Hollandazed: Thoughts, Ideas, and Miscellany — game design
STORYBOARDS (by Tom Russell)
In several of Ty Bomba's wargames, including Hollandspiele's own Operation Unthinkable, each player decides how they want to structure their turn: a move phase followed by combat, a combat phase followed by movement, or twin combat phases. Mr. Bomba explained the concept thusly in an interview with the fine folks at The Player's Aid: It’s a way of cleanly modeling all kinds of command-control and logistical limits without a lot of specific rules. Essentially, it forces you to create a point of concentration (“Schwerpunkt,” as the Germans would say) and give it your full support by picking the phase sequence...
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST TIME? PART 2 (by Tom Russell)
So last time I wrote about how a bad first impression with a game can make folks unlikely to try it a second time. There might be great and hidden depths that reveal themselves after x number of plays, but many folks aren't going to ever get to x. Or, as John Brieger put it, "you have a problem if it requires weeks of playing constantly for players to achieve the level of knowledge to make the game balanced." The thing is, I don't know if that really is a problem. I mean, yes, it is a problem, in the...
NOTES ON TABLE BATTLES: WARS OF THE ROSES no. 9 - 16 (by Tom Russell)
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST TIME? PART 1 (by Tom Russell)
Years and years ago, I was talking with a fellow - we'll call him Henry - who had seen a film that Mary and I had directed and was, shall we say, underwhelmed. Which was fine, as far as that goes; not every film is for everybody, and that goes double for the weird sorts of comedies we were making. But Henry and I had a rather cordial and pleasant conversation about the film and some of the choices Mary and I had made with it, which he found too subtle for his tastes. I said something to the effect...
SERIES GAMES (by Tom Russell)
When a game is part of a series, it can make things easier for both the gamer and the designer. The gamer doesn't need to sit down with a whole new rulebook and read it start to finish every single time she wants to learn a new game in the series; once she's done it the first time, it's just about learning the new rules specific to that scenario or volume. And the designer doesn't need to write a whole new rulebook, and I gotta tell you, the less time I have to spend typing in "Movement Points cannot be...