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lateral strategies
Had a nice dinner last night with Chris and Ray, and then played a game of Nomic.
Being the game dork that I am, I've played a lot of Nomic in this lifetime. These games have ranged from the very silly to the seriously hardcore, but I noticed (this time around) that I reliably try, usually early on in the game, to create a rule that serves no obvious initial purpose other than creating a mechanic off of which future rules can branch. I privately think of this as a "lateral" rule, in that it kind of directs the game sidewards, (mis-)directing the players away from the ("vertical?") purpose of accumulating the hundred points initially required to win the game.
Last night's "lateral" rule was "At the conclusion of a turn, a player shall receive a face drawn on a slip of paper from each of his or her opponents. The bank of accumulated faces will be referred to as a player's Population."
Worked great, by the way. A later rule someone passed specified that these little "people" needed to be named, and now I've got a pile of thirty cute little residents as a souvenir.
We also played a game of Eat Poop You Cat, which was fun, even though you really need more than three people for that game to reach its full potential. Labels: game_commentary |
Friday, January 17, 2003
3:39 PM
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