Let's talk board game mechanics: Tiles

If you're a fan of European-style board games, like me, you'll no doubt have come across some kind of tile-based game. Carcassonne, Galaxy Trucker, Goblins Inc, Forbidden Island, and so on, are all tile-based games with very different gameplay styles. I'm a fan of them all. Tile games have long since been one of my favourites, largely because the very nature of them guarantees a different game experience every time. Because of the sheer number of possible ways those tiles can be assembled, I'm always facing a different challenge while playing.

But there are a lot of different kinds of tiles. And this is where I am looking for input from you lovely readers. You may or may not be aware that I am currently developing my own tile-based board game. I've been working on it for some time, and have already subjected some very forgiving friends and an even more forgiving boyfriend to an awful lot of playtesting. However, I have recently come to the conclusion that I'm still just not very happy with the way I've done the game tiles. So, here I am looking at different options of what I could do with them that would work for the game.

Option 1: Medium/large-ish tiles with four playable spaces on each tile. This is what is in place at the moment. One of the big features of the game is the ability to move these tiles around - flip them over, rotate them, swap their places. The larger tile size makes this incredibly easy to do.

However, finding the right number of tiles to use for the board is something I'm still struggling with. I have a number of special "action" spaces, which requires the tile to be flipped over once used. I don't like putting more than one of these spaces on a single tile, as it then feels like it will influence where the tile is initially placed in game setup. It also just... looks wrong. This means I end up having what looks like an awful lot of blank space on the board where nothing really happens. I don't like the sheer amount of unused space there is on the board, and I can't really condense it any smaller without having to change a bunch of other mechanics and rules to compensate.

Option 2: Small, single space tiles. This is the option I'm seriously considering. Having each space be its own tile would make it even easier to move pieces around. I wouldn't have to worry about having too many action spaces on a tile, because I could simply add in or take out however many I needed to for balancing. It also means I can make the overall playing space a bit smaller, which is something I think would help in a game where the board will potentially change size and shape during gameplay.

The downsides here are fairly obvious. The biggest one is, of course, that means a LOT more pieces to keep track of. It would be much more expensive to produce, because I would need at least twice as many tiles as in option 1. The pieces would have to be smaller as well, which could potentially turn off players if they feel the tiles are too fiddly. This also would increase set-up time for the game. I initially designed this as a quick, easy to learn board game, and this wouldn't fit that ideal - but then again, since then, the game has wandered a bit from that original intention anyway.

Option 3: Large, multi-space tiles that can be put together in different formations. This would be similar to something like Mansions of Madness, where each room is its own tile, and they are put together to form the board. Something like this would be very quick to set up, would require far less pieces, and can still provide some variety, especially if there are extra pieces which can be swapped out to change things up a bit.

Of course, this kind of set-up would make the moving of tiles very difficult. Rotating wouldn't be too bad, but swapping and flipping could be nightmarish, depending on how many players are on a given tile at the time. With tile manipulation being one of the main features, this would probably not go over well at all.

Option 4: A single, full-size board with a few single space pieces for special tiles. Up straight? I don't want to do this. For a game like Last Night on Earth, which uses this mechanic (kind of), it's fine. It's less expensive to produce a single board with a dozen extra tiles than it is to produce a hundred tiles. It still allows for some random set-up, since the special tile pieces can still be distributed randomly over the board. It makes for far less bits and pieces to potentially get lost.

But it completely removes the essence of the idea, which was to be able to move any tile. I don't want to lose this mechanic, as I feel it links closely to the theme of the game. This single mechanic was why I started the game, and I think removing it would also kill any desire I would have to finish the game. However, because I know it is an option in use in other games, I've included it in my list here.

So there you have it. Four options that I'm most familiar with in the various games I've played. Which would you prefer to play with? Why? Have I missed another option? Please tell me in the comments!

Galaxy Trucker

I've mentioned my love of board games, yes? Good, because I have been introduced to another one I've completely fallen in love with: Galaxy Trucker. If you've not played it, you basically assemble a space ship with lots of components, then try to fly that ship around the galaxy without losing all your components and crashing. There's more to it than that, but that's the simplest explanation I can give that remotely resembles how much fun it is.

First, I love assembling a ship. It's like having a massive jigsaw puzzle where you only have to use the pieces you like, and the ones you don't can get left on the table. You also get to use some strategy in figuring out what components are going to be most useful to you on this particular space journey. (You can apparently sneak a peak at some of the cards that determine how the journey goes, though in our play throughs we never actually did so!) I have always had a fondness for jigsaw puzzles, so this part of the game instantly had my full attention.

Then you have to fly the ship. Okay, you don't actually fly anything, but you have a series of cards which simulates a journey through space. These cards can either help you - for example, cards with planets allow you to grab precious resources - or hinder you, such as the dreaded meteor shower, which can quite easily knock off a huge portion of your ship if you're unlucky, or have built your ship poorly. Come the end of the journey, several factors are thrown together to determine how many credits you receive for the journey. The person with the most credits wins.

I have to admit, I have yet to win a game. It's challenging, especially when playing with people who have played the game enough that they have all the component pieces practically memorised! On the upside, we also took the time to teach the munchkin how to play, so I always had a companion in the losing stands. And truth be told, he did really well, especially when one considers he's below the recommended age range! I imagine it won't be long before he's gleefully pointing out the mistakes in my own ship composition, and speeding off into the distance with all the credits in the galaxy...

Board game testing!

I've mentioned in a few recent posts that I've been designing a board game. I think I did, anyway. I may have forgotten to actually write about it. In fact, now that I've walked away for a minute to check my past blog posts, I realise I've not actually said much about it at all.

So, since I've not said much about it, here it is: I'm designing a board game!

(... That sounded much more dramatic and much less rambling in my head.)

It's fairly obvious that I love a good, complex board game. And I've been itching to design one for ages, so when I finally had what I thought was a good idea for one, I jumped on it! I'm keeping most of the details off the internet for now, until I can refine it all a bit more, but I will say it's a tile-based game, which is one of my favourite kinds of board games.

To the people in my day-to-day life, I've been discussing this topic almost non-stop. Is this a good idea? Would this work? What do you think of this? Would this be too complicated or cheesy? I'm pretty sure they'll all be grateful when the darn thing is finally done, but in the meantime, I hope they continue to put up with me.

Anyway, I've reached a point in my design that is both a turning point and a stopping block, if that makes any sense at all. The turning point is that technically, the game is playable. Pretty much everything that is needed is there, with all the mechanics in place. The stumbling block, though, is the numbers. When I first ran through all the cards and dice rolls, I more or less picked numbers that sounded good, rather than made mathematical sense.

This proved to be both useful and awful. With my very tolerant boyfriend and two of our good friends, we sat down to have a play through, with me acting as a living rule book. The results were pretty much as I'd expected. There were rules I had not thought out all the way, and had to correct to close up loop holes. There were issues I hadn't considered at all, and had to make up rules for on the spot, which sometimes worked well and other times ended in disaster. Most importantly, the numbers proved to be very, very unappealing. Forty five minutes after we started the game, we found ourselves no closer to winning than when we began. A huge chunk of that was due to the numbers and the lack of balance in the game. We ended up calling it quits at that point until I could fix it.

I learned a great deal from that play through, though. I discovered that the mechanics of my game were intact, and that the players seemed to like the idea and the theme behind it. I discovered that a rebalance of all the numbers would likely fix a lot of the issues we had with the gameplay. I discovered that playing it and needing to fix it has made me all the more eager to do it again until this game is perfect. And then start all over again with a new game. (Be strong, my friends, one day your poor tired ears will recover from my abuse. Hopefully.)

Review: Settlers of Catan

I completely forgot to link to this! Ah well, here it is, several days after the fact, anyway. I wrote a review for The Settlers of Catan. Read it here!

Review: Ticket to Ride

I've mentioned Ticket to Ride before, yes? That post is here. On a similar vein but very different presentation, I've written a proper review for the game, which is now up on the Proud Lion blog! Go check it out!

No kids please, we're playing board games

Ever heard of Ticket to Ride? It's a board game, and one of my new obsessions. A few short weeks ago I had never played it. Then, after a game night with friends and an iPhone kidnapping venture*, an addiction was born. It's a challenge that brings out the competitive streak in me in a big way. And there are trains. The only downside is my total lack of geographical knowledge - which, admittedly, is a bit of an issue in the European edition, and I don't know where anything is.

But it doesn't really strike me as a kids' game. It recommends players be 8+, but really? It's far more entertaining as a group of adults with the intention to completely screw up any chance of other people achieving their goals in the game. Add a bit of alcohol (or more than a bit), see if you can guess what happens.

Do you remember board games as a kid? They provided maybe half an hour of entertainment. They were a mild distraction suitable for after lunch and before "proper" playtime. After playing a game a handful of times, it lost its appeal, since you've pretty much already played through just about every possible ending: I win, you win, or nobody wins. As much as they try to teach us as kids that "winning doesn't matter", we all think otherwise at that age.

Board games now are for more fun than they ever used to be. We actually do enjoy playing the game rather than just caring about the ending (although my competitive nature tells me it is still important to win wherever possible). We can make a single game stretch on for hours with enough people. And there are a lot of games that are quite clearly not intended for kids (Munchkin, anyone?). I do wonder if it's always been this way and I was just too young or thick to notice, or if we're just getting better board games as time goes on. Either way, it works for me. More games please!

* This is not actually as exciting as it sounds. I tried to swipe my other half's iPhone so I could play the Ticket to Ride app on it. I failed to do so without being caught. Thankfully he didn't mind. I was even able to challenge him to a game. And two rematches. (I won.)