A Celebration of Mechanics
Sheamus Parkes
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
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I've only had a resurgence in boardgames in the past couple years. During this time though, I've continued to be amazed with the ingenuity of designers and the varied ways they let me have fun.
I thought it would make a great list to go through some of my favorite mechanics I have encountered since diving into BGG. Feel free to add your own!
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Shemp Fill-in: Chan?
United States
Fountain Valley
California
Which way did I go?
Pick a card.
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Variable Setup
Similar to #18 above, but need not include the collectibility aspect. Both players* have equal access to all resources, either by using the exact same set of pieces/cards, or by having the same larger set to choose from.
*Most of these games (that I can think of of hand) are two-player games, but I'm sure there's some out there that play with more.
Stratego is the best known example, but not necessarily the best game with this mechainc. Arimaa is another. Both players use the same set of pieces and choose their arrangement at the start of the game.
Knightmare Chess allows both players to choose their decks from the same set of cards - Like a CCG, but without having to collect.
Many other games allow minor customizations of starting positions that each player can make independently. One example is Pirate's Cove, though it's a fairly minor thing in the course of the game.
The Settlers of Catan, and the entire Catan series has a bit of this, though each player's setup choices are not fully independent of one another.
Pros:
1. Allows many different whole-game stategies to be used. Each play can be like a whole new game.
2. Any analysis-paralysis relating to the initial setup will be confined to the setup portion of the game. Once play starts, the setup decisions don't have to be made again.
Cons:
1. Some initial setups will be obviously inferior to others. Should a player make a setup choice that turns out to be bad, he may find himself in a losing game from very early on.
2. It's possible that an optimal setup will be found which dominates all others, essentially "solving" the game. Or a set of setups can be found that dominate all others, but are each obviously superior or inferios to each other, turning the game into a drawn-out rock-paper-scissors game.
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Bruce Baskir
United States
Missouri
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Plotted Simultaneous Movement
Works well in Diplomacy, because the movement/combat system is very simple. Doesn't work so well in Sniper and Tank, where you sometimes have to pro rate movement to see if two units collide. Variation of this mechanic is used in Roborally, where it either works or it doesn't, depending on whether you like the game or not.
Pros:
1) In multi-player games, allow greater potential for back-stabbing, which in turn leads to greater necessity for negotiation.
2) Allows players to second-guess opponents' moves. Can be used to reduce random elements in two player combat simulations.
Con:
1) When done poorly, can lead to enormous stack of rules to cover every possible contingency of play.
2) May lead to analysis paralysis as players try to second-guess opponents' moves (see Pro #2)
3) Pre-programmed moves may have your units take actions that are totally illogical in a given situation. (In Swashbuckler, for example, are your brawlers so drunk that they don't realize that they are under a table when they try to stand up?)
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Kris Wolff
United States
poulsbo
Washington
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That Alexandros mechanic
(I haven't seen this mechanic in any other game, and I don't believe it's represented in this list yet, but...) There is a common piece, Alexander, that each player moves at the beginning of a turn, and as he moves he leaves "in his wake" the borders for the regions that are occupied and scored.
(having a hard time with the pros and cons; please add...)
(a better name for the mechanic would also be nice...)
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29.
Board Game: Clans
[Average Rating:6.57 Overall Rank:703]
Kris Wolff
United States
poulsbo
Washington
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Ok, here's another good one:
The Clans Mechanic
This is another unique one by Leo Colovini. Here, the player moves entire groups of the colored huts to nearby regions to merge the two groups of huts. Once a group is formed, it cannot be split, and a group may never move unless it's going to join with another group.
In addition to that, there's the fact that a given player's color is unknown to the rest of the game, but that's not the part of the game I'm trying to point out here. (not sure whether that would really be called mechanic in this context or not...)
Just like the mechanic above (for Alexandros), I can't really think of concrete "pros" and "cons", so please add them for me...
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Ammon
Idaho
New York
Falls Church
Virginia
New York
Go use that shameless plug somewhere else. This is a family forum.
Falls Church
Virginia
It would be an interesting exercise to somehow measure people's affinity towards the pros and cons of each mechanic and then combine mechanics testing each one to see if these affinities change.
Another interesting exercise, having people suggest the top 5 (in order) to what games the feel best represent the presented mechanic and see what surfaces.
Just random relevant thoughts... as this is a very thought-provoking list!