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Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms
- engelstein
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Isaac Shalev and I are publishing a tabletop gaming mechanism encyclopedia with CRC press. I met with the publisher earlier this week at GDC and it will be coming out in July. The title is "Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design" - about 600 pages and 200 mechanisms, plus variants. For each mechanism we explain how it works, diagram it, discuss when and where to use it or not use it, and a list of example games.
Here's a sneak peek at the chapter listing:
Introduction
Game Structure
Turn Order
Actions
Resolution
Game End and Victory
Uncertainty
Economics
Auctions
Worker Placement
Movement
Area Control
Set Collection
Card Mechanisms
Game Index
This came out of my game design class. Even students that had played a fair number of modern games had big blind spots on certain mechanisms. There's also a lot of older mechanisms that we think deserve to be dusted off and maybe get a second life.
When we have a better date I'll let y'all know. I'll have some copies with me at Gencon for sure.
Geoff
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- hotseatgames
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- Jackwraith
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We were disappointed that we missed Isaac at ConnCon this year. At least I think you are talking about the same Isaac Shalev we know. Don't know if he didn't come or we just didn't see him there. Anyway, say hello from the Rose's when you see him.
Keep us in the loop regarding the book. We will definitely be wanting a copy.
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- engineer Al
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Pick up & delivery
Hidden Movement
Direct conflict (battle)
The dungeon crawl
Social deduction
Negotiation
Englelsteinisims
Just wondering. . .
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- Sagrilarus
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- engelstein
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ubarose wrote: We were disappointed that we missed Isaac at ConnCon this year. At least I think you are talking about the same Isaac Shalev we know. Don't know if he didn't come or we just didn't see him there. Anyway, say hello from the Rose's when you see him.
Keep us in the loop regarding the book. We will definitely be wanting a copy.
Thanks! Yes - Same Isaac.
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- engelstein
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engineer Al wrote: Looks very cool Geoff! Definitely looks like something that would be handy as a reference when trying to nail down aspects of "what works and what isn't working" when designing a game. Now I hate to make more work for you but I'm interested why you did not include chapters on:
Pick up & delivery
Hidden Movement
Direct conflict (battle)
The dungeon crawl
Social deduction
Negotiation
Englelsteinisims
Just wondering. . .
Pick Up & Deliver - we decided this wasn't a mechanism. It's a higher-level collection of mechanisms. We actually use that as an example in the book when discussing where we (sort of arbitrarily) drew the line. Dungeon Crawl is the same - not a mechanism.
Hidden movement is in the Movement chapter.
Direct Conflict is covered by Resolution - that's where all the conflict resolution mechanisms are.
Social Deduction is under Uncertainty
Negotiation is under Economics
Engelsteinisms are, well, basically the entire book.
As an example of our chosen level of detail, here's the subsections of the Movement chapter:
Chapter 10 - Movement 413
MOV-01 Tessellation 415
MOV-02 Roll and Move 419
MOV-03 Pattern Movement 421
MOV-04 Movement Points 424
MOV-05 Resource to Move 426
MOV-06 Measurement 428
MOV-07 Different Dice 430
MOV-08 Drift 432
MOV-09 Impulse 434
MOV-10 Programmed 436
MOV-11 Relative 439
MOV-12 Mancala 441
MOV-13 Chaining 443
MOV-14 Bias 445
MOV-15 Move Multiple 448
MOV-16 Map Addition 450
MOV-17 Map Reduction 453
MOV-18 Map Deformation 455
MOV-19 Move Through Deck 457
MOV-20 Movement Template 459
MOV-21 Pieces as Map 461
MOV-22 Multiple Maps 463
MOV-23 Shortcuts 465
MOV-24 Hidden Movement 467
By the way, Daniel Solis did all the diagrams for the book, and they are awesome.
Geoff
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- engelstein
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Sagrilarus wrote: So . . . This is CRC the people that publish the CRC Math Tables?
It is. They have a well-regarded line of Video Game design books, and the editor in charge of that line thinks the next big thing will be Tabletop design books, so he reached out to me to see if I was interested in helping to launch that new segment for them. I think it's a great idea and hope it's successful for them.
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- engineer Al
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- Sagrilarus
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engineer Al wrote: Wow, I'm really looking forward to this!
Yeah, as best I can tell I sort of have to buy this.
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engelstein wrote:
By the way, Daniel Solis did all the diagrams for the book, and they are awesome.
Geoff
This looks like it will be a pretty amazing resource.
Any chance of a sneak peak at a diagram to get a sense of them?
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engelstein wrote: I know that many of you here design games, so thought this might be of interest. I am also super-excited about this, so even though it's way too early from a PR standpoint I'm posting now.
Isaac Shalev and I are publishing a tabletop gaming mechanism encyclopedia with CRC press. I met with the publisher earlier this week at GDC and it will be coming out in July. The title is "Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design" - about 600 pages and 200 mechanisms, plus variants. For each mechanism we explain how it works, diagram it, discuss when and where to use it or not use it, and a list of example games.
Here's a sneak peek at the chapter listing:
Introduction
Game Structure
Turn Order
Actions
Resolution
Game End and Victory
Uncertainty
Economics
Auctions
Worker Placement
Movement
Area Control
Set Collection
Card Mechanisms
Game Index
This came out of my game design class. Even students that had played a fair number of modern games had big blind spots on certain mechanisms. There's also a lot of older mechanisms that we think deserve to be dusted off and maybe get a second life.
When we have a better date I'll let y'all know. I'll have some copies with me at Gencon for sure.
Geoff
Sounds like the boardgame version of this, for RPGs:
legendaryquest.netfirms.com/books/RPG_De...Patterns_9_13_09.pdf
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- engelstein
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