of my mind is why does anyone use an auction in the first place for anything?  Auctions are just one of the many ways people can negotiate with each over on the price for a good or service.  Why would I sell something by auction versus negotiating one-on-one with people?

1. Auctions Gets Goods to Highest Value User

Say I am trying to sell my My Little Pony Collection.  Without the auction I have to take time to talk to people one-on-one to solicit their bid for an item.  Talking to people individually raises the risk that I might not talk to the person who values the items the most.  I might talk to my brony neighbor, the brony down the street, but I might miss the local gas station owner who has an entire room of his house dedicated to My Little Ponies.  

Auctions that are well advertised solves this problem by making it possible for fans of My Little Ponies to find me instead of me finding them.  If someone highly values My Little Ponies, then they will be on the lookout for events, like an auction, where they can acquire more.  I no longer have to search for the people who most highly value My Little Ponies, they will reveal themselves by attending my auction.

I could advertise about selling my My Little Pony collection on a particular day and still negotiate with people one on one.  Although, I still risk not talking to the correct person who really values a particular My Little Pony the most.  Even though everyone attending my sale highly values My Little Ponies, I am not omniscient and know the particular person who values a particular pony the most. When I hold an actual auction, the person who values one of My Little Poney more than anyone else reveals themselves by outbidding the other My Little Pony fans.

2. Auctions Save Time

Theoretically, if I there is time to talk to everyone who is interested in buying a My Little Pony, I can get a similar outcome as an auction.  What I do is go to each individual and repeatedly negotiate with them to buy a My Little Pony and then sell it to the person who offers the highest price.

The problem with negotiating with everybody is my time is scarce.  I can only allocate so much time to talk to people about how much they are willing to spend to buy one of My Little Ponies.  Auctions allow me to ask everyone at once how much they value an item, so I no longer have to waste a bunch of time talking to people individually.

So those are some of the benefits of auctions, what are the drawbacks to auctions?

1. Auctions are costly to organize

To organize an auction you have to take time to publicize it; organize a venue; and find people who value the items being auctioned enough that they are willing to attend despite knowing they might not successfully bid on an item.  That means to justify holding an auction, the goods and services being sold have to be valuable enough to cover the upfront costs of hosting the event. 

2. Auctions are susceptible to the Winner’s Curse

In my post explaining The Winner’s Curse I show that if you believe in rational expectations and the item being bid upon has a known true value, then the average bid should be the actual value of the item.  But the winner of an auction is the person who makes the bid that is the highest bid above the average.  So the winner of an auction ends up paying more money for the item than what the item is worth.

The good news is that research shows that people who repeatedly engage in auctions over the same type of good escape the negative aspects of the Winner’s Curse by adjusting their bids downward.  The bad news is that this means in a board game setting, auctions will always favor experienced players of a game over new players.

Auctions in Board Games

These benefits and constraints translate into board games, but designers need to be aware of the additional constraints placed on auctions in board games space.

1. Credit Constraints

In the real world, if someone is the most valued user of an item, they can write a business plan and borrow money from a bank or investors to buy the item.  Credit/loan mechanics in board games tend to have arbitrary constraints.  I will save the details why for the next market lecture, what matters now is the realization that an auction may result in the person who values the item the most not getting it because they are liquidity constrained.

2. Board Games are usually Zero Sum Games

That means when there is board game with an auction, the designer needs to project how the price for the item alters game balance.  In particular, what happens to the resource used to buy the item.  How does that change in resource shift game balance.  And, due to credit constraints, is the auction constructed to accelerate the player in first to run away with the game, or does it extract enough resources to minimize any gain made by winning the auction.

3. Lazy Game Designers

There is merit to the adage that designers use auctions so they do not have to figure out the value of items within the game itself.  There is nothing wrong with letting players use prices and auctions to allow them to reveal value of items conditional that values of an item fluctuate due to credit constraints or different strategies/game conditions that alters the value of items from game to game or at different times within a game itself.

But if the true value of an item never fluctuates in a game, an auction in a board game just rewards seasoned players over inexperienced players.  Plus, it takes time away from the game going through the auction process.  The designer might as well set a fix price and supply for an item to save time and create a more even playing field for new players.

Faculty Lounge: Adrienne and Jim Jones of Great Big Table

Here in the faculty lounge I get together and talk to other board game interested podcasters and bloggers to learn a little bit more about what they do.

I first learned about the Great Big Table podcast from the Party Gamecast Podcast.  The Party Gamecast heard about Jim and Adrienne’s love for the game Therapy and decided to do a review of it and then have the Great Big Table podcast do a Mystery Science Theatre commentary.

Dr. Wictz So I have to ask, is therapy your favorite board game?

Jim: Therapy. Yep, you know us too well.

Dr. Wictz: Before I get too far, give everyone a quick run down about Great Big Table in case folks are not familiar with your podcast?

Adrienne: More meeples for more peoples! Great Big Table is all about finding people, games, and opportunities to play board games. From building a game group to building a collection, we love to discuss the how-to of playing more games with more people.

We game in a variety of situations: at home with our kids, with other adult gamers, with people who play very casually, and at a regular community game night we host, so the podcast reflects that variety by covering everything from Cthulhu-infested nightmare realms to teddy bears racing boats.

Jim: Adrienne covered it pretty thoroughly. Great Big Table covers board gaming from the standpoint of introducing more new people to the hobby as well as getting those that have already discovered the hobby (new and old timers) to take up the mantle of evangelizing board gaming to their communities.

As far as content goes, it’s just a late night conversation between Adrienne and I about a general topic after our three kids have been put to bed. We’ll talk about games that we’ve played in various settings recently. We cover thrift store finds, as it’s a great way to build up game libraries, and then we usually cover a main topic about some aspect of the hobby each episode. But, we’re not afraid to change it up if something strikes us as being fun to try, which is how the cross-over Therapy episode with the Party Game Cast came about.

Dr. Wictz: Does being married make it easier to get together to do podcasts? From my vantage point, as a listener, it sounds like recording an episode is one of your options for "date night."

Adrienne: That's what we thought when we launched the podcast, but it might be harder at times because we have to have relative quiet for a couple hours. Even now, we're editing out late night phone calls and "I need to use the potty" cameos by our kids who should be sleeping soundly. I suspect it would be easier if one of us could go to a quieter place and record, but it would be a lot less fun.

Jim: In some ways it is easier, because we can just talk to each other and that seems to be compelling, at least from the feedback that we've received. Maybe that's why you get a "date night" vibe. We like to talk to each other and hang out,  so that's not a problem. Like anything, though, there are logistics to consider.

Life with three kids and trying to be active and engaged in our community while running a community game night, Adrienne managing a grant for our church, and planning and executing our annual Extra Life board game marathon weekend for Riley Hospital for Children (http://www.extra-life.org/team/stpetersgamenight) just takes a lot of time and energy. Because time commitments affect one or both of us, being married probably makes that part of recording harder. We wouldn't want to do the show without both of us, I think, because that wouldn't be our show. I am sure that's true for any podcaster, but we haven't struck on the formula to make them come out any faster, yet. We have plans to make that happen, so stay tuned.

Dr. Wictz: What do you think you kids will think when they are older and they listen to past episodes of the podcast?

Adrienne: Right now, they're fascinated by it and want to be appear on the podcast, that is until we get out the recorder and ask them to speak.

If they should ever listen, I hope they'll laugh- even if it's at our general gooniness- and remember some of the times we've spent together. I'm also okay with them being embarrassed by us in the future.

Jim: Our kids are fans of some podcasts. We listen to Flip the Table in the car together when we run errands on the weekends. They even sing along, with well timed bance's, to its theme song. So, they were very intrigued by the idea that we had our own podcast.

I'm sure it'll embarrass them in the future, but I hope they hear that we are having a good time together and appreciate that aspect. That's the best we can hope for.

Dr. Wictz: You have mentioned on your show you met in college, but you have not gone into the details on how you met at college, so I ask, how did you meet at college?

Adrienne: A mix of my procrastination and Jim's geography put us both in the very last summer orientation group. He flew over from Germany where his dad was serving in the Army and we both arrived to a campus neither of us had even visited before. There were only a few core classes with space remaining, so we both ended up in Asian Politics (amazing class) followed by Issues in Human Genetics. He was jetlagged, and I skipped most of orientation for another event, so we didn't meet there though I clearly remember an advisor making a joke about his name.

There was this unpleasant and aggressive kid in both those classes who kind of adhered to me, and I noticed Jim and another guy in both classes who lived in my dorm, so I asked them if they would let me walk with them to and from class a couple times. Jim was shy and hardly said a word to anyone at first, but he would write these hilarious notes with drawings during class and we just hit it off. No one would describe him as shy today.

Jim: I came to my college orientation after a twenty seven hour trip, on my own, from Frankfurt, Germany, before cell phones and when long distance phone calls required a second mortgage on your house. I almost didn't make it to our college town because the commuter carrier that the Department of Defense bought my ticket from went out of business between the purchase and my trip. So I was a stranded eighteen year old in the Saint Louis airport the day before my college orientation and two weeks before the start of school.

I was exhausted and emotionally wrecked by the time I figured how to get to my destination and went through orientation. I remember seeing Adrienne in orientation, but not much else from the entire thing. I took the only honors courses that were available, as did everyone else on that orientation group, including the aggressive kid and the guy who agreed to walk with and sit next to Adrienne in order to put Mr. aggressive off. If I had had my wits about me, I might have declined the option to take one or both of the classes that Adrienne mentioned. As it stood, I owe a lot of the best things in my life to pure chance.

Dr. Wictz: Do you see the Great Big Table podcast as a supplement or a competitor to the Baby Toolkit: parenting gone geek blog?

Adrienne: Baby Toolkit is about to turn 8, so it felt established in its own arena by the time we started the podcast. I won't speak for Jim, but I never envisioned a lot of that readership tuning into a podcast on board games. Generally if mom bloggers transitioned from blogs, it was to to vlogs, and podcasts never exploded like they did in other arenas. It may be the need for a quiet space that is the major hurdle. Thus far in this interview, I've supervised two kid baths, dealt with a "code brown," answered the phone, and worked on a couple loads of laundry. The written word waits, and I really appreciate that.

We definitely love to review board games on the blog that are kid and family friendly on the blog. We also talk about some of the same topics like community gaming, Extra Life, and Gen Con. I welcome crossover participants, but they always surprise me.

Jim: I never envisioned a lot of crossover. Sometimes we review games or mention the podcast on Baby Toolkit, but its just incidental to being part of our life and being geek parents.

Dr. Wictz: Unintentional (I think), thrift store/garage store finds have become a recurring segment of your podcast. Why did you start looking for games in these places?

Adrienne: We embraced aspects of simple living early in our marriage. We were married, marginally employed, and finishing college, so we didn't have to give much up to embrace the philosophy. A concern for reuse and the labor conditions in foreign clothing manufacturing made me interested in purchasing fewer new goods. Once I started shopping consignment and thrift, it was just a matter of browsing a few more aisles to expand to games.

My favorite game find remains the cards-still-in-shrink San Juan game I found on vacation. It's not only a favorite game of mine, it also piqued Jim's interest in resale shopping for games.

Our next episode, the one on our hard drive, is about gaming on a budget, so we pull out all our tips and tricks for resale game shopping.

Jim: Adrienne found a bunch of great games after thrifting for a while. I thought it was great, but never joined in until stumbling across a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Game in a Goodwill close to my work. I had heard it mentioned as a grail game on a number of podcasts, so I scooped it up after confirming that it had all its pieces. After that I was hooked. We, well mostly Adrienne, have found some great stuff over the years. I'm always amazed when we find games for a dollar that have obviously never been played. Also, its been a big help in filling out our community game night's library.

I think Adrienne's find of San Juan is one of the best. It blew my mind that the cards were still in-shrink and it only cost two dollars. As for my own finds? It would be a toss up between Buffy and the unpunched aMazing Labyrinth that had never been played.

Dr. Wictz: Why did you start Great Big Table?

Adrienne: We started Great Big Table after Jim noticed the topic of gaming groups coming up on a number of podcasts. It seemed like more people were actively looking for gaming groups, and we could really sympathize. We spent most of our twenties hoping to find a group to join (this was back in the middle '90s, so the hobby wasn't as widespread as it is today).  In the past decade, we started creating new communities, and we wanted to help other folks not spend a decade hoping to find something they could create now.

Jim: I listen to a lot of podcasts produced by the board gaming community. I had commented during a car trip that issues around community building, promoting board gaming as a hobby, and game groups were regular topics on most shows. As we had been addressing these areas in our own life, I thought that we might be able to record a podcast around those ideas. Adrienne wondered if there would be enough material in that topic until we proceeded to spend the rest of the three hour trip hashing out all the areas that could be covered. We have a multi-page Google Doc of show ideas that mostly came out of that conversation.

Dr. Wictz: If you were introducing someone to the Great Big Table podcast and you could only select one episode for them to listen to which episode would you select?

Adrienne: Much like our children, I love each episode for different reasons. I laughed the hardest making the Therapy the game episode with the Party Gamecast. If someone is willing to give us their time, I would probably recommend the first episode, so they can decide if they want to embark on this journey with us.

Jim: We don't have a lot of recorded episodes (yet!). You'd think it would be easy to choose one, but I like pieces of all of them for different reasons. There are moments in each that make me laugh and those are the moments that I like the best. Because of that, if I only could choose one, it would have to be the first one, episode zero. A lot of the running jokes have their start in that episode. It also has tells the most about our history, so I think you get a good introduction to us as people and gamers through it. That doesn't mean that it is the best edited or sounding, but it is probably the one I would choose.

Dr. Wictz. How did you come up with Great Big Table as the name for your podcast? What were the other contenders?

Adrienne: I'm sure I blocked any contending names from my mind because they were probably ridiculously bad or already taken. My oldest was obsessed with the song Welcome Table around that time, and I really like that idea applied to gaming. Great Big Table is, in my mind, a place where there's always room for another player and new conversations. It's my ideal of gaming, good company and an open invitation. And yes, in my mind's eye, the table offers great snacks, I love food.

Jim: I remember this. We like naming things and have come up with some good names for various things over the years. Part of that three hour conversation about the podcast was brainstorming names. At one point, one of us, I think it was me, suggested "At The Table" and Adrienne pointed out that it was close, but not exactly right. She mentioned the Welcome Table connection and said that we wanted something that had that welcoming vibe. We started wondering out loud what would make for a welcoming game table and Adrienne said something about one that was big enough to hold everyone that wanted to play. That made me think about the "big tent" idea from politics and religion (a tent big enough to cover a large group). Then Adrienne said it should be a Great Big Table and that was it. I loved it instantly.

Dr. Wictz: Episodes tend to come out once or twice a year, do you plan on keeping that schedule? What do you envision for the future of the Great Big Table podcast? (Any more mystery science theater style comments for other board game playthroughs?)

Adrienne: It is one of our great hopes to put out at least one episode a month. We have had a great incentive to do so, but there have been some pressing family things that have kept us in the very slow lane. We always aspire to issue episodes more frequently. Our target is 1-2 episodes a month.

Jim: It's never been our plan to have them recorded so sporadically. It just happens to be that way at the moment. A friend's son compared us to a season of Sherlock; one to three episodes a season and then we're done. That's a nice way to think about it, but it isn't our intent. With school starting for two of our kids, and some of our other community commitments winding down, we're hoping to pick up the pace on our recording, editing, and release schedule.

Dr. Wictz: If someone wanted to learn more about your blog where should they go?

Adrienne: Is this a trick question? To the blog, I would guess… BabyToolkit.com. I can’t imagine any other source of information about it. We also have a blog attached to the Great Big Table podcast at GreatBigTable.com.

Jim: We also gab a lot on Twitter as @babytolkit and @greatbigtable.