#23: Tell Your Rules With a Story
#23: Tell Your Rules With a Story
#23: Tell Your Rules With a Story
By Derik Duley
October 31, 2014
Summary
Mostly, that opinion has been rooted in a love of games which can envelope me in their story - preferably an interesting story.
My biggest take-away from this game design challenge has been that theme doesn't just make your game pretty and interesting.
A good theme makes a fairly simple drafting game MUCH easier for new players to understand.
For the first 15 or so games, I really struggled with explaining the game in a way that non-gamers could understand.
Not only did he recommend removing jargon, but specifically addressed drafting games: "BLAH is a game where you pass cards around and pick your favorite ones." Cool.
With no reasons, he couldn't formulate a game plan and was just sitting there, waiting for others to tell him what to do.
It worked perfectly into the mechanics and added a fun story to get people interested in the game.
Now, be careful: you only have 3 slots in which to work on those cards, the game ends when all cards are gone from all hands, and anything left unfinished in front of you counts against your score at the end of the game.
New players figured out how to "Draft" just because I called the hands vendors which rotate every day and said you're buying an egg from them! Theme also gave me a fun way to give players the restrictions on the game without having to stop and say, "Oh, by the way..." 12 days, 3 hatcheries, cost and actual work aren't an issue for a king / queen, etc.
Make sure your theme permeates the rules - don't use game jargon and take your players out of the story.
Reference
Duley, D. (2014, October 31). #23: Tell Your Rules With a Story. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from http://www.lagniappe-games.com/23-tell-your-rules-with-a-story/