In an attempt to transition out of hiatus, I will be posting the scripts of my Thinking Beyond Mechanisms segment. I don't plan to edit them, so there may be some differences between the audio and written versions. Take the audio as the correct version.
Welcome to Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, an in depth look at the other aspects of game design, the segment that looks at some of the theory of board game design that goes beyond what typically gets covered when we learn how to design games. My name is Sarah Shipp and today I want to talk about the narrative implications of failure.
In board games as in literature, goals and obstacles drive narratives. Goals and obstacles determine the actions that drive the game. If the goal of the game is to win a footrace, the actions will like include forward movement on a board. If the goal is to win a demolition derby, the actions will reflect that. The obstacles in a game present the challenges to the goals. This could be running out of stamina in a race or needing to collect certain resources before you can unlock a technology.
Succeeding in overcoming obstacles means achieving a goal, whether a major game altering goal or a minor goal that aids progress thru the game’s systems. Failure means not achieving a goal. In game terms, failure means not progressing or sometimes losing progress. Players may fail forward by receiving minor compensation that offers a different sort of progress than achieving the goal would have.
In narrative terms, failure offers moments of drama. The possibility of failure raises the stakes around the importance of a goal. This is true even if the game’s systems are less punishing than the theme implies. Feeding your family in Agricola is important because failing to feed your family in real life is important. There is an element of emotional importance from the theme that resonates with players regardless of whether the strategic play is to take the negative points or avoid the penalty.
When games thematically offer emotional stakes around failure, they can elevate mechanisms players might otherwise complain about. The Grizzled has a card that takes away a player’s ability to speak, which is the sort of rule that seems silly in a non-party game, but is thematically framed around surviving the trauma of war.
Failure in The Grizzled leads to negative psychological effects. Most war themed games couch failure in units losses. However, in the Undaunted series, the units are given names and faces, humanizing the cost of warfare. Thematically framing failure elevates how players experience both of these game systems.
Assigning narrative implications to failure may encourage you to add mechanisms that penalize players for failure, however that isn’t necessary. In Flash Point Fire rescue, you are not penalized for failing to save up to three victims, but players still want to try to save everyone because of the narrative implications.
Failure doesn’t have to be only in life and death situations. Games with tug-of-war mechanics frame failure as success for your opponent. Failure in a route-building or pick up and deliver game might mean that goods don’t reach the people that need them. Considering the thematic cost of failure could lead to additional thematic flourishes or mechanical tweaks both of which would raise the emotional narrative stakes by focusing on failure.
If theme is the why behind actions, the cost of failure is the stakes of the theme. What is at stake if the players succeed or fail? How does the world change based on the outcome of the game? If the stakes are low thematically, penalizing players mechanically doesn’t make much sense. Conversely, a game that has high thematic stakes and cozy mechanics will feel anticlimactic. Often, only minor adjustments are needed to effectively raise the emotional stakes of a game.
Legacy games are good at getting players to think beyond the confines of a single game. However, players are capable of understanding why goals are important to game characters in less dynamic games. We understand goals and obstacles both as game and story devices. In a saturated market, telling players why they should care can make them care- about the story and by extension the game. Even something as simple as the broken tiles in Azul cues players into an important obstacle and also helps them remember the rules of tile acquisition.
So, consider failure thematically in your design. It’s a good way to get players invested in your game. For more ways of thinking beyond mechanisms, you can visit my blog at shipp board games dot blog spot dot com or catch future episodes of thinking beyond mechanisms on ludology.
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