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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lewpuls" data-source="post: 8987563" data-attributes="member: 30518">What is a game designer’s objective? Yes, to design a game (determine how it works, and specify the rules), but what is that game supposed to actually DO for the players?[ATTACH=full]281448[/ATTACH] <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/treasure-box-map-adventure-lock-3963311/" target="_blank">Picture courtesy of Pixabay.</a><h2>The Basics of Game Design</h2>Paraphrased from my book Game Design (McFarland 2012):That’s my formal definition, but there’s more to it than that. What is a game designer’s job? Gil Hova is a well-known board game designer and self-publisher:I only partially agree with Hova. In my view, it's a game designer's job to enable players to tell a variety of stories through the game, that are compelling to the participants, and might be compelling to others (but often aren't). In other words, I'm more player-centric than Hova’s statement might indicate."Not always the same" is certainly true. Games should have enough variety (and, we hope, depth) to be played many times. Yet "Multiple Paths to Victory", in parallel competition games, tell the same stories again and again because a few solutions are built into the game. That's one of several reasons why most new board games are played only one to three times by a person before they move on to another game. (This “play-a-few-times-and-move-on” may also be happening in RPGs, though not necessarily because of sameness. RPGs provide the opposite of the same thing over and over.)<h2>Must Everyone Feel Good in the End?</h2>Let’s consider a different aspect of design objectives. Is game design supposed to make people feel clever? Make sure everyone has a good time? Make everyone feel like a star? These are common notions in RPGs.Should designers figuratively hold the hands of players? Reward them for participation? These are common notions in video games.If you want to do what I’ve listed in the previous two paragraphs, okay. It’s hard to do for board games, but easier with RPGs (especially where there’s a GM). Or, you can design for a more active rather than passive player, for someone interested in an intellectual exercise rather than an easy way to pass the time/amuse yourself.Attitudes of game players differ. Those who have come into gaming later in their life may have different points of view than those who started gaming when they were small children. Those who have joined the hobby in the past, say, 20 years may have different preferences than those who joined earlier. Some do not want handholding, some don’t feel a need to be clever, and so on.<h2>“Struggle”</h2>Greg Costikyan (well-known for both board and video game design) is quoted as saying "A game without struggle is a game that's dead." I might substitute "direct competition" for struggle in many cases, but I have to agree. Can you have a game where everyone will have a good time all the time, yet there's struggle? Perhaps in a co-operative game, but not other games. You can devise pastimes without struggle, but they're not hobby games any more, to me.Once again, RPGs, because they are (usually) co-operative, can come closer to providing a struggle without requiring there to be a “loser”. The players are not playing against the GM, the GM is more or less neutral. (I’ve heard of adversarial relationships between players and GM, but I don’t understand it; any GM can massacre any party of adventurers, if desired.)<h2>Co-operative Games</h2>My recent board game designs are often co-operative games. You can have a struggle (against the game, or against a GM) in a game where players aren’t competing with each other. <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?5635-Worlds-of-Design-Tabletop-RPGs-Are-the-Most-Naturally-Co-operative-Games" target="_blank">I’ve said many times that RPGs in general</a>, and AD&D in particular, are the most naturally co-operative games. That requires a group rather than individual orientation from the players, quite different from a competitive game.<h2>Whose Story?</h2>A key in this discussion is that the stories coming out of games do not need to be the kind of formal story that other people will enjoy, as long as the story is engaging for the participants. Games involve participation of the consumers of the “story,” where other forms of story are made for passive consumers.Your turn: When you run an RPG, are you aiming for a particular kind of outcome?</blockquote>

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