Hollandazed: Thoughts, Ideas, and Miscellany — victory conditions

Not to belabor the obvious, but Victory Conditions are what make a game a game. They constrict the game's scope and dictate its structure. Victory Conditions set goals for the players, and their strategies and tactics are generally crafted with those ends in mind. Probably the single most important thing a designer does (besides looking stunningly handsome) is decide how the game ends, and how the game is won. Sometimes these are two different things that exist somewhat independently of one another. The game might end, for example, after you've played through a certain number of Game Turns. This is...