TBM: Ep 15 script

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.

Bluffing 

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 bluffing.

Bluffing is one of the mechanisms that edges into player dynamics. Which is to say, bluffing may be a core game mechanism or it may arise naturally at the table due to other mechanisms. Additionally, some bluffing games are actually lying games, such as Sheriff of Nottingham, where players are instructed to speak aloud falsehoods. This spectrum of mechanisms and dynamics makes bluffing a little hard to nail down when you look past traditional gambling games. 

If you are designing a bluffing game, the first thing I would look at is if it is actually a lying game. A lot of players are fine with implying something untrue but balk at lying out loud. I have played with multiple people who simply will not lie in Sheriff of Nottingham, which is the main hook of the game. Other players may not like lying simply because they don’t want everyone’s attention on them. These are the players that also don’t enjoy roleplaying in their board games. There is nothing wrong with designing a lying mechanism into a game, but you need to be aware of these two types of players who will instantly dislike the mechanic. 

When designing a bluffing mechanism, it is easy to simply use existing gambling games as templates. However, there are several different ways to implement bluffing in board games that can work for a much broader swath of game structures. The three areas I have identified where you can introduce bluffing are hidden resources, hidden goals, and secret teams. 

Hidden resources is the type of bluffing we are the most familiar with. In poker, I have a hand of cards that I want you to believe is something other than what it actually is. The cards are my resources which I keep hidden from the other players. However, hidden resources could also refer to items in a bag, behind a screen, or face down on the table. In games where bluffing is a more central mechanism, I typically own the resources I am bluffing about, but any game with secret information that I can access may result in a bluffing dynamic. 

In Dune, one player gets to looks at the cards before a blind auction, putting that player in the position of knowing not just their own hand of cards, but eventually every one else’s as well. In contrast, Cockroach Poker has each player looking at cards before they are passed facedown to the next player. The mechanism in Cockroach Poker is really lying, because I am not implying but outright stating what card I want you to believe I have. However, Dune and Cockroach Poker illustrate the spectrum of player access to hidden information and how that can affect play dynamics. 

Hidden goals are similar to hidden resources, but usually the bluffing is more subtle and involves misdirection through game actions. Unlike with hidden resources, if I fail to bluff about my goals I am giving you the power to make me lose the game. Stock manipulation games may fall into this category. Clans, reimplemented as Fae, by Leo Colovini has players moving pieces across a map to group similarly colored pieces for scoring. All players can cause any color piece to score, but each player has a secret objective for a different color they want to win. Ex Libris has a more subtle mechanism where players must collect books of a certain color for one of the scoring conditions. In both instances, you don’t want to be obvious about which color you are going for while still trying to amass as many points as possible. 

Hidden goals may include goals that are shared such as which horse you are backing in Long Shot the dice game. Games with open information on player boards that are hard to see at a distance, such as in Long Shot the dice game, can create an environment conducive to misdirection and bluffing provided players don’t elect to double check each others’ boards as the game progresses. 

Secret teams is the type of bluffing found in social deduction games, but also games with a traitor. Secret teams is the less subtle version of hidden goals, and lying may come into play. Games with secret teams may also include hidden resources if secret information is passed among players, or hidden goals if a traitor is given a randomly drawn goal at the beginning of the game. 

Bluffing is a dynamic that can arise anytime there is hidden information in a game. You can leverage that dynamic to increase player interaction and game tension. But be aware if mechanics move into lying that some players will be turned off by that. 

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.