Relic Expedition

Kickstarter Page - Relic Expedition

Every once in a while I see a good Kickstarter game needing a little help reaching their goals, Relic Expedition is one of those games. Their campaign is about 85% there with only 6 days left, so take a look, it could definitely use your help!

In Relic Expedition, you play a explorer in the jungle seeking treasures while navigating your way through difficult terrains and dangerous wild animals. You gain action points by rolling a die, then you can use your actions to either draw useful supplies or explore the board. You win the game by collecting a set of treasures and then safely return to camp. I know, it didn't sound that appealing to me at first either, but there was something peculiar about the game because I kept going back to their Kickstarter page to check on their progress.

Today I figured out the thing that was nagging my attention - it is the idea of exploration. Human have a built-in need to explore the unknown, otherwise we never would've populated all of Earth and set our eyes on the moon and Mars and even beyond our solar system. You can say that our need to explore is an evolved trait that contributed to our success as a specie.

And yet, exploration is an under utilized aesthetic in board games. Sure, there are a lot of games with expanding tiles or drawing cards to represent the unknown. There are even a lot of games that place you in the space frontier or the entrance of a deep dungeon, but none of them give truly give you the feel of exploration, and I say that for two reasons.

1. Usually in those games, you don't have a choice to explore. You have to "explore" to win the game. For example, in Munchkin, you may have to kick down monster doors, that's part of the rule. But in that scenario, is it really exploring? To explore is to make a choice to peek into the unknown knowing that you could find great risk and reward. Without having a choice for the player, "exploration" simply becomes a mechanic that represent the idea of exploration and does not give the feel of exploration.

Relic Expedition give the players that choice: players can either head into the path of unknown, or follow the path of another player knowing that it is safer but the result might not be as rewarding.

2. In other games as you make progress, your either gain items or experience that make you stronger, and therefore you feel more powerful as the game continues. You might start off as a simple human but by the end game you become some kind of alien-kicking-zombie-killing-cyborg-badass, that's cool and all but that's not how exploration works. Can you imagine Indiana Jones or Tintin wielding a machine gun mowing down all the obstacles ahead of them? Exploration is fun and exciting because the explorers are vulnerable to danger, by empowering them, the tension of the unknown is removed and it becomes a different type of appeal.

Tintin with machinegun - Unstoppable

Relic Expedition is a true exploration game in that as players venture into the deep jungle, players face more danger. And since treasures take up space in the backpack, players are often less powerful than when they first started exploring the jungle. This well thought out mechanic is both thematic and stays true to the core aesthetic of the game.

So that's my spiel about the game. Note that I am not saying that this is a better or worse games than games like Munchkin or Dungeon Crawler, but this is a different type of game that's currently under represented in the market and it definitely deserves a look. If you like video games like Skyrim or Shadow of the Colossus because you enjoy riding around and exploring the world, then check out Relic Expedition, it might just be your thing.

Heart Transplant

Today I want to talk to you about board game adaptations of other popular media. Tabletop gaming is a powerful tool, it can create fascinating universes and allow the players to weave their own story within that space. And since tabletop gaming has such variety of mechanics, it has a natural advantage over other forms of media for adaptations. Unfortunately, a lot of big publishing companies have taken this advantage as license to slap any well known copyrighted story on some random game to make a quick cash grab. This is unfortunate for everyone involved, especially the fans of that story who are cheated into thinking the board game will provide them a familiar experience to the story they already love.

Complaints aside though, I want to start with some good, something we as designers should aspire to and study so we can learn how to make it right. This game is not only the best board game adaptation, but probably one of the best board game made of all time - Battlestar Galatica. We can talk a lot about Battlestar Galatica, but for today let's just focus on why it is a good adaptation.

Warning: light spoilers ahead.


The key of adaptation is like a heart transplant. You find the main conflict of your original story, and then you create an environment that can recreate the conflict for your players.

BSG certainly achieves this on the surface. Players take control of characters they are already familiar with on the show. Players strive for the same goals - reaching Earth if you are human and sabotaging the voyage if you are a Cylon. Players also face the same difficulties/opportunities, shortage of fuel, food or population all are losing conditions for the humans. Externally the humans are facing seemingly insurmountable Cylon fleets and they have to make some tough choices just to escape. By aligning its goals and mechanics with the TV show, BSG not only created a familiar world for the fans, it also reduced the learning curve as the fans will feel intuitive about how situations should be dealt.

The heart of the BSG show is the tension between humans and sleeper Cylons. The BSG portrays this well through the hidden loyalty mechanic and give Cylons plenty of chance to secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) to sabotage the humans. The result of all this is that the players feel immersed in the universe of Battlestar Galatica. Players begin to think and act like the characters of the show - throwing wild accusations around, trusting the people they should not, etc. Players are not intentionally doing this to role play, but because the game is gently guiding them to do so. As a true test to the level of immersion, players can try re-imagine their gaming experience as an episode in the show, it wouldn't at all be out of place.

Keep in mind the three elements below that makes BSG a good adaptation, with the third being the hardest to implement but also the most important:

1. Alignment of goals (mechanics)
2. Environmental Immersion (thematic integration of mechanics)
3. Recreating the key conflict (player dynamics)

In the future, we will contrast BSG with some unsuccessful adaptations by evaluating them using the three elements above as metrics. Hope you guys will find it interesting!

Hunger

I've been working on a very cut throat social deduction game partially inspired by this Penny Arcade Extra Credit video on "Beyond Fun". If you have not seen the video before and got five minutes to spare, the video has some very insightful commentaries on the video game industry and the current trend on game design. I highly recommend a quick look.

The game I am working on is called "Hunger". If it works as intended, it will tell a powerful story through the dynamics of the game reminiscent of some historical events occurred not too long ago in human history. So without further ado, the game:

Hunger

The Rules

The Cards

The Printing Friendly Cards

Would you be interested in play testing this game? Let me know what you think!