Monday 7 December 2009

Chess, Warhammer Style

Turn sequence is an important part of any game. The order of initiative is established by some games to reflect the abilities of characters, and it's a common mechanism. The idea of each player taking a turn in sequence is seen as a fair system to arbitrate the activity of players. Nevertheless, it has some problems.

The biggest problem is the downtime for other players. In a group of four or more players, with complex characters in a system that allows for loads of options, any player who uses their turn to deliberate will enlarge the downtime for others. I've not yet read a game system that forbids this, meaning that the system allows for long, deliberate turns that make other players snooze or reach for books and other distractions.

Once, I heard an actual play recording of Escape Or Die! by Fred Hicks. The game includes a mechanism to help with this problem. Play moved around the circle, with each player framing a scene for the character on the left. In the background, a timer was counting down a number of minutes (one less than the number of remaining characters). If the timer expired, Doom was increased by one. The only way to reset the timer was to make a complete lap around the circle of players. Listening to the game, I enjoyed the tension of the doom clock and the chorus of "Doooooom!" when it reached zero. I also remember one player who liked to narrate long, drawn-out scenes and actions - oh the frustration! His penchant for elaboration chewed into that timer, leaving less and less time for others to play, but at the same time engaging the players because they knew they'd have less time to frame a scene and act it out.

Another choice is a game I've neither played nor read: Sons of Liberty. From what I can glean here and there, there are no turns, in the sense that I've discussed above. If you have cards in your hand that let you take an action, you can play your turn. If anyone spots an actual play recording of this, let me know. I can only imagine the potential chaos.

Board games typically make use of a turn sequence. Monotony, er... Monopoly is the classic example. It not only has a lengthening downtime, it also has a horribly demotivating death spiral. I don't play it for those two reasons. It's rarely fun for everyone.

If you're wondering about the significance of this on your favourite games, and perhaps thinking that I'm spilling a lot of pixels for no real benefit, consider changing the turn sequence mechanism of chess. Chess has alternating turns in which each player is allowed to move a single piece (complex moves like Castling notwithstanding). Now suppose you were to play chess with the same turn structure as Warhammer. Players take it in turns but on each turn can move every piece once. What does that do to your chess strategy? [1]

Perhaps take it further and apply a Sons of Liberty approach. You can move one piece at a time, but you can keep moving pieces as fast as you can move your hand from a finished move to another piece. What does that do to your chess game?

The mechanism for turn sequence has far ranging effects on the game. It's the framework for the framework, so to speak. In thinking about my own game-in-development, this is a key area I've yet to decide upon. At the moment I'm ruminating over the Escape Or Die! concept and a highly procedural concept (e.g., A Penny for my Thoughts). We'll just have to see how it goes.


Footnotes
1. Conversely, what would it do to your Warhammer strategy if you could move only one piece or squad in your turn?

Labels

1KM1KT (1) 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars (1) 4ZZZ (1) A Penny For My Thoughts (6) Abney Park (1) Actual Play (13) Administration (3) Adults only please (1) Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (5) Advanced Fighting Fantasy (4) Agon (14) Andrew Smith (1) Apocalypse World (3) apocalyptic (1) Art (2) Aspects (1) Auscon (11) Australian Game Designers (1) Avengers (1) Battlestar Galactica (1) Behind The Screens (1) Bits and Mortar (2) Blades In The Dark (1) Blank Shield Press (1) Brass Goggles (1) Braunstein (3) Brick Battles (2) Brisbane (5) Burning Wheel (33) Campaign (1) Car Wars (5) Car Wars Tanks (2) Chess (1) Chick Corea (1) Chris Perkins (1) convention (1) Convention tips (1) conventions (1) Cosplay (1) Cthulhu (1) Cubicle 7 (1) CW6 (1) Cylon (1) D&D (1) D&D 5e (1) Daniel Solis (1) David Pidgeon (6) Death Race (1) Design (11) DeviantArt (1) Diaspora (7) Dice and Clouds (1) Dicebook (1) Discordia.se (1) Divine Trauma (2) Do (1) Dogs in the Vineyard (3) Don't Lose Your Mind (2) Don't Rest Your Head (24) DramaSystem (6) Dresden Files RPG (3) DRYH (4) Duel of Wits (1) Dungeon (1) dungeon crawl (2) Dungeons and Dragons (8) Dungeons and Dragons Pennny Arcade (2) Elizabeth I (1) Embers of the Forgotten Kingdom (1) encounters (1) Erick Wujcik (1) Escape or Die (1) Every Gamer's Guild (7) Evil Hat (7) F20 (1) Fat Dragon Games (1) FATE (6) Fate Core (4) Feng Shui 2 (1) Fenix (1) Fiasco (4) Fred Hicks (7) Free RPG Adventure Ideas (2) Free RPG Blog (2) From the news (3) FU (7) FU RPG (4) Fudge (1) fundamentalism (1) Gail Simone (1) Game Chef (1) game design (14) Game of Thrones (5) Game theory (2) Gamer dad (2) Gaming (3) Gaming gear (1) Gary Gygax (1) Gen Con Oz (8) GenCon (31) Gettin' Away With It (4) GM advice (1) GM style (2) GM Technique (8) Go Play Brisbane (26) golf (1) Good and Evil (1) google hangouts (1) Grey Ranks (3) GUMSHOE (1) GURPS (1) Hamlet's Hit Points (1) Happy Birthday Robot (3) Here Be Gamers (3) Heroica (1) Hillfolk (1) Horror (1) Houses of the Blooded (2) Indie Game Designer (4) indie gamers (1) Indie Games Explosion (11) indie games on demand (9) Indie Press Gang (2) Indie Press Revolution (3) Indie RPG (14) Inquisitor (1) iPad (1) IPR (4) Jason Morningstar (1) John Cleese (1) John Harper (5) John Hodgman (1) John Locke (1) John Reid (2) John Wick (1) Kenneth Hite (1) Kickstarter (2) kill puppies for satan (2) Knightmare Chess (1) Kuang Hong (1) Lady Blackbird (2) LARP (1) Lego (4) Lego Agonica (1) Lego FU (11) Long Beach Geeks (1) LoveHate Design (1) Lulu (2) Machiavelli (1) Madman (1) magic (2) Magic Burner (1) Major Wesely (1) Mark McPherson (1) Mark Peric (3) Marvel Super Heroes (1) May The FU Be With You (2) Mechaton (1) mf0 (1) Michael Wenman (6) miniatures gaming (1) Mixel (1) Mobile Frame Zero (5) Monopoly (1) Monty Haul (1) Munchkin (2) Mutant City Blues (1) My Kitchen Rules (1) My Life With Master (1) NaGaDeMon (17) Nagademon 2013 (6) Nagademon 2015 (2) Narrative Control (2) Nathan Russell (9) Neology (1) Neoncon (1) Nietzsche (1) Ninja vs Pirates (1) Nobles (14) Nuria (2) O Mortal (10) One-shot (1) Organising Games (1) Orphan Black (1) parenting (1) Paul Tevis (2) PDF (3) Perception Check (1) Peril Planet (3) Perth (2) Peter Adkinson (1) Peter Adkison (1) Peter Blake (6) Philosophy (3) Pictionary (1) Pirates Showdown (1) Play report (1) play style (1) Playtesting (2) Pocketmod (1) Podcast (3) Podcast of Foes (1) Poison'd (18) Poleconomy (1) Power 19 (1) Primetime Adventures (13) psychology (1) Publishing (2) Quality Comics (1) Queen (2) Religion in gaming (6) Rifts (1) Rob Donoghue (1) Robin Laws (6) Robotech (1) Roleplaying skills (2) Roll20 (1) RPG (9) RPG Advice (2) RPG Podcast Review (1) RPGNow (1) RWBY (1) Ryan Macklin (1) SacredVows (1) Sagefight (2) Scott Haring (1) Scott Vandervalk (1) Scrabble (1) Scribd (1) Sean Nittner (1) Second Generation Gamer (1) semiotics (1) Seth Godin (1) Setting Hack (3) Shakespeare (1) Siege (40) Silence of the Lambs (1) Skrillex (1) Skype (2) Skyrim (1) Smallville (1) Social contract (1) solo gaming (1) Sons of Kryos (1) Sons of Liberty (1) Space Rat (5) speculative fiction (1) Spirit of the Century (21) Star Wars (8) steampunk (1) Steve Darlington (1) Steve Jackson Games (3) Storn Cook (1) Story games (12) Sucker Punch (1) Supanova (2) Super Gachapon Fighter Omega Infinity (1) Superman (1) Swancon (2) Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (1) Swords (1) Taboos (1) Tactics (1) Tales From The Floating Vagabond (1) Talk Like A Pirate (1) That's How We Roll (1) The Beast of Limfjord (1) The Bones (1) The Cells (10) The Eighth Sea (3) The Forge (4) The Lego Movie (3) The MESSAGE (1) The Mountain Witch (1) The Spark RPG (1) The Stockade (8) The Walking Eye (3) Them They and Those Guys (1) Theory (2) Theory From the Closet (2) Timothy Ferguson (1) Transformers (1) Twitter (1) Unlit Match (9) Uprising (6) Victor Wooten (1) Vincent Baker (7) War Showdown (1) Warhammer (2) Warhammer 40K (1) Will Hindmarch (1) world building (1) WOTC (2) XKCD (1) Zedgames (5) Zombie Cinema (3)