The Board Game As A Narrative Medium
The Board Game As A Narrative Medium
The Board Game As A Narrative Medium
By Pawel Bornstedt
January 29, 2024
Summary
To read a narrative is to engage with an alternative world that has its own temporal and spacial structures. The rules that govern these structures may or may not resemble those of the readers' world." Storyworld means the mental model of these alternative worlds, which are also simultaneously transmedial, such that the Star Wars films, comics, books, board games, etc.
The background information on the world and the main characters is from Michael Menzel's board game The Legends of Andor.
In Catan, the game board, i.e. the titular island, is first assembled from individual parts, so that a new island is created with every game.
In The Adventures of Robin Hood, you can also mention a modular game board; there is a fixed game board, but it has numerous removable tiles, so that it becomes modular again.
The addition "Card game" serves to differentiate it from the actual Arkham Horror, which, among other things, has a game board as a component.
Some of these TTRPGs have story worlds that also appear in regular board games, for example, in addition to the previously mentioned Dungeons and Dragons, there is, among other things, the board game Amanda Birkinshaw and Barry Yearsley.
The goal in this game is not about a glorious storming of enemy trenches, but simply the survival of the enemy troop, despite dangers, traumas, phobias and injuries that increase as the game progresses.
Reference
Bornstedt, P. (2024, January 29). The Board Game as a Narrative Medium | Analog Game Studies. Analog Game Studies . https://analoggamestudies.org/2024/01/the-board-game-as-a-narrative-medium/