Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part Five: Munchkin, Contract Bridge, Arkham's Terror
The new article in the series “The Basics of Game Design” provides a detailed overview of the most popular board games, including traditional ones like chess and go, role like “Zova Cthulhu”, European ones like “Colonialists” and many others who have something to learn.
Previous articles in the series:
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part one: go, chess, Parchis.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part two: backgammon, monopoly, scrabble.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part Three: Pente, Colonialists, Puerto Rico.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part Four: Train ticket, Carcassonne, Colonialists.
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Munchkin
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Type: dungeon board card game for two or more players
Difficulty level: low
Creator: Steve Jackson
Luck factor: high
Description: In this popular card game "under beer", the players are assigned the role of "Munchkins", which in gaming slang means a type of role player who only cares about “pumping” his character by hook or by crook.
In Munchkin, the monsters themselves are certainly very dangerous, but still the greatest threat is represented by other players, most of whom perceive your corpse as just a step to victory in the game (here, victory means getting 10th level).
Game Review
There are only 2 cards in the game: doors and treasures. Each of them is easily distinguished by the pattern on the shirt. Players receive 4 cards from each deck. Usually, behind the doors there are dangerous monsters and various events that change the course of the game, and the treasures are clothes (magic items) and other useful bonuses.
As in Magic: The Gathering, most of the cards contain conditions that change the original rules of the game, so it will be difficult to describe the game. This is aggravated by the fact that many people prefer to play with a mixed set of cards, where any of more than 20 variations of Munchkin decks can be present. To some extent, such hypervariability is provided for by the rules, but sometimes it is very inconvenient to play with such sets.
Therefore, I will try to describe the course of the game, but note that almost all of the following can be changed by the corresponding map. Some of these cards, such as race and class, are quite common. But if we discard such modifications, the usual move looks like this:
But at the same time, the rules allow players to keep things in their possession, even if they are not used, simply by putting them on the table and turning them horizontally, thereby reducing the number of cards that need to be discarded and given away.
Hundreds of cards with special conditions and instructions mean that you have to keep in your head an awful lot of nuances. But at least the process of combat is as simple as a penny. The player must add to his level all the combat bonuses that he has (in total - the fighting strength). He compares them with the level of the monster and all bonuses and penalties added to it.
If, as a result, the player has more result, he wins and gets the required level (or even 2) and treasures in the amount indicated on the monster card (from one to four). If the forces are equal or the player has a lower result, he should try to slip away, that is, roll the die. If 5 or 6 rolls out - the player left the monster, if not - the monster won, and the player will face a penalty in the form of lewdness. For each monster, it is its own and indicated on the map. Sometimes even death can be caught there. But in this game, death is short-lived - other players just take your gear and cards off of your hand, and you return in the next move. That's the whole fight. Except that…
Is that you dropped a monster, and when you have even calculated the results of the battle, some other player will want to spoil you, playing monsters amplifiers. Amplifiers are usually characteristics, such as Ambal or Elderly, which are added to the monster’s name, for example, “You have fought Elderly Ambal-Bulrog”.
And then another player can throw a completely new monster at all by playing the “Stray Beast” card. In this case, the monsters are fighting together, combining their military strength and increasing the overall level. The player, if he wants, can call for help from another player. An assistant can (and most often is needed) bribe with your gear in the game or with the promise of a share.
Help is that the combat power of the partners is summed up. In addition to the previously agreed terms, there is no benefit from such help: the helper does not receive a level for such a fight (unless he is an elf, but this is another story and a special card). Other players can still interfere in the battle, even after the player has called for help. But the player who agreed to help cannot back up.
If a player has a curse card in his hands, he can play it to any player at any time. He can play a race or class map for himself - again, anytime. You can also reset it - do not believe it anytime. There are also many improvements, including the ability to combine several races and / or classes.
Most treasure maps are worn items. Each player has limitations: both racial-class and anatomical. For example, you can put on only one armor, one smut, one shoe, etc. And it is very important to remember that there are only two hands, and you can only hold two one-handed clothes (or one two-handed) with them. In addition, you can wear only one item, which says "Big" or "Big."
These restrictions are necessary to prevent the players from using absolutely all of the bonuses they come across in the game. But dwarves, for example, can carry as many Great Stuff as they please and hold as many as 6 cards in their hands. Other races and classes also have their special advantages.
In addition, there are a lot of other exceptions and other interesting things in this game and in additions to it. Sometimes such an abundance of various cards involved in the game makes it very difficult to remember everything that happens on the table. It happens that the number of cards laid out in front of one player reaches 20 or more.
What can be learned from this game?
"Munchkin" refers to the type of so-called "evil" games. Here, the main reasons for attacking another player are not to allow him to win or avenge his previous attacks. Such indiscriminate attacks usually lead to hostility between players and the desire to take revenge on each other. Such a vendetta can migrate to subsequent games, ultimately significantly reducing their own chances of winning. In the "Munchkin" can be played together, but it will greatly affect the dynamics - the game will turn into endless attacks aimed directly at each other.
I won't have to talk much about the depth of the Munchkin game. Here, most of the cards contain either instant personal gain, or the ability to put a pig on the opponent. Players at the very beginning of the game start up a whole fan of cards with bonuses / packs, which are replenished with each turn. As a rule, you use bonus cards as soon as you receive them. But as soon as you decide on the victim - you will save cartridges for her.
There are several bonus cards in the game, which can be attributed to defense, but very few compared to attacking bonuses directed against you. Therefore, you act according to the situation - attack, when you need to attack, defend yourself, when you can defend. Simply put, you will not be able to plan your actions further than the current turn. There are many games of this type, and none of them contains significant elements of the strategy.
We noticed something else in Munchkin: the game can last from fifteen minutes to three hours depending on how many dirty cartridges were used and how determined the players are to win. This game, full of hostility and revenge, for one evening can spit in your soul so quickly that you do not have time to recover it. Because of this, we don’t even really like to play it.
Contract bridge
Traditional game
Type: bribe card game for four players
Level of difficulty: very high
Creator: Harold Stirling Vanderbilt
Luck factor: moderate
Description: At the beginning of the game, 4 players (in teams of 2 people) make an application to determine the "trumps". Then the winning team tries to get the minimum necessary amount of bribes, while the second side tries to stop them. Sounds good, right? But this is only the beginning ...
Game Review
Two teams (or partnerships), each consisting of two players who sit at the table through one opposite each other. In gaming jargon, each player is called side by side: North, East, South, West. Thus, partners will be North and South, East and West, respectively.
On the hands of each player receives 13 cards. At the beginning of the game, each player walks with one card, starting with the winner of the previous bribe. The player with the "best" card in this circle wins this bribe. The best card is either the card with the highest denomination of the suit from which the bribe began, or, if someone played the trump card, then the highest denomination of the trump suit. Each bribe is one player's card, so there are 13 bribes in total. The main goal is to win as many bribes as possible.
But what is the trump suit? Before the main game starts, and, after everyone has looked at their cards, the trade (or auction) begins. Starting with the card taker and clockwise, each player makes a bid - a promise to win the minimum number of bribes in the next game.
There are 3 types of applications. The first type of application looks like a figure and a suit, for example: “1 of hearts” or “3 peaks”. The present number of promised bribes is the indicated figure plus 6, respectively, these applications are promises to win 7 bribes, if the trump card is hearts, or 9 bribes, if the trump card is peaks. The next player can not lower the application, and if he decides not to participate in the application, then he folds (for this you need to say “pass”).
The suits have the following different precedence in ascending order: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, no trump. If the non-trump option wins, then no trump suit is assigned to this game. Trading stops after 3 consecutive passes. The last bid becomes a contract and means exactly the obligation that will matter in the game (previous bids are not counted), the suit of the final contract becomes a trump card, and the game begins.
Instead of an application or a pass, a player can choose a counter as an alternative application. It means that the player is confident that opponents will not be able to take the stated number of bribes, and doubles their bid. The current bidder, in turn, can choose to recontract if he is sure that he will take the appointment, thereby increasing the rates. The subsequent appointment (application) from either side cancels both the counterattack and the reconnaissance. In this regard, sometimes players can use counter to make it clear to the partner what their cards are. I will discuss this in more detail later.
When a player from a team wins an auction, he starts the game and puts the first card on the table. But when it comes to the turn of his partner, instead of playing a card, he puts all his cards on the table, face up, and can even leave if he wants. In this round, he plays the role of a fool, and his partner decides which cards will be played from the table. This is the only situation in the contract bridge when it is allowed to look at the cards of another player, whether it is an opponent or a member of the team.
The team that won the trade is called the point guard, and their opponents are called the scoring. If the playmakers fulfill the contract and take the stated number of bribes, they earn points in accordance with the system that was created to make adult men cry. If the team fails to fulfill the obligations, then the players write themselves whistling on a different, usually lower paid, system.
The bridge consists of 3 components - contract, game and scoring. A game consists of one or more hands and ends when the team gets 100 points under the line, which are given for the contracts taken. All other points are above the line. When a game is won, points under the line of the winning team rise above the line, and their opponents lose all their points under the line.
A team can win a game, but lose in general. The party that wins the contract, but does not score enough points to win the game, is “in the zone of vulnerability” with increased bonuses and penalties. For example, huge bonuses for winning helmets (contracts of 12 or 13 bribes); winners-point guards earn extra points for bribes in excess of their applications, but not as much as if their application was initially higher; scoring incites couples to overestimate applications a little, since penalty points that will go away to opponents are leveled by potential bonuses. Whew!
One of the most amazing things about bridge is how seriously players perceive the game itself and its limitations in information. Communication with a partner is a violation. All information about the state of the game you should receive only from the cards you already saw, the cards in your hand and the boob cards. During the game, serious players require silence.
One of the advanced bridge game techniques is the use of special orders during trading to transfer information about your cards to a partner. But even this technique is regulated: in the case of using such conventional (conditional) applications, it is necessary that this system be known to opponents.
What can be learned from this game?
The bridge is remarkable for the fact that on the one hand it is a very deep game, and on the other - the level of freedom of expression of the players in it is quite low. All decisions that need to be made in the game fall on the phase of trading and the choice of cards for each bribe. A limited field of activity actually helps the game: your opponents are limited in the same way as you, and understanding this helps to figure out the contents of their cards.
The rule of "boob" is unique. The distributors are helped by the knowledge of all the cards in the hands of the team, but they are vulnerable, since the whistlers also know half of their cards. This is a very interesting asymmetry, thanks to which the bridge is a step higher than other card games with bribes.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the stage of trade. This is not a round of betting, as in poker - trading tends to actively influence the game by determining the suit of the trump. Often this means that if a party wins a low bribe, they will be able to fulfill their contract with additional assistance in the form of a “convenient” trump card.
Despite the fact that the bridge is a complex and thoughtful game, it still remains a card game, which means it depends a lot on luck. Advanced bridge lovers organize tournaments according to the variety of this game, which is called a duplicate bridge - this is one of the worst things I have heard about in my life.
Most of the above is applicable to the duplicate bridge, only the players sit down at the tables of 4 people. Each table receives 4 identical hands from the cards, which the organizers of the tournament give out in advance. They write down how the teams coped with each hand, and then compare the points obtained at different tables. Thus, they effectively eliminate the element of luck in the game. Designers who want to keep the advantages of chance in their games, but at the same time reduce the luck factor, pay attention to this system.
Horror arkham
Publisher: Chaosium (later reprinted with other rules by Fantasy Flight Games)
Type: cooperative adventure game for 1-8 players
Difficulty level: medium
Creator: Richard Launius
Luck Factor: Medium
Description: horrible monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos appear in the fictional town of Arkham in New England. Players act as urban inhabitants, who became aware of this invasion, and now they have to save our world from certain death. To do this, you need to search for evidence, collect items, fight monsters and seal the gates through which they penetrate Arkham.
Game Review
About this game is worth talking in more detail. It is impossible to describe all the rules in one article, but I tried to cover as many nuances as possible. It is worth noting that here are the rules of the current version of Fantasy Flight Games, which is very different from the original version.
As a result, the space-time anomalies throughout Arkham began to open the gates to other worlds. Horrible monsters appear from the gates every day, but this is not the worst. If too many gates open, one of the Ancients can awaken — otherworldly gods, sowing death and destruction.
At the beginning of the game, players randomly determine which particular Ancient threatens Arkham. Each of them has its own characteristics that affect the game before and after waking up. Players can prevent the appearance of the Ancient One by penetrating the gates to other worlds and then closing them.
If the players manage to close all the gates and collect at least as many trophies of the gates as the players themselves, they win. The longer the players slow down, the more tokens appear on the track of hopelessness - a special scale showing how many gates are left before the Ancient One awakens.
As soon as the last division closes on the track of hopelessness, the Ancient One awakens, and players must fight it. In the final fight, the advantage is always on the side of the Ancient One, and the fight in itself is the last desperate attempt of the players to save the situation - this is not the strategy on which it makes sense to bet.
On the playing field there are 3 types of plots: streets, locations and Other worlds (in order of increasing interest for players). To get to any location, you first need to get to it through the streets, where over time more and more monsters appear. Arkham location cards are divided into 9 multi-colored decks (yes, there are as many as nine, and this is only half of the decks in the game — few desktops can be compared to Arkham's Terror by the number of cards), each card describing a unique event when visiting a place.
Events can be both positive and negative. In several locations there are special events: instead of drawing a map, players replenish their health or equipment. To get to the Other World, the player must pass through the gate, which then will need to close. Events taking place in these terrible places, as a rule, are much more dangerous than urban ones. After 2 moves in the Other World, the player can return to Arkham through any gate corresponding to this world and try to close it.
For the survival of the character are responsible for 2 parameters: health and sanity. As soon as one of them drops to zero, the player drops half of the things and evidence and goes to Arkham’s hospital or St. Mary’s hospital, where he must skip a move in order to restore the unit of the corresponding parameter. To restore a few units, you will have to skip more moves and maybe even pay for the treatment.
If a player loses consciousness or goes mad in the Otherworld, he is lost in time and space - roughly speaking, he goes to the “otherworldly hospital,” where he has to spend some time to recover. In rare cases, a character may lose all health and sanity at the same time. This means that he was “devoured” - he drops out of the game, and at the beginning of the next move the player must choose a new detective and enter the game from scratch (during the final battle the chance to be devoured increases dramatically, and then the player drops out of the game) .
The game is very interesting implemented skill distribution system. Each character has 6 pair skills: Combat / Will, Speed / Stealth and Knowledge / Luck. (, 6–5–4–3 , 1–2–3–4 ). , – .
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What can be learned from this game?
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Previous articles in the series:
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part one: go, chess, Parchis.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part two: backgammon, monopoly, scrabble.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part Three: Pente, Colonialists, Puerto Rico.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part Four: Train ticket, Carcassonne, Colonialists.
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Munchkin
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Type: dungeon board card game for two or more players
Difficulty level: low
Creator: Steve Jackson
Luck factor: high
Description: In this popular card game "under beer", the players are assigned the role of "Munchkins", which in gaming slang means a type of role player who only cares about “pumping” his character by hook or by crook.
In Munchkin, the monsters themselves are certainly very dangerous, but still the greatest threat is represented by other players, most of whom perceive your corpse as just a step to victory in the game (here, victory means getting 10th level).
Game Review
There are only 2 cards in the game: doors and treasures. Each of them is easily distinguished by the pattern on the shirt. Players receive 4 cards from each deck. Usually, behind the doors there are dangerous monsters and various events that change the course of the game, and the treasures are clothes (magic items) and other useful bonuses.
As in Magic: The Gathering, most of the cards contain conditions that change the original rules of the game, so it will be difficult to describe the game. This is aggravated by the fact that many people prefer to play with a mixed set of cards, where any of more than 20 variations of Munchkin decks can be present. To some extent, such hypervariability is provided for by the rules, but sometimes it is very inconvenient to play with such sets.
Therefore, I will try to describe the course of the game, but note that almost all of the following can be changed by the corresponding map. Some of these cards, such as race and class, are quite common. But if we discard such modifications, the usual move looks like this:
- First, the player knocks the door. This means turning the door card face up. Now the player has to solve the situation. If a monster was hiding behind the door, the player needs to fight him (see below). If he has a curse or a trap, the player immediately falls under their action. If anything else happens, the card goes straight into the player’s hand. For winning a battle, a player gets a level. In addition to the level, victory in battle brings treasures that go into the hand of the player. The winner is the one who got to level 10.
- If the player has not met the monster, then he can optionally go in search of trouble and play the monster card himself. Fight with this monster happens in the same way.
- If the player did not meet the monster and refused to look for trouble, then he can clear the nychki, stretching the second card door in his hand, but not showing it to other players. Whatever he pulls there, it does not work this turn.
- Most of the cards can be played on any turn, except for the battle (and some can be done then), but now is a particularly suitable time to play the card. If you have collected a lot of treasures, the game at this stage can be a bit long.
- Finally, the last phase - from the bounty. If a player has more than 5 cards, he must give extra cards to the player with the lowest level.
But at the same time, the rules allow players to keep things in their possession, even if they are not used, simply by putting them on the table and turning them horizontally, thereby reducing the number of cards that need to be discarded and given away.
Hundreds of cards with special conditions and instructions mean that you have to keep in your head an awful lot of nuances. But at least the process of combat is as simple as a penny. The player must add to his level all the combat bonuses that he has (in total - the fighting strength). He compares them with the level of the monster and all bonuses and penalties added to it.
If, as a result, the player has more result, he wins and gets the required level (or even 2) and treasures in the amount indicated on the monster card (from one to four). If the forces are equal or the player has a lower result, he should try to slip away, that is, roll the die. If 5 or 6 rolls out - the player left the monster, if not - the monster won, and the player will face a penalty in the form of lewdness. For each monster, it is its own and indicated on the map. Sometimes even death can be caught there. But in this game, death is short-lived - other players just take your gear and cards off of your hand, and you return in the next move. That's the whole fight. Except that…
Is that you dropped a monster, and when you have even calculated the results of the battle, some other player will want to spoil you, playing monsters amplifiers. Amplifiers are usually characteristics, such as Ambal or Elderly, which are added to the monster’s name, for example, “You have fought Elderly Ambal-Bulrog”.
And then another player can throw a completely new monster at all by playing the “Stray Beast” card. In this case, the monsters are fighting together, combining their military strength and increasing the overall level. The player, if he wants, can call for help from another player. An assistant can (and most often is needed) bribe with your gear in the game or with the promise of a share.
Help is that the combat power of the partners is summed up. In addition to the previously agreed terms, there is no benefit from such help: the helper does not receive a level for such a fight (unless he is an elf, but this is another story and a special card). Other players can still interfere in the battle, even after the player has called for help. But the player who agreed to help cannot back up.
If a player has a curse card in his hands, he can play it to any player at any time. He can play a race or class map for himself - again, anytime. You can also reset it - do not believe it anytime. There are also many improvements, including the ability to combine several races and / or classes.
Most treasure maps are worn items. Each player has limitations: both racial-class and anatomical. For example, you can put on only one armor, one smut, one shoe, etc. And it is very important to remember that there are only two hands, and you can only hold two one-handed clothes (or one two-handed) with them. In addition, you can wear only one item, which says "Big" or "Big."
These restrictions are necessary to prevent the players from using absolutely all of the bonuses they come across in the game. But dwarves, for example, can carry as many Great Stuff as they please and hold as many as 6 cards in their hands. Other races and classes also have their special advantages.
In addition, there are a lot of other exceptions and other interesting things in this game and in additions to it. Sometimes such an abundance of various cards involved in the game makes it very difficult to remember everything that happens on the table. It happens that the number of cards laid out in front of one player reaches 20 or more.
What can be learned from this game?
"Munchkin" refers to the type of so-called "evil" games. Here, the main reasons for attacking another player are not to allow him to win or avenge his previous attacks. Such indiscriminate attacks usually lead to hostility between players and the desire to take revenge on each other. Such a vendetta can migrate to subsequent games, ultimately significantly reducing their own chances of winning. In the "Munchkin" can be played together, but it will greatly affect the dynamics - the game will turn into endless attacks aimed directly at each other.
I won't have to talk much about the depth of the Munchkin game. Here, most of the cards contain either instant personal gain, or the ability to put a pig on the opponent. Players at the very beginning of the game start up a whole fan of cards with bonuses / packs, which are replenished with each turn. As a rule, you use bonus cards as soon as you receive them. But as soon as you decide on the victim - you will save cartridges for her.
There are several bonus cards in the game, which can be attributed to defense, but very few compared to attacking bonuses directed against you. Therefore, you act according to the situation - attack, when you need to attack, defend yourself, when you can defend. Simply put, you will not be able to plan your actions further than the current turn. There are many games of this type, and none of them contains significant elements of the strategy.
We noticed something else in Munchkin: the game can last from fifteen minutes to three hours depending on how many dirty cartridges were used and how determined the players are to win. This game, full of hostility and revenge, for one evening can spit in your soul so quickly that you do not have time to recover it. Because of this, we don’t even really like to play it.
Contract bridge
Traditional game
Type: bribe card game for four players
Level of difficulty: very high
Creator: Harold Stirling Vanderbilt
Luck factor: moderate
Description: At the beginning of the game, 4 players (in teams of 2 people) make an application to determine the "trumps". Then the winning team tries to get the minimum necessary amount of bribes, while the second side tries to stop them. Sounds good, right? But this is only the beginning ...
Game Review
Two teams (or partnerships), each consisting of two players who sit at the table through one opposite each other. In gaming jargon, each player is called side by side: North, East, South, West. Thus, partners will be North and South, East and West, respectively.
On the hands of each player receives 13 cards. At the beginning of the game, each player walks with one card, starting with the winner of the previous bribe. The player with the "best" card in this circle wins this bribe. The best card is either the card with the highest denomination of the suit from which the bribe began, or, if someone played the trump card, then the highest denomination of the trump suit. Each bribe is one player's card, so there are 13 bribes in total. The main goal is to win as many bribes as possible.
But what is the trump suit? Before the main game starts, and, after everyone has looked at their cards, the trade (or auction) begins. Starting with the card taker and clockwise, each player makes a bid - a promise to win the minimum number of bribes in the next game.
There are 3 types of applications. The first type of application looks like a figure and a suit, for example: “1 of hearts” or “3 peaks”. The present number of promised bribes is the indicated figure plus 6, respectively, these applications are promises to win 7 bribes, if the trump card is hearts, or 9 bribes, if the trump card is peaks. The next player can not lower the application, and if he decides not to participate in the application, then he folds (for this you need to say “pass”).
The suits have the following different precedence in ascending order: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, no trump. If the non-trump option wins, then no trump suit is assigned to this game. Trading stops after 3 consecutive passes. The last bid becomes a contract and means exactly the obligation that will matter in the game (previous bids are not counted), the suit of the final contract becomes a trump card, and the game begins.
Instead of an application or a pass, a player can choose a counter as an alternative application. It means that the player is confident that opponents will not be able to take the stated number of bribes, and doubles their bid. The current bidder, in turn, can choose to recontract if he is sure that he will take the appointment, thereby increasing the rates. The subsequent appointment (application) from either side cancels both the counterattack and the reconnaissance. In this regard, sometimes players can use counter to make it clear to the partner what their cards are. I will discuss this in more detail later.
When a player from a team wins an auction, he starts the game and puts the first card on the table. But when it comes to the turn of his partner, instead of playing a card, he puts all his cards on the table, face up, and can even leave if he wants. In this round, he plays the role of a fool, and his partner decides which cards will be played from the table. This is the only situation in the contract bridge when it is allowed to look at the cards of another player, whether it is an opponent or a member of the team.
The team that won the trade is called the point guard, and their opponents are called the scoring. If the playmakers fulfill the contract and take the stated number of bribes, they earn points in accordance with the system that was created to make adult men cry. If the team fails to fulfill the obligations, then the players write themselves whistling on a different, usually lower paid, system.
The bridge consists of 3 components - contract, game and scoring. A game consists of one or more hands and ends when the team gets 100 points under the line, which are given for the contracts taken. All other points are above the line. When a game is won, points under the line of the winning team rise above the line, and their opponents lose all their points under the line.
A team can win a game, but lose in general. The party that wins the contract, but does not score enough points to win the game, is “in the zone of vulnerability” with increased bonuses and penalties. For example, huge bonuses for winning helmets (contracts of 12 or 13 bribes); winners-point guards earn extra points for bribes in excess of their applications, but not as much as if their application was initially higher; scoring incites couples to overestimate applications a little, since penalty points that will go away to opponents are leveled by potential bonuses. Whew!
One of the most amazing things about bridge is how seriously players perceive the game itself and its limitations in information. Communication with a partner is a violation. All information about the state of the game you should receive only from the cards you already saw, the cards in your hand and the boob cards. During the game, serious players require silence.
One of the advanced bridge game techniques is the use of special orders during trading to transfer information about your cards to a partner. But even this technique is regulated: in the case of using such conventional (conditional) applications, it is necessary that this system be known to opponents.
What can be learned from this game?
The bridge is remarkable for the fact that on the one hand it is a very deep game, and on the other - the level of freedom of expression of the players in it is quite low. All decisions that need to be made in the game fall on the phase of trading and the choice of cards for each bribe. A limited field of activity actually helps the game: your opponents are limited in the same way as you, and understanding this helps to figure out the contents of their cards.
The rule of "boob" is unique. The distributors are helped by the knowledge of all the cards in the hands of the team, but they are vulnerable, since the whistlers also know half of their cards. This is a very interesting asymmetry, thanks to which the bridge is a step higher than other card games with bribes.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the stage of trade. This is not a round of betting, as in poker - trading tends to actively influence the game by determining the suit of the trump. Often this means that if a party wins a low bribe, they will be able to fulfill their contract with additional assistance in the form of a “convenient” trump card.
Despite the fact that the bridge is a complex and thoughtful game, it still remains a card game, which means it depends a lot on luck. Advanced bridge lovers organize tournaments according to the variety of this game, which is called a duplicate bridge - this is one of the worst things I have heard about in my life.
Most of the above is applicable to the duplicate bridge, only the players sit down at the tables of 4 people. Each table receives 4 identical hands from the cards, which the organizers of the tournament give out in advance. They write down how the teams coped with each hand, and then compare the points obtained at different tables. Thus, they effectively eliminate the element of luck in the game. Designers who want to keep the advantages of chance in their games, but at the same time reduce the luck factor, pay attention to this system.
Horror arkham
Publisher: Chaosium (later reprinted with other rules by Fantasy Flight Games)
Type: cooperative adventure game for 1-8 players
Difficulty level: medium
Creator: Richard Launius
Luck Factor: Medium
Description: horrible monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos appear in the fictional town of Arkham in New England. Players act as urban inhabitants, who became aware of this invasion, and now they have to save our world from certain death. To do this, you need to search for evidence, collect items, fight monsters and seal the gates through which they penetrate Arkham.
Game Review
About this game is worth talking in more detail. It is impossible to describe all the rules in one article, but I tried to cover as many nuances as possible. It is worth noting that here are the rules of the current version of Fantasy Flight Games, which is very different from the original version.
As a result, the space-time anomalies throughout Arkham began to open the gates to other worlds. Horrible monsters appear from the gates every day, but this is not the worst. If too many gates open, one of the Ancients can awaken — otherworldly gods, sowing death and destruction.
At the beginning of the game, players randomly determine which particular Ancient threatens Arkham. Each of them has its own characteristics that affect the game before and after waking up. Players can prevent the appearance of the Ancient One by penetrating the gates to other worlds and then closing them.
If the players manage to close all the gates and collect at least as many trophies of the gates as the players themselves, they win. The longer the players slow down, the more tokens appear on the track of hopelessness - a special scale showing how many gates are left before the Ancient One awakens.
As soon as the last division closes on the track of hopelessness, the Ancient One awakens, and players must fight it. In the final fight, the advantage is always on the side of the Ancient One, and the fight in itself is the last desperate attempt of the players to save the situation - this is not the strategy on which it makes sense to bet.
On the playing field there are 3 types of plots: streets, locations and Other worlds (in order of increasing interest for players). To get to any location, you first need to get to it through the streets, where over time more and more monsters appear. Arkham location cards are divided into 9 multi-colored decks (yes, there are as many as nine, and this is only half of the decks in the game — few desktops can be compared to Arkham's Terror by the number of cards), each card describing a unique event when visiting a place.
Events can be both positive and negative. In several locations there are special events: instead of drawing a map, players replenish their health or equipment. To get to the Other World, the player must pass through the gate, which then will need to close. Events taking place in these terrible places, as a rule, are much more dangerous than urban ones. After 2 moves in the Other World, the player can return to Arkham through any gate corresponding to this world and try to close it.
For the survival of the character are responsible for 2 parameters: health and sanity. As soon as one of them drops to zero, the player drops half of the things and evidence and goes to Arkham’s hospital or St. Mary’s hospital, where he must skip a move in order to restore the unit of the corresponding parameter. To restore a few units, you will have to skip more moves and maybe even pay for the treatment.
If a player loses consciousness or goes mad in the Otherworld, he is lost in time and space - roughly speaking, he goes to the “otherworldly hospital,” where he has to spend some time to recover. In rare cases, a character may lose all health and sanity at the same time. This means that he was “devoured” - he drops out of the game, and at the beginning of the next move the player must choose a new detective and enter the game from scratch (during the final battle the chance to be devoured increases dramatically, and then the player drops out of the game) .
The game is very interesting implemented skill distribution system. Each character has 6 pair skills: Combat / Will, Speed / Stealth and Knowledge / Luck. (, 6–5–4–3 , 1–2–3–4 ). , – .
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What can be learned from this game?
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/306372/
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