A Reliably Interesting Choice in Game Design: Chaos vs. Order

In this panel James Ernest describes what he calls the "crazy train," a risky option always available to the player when the more predictable path seems less enticing. The key word here is option. The crazy train shouldn't be mandatory.

Chaos & Order in Deadwood

James shares an anecdote from the development of Deadwood Studios. Not getting too deep into the rules, but there was once an option to take a difficult tactical path with a high reward, but it required a very high roll in order to complete. So on your turn, you'd roll and maybe you'd get lucky. Unfortunately, if you rolled poorly, you effectively wasted that turn while everyone else moves ahead with their own strategies. In essence, you were stuck on the crazy train.

In the newer edition, you have the option to "rehearse," meaning that you do not roll. Instead you build up a cumulative +1 bonus to your next roll. So you could just rehearse five times until you get a guaranteed success. Or you could just rehearse three times and take your (newly improved) chances. Either way, you get a choice in the matter.

A choice between chaos (in that case, an unmodified d6 roll) and order (a safe, predictable +1 bonus). You can spot variations of this choice in many games. For example, in Ticket to Ride, you may draw two cards, either from the face-up tableau (order) or from the face-down deck (chaos).

Relative Value of Chaos & Order

The value of the orderly or chaotic option is very situational, depending on the current game-state, an individual strategy, and any penalties for taking the wrong path. In my Princess Bride game currently in the lab, the dealer draws one card per player, plus two. (So five cards in a three-player game.)

The dealer then puts two cards face-down and the rest face-up in the center of the table. Each other player gets to draw one card from this tableau for her own collection, then the dealer must draw two from the remaining three cards.

Most of these cards have important resources you're trying to collect, but some also have one, two or three poisons. If you collect over three poisoned cards over the course of play, there are some penalties of varying severity.

Furthermore, the cards collected also determine the drafting order for the next turn and who will be the new dealer, further tempting each player to take a little poison in order to get better position. Thus, the whole game is built on an order vs. chaos choice, the twist is that a player is crafting that choice each turn for the rest of the group.

There is an orderly choice: "I could take one of the visible poisoned cards right now, because there could be far worse poisons in the hidden cards." And there is a chaotic choice: "I would rather not take any poison, and the dealer may have presented the poison card up front as a bluff so he could collect a hidden unpoisoned card when it's his turn to draw."

Choosing whether to be the dealer presents its own dilemma: Order: "I could always go for the first-pick in turn order, which means I'll never be dealer. I'll always get my choice of card, but I'll collect cards at much slower pace." Chaos: "If I'm the dealer, I'll get two cards, but I have less control over my selection. Which cards do I keep hidden, in order to confuse and tempt the other players while I get my own preferred pair of cards?"

Chaos & Order Everywhere?

This isn't to say that all games should have this choice in their core. There are plenty of fun perfect-information games without any chaotic choices (euro games tend to fall in this category). There are also very chaotic games without any orderly choices to be found (simple dice games and party games).

But... If you're ever struggling with where to go with your next game design and you're out of ideas, try adding a choice between order and chaos somewhere in there.

More Playtest Findings from PAX

While I was at PAX East, I playtested three other prototypes currently in various stages of development.

Princess Bride Drafting Game has been long in development, but finally hitting a breakthrough now that it has departed from strictly simulating the Battle of Wits. It's now a drafting game in which players bid for milestones and landmarks to complete their personal quests while also trying to bluff their opponents into drinking poison. It's a drafting game where you're not just bidding for resources, but also turn order on the next draft and how many resources you'll get to draw. Most feedback was positive and I hope to formalize this prototype into something more pitchable soon.

• Retheme the cards slightly so that there are more main character options, including the villains of the story.
• Make the secondary characters in the deck landmark locations.
• Give the main characters unique abilities, like The Man in Black's immunity to poison, or Fizzik's great strength.

Belle of the Ball was a hit again. I got many play requests from people who had heard of the game from this blog. I also got a few thanks for non-violent/non-colonial theme. I tried out several new cards that generally followed the model of the "bad cheese" card, negating scores for certain interests in a scoring group. I also added several new Belle cards that scored you points based on other players' behavior, such as when they paid bribes, accepted bribes, invited lords or ladies or played Belle cards. On top of all this, I also tested the new two-lane format. It went swimmingly, offering far more substantial choice on each turn, preventing bribe-hoarding, and making a more satisfying experience overall.

• Come up with evocative names for the new Belle cards along with new diagrams that can more easily be recognized from a distance.
• Make the heraldry more subtle so it doesn't distract as much.
• Remove underlapping border around the interest icons so they have less interference with their silhouettes.

Suspense: The Card Game probably got the most play overall, simply because of its small footprint. The pitch really drew in the core gamer demographic: "Deduce the victory condition while also trying to meet it." I'm exploring ways to expand the game to four or five players, which might be difficult. I'm thinking about another set of six cards with red numbers, each victory condition based on highest/lowest black/white sum in play/hand. The problem of course is that 13 cards elegantly creates one possible outlier in an even deal, adding anymore makes things a little more messy. I'll figure it out though.

• Explore expanding the game to four or five players.
• Instead of waiting until the end of the round to introduce the "Fold" option, state it up front so players always have it available.
• Explore a gambling variant based on Wits & Wagers' wagering chips. (Score points equal to your wager chips x stars on the winning card.)

Some Thoughts on a Princess Bride Card Game

A few nights ago on Twitter, I got to thinking about a simple mechanic for replicating the poison cup scene in Princess Bride. (You may recall I've explored this theme before in a previous post: Where is the Poison?)

Each player has a supply of seven red cubes and ten blue cubes. On your turn, you place one, two or three cubes in each hand and "serve" them to your opponent. One hand is open, its contents visible. The other hand is closed, its contents hidden. Your opponent must choose one to accept. The goal is to get seven blue cubes and win, or to eliminate your opponent by forcing them to take five red cubes.

There were a number of mathematical problems with this premise, ably and quickly pointed out by Paul Owens. I've been stretching my brain to get a functional Princess Bride prototype ready before PAX East, to submit to GameSalute's license, and these mathematical issues keep getting in the way of a pure deduction game.

I think expanding the basic mechanic beyond a plain binary and removing elimination may be the key to making this idea functional as a real game. In the process, I'm exploring the two-player bluffing mechanic from Antoine Bauza's forthcoming Little Prince tile game and some familiar scoring from Sushi Go.

The cards you see above are an example of what you might see in a typical turn of a two-player game. Each card bears icons representing various elements of the Princess Bride story. On your turn, you draw as many cards as there are players, plus one. Choose one of these cards to keep face down, then present them all to the players. You choose the turn order for each player to take one card. The last player takes two cards.

At the end of the game, you score points for sets of icons.

• Hearts to express your true love: If you have the most hearts, at the end of the game, earn Xpts.
• A map to navigate the Fire Swamp: Each is worth Xpts. If you get five, earn +Ypts.
• Swords to defeat Inigo: Each is worth X. If you get three, earn +Ypts.
• Fists to defeat the Fezzik the Giant: Every pair earns you Xpts.
• Poison for the Battle of Wits: If you have the most poison at the end of the game, lose Xpts. If you have the second most poison, lose Xpts.
• Miracles to recover from mostly-death: Each Miracle earns you Xpt for each poison. This effect is cumulative for each Miracle in your possession.
• Masks to hide your identity as long as possible: In play, as soon as all players have one mask, the player with the most masks earns Xpts per mask in her possession. If the game reaches the end without all players getting masks, the player with the most masks still earns Xpts per mask in her possession.

In addition, you could incorporate unique characters from the movie as cards in the deck, each rewarding bonus points for particular sets of icons in your possession at the end of the game.

And so on. I think two or three more icons would round out an initial prototype.