Community Questions

In this post, I'm answering a couple of community questions that I received on Meeple Syrup Shop Talk on Facebook. 

David Weiss asks, "How do we take overused themes and twist them to produce new types of gameplay experiences?" 

The short answer is: your theme has to be a story. Not a noun and a pre-generated set of artwork. I've indexed some of my posts on theme here, so I won't go into too much detail about how nouns are insufficient as themes. (A lot of my answer to this question is in those posts, so check them out.) A compelling story or set of characters is vital to overcome over-saturation of a theme. Sometimes, fresh art direction or component development can work instead, but I don't think this guarantees a memorable game the way a compelling story hook does. What are some shortcuts to developing a compelling story? 

• You can change up the protagonist. Make the zombies the heroes.
• You can change the ending. The Axis falls to zombies. 
• You can avoid stereotypes/tropes. Zombies now like liver. 
• You can change the mechanics to better fit the theme. Clank! is a great example. 
• You can develop the moral code of your characters. Give them a worldview. 

Ok, that last one needs some unpacking, but that's largely for a later post. In brief, games are stories and like narrative stories they express values. If you are aware of the values you/your characters are expressing, you can leverage your story to be more emotionally powerful. I guess that's not really a shortcut, and it's not easy to just start doing. However, I'm going to be increasing my focus on value-expression in the coming weeks if that's of interest to you. 

JahFree Secrest asks, "How can player interaction or lack thereof be used to support the theme of a tabletop game?" 

Well, to start we need to recognize that player interaction falls under mechanics and our goal is 'theme and mechanic alignment.' My first tip is to find the movement. Player interaction frequently involves movement such as passing cards, and movement is where theme can become embodied. Eye contact and, yes, dialogue are also important thematic elements of player interaction. It's my go to example,  but Sheriff of Nottingham has players passing components and talking to each other as part of the mechanics. 

Another angle is to look at mechanics as the way characters express their worldview. A cut throat game needs an appropriately cutthroat theme. If players lie or bluff or steal in game, that must inform the theme. I'll be writing more about the intersection of player-characters and mechanics soon. As an aside, player interaction doesn't have to involve conflict. How players interact in a cooperative game also indicates the worldview of the characters. 

The only thing we truly know about a game world is the experience of gameplay. The only things we know about characters are the actions they take. Player interactions are the only window we have into how characters feel about each other. Forget art and lore; the world is found in the game mechanics, including player interaction. Build out the theme around the experience. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.