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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 4458734" data-attributes="member: 1879">Mechanics without flavor are meaningless.Here is a game: Flip a coin, heads you win, tails you lose.Satisfying game? No? Let's continue.Mechanics (except in puzzle games) are always intended to present a resolution mechanic abstracted from some fictional reality.Another game: It is the final battle of good vs evil. Armageddon day has dawned and all the souls of mankind hang in the balance. Terribly the sides are exactly balanced. Flip a coin, heads good wins, tails evil wins.Satisfying? Not really, it's still too abstract, but it's better than the first one.Real satifaction in gaming comes when the story that emerges from the resolution of the conflict is one that the players can sink their teeth into.Another game: Set up a 100 combatant ladder match of good vs evil. Resolve each match by flipping a coin, heads good wins, tails evil wins. Play out the tournament to decide the fate of the future.Still too abstract but zeroing in on the individual fights gives us a better sense of story. If we name the combatants it becomes more interesting as we find combatants to root for.A coin flip may be an accurate way to resolve an evenly matched fight, but it's over too quickly. There is no anticipation, no clenched teeth and beaded brows. Another game: Good vs Evil has boiled down to the final 10 champions. 5 Paladins of righteousness and 5 vile Warriors of Darkness. Set up the ladder, name each combatant. Each match is resolved by the best 2 out of 3 flips as the champions trade blows.Now it's starting to get interesting. As each match plays out you can write the story in your mind. A good character who loses each first throw but rallies and wins the next two seems different from some brutal villain who slaughters his foes in the first 2 flips without allowing them to draw blood. The potential back and forth allows us to imagine that drama hangs on each flip.I could continue but I hope I've made my point. Mechanics uninformed by flavor are meaningless. You might as well flip that quarter. It is the stories that the rules allow us to tell that entertain us. Without flavor there are no stories, and there is no game.</blockquote>

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