Nowadays when gaming is mentioned, most people immediately think about video games. But what of games lacking a digital enforcer? what of board games, and card games? Are they not as valid?
as a hopeful game designer, I would be remiss to say they aren't as important if not even more important than their newer, younger digital cousins.
You see, table top games, are no different from computer based games in their most basic of forms- the only difference is that in the digital form the computer, processor, and various other computer components handle the messier pieces of the mathematical mechanics, and enforce rules and game laws. what does this mean? Basically a digital game simply does what players often find slow, boring, and or overly complicated, and does it for them so that players can instead focus on the experience and having fun.
So why play table top games?
Well from a designer standpoint, they are great, as they give you more direct connection with the mechanics of the game, and allow for rapid modding. You can see exactly what goes into making the game work, and if you want to change the game, rather than writing complex programs and algorithms to tell the computer what to do, you simply write a new paragraph defining what a player can or cannot do- AKA, if you want to play chess with two queens instead of one, in the computer you would have to completely rewrite major aspects of the game- but on the board game- just put another queen on the board and tell your opponent "hey, we are playing with two queens now." if that isn't an easier way to modify a game, I don't know what is.So all of this is to say, I recently played a few of print and play games (which are exactly what they sound like- games you print... cut out... and play).
First, I played
punch.
This game is simple, but in its simplicity there was a lot of fun. Perhaps not the most striking aesthetically, punch is a simple turn based card game. It plays a lot like a rock paper scissors with a few additional changes. Basically it is a game where you attempt to guess what your opponent is going to do, and in response play a card to counter their offense or take advantage of their moments of weakness.
But better than its simple mechanics, was its very simple set up. Basically it meant printing 8 pages of cards, and cutting them out. That was it. after that I was ready to play, and without complex rules, and hurdles in understanding how to play, quickly i could get right to having fun.
Second I played
zombie-my-pocket .
This felt to me like a really cool concept, gone a bit awry. The rules were a bit complex, but worded in a somewhat confusing fashion. This left me and my fellow game mates, assuming how to play a lot of the game, just to keep things going. Basically it was a dungeon explorer, played with a limited number of cards, with a goal of reaching two main areas of the dungeon. The problem for us arrived in a very limited amount of cards to choose from, and every time the deck was spent we understood it as an hour had to pass. If that were the case, since the game could only span the time frame of a theoretical 3 hour window, the game was much to quick, and we wound up extending play time to make it a more enjoyable experience.
This game was easy enough to assemble, being several squares for map locations, and a few rectangles for cards, and a larger square for the manual. Annoyingly, the game seemed not to come with character/ avatar pieces, and therefore we actually used pieces from another game. The game also required us to have scrap paper to take notes, which was unexpected, and required one of us to sacrifice a sheet of sketch book paper (the horror).
Third up was a game by the name
witch-hunt .
This was another simple card game, this time guessing what another player was, while attempting to keep your own identity a secrete. Basically you attempt to call out other players as witches, or hunt down the "witch" if you find a witch you gain points, and if you are a witch and you are never found out, you also again points. he games major draw back was a very limited deck. this caused us to rapidly use up all of our "action" cards, and be unable to do anything but reveal ourselves. this made winning much less about strategy, and much more about not using any more cards than yo had to, and simply making sure you accused everyone else of being witches to force them to use their cards.
The set up for this game was again, simple, as card games tend to be. Again, the main issue i found through play, wasn't bad game mechanics overall, but a lack of versatility. If modding the game, personally I would add more cards, and more option of actions per turn, rather than simply getting rid of cards, or making other players simply discard cards. more strategy would make for more fun in my opinion of this game.
Last, but far from least, I played the rather popular card game
cards-against-humanity .
For anyone unfamiliar, this is a game famed for it's vulgarity, and dark humor. A prompt is provided on one side of a black card, often with a missing word or a question; which is answered by the players of the game, using outrageous responses and concepts written on white cards (each player has ten in their hand at all times). The winner is decided by the player who flipped the black card, often based on which connection they found the most humorous. A very simple game, but fun nonetheless.
Perhaps more important than the set up of another card game (cut out squares), with this game the concept of fun should be examined. by far this game was the most enjoyable. This game had us playing laughing hysterically, and frantically putting down cards, exciting for the game to continue. But why? Perhaps humor was deriving the main amount of fun, laughing at our own sick psyches, but there was also another element at play; winning. AS we were laughing with each other, yo could still win, and most of this strategy relayed on knowing what you person who flipped the black card would find the most outrageous. Additionally, their was also the reward of puzzle solving- some of the connections, were far fetched, but in being outlandish, they were funnier. your brain had to paint an image of what was being said in order to judge what the combination of words meant, and this forced players to envision concepts they never thought they would want to see, but were utterly histerical in nature
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