List Day - 5 Board Game Mechanics That Are Tricky To Balance
This is the day you don’t skip at the tabletop gym because you don’t want your lists to look all scrawny and weak. It’s so unattractive when lists are neglected while everything else is robust and muscular…
That’s why we’re going to pump our lists full of Kickstarter convos, board game paraphernalia, and all of the other tabletop-adjacent talk that gets the Internet into a tizzy. Enjoy.
Board games, when broken down into stages of design, rely on mechanics to run smoothly, and we are lucky to be exposed to so many interesting combinations of mechanisms in games as the industry continues to grow and to release hundreds and thousands of games.
Worker-placement. Deck-building. Hand management. Card-drafting. Et cetera.
All of these individual elements work in tandem with each other—and with the other components of board game design—to create these memorable experiences on the table. Some of them, however, are trickier than others to successfully implement.
So, we’re taking a look at some of the toughest to get right.
Asymmetry
Asymmetry in games can be a challenging prospect. When players, either individually or in groups, are managing different rules and gameplay expectations, it can result in an incredibly satisfying journey… or a disappointing one.
Root, from Cole Wehrle and Leder Games, is probably one of the best examples of asymmetric gameplay done right. The forest factions all feel unique and powerful in exciting ways and players are still discovering strategies and memorable victories with them, despite the game releasing two years ago. And the expansion content that continues to come out is indicative of the winning formula that Cole Wehrle has discovered. The rules clearly define how each faction plays and while each group functions in a different manner, an overarching set of rules and goals keep them tied closely together.
But Vast, another Leder Games production, doesn’t seem to gel quite as nicely. The rules can seem conflicting or unclear at times, making the learning (and teaching) process a hard one. Those first impressions—and continued questions or gameplay roadblocks—will also affect future playthroughs. And Betrayal at House on the Hill, while a gateway classic for many gamers, can frequently encounter missteps when the survivors and the betrayer have conflicting rules and each party is unclear as how to proceed.
Asymmetry, when not playtested thoroughly or explained appropriately, can hamper a game that otherwise might have run smoothly.
There are also degrees to which asymmetry can be incorporated into a board game. The bigger the presence, the greater the chance of it collapsing under its own weight. When a small part of the greater whole, however, as with variable player actions, it can result in some of my favorite tabletop experiences—Star Wars: Rebellion and Twilight Imperium come to mind. More recently, Gloomhaven.
What are your favorite games with asymmetric design? What are the games that you feel failed to implement this mechanic well?
Real-Time
Real-time gameplay is touch-and-go sometimes. It can be a refreshing change of pace from many games but it can also descend into chaos. When you take the structure of turns and phases away from players, you inevitably force people to work at their own pace of mental processing and strategic decision-making. Each person’s pace is going to be different. Some players take a longer time to think but are very thorough. Some move fast and instinctively. Mash that all together, though, and you can very easily get some ruffled feathers.
A light-hearted game that employs real-time mechanics is Galaxy Trucker. The frenzied pace to make the best spaceship out of the junkiest parts is manic. It’s hilarious. And it ultimately results in some spectacularly bad and unexpectedly good ships that survive (or don’t survive) the merchant journey through the depths of space. It’s tone and design, though, mean that the real-time ship-building phase is not heartbreaking. It rewards with humor and silly innovation.
A group game that I equally love and fear is Captain Sonar. It’s created some really satisfying gaming moments for me and my family.
It’s also stirred up a lot of arguments. Again, when you remove some of the structure from games, it means people resort to their base tendencies as gamers.
Play with the right people, and that’s not normally a problem. Play with louder or more aggressive personalities, and those games can quickly devolve into a shouting or grudge match where one or both sides of the conflict are left with simmering resentment or bitter feelings.
Every game always has the danger of a bad experience if you play with the wrong people, but real-time game design can certainly exacerbate the situation.
Pendulum, from Stonemaier Games, seemed to suffer negative reactions from the real-time design, but Sorcerer City, from Skybound Games, had the opposite reaction from many gamers.
What are your favorite games with real-time gameplay? What are the games that you feel failed to implement this mechanic well?
Hidden Role
We’ve all been there, right?
That time when the three loud people never stop talking during One Night Ultimate Werewolf and they just bully through the other players until they’re confident enough to vote? And the game is over relatively fast and the people who have never played board games before are looking around wondering why they would ever want to try this again? It’s not the greatest… and, to be clear, I’m probably one of those loud people. I’m not proud of it.
Okay, then what about a game of Resistance when the good guys when or the bad guys win all because most of the group was packed around the far end of the circle and the turn cycle just hadn’t made it to them yet. Because you have to use the people you’ve already gone on missions with. Right?????
Hidden role games, often built within the social deduction genre, are popular for a reason. They have an alluring quality to them. Get a bunch of friends or strangers in a circle, give them all a hidden role, and then try to figure out the puzzle. Who is who? Why is someone trying to kill us? These are the questions that keep us up at night.
What’s frustrating about many hidden-role games, though is how it ends up influencing gameplay. Many games don’t have enough agency for individual players beyond either defending their story or concocting one in lieu of admitting their true identity.
All too often, it’s a shallow experience. And one that lends itself to certain personalities over others. Not enough of these games have criteria that limit the influence or activity of any one player over all the others. Not enough conscious design goes into creating a balanced experience for everyone, no matter how quiet (or loud) they are.
I started off playing Coup in the hobby and then moved to other social deduction games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf and The Resistance. I’ve played the variations. I’ve played Secret Hitler, which did it better than the previous games I’ve mentioned.
But I’m excited most about Veiled Fate and Blood on the Clocktower because those games seem to have figured out ways to fine-tune the hidden-role mechanic by creating safety nets and other strategic mechanics for a more nuanced tabletop experience.
What are your favorite games with hidden roles? What are the games that you feel failed to implement this mechanic well?
Scenarios
Scenario-based gameplay can be richly rewarding over a long period of time. It can also be a slog, depending on how it’s devised.
T.I.M.E. Stories, for example, was a game that started at a high point, for me. The first scenario was such an intriguing puzzle that used iterative play to uncover more and more of the narrative before players were able to untangle all the knots and discover the secrets. It made repetition appealing rather than boring. It was an innovative experience. And then all subsequent scenarios, three or four before I stopped, failed to achieve the same magic. They all were unable to effectively utilize the same mechanics in a way that emulated the accomplishment of the first story and justified the one-time purchase expense.
Because that’s the catch with a lot of scenario-based games. If not all of the content is released in the initial game, you’re banking on the fact that you’ll continue to enjoy the game and what it offers for narrative moment after narrative moment. T.I.M.E. Stories can’t be played again. Not really. I know the secrets of the story. I know how to manipulate the characters and mechanics. Which means I’m left with a narrative left unfinished. And games that I can’t play anymore.
If you’re going to design scenarios or a large campaign, then you have to either maintain the momentum or find new ways to innovate.
I loved Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, but I’m anxious about trying another season because I’m uncertain if it’s going to be worth the time investment. How does it change? Does it do it for the better? Do I want another $75 game that I can’t ever play again?
Other games, though, like Gloomhaven offer all of the content in one box. Dozens of hours of it. So, if it’s good from the beginning, then you can take comfort in knowing that the entire experience will likely maintain that initial satisfaction. Or you could rely on games like Bloodborne: The Board Game, which use an existing IP to draw inspiration from and to entice an audience of fans who already are familiar with and like the narrative.
Scenarios, when chopped up, released separately, and designed by different people, don’t always achieve the high levels that this main mechanic can reach.
What are your favorite games with scenarios or campaigns? What are the games that you feel failed to implement this mechanic well?
The Dark Souls Effect
I love Bloodborne and other video games that mirror the brutality and sheer difficulty of Dark Souls games. I like complex experiences, even in tabletop games, and weighty games are ones that I enjoy more so than the lighter fare that is generally more popular.
But making a game really hard is a dangerous proposition because it threatens the likelihood of appealing to a wider audience. Mansions of Madness: Second Edition maybe just rubbed me the wrong way. The three of us who played it together lost three times. The first time, we were learning the game. On the second try, we started to optimize our route through the scenario. Our third attempt was speedrunning through the essential narrative blips in an effort to make the final fight and escape with our lives (or at least one of our lives). My friend, my wife, and I all play a lot of games. And we played this one three times in a row, increasingly optimizing our route each time, and still lost. In the first scenario.
While the game is still in my collection, I’ve yet to go back to it. Because of my first impressions. I don’t mind when something is hard. I like a challenge. But the best game design, in my opinion, learns how to scale well and also allows players to tweak the settings in order to discover the right balance of difficulty and progression.
I didn’t feel that was the case in Mansions of Madness. It’s possible that we just played poorly. It’s possible that it deserves a second chance. But it still left a bad taste in my mouth. And I imagine I’m not the only tabletop gamer who felt this way with some of the more daunting board games that are out there.
To offer up a better design, I’d return to talking about Bloodborne: The Board Game. Like the video game, it’s a tough experience. It doesn’t pull punches. It can be mean. But I also feel like it’s fair. Even though I wondered the entire time if we were going to pull it off, I always felt like we had a chance and I felt like I could win even on my first time playing. Yes, I imagine the difficulty will scale as the chapters in that game continue, but I’m looking forward to that challenge rather than resentful of the obstacle in front of me.
It’s a fine line that games have to walk when they are designed as tough puzzles for players to figure out.
What are your favorite games with Souls-like masochistic gameplay? What are the games that you feel failed to implement this mechanic well?
Thanks for listening to me rant! If there is something you felt I missed, be sure to point it out in the comments. Especially if there is a particular mechanic in board games that you want to highlight!