Last week, io9.com posted a list of the 10 Greatest Science Fiction Games of All Time. We like lists, on the internet at least. They're easy to assemble, quick to read and, more often than not, very hit friendly. They drag eyeballs to a page because people want to see what you think the best of the best is and then disagree with it. That generates comments and proves to the author that at least people are reading.
In the spirit of the list endeavor, I am prepared to disagree with most everything on the io9 list. It is my sworn duty, as a board game geek in my own right, to point out where they went wrong, why, and to suggest replacements or reordering for each and every item on the list. Just as it will be your sworn duty to do the same for me.
My first issue is, of course, the very title of the list. 'Of All Time?' Really? Even the ones that haven't come out yet? Surely not. As a writer on a Sci-Fi oriented site, the author must certainly recognize the problem with that phrase. And, unless she has some pretty amazing abilities she hasn't told anyone about, she hasn't played all of the games ever to come out, either. Clearly we are just dealing with The 10 Best Science Fiction Games the Author Has Played. Even then I am a bit suspicious of the suggestions.
Take item #8, Pandemic. Yes, Pandemic. What, exactly, is the Science Fiction element in Pandemic? There isn't, as far as I can tell from having played it, anything about the game that suggests elements of Science Fiction. You attempt to cure various plagues using scientific research and cooperative game play. Nothing about it suggests that the events are occurring in an alternate universe or on an alien planet or in a different time line or by means of anything other than standard current scientific methods. Nor do the diseases being cured come from outer space or the depths of the ocean or science gone wrong. In short, excellent game though it is, Pandemic does not belong on this list.
Item #10, U.S. Patent No. 1, is, let me say up front, not a game I have played. In 2001 it was nominated for an Origin Award for best Science Fiction / Fantasy Game of the year. However, the game scores rather poorly on BoardGameGeek with a 5.24 rating. Additionally the Time Travel theme - you are building a time machine after all - isn't really explored in any way and seems to be merely a story point used to explain the narrative and game mechanics.
If you want something that actually focuses on time travel as the main theme and mechanic of the game, I'm going to make two worthy suggestions.
Looney Labs makes a wonderful little card game called Chrononauts which, much like classic TV shows Quantum Leap and Voyagers, among others, has the players bouncing back and forth in time trying to either correct the time line or mess it up in specific, goal achieving, ways. There are a couple of different versions and some add-ons, but the basics of the game remain unchanged. Depending on the anomalies you decide to create or correct, they can have a ripple effect elsewhere in the timeline which may, or may not allow your character to get back home to their proper time.
Take a moment to check out Khronos as well. Khronos has you playing a Lord and his assistant. Your goal is to influence events across three separate boards simultaneously. Each board represents different time periods and events on one board influence events and opportunities on later boards. For example, building a small church on an early board could see it become a cathedral on one of the later boards. Unless, of course, your opponent builds a large building over the same space at a different point in the time stream in which case your church may never have existed in the first place. Or will it? Where's my almanac? Khronos won the Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société in 2006. Which means something. In French. I think.
Risk 2210 A.D. is io9's #9 suggestion. Which is fine, if you like Risk. It adds complexity in the form of Commanders and special decks of cards as well as some interesting alternate locations for folks to fight over. In case it isn't entirely clear, it is a war in the future using the Risk game mechanics with some extra bits bolted on. Look, you can fight on the Moon, which is cool enough. However, you are still dealing with the very dicey randomness of essential Risk and for most people this is not enough of an opportunity to determine their own fate. It won the 2001 Origins Award for best Science Fiction / Fantasy Game.
If you really want to do some Sci-Fi Area Control war gaming the game you want is StarCraft: The Board Game. It is a Fantasy Flight Big Box game, and so, rather expensive at this point. It is also, sadly, out of print. Not only does it feature absolutely everything you expect from a game based on StarCraft, it also has a modular, and therefore changeable, board that means every game can be different. With variable player abilities, a card driven combat mechanic, unit upgrades and more, this game promises endless variations and strategies for victory. To top it off, StarCraft the board game won the 2006 Origins Award for Board Game or Expansion of the Year.
To replace Pandemic, which we summarily kicked out of the #8 spot, I'm going to hand you a copy of Space Alert, a CD player and some Valium because this game will ramp up the pressure and by the end you'll be a nervous wreck. It is cooperative and plays in as little as 30 minutes. In those 30 minutes you will be expected to take your space ship out into space and bring it back safely. Simple enough. Except for that CD. It's the computer telling you what threats you and your crew face and it is not shy about piling on threat on top of threat. You will have to manage all aspects of your ship from weapons to shields to engineering to life support to engines and so on. Threats include internal problems like sabotage or mutiny and external threats like asteroids and giant space octopi. If you can't cooperate smoothly, your ship is doomed.
At last we come to some decent suggestions. Galaxy Trucker and Cosmic Encounter are both good games and worthy of being in the list. Galaxy Trucker at #7 has you cobbling together a space ship from the best parts you can get and then trying to make it survive all sorts of bad things in space in the hopes that you have assembled it correctly and usefully. #6's Cosmic Encounter is another space war game where you have your own home planets and try to take over the home planets of the other players.
#5 is Android. NOT Android: Netrunner the new LCG, but plain old Android. It's... well, it's not good. Or, it's brilliant! Or, possibly it is just sort of okay. This is the problem with the game. You are attempting to solve a murder in a cyberpunk future. Unless you drew some other objective. In which case everyone begins working at cross purposes and then things sort of ball up and stop working. Unless they don't. In which case you'll have enjoyed Android. Unless you didn't. The play experience of Android is too variable and depends too much on the right mix of objectives, characters and so forth to really class it as one of the 10 Greatest of All Time.
Since there aren't a lot of options for Sci-Fi Murder Mystery games without drifting into the Horror genre, go ahead and give Android: Netrunner a go. It is another LCG from Fantasy Flight and, by all reports and BoardGameGeek rank (8.5), seems to be very good indeed. A re-implementation of the old Netrunner CCG from years gone by, it is a two player game pitting MegaCorps against Runners and seems to be hitting the mark quite well. Runners try to break through a given Data Center's 'Ice' while MegaCorps try to prevent it. Richard Garfield, designer of the original Netrunner as well as Magic, redesigned the game for the LCG format.
Item #4 on the list as given is Star Trek: Fleet Captains. It's from WizKids and has you marching a small fleet of ships around a randomized modular board collecting resources and doing battle with your opponent. And it's wrong. Just, wrong.
Because everyone knows that the best Star Trek game, bar none, with no exceptions whatsoever, is Star Fleet Battles.
Seriously, it is. Go ask.
See, what did I tell you? Star Fleet Battles is the ultimate in Star Trek, ship based gaming. You are the Captain of any one of several hundred ships based loosely in the world of Star Trek the Original Series. Your job is to fight tactical battles against the enemies of the Federation (or Klingon Empire, or Gorn Hegemony, or, well, you get the idea). That, on the face of it is simple enough. What complicates it and makes it gritty and crunchy and thematic and the best Star Trek game ever is the Energy Allocation sheets. You see, for any of your ship to work, you have to allocate energy to it's various systems. Your engines generate only so much energy and you have to use it to power not only the shields and phasers, but life support, torpedoes, movement rate, drones, transporters, repairs and a whole laundry list of things besides.
It is a massive rules system with pages and pages of instructions and rules and exceptions and clarifications. Games with two players and one ship each can take upwards of three hours. So, yes, crunchy, deep and demanding on your time. But, so, so worth it for the moment when, after hours of planning and movement and exchanging fire and allocating damage, you finally drive home the final torpedo that pops the Klingon D-7 and ends the game.
RoboRally at #3 is not a bad choice. You race robots around a factory floor and try to avoid obstacles and each other while attempting to tag goal flags and complete the race. Most of the amusement comes from trying to plan your moves ahead of time and watching other players do the Robot Dance as they shift their bodies around trying to figure out which cards will make the little robot go where they want. Once everyone plans their 5 moves, all the robots go simultaneously none of the moves work as planned and, once again, chaos ensues.
If you'd like more of the same except different, give The Great Space Race a look. Like RoboRally, The Great Space Race has players pre-planning moves and then executing them simultaneously. Unlike Roborally, you'll be trying to complete three circuits of a track, have more moves and special abilities at your disposal and, if you lose, your entire species is wiped from the face of the Galaxy.
#2 is Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition). It belongs on the list, no doubt about it. It is the biggest, meatiest and possibly the most in depth Science Fiction game going. It is also nearly impossible to play in less than a day, especially if you have people who have never played before. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. You certainly get your money's worth when you play it, but getting it played can be a hassle. There is, at times, just too much going on in the game to put it casually on the table and say, "Hey guys, let's play this." You want to plan ahead. Photocopy rules sheets and player aids and hand them out ahead of time, have at least a couple players who know the game well to help coach those that don't, make sure everyone knows that it is an all day affair, that sort of thing. Even with those difficulties, it remains a rewarding and extremely thematic experience. It belongs on the list, but does it belong at number two? Hmm.
Considering #1 is Battlestar Galactica, we might have a problem here. Again, the BSG game is good. It's a semi-cooperative with a secret traitor element. Yup, someone on the crew is a Cylon and no one knows who it is until they are revealed. The problem is, I think Galactica is only a good game, whereas others, during the height of BSG's TV popularity, went straight for unreservedly calling it great. Yes, it ranks highly on BoardGameGeek, but again, many of those ratings came during it's TV run and haven't been revisited. It's thematic and well designed, but it isn't a number one.
So where does that leave us?
Here's what I come up with for a new, more properly done list. Some items stay, but are reordered from the original and some are entirely replaced.
Fiddleback's 100% Guaranteed Best Science Fiction Games Ever Made (+2 Alternates)
Ultimately, the list is ordered according to which ones most make me feel like I am participating in a Science Fiction setting or universe. I tried to stick with the same themes as the original list author, but, had I not, this list might be entirely different.
That, of course, is the point. Any listing of ten things is going to be colored by the experiences and exposure of the people compiling such a list. Claiming to be in any way definitive is merely asking people to disagree with you and, on the internet, that generates traffic. We might agree on some points, but the interesting bits are the ones on which we disagree.
You've had my reasoning and choices, now how about yours? Share them in the comments below.
In the spirit of the list endeavor, I am prepared to disagree with most everything on the io9 list. It is my sworn duty, as a board game geek in my own right, to point out where they went wrong, why, and to suggest replacements or reordering for each and every item on the list. Just as it will be your sworn duty to do the same for me.
My first issue is, of course, the very title of the list. 'Of All Time?' Really? Even the ones that haven't come out yet? Surely not. As a writer on a Sci-Fi oriented site, the author must certainly recognize the problem with that phrase. And, unless she has some pretty amazing abilities she hasn't told anyone about, she hasn't played all of the games ever to come out, either. Clearly we are just dealing with The 10 Best Science Fiction Games the Author Has Played. Even then I am a bit suspicious of the suggestions.
Take item #8, Pandemic. Yes, Pandemic. What, exactly, is the Science Fiction element in Pandemic? There isn't, as far as I can tell from having played it, anything about the game that suggests elements of Science Fiction. You attempt to cure various plagues using scientific research and cooperative game play. Nothing about it suggests that the events are occurring in an alternate universe or on an alien planet or in a different time line or by means of anything other than standard current scientific methods. Nor do the diseases being cured come from outer space or the depths of the ocean or science gone wrong. In short, excellent game though it is, Pandemic does not belong on this list.
Item #10, U.S. Patent No. 1, is, let me say up front, not a game I have played. In 2001 it was nominated for an Origin Award for best Science Fiction / Fantasy Game of the year. However, the game scores rather poorly on BoardGameGeek with a 5.24 rating. Additionally the Time Travel theme - you are building a time machine after all - isn't really explored in any way and seems to be merely a story point used to explain the narrative and game mechanics.
If you want something that actually focuses on time travel as the main theme and mechanic of the game, I'm going to make two worthy suggestions.
Looney Labs makes a wonderful little card game called Chrononauts which, much like classic TV shows Quantum Leap and Voyagers, among others, has the players bouncing back and forth in time trying to either correct the time line or mess it up in specific, goal achieving, ways. There are a couple of different versions and some add-ons, but the basics of the game remain unchanged. Depending on the anomalies you decide to create or correct, they can have a ripple effect elsewhere in the timeline which may, or may not allow your character to get back home to their proper time.
Take a moment to check out Khronos as well. Khronos has you playing a Lord and his assistant. Your goal is to influence events across three separate boards simultaneously. Each board represents different time periods and events on one board influence events and opportunities on later boards. For example, building a small church on an early board could see it become a cathedral on one of the later boards. Unless, of course, your opponent builds a large building over the same space at a different point in the time stream in which case your church may never have existed in the first place. Or will it? Where's my almanac? Khronos won the Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société in 2006. Which means something. In French. I think.
Risk 2210 A.D. is io9's #9 suggestion. Which is fine, if you like Risk. It adds complexity in the form of Commanders and special decks of cards as well as some interesting alternate locations for folks to fight over. In case it isn't entirely clear, it is a war in the future using the Risk game mechanics with some extra bits bolted on. Look, you can fight on the Moon, which is cool enough. However, you are still dealing with the very dicey randomness of essential Risk and for most people this is not enough of an opportunity to determine their own fate. It won the 2001 Origins Award for best Science Fiction / Fantasy Game.
If you really want to do some Sci-Fi Area Control war gaming the game you want is StarCraft: The Board Game. It is a Fantasy Flight Big Box game, and so, rather expensive at this point. It is also, sadly, out of print. Not only does it feature absolutely everything you expect from a game based on StarCraft, it also has a modular, and therefore changeable, board that means every game can be different. With variable player abilities, a card driven combat mechanic, unit upgrades and more, this game promises endless variations and strategies for victory. To top it off, StarCraft the board game won the 2006 Origins Award for Board Game or Expansion of the Year.
To replace Pandemic, which we summarily kicked out of the #8 spot, I'm going to hand you a copy of Space Alert, a CD player and some Valium because this game will ramp up the pressure and by the end you'll be a nervous wreck. It is cooperative and plays in as little as 30 minutes. In those 30 minutes you will be expected to take your space ship out into space and bring it back safely. Simple enough. Except for that CD. It's the computer telling you what threats you and your crew face and it is not shy about piling on threat on top of threat. You will have to manage all aspects of your ship from weapons to shields to engineering to life support to engines and so on. Threats include internal problems like sabotage or mutiny and external threats like asteroids and giant space octopi. If you can't cooperate smoothly, your ship is doomed.
At last we come to some decent suggestions. Galaxy Trucker and Cosmic Encounter are both good games and worthy of being in the list. Galaxy Trucker at #7 has you cobbling together a space ship from the best parts you can get and then trying to make it survive all sorts of bad things in space in the hopes that you have assembled it correctly and usefully. #6's Cosmic Encounter is another space war game where you have your own home planets and try to take over the home planets of the other players.
#5 is Android. NOT Android: Netrunner the new LCG, but plain old Android. It's... well, it's not good. Or, it's brilliant! Or, possibly it is just sort of okay. This is the problem with the game. You are attempting to solve a murder in a cyberpunk future. Unless you drew some other objective. In which case everyone begins working at cross purposes and then things sort of ball up and stop working. Unless they don't. In which case you'll have enjoyed Android. Unless you didn't. The play experience of Android is too variable and depends too much on the right mix of objectives, characters and so forth to really class it as one of the 10 Greatest of All Time.
Since there aren't a lot of options for Sci-Fi Murder Mystery games without drifting into the Horror genre, go ahead and give Android: Netrunner a go. It is another LCG from Fantasy Flight and, by all reports and BoardGameGeek rank (8.5), seems to be very good indeed. A re-implementation of the old Netrunner CCG from years gone by, it is a two player game pitting MegaCorps against Runners and seems to be hitting the mark quite well. Runners try to break through a given Data Center's 'Ice' while MegaCorps try to prevent it. Richard Garfield, designer of the original Netrunner as well as Magic, redesigned the game for the LCG format.
Item #4 on the list as given is Star Trek: Fleet Captains. It's from WizKids and has you marching a small fleet of ships around a randomized modular board collecting resources and doing battle with your opponent. And it's wrong. Just, wrong.
Because everyone knows that the best Star Trek game, bar none, with no exceptions whatsoever, is Star Fleet Battles.
Seriously, it is. Go ask.
See, what did I tell you? Star Fleet Battles is the ultimate in Star Trek, ship based gaming. You are the Captain of any one of several hundred ships based loosely in the world of Star Trek the Original Series. Your job is to fight tactical battles against the enemies of the Federation (or Klingon Empire, or Gorn Hegemony, or, well, you get the idea). That, on the face of it is simple enough. What complicates it and makes it gritty and crunchy and thematic and the best Star Trek game ever is the Energy Allocation sheets. You see, for any of your ship to work, you have to allocate energy to it's various systems. Your engines generate only so much energy and you have to use it to power not only the shields and phasers, but life support, torpedoes, movement rate, drones, transporters, repairs and a whole laundry list of things besides.
It is a massive rules system with pages and pages of instructions and rules and exceptions and clarifications. Games with two players and one ship each can take upwards of three hours. So, yes, crunchy, deep and demanding on your time. But, so, so worth it for the moment when, after hours of planning and movement and exchanging fire and allocating damage, you finally drive home the final torpedo that pops the Klingon D-7 and ends the game.
RoboRally at #3 is not a bad choice. You race robots around a factory floor and try to avoid obstacles and each other while attempting to tag goal flags and complete the race. Most of the amusement comes from trying to plan your moves ahead of time and watching other players do the Robot Dance as they shift their bodies around trying to figure out which cards will make the little robot go where they want. Once everyone plans their 5 moves, all the robots go simultaneously none of the moves work as planned and, once again, chaos ensues.
If you'd like more of the same except different, give The Great Space Race a look. Like RoboRally, The Great Space Race has players pre-planning moves and then executing them simultaneously. Unlike Roborally, you'll be trying to complete three circuits of a track, have more moves and special abilities at your disposal and, if you lose, your entire species is wiped from the face of the Galaxy.
#2 is Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition). It belongs on the list, no doubt about it. It is the biggest, meatiest and possibly the most in depth Science Fiction game going. It is also nearly impossible to play in less than a day, especially if you have people who have never played before. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. You certainly get your money's worth when you play it, but getting it played can be a hassle. There is, at times, just too much going on in the game to put it casually on the table and say, "Hey guys, let's play this." You want to plan ahead. Photocopy rules sheets and player aids and hand them out ahead of time, have at least a couple players who know the game well to help coach those that don't, make sure everyone knows that it is an all day affair, that sort of thing. Even with those difficulties, it remains a rewarding and extremely thematic experience. It belongs on the list, but does it belong at number two? Hmm.
Considering #1 is Battlestar Galactica, we might have a problem here. Again, the BSG game is good. It's a semi-cooperative with a secret traitor element. Yup, someone on the crew is a Cylon and no one knows who it is until they are revealed. The problem is, I think Galactica is only a good game, whereas others, during the height of BSG's TV popularity, went straight for unreservedly calling it great. Yes, it ranks highly on BoardGameGeek, but again, many of those ratings came during it's TV run and haven't been revisited. It's thematic and well designed, but it isn't a number one.
So where does that leave us?
Here's what I come up with for a new, more properly done list. Some items stay, but are reordered from the original and some are entirely replaced.
Fiddleback's 100% Guaranteed Best Science Fiction Games Ever Made (+2 Alternates)
10. RoboRally or The Great Space Race
9. Chrononauts or Khronos
8. Starcraft: The Board Game
7. Galaxy Trucker
6. Cosmic Encounter
5. Android: Netrunner
4. Battlestar Galactica
3. Space Alert
2. Star Fleet Battles
1. Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition)
9. Chrononauts or Khronos
8. Starcraft: The Board Game
7. Galaxy Trucker
6. Cosmic Encounter
5. Android: Netrunner
4. Battlestar Galactica
3. Space Alert
2. Star Fleet Battles
1. Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition)
Ultimately, the list is ordered according to which ones most make me feel like I am participating in a Science Fiction setting or universe. I tried to stick with the same themes as the original list author, but, had I not, this list might be entirely different.
That, of course, is the point. Any listing of ten things is going to be colored by the experiences and exposure of the people compiling such a list. Claiming to be in any way definitive is merely asking people to disagree with you and, on the internet, that generates traffic. We might agree on some points, but the interesting bits are the ones on which we disagree.
You've had my reasoning and choices, now how about yours? Share them in the comments below.
