
Simplifying Board Games - luu
https://www.jefftk.com/p/simplifying-board-games
======
thom
I have enjoyed tabletop games less and less as the number of 'things' has
increased. There are way too many games that require 15 different piles of
things, which is not just physically annoying in terms of setting up and
playing, but also such a cognitive overhead in the game.

Somehow even quite deep games like Magic: the Gathering or D&D (or indeed
chess) manage their complexity more elegantly, by having fewer concepts
iterated many times (although in the case of D&D this is managed by the DM who
certainly has a terribly complex job).

For example, Mage Knight in some sense tries to create a simplified version of
parts of D&D, but it does it with so many moving parts that I freak out at the
thought of event getting it out of the box. Whereas I can play actual D&D with
one dice and some words.

~~~
ryanianian
The focus of the article is primarily around how to simplify existing games
and gradually build them back up. Unfortunately many games, like you say, have
a very large number of parts, but it's not straightforward to modify gameplay
to not require them while still having an interesting and balanced game.

I really wish more board-games had a "low-parts mode" or a "trial" mode where
you could experience the gestalt of the game without having to cram all the
minutiae. Basically: do what this guy did for his daughter but put it in the
rule book.

~~~
zacharycohn
I collaborated with the designer of the notoriously complex, 23 pound box game
Gloomhaven to do exactly this for the upcoming small-box, mass-market oriented
Jaws of the Lion. We built a 5 scenario on-ramp tutorial I called Fischer-
Price mode.

We included new, simpler, components in the game that are exclusively for this
tutorial, have players add mechanics and components and systems one or two at
a time. During playtesting we went from about 2+ hours to read and semi-
understand the rules enough to play, to playing in about 10-15 minutes.

It can be done, but it can add significant cost (materials, development time)
to the game.

~~~
TulliusCicero
Hey this looks cool, glad you mentioned it. Will probably grab it in August
when it comes out!

~~~
zacharycohn
I don't get any royalties, but you should! I got one of the early production
copies and I'm two scenarios from finishing the campaign with my wife. It's
lots of fun.

~~~
heromal
So it's fine for 2 players?

~~~
zacharycohn
Yup! If you're playing with two, I might avoid the Voidwarden. My favorite
class, and it's playable with 2 players, but definitely harder with only one
ally. All other combinations work very well together at 2 player though

------
jordanpg
A related concern that this brings to mind is the act of teaching complex
rulesets to players who are playing for the first time.

It's not unusual for only one person in a group to have taken the time to
learn the rules, by reading the rulebook, or more often these days, by
watching a video. Then, that person is informally responsible for
communicating the rules to the other players, tutorial-style.

For games beyond a certain level of complexity, I have sometimes found this
process to be absurd. For example, it might be obvious that the rules are not
being followed correctly or consistently. Or more frequently, players are
playing their first playthrough haphazardly, with no real understanding of the
games mechanics. And no one wants to be a rules lawyer.

These things are normal and the games are meant to be fun, above all else, but
at the same time, playing a game incorrectly or with partial knowledge is
unfun to me, especially since it's not unusual to only play a game once these
days.

I think the suggestion for gamemakers to include graduated tutorial materials,
written or video, allowing players to trivially pick up the basics and begin
playing immediately is very useful, and will encourage players to come back to
the same games more than once.

~~~
pbuzbee
As a technical writer, I often find board game rules suffer from poor writing.
They often present information backwards: they start by telling you every
thing about every piece and situation before you really understand the basics
of play. This makes it difficult to piece together how to play the game.

I'd much rather see board game instructions written as starting out with a
VERY short summary of the game and its objectives (e.g. for Dominion: "in this
game, you build a deck of cards that you use to purchase victory points. At
the end of the game, the player with the most victory points wins."). Then you
can follow that up with set up instructions, a simple explanation of a basic
turn, followed by more detailed descriptions of gameplay and ending
conditions, and finally close with detailed reference material.

~~~
GloriousKoji
A lot of board instructions also suffer from poor translations. It's a fun
meta game my friends and I play where were try to figure out if it's a German
creator based on the instructions.

For example "When it is the players turn, the player must immediately draw a
card and place it into their hand."

compared to "The player starts their turn by drawing a card."

~~~
doeu
>A lot of board instructions also suffer from poor translations.

People who haven't tried board game design before underestimate how difficult
it is to write the rules they think they're writing - very slight wording
differences have MAJOR gameplay implications and will decide games.

Here's just one example of two widely different table interactions which
result based on the example you've provided.

>Scenario: Immediacy Matters

>Context: I have just become one point away from victory. I have a card that I
can flip over on any player's turn to score 1 point, but my friend is wrapping
up their turn, and I'm next. My friend says: "Okay I'm done with my turn", and
I now remember I have my hidden flippable one point card, because he said the
word "turn".

There are two VERY DIFFERENT endings to this scenario depending on which of
the two above rules you've written down.

In the verbiage,

>"The player starts their turn by drawing a card.",

If the game doesn't have any other explicit rules about how a player ENDS
their turn, there's an ambiguity in the word "by" \- it's not clear whether
the action of drawing STARTS my turn, or describes WHAT happens DURING my turn
(which ALSO ambiguously may or may not take precedence over my ability to flip
that card before I draw a card).

This difference seems small, but it will decide the game, because if the act
of drawing STARTS the turn, then by not drawing, my opponent's turn is still
going - so I win the game by flipping on their not-finished-until-I-draw turn.

This will become a heated table argument if players are invested in winning,
because it becomes a question of designer intent, which will probably
dissatisfy everyone because suddenly the game's turned into "guess what the
designer meant" and "let's debate the definition of words the author didn't
even know were important."

In the former verbiage,

>"When it is the players turn, the player must immediately draw a card "

There's still ambiguity (When did my opponents turn end?), but less:

If everyone agrees my opponent's turn ended when he said it did, and it's my
turn, because the rules say IMMEDIATELY draw, IMMEDIATELY implies it's pretty
explicitly disallowed for me to do something else before fulfilling the thing
I need to immediately do, like flip a card on the table. If the card I draw
when doing this subtracts points when drawn, I will not win the game when I
flip my card.

Disgustingly verbose rules like the above are the scar tissue from play
sessions where these heated arguments took place and the developer decided
that being overly wordy is worth avoiding race conditions and being
unambiguous.

------
michaelbuckbee
I really like OP's approach here but still, find that some kids' specific
games are quite good on their own. In particular, Ticket to Ride: First
Journey is a great adaptation to the full game.

Another one that nobody believes me about (because it sounds like such a
preposterous cash grab) is Super Mario Brothers Monopoly. But the changed some
of the fundamentally boring aspects of the game to make it really quick to
play and introduced the concept of "hero" characters with unique abilities to
it.

~~~
nicoburns
I also like this approach. And I've found the opposite way around also works
pretty well: kids (say age 4-6+) are perfectly capable of playing the full
adult versions of games.

~~~
m12k
I've found the challenge isn't so much for them to understand the rules as
much is it's holding their attention with something not as instantly
gratifying as the other entertainment they are used to in apps and video
streaming.

~~~
nicoburns
Ah, my siblings and I were only allowed an hour of screen time a week when we
younger. So that wasn't really an issue. I think an hour a week is a bit
extreme, but I definitely intend to put strong limits on my children,
especially when they're young.

------
torgoguys
These days there are so many board games out there that if you are looking for
a "simplified ______", another game probably already exists and fills that
niche reasonably well.

Shout out here to Heroscape, which is my favorite game and is basically a
simplified version of a miniature war game. It is an interesting case study
for this article too because Heroscape comes with two rulebooks, one for a
basic game and another for the advanced game. (Although even the "advanced"
game is much simplier than most minature games). Heroscape also introduced
complexity over time with its many expansions (primarily new miniatures which
each of special powers).

The game was discontinued back in 2010, but still has a community of fans
going strong at [https://www.heroscapers.com](https://www.heroscapers.com).
The forums are great.

------
alasdair_
One of the first comments mentioned “super mario brothers monopoly” being a
well designed game for kids.

I’d like to add that the Star Wars monopoly is also very well designed and has
a lot of new features that solve the biggest problems of the game taking too
long, of those ahead almost always staying ahead and for the game being boring
when itnisnt your turn.

Games finish in under an hour. They have cards that opponents can play during
your turn to block or change your moves. Best of all, it’s only possibly for
you (as a single player) to win if your side (datk or light) has the most
point, making it an interesting semi-team game.

It’s a great game and I’ve played it with many professional game designers who
also really like it.

~~~
mleonhard
Which version are you referring to? I found several versions on Amazon which
appear to have different gameplay.

------
cptskippy
A few of the games mentioned don't really need simplification. I've been
playing Carcassonne with my daughter since she was 3 years old. She can't do
the scoring but she understands all the rules and how to earn points. The only
thing we simplified originally was just not using Farmers.

We recently got a game called Outfoxed! which says it's for 5+, she picked it
up after the first round. The hardest concept for her was moving diagonally
and that you aren't allowed to in the game. It's a great game for learning to
read names since all of the Foxes have unique and not trivial names to
pronounce.

~~~
iso947
Yes my youngest loves carcassone, we played. He’s 5 now and we also play ttr
(first journey and London), catan junior, and he is a big fan of Station
Master, which is an odd little game we picked up pre kids. We went through a
phase with outfoxed And guess who, but he preferred the rest now.

~~~
eru
If the kids like Catan derivatives, you might also want to try Bohnanza.

The recommended age on the box is a hilarious 13+. But I've played it with
bright 5 year olds.

See
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza)

------
rayalez
For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to do something like that for
DnD. Come up with a system that doesn't have countless intricate rules and
tedious arithmetics, but instead focuses on the social/creative aspects of the
game, encourages creativity, improvisation, and storytelling. Keeping the
rules fun, simple, accessible, yet flexible and powerful. Something you can
play with your kids, or introduce to non-gamer friends to have a fun evening
or two (but also is capable of supporting longer campaigns if you get into
it). You can learn everything you need to play the game by reading a couple of
pages, or teach it in 10-15 minutes.

The project is still in the very early stages, basically a draft, but I'd love
to know what you think:

[https://playmirage.io/](https://playmirage.io/)

(For people who have some good ideas about the rules, or want to contribute
ideas for spells, magic items, and adventures - project is open source and
available on github:
[https://github.com/raymestalez/mirage](https://github.com/raymestalez/mirage))

~~~
blaser-waffle
> For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to do something like that for
> DnD. Come up with a system that doesn't have countless intricate rules and
> tedious arithmetics, but instead focuses on the social/creative aspects of
> the game, encourages creativity, improvisation, and storytelling.

No shortage of rules-lite RPGs out there, with varying degrees of similarity
to D&D. FATE and FUDGE are the two that come to mind, but there are lots of
others.

There Is No Spoon, a simple RPG that was big on RPG.net a while back is
another good example.

------
wishinghand
Not a board game, but Shadowrun definitely has a complexity problem. It's set
in a cyberpunk future where magic has also reawakened, bringing in Tolkien-
esque creatures as well. You can be a hacker, mage, cyber warrior, or just a
smooth talker. However, each of those archetypes has different rules, and are
essentially their own game. And for the GM, you have to know all of the rules
relevant to not only the people playing with you, but any enemies they might
run into.

The setting is amazing, but it's dying for a rewrite (and I don't mean
Shadowrun Anarchy). There's been some attempts to make a Powered by the
Apocalypse version, but none have gained a large amount of traction.

~~~
eru
Throwing one million D6 also gets old after a while.

------
funkaster
I have been playing Hero Kids[0] with my 4yo son since he was 3.5 and we have
a blast every session. the best part of it, is how flexible are the rules and
you can relax them as much as you want for smaller kids. I can def see how the
approach in the article could make complex games more accesible to kids. As
soon as my son is a bit bigger I’ll try this for sure.

[0]:
[https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/106605](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/106605)

------
chapium
I've found that many games translate easily to 5 year olds by tweaking the
rules. Removing hidden information and playing cooperatively works best.

~~~
cptskippy
Competition was the I think the biggest barrier for my youngest, she hates
losing. Old Maid flips the equation a little because there's only 1 loser and
many winners. Carcassonne can be played without keeping track of points, just
rules for how you lay tiles. We recently got a game called Outfoxed! where you
collectively hunt down a thief, it's great for kids because it exercises
memory and deductive reasoning to eliminate suspects, and you have to
strategize as a team.

~~~
chapium
We played pengaloo a lot. Its a matching game. We just work together to find
the matching eggs. The kids enjoy the thrill of checking the eggs as well as
the cute characters.

------
cmos
Annoyed by the money and harshness of interactions in a game like monopoly
with 5-8 year olds we created "Friendopoly". When you land on someones
property you are invited to camp on their lawn or sleep in their house or
hotel. The railroads are all connected, there are no chance or community chest
cards, and it's just a fun time going around the board that is more communal.

~~~
eru
Monopoly is an awful game. I'm glad you don't play that.

But also have a look at the modern 'German' style boardgames. They are much
better than the bad old American classics like Monopoly.

'Ticket to Ride' and Carcassonne are a good gateway games for example.

------
agentultra
This is how I introduced board gaming with my children. There are kids
versions of some of the more popular games like Settlers and Carcasonne which
can be fun as well. We also play _No Thank You, Evil!_ which is a lot of fun
as my kids have wild imaginations and really enjoy playing pretend.

Especially in this pandemic moment it has been a very useful technique to have
around.

Of course even in role playing one doesn't require a boxed game to play. A few
dice and some cards often suffice. Simplifying Microlite20 [0] and throw in a
kid-friendly setting with some problem solving is a great way to pass the time
and see how your kids think!

[0] [https://microlite20.org](https://microlite20.org)

------
rossdavidh
I like it, and having played board games with my (now adolescent) daughter for
years, it all rings true to my experience.

One thing I would like to point out is that a lot of software (including
applications, languages, frameworks, etc) would benefit from a similar
approach. When the tutorial starts out with "install these five things and
then set up this environment and take on board these thirty pieces of jargon
and now we can do something", it is hindering its own growth. Usually, it was
nothing like that when it started, and just added things to make it "easier"
(for people who already knew the basics), without realizing that they were
cutting off their flow of new users.

------
brutus1213
I have been trying to get my 4 year old into board games. I grew up on snakes
and ladder, ludo and later monopoly. That hasn't piqued my little ones
interest at all.

Here is what worked .. my first castle panic .. this was super simple and got
her engaged. There was another simple game called kraken attack that had cool
looking pieces and got her engaged. Finally, we play a randomish game with the
agricola board and kingdomino. Moral of the story is relax, bend the rules,
teach simple things like turn taking, post-game clean up, and have fun!

~~~
dimitropoulos
Thanks for the suggestion on My First Castle Panic! Just grabbed it - looks
great!

And I couldn't agree more on the "relax, bend the rules" side of things. It's
all about fun.

~~~
brutus1213
Good luck. Two other suggestions for that age group that we found worked:
Animal upon Animal (kinda expensive for the simple pieces you get but it felt
so much fun, the wife joined in me and the daughter play!) and S.O.S Dino
(gorgeous pieces and educational concept; my kid lost interest for some reason
I could not understand; game was super interesting and simple)

------
cybwraith
Don't forget the classic abstracts, too! Chess, go, etc. You may have a
prodigy and never know it otherwise!

~~~
jefftk
Lily got very into chess when she was ~5y, and kept trying to get her 3y
sister Anna to play with her. Anna didn't like Chess and wrote about it:
[https://www.annakaufmanwise.com/chess](https://www.annakaufmanwise.com/chess)

------
CJefferson
I really like this, I feel too many games have pieces "for the sake of it".

For fun I've been trying to develop AIs which can play games, mainly so I can
then try finding the "minimal viable rules", the simplest version of a game
which is still in some sense "interesting".

~~~
jefftk
I wrote some about trying to find the simplest interesting game a few years
ago: [https://www.jefftk.com/p/simplest-interesting-
game](https://www.jefftk.com/p/simplest-interesting-game)

------
a-saleh
I do simmilar things :-)

I.e. have been playing Carcasone when my was 4y, we just didn't play with the
'farmer' or we played KingDomino, and she just didn't have to adhere to the
rule that your kingdom needs to fit 5x5 grid.

------
dowakin
I'm using same trick with my 5 years son. In past I've tried kids editions
(like ticket to ride first jorney). But they become boring too fast. Plus kid
like to play "real" game, not game for small kids.

------
krm01
Slightly off-topic but Love your blog. The pages for your kids, did you build
a simple CMS for them to create pages? Or taught them to write static HTML
pages? I’m thinking of doing the latter myself.

------
_ZeD_
after all this years - poker and neapolitan[0] cards apart - the most fun and
interesting "board" game I played is still Bang![1]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_playing_cards#Napoleta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_playing_cards#Napoletane)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!_(card_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!_\(card_game\))

------
bytematic
I bought board game simulator recently to play with my friends. Many of the
most popular games were just too intimidating to play, this would have really
helped us haha

------
tmaly
I have found a number of age appropriate games at a local toy store.

The owner is very good at curating them. Sloth in a Hurry is for ages 5+, my
daughter loves to play it with us.

------
renewiltord
There are also games with simple mechanics. I think Century : Spice Road and
the various Forbidden Island / Desert games are good examples.

