Design Philosophy: SIMPLEXITY

Simplexity is a principle I like to invoke in game design to describe many of my most favorite games and how they play.

It is simply this:

1. Simple Rules: Easily learned, easily explained.

2. Lead to Complexity: The individual rules create significant decisions for the player to make through how they interact.

3. Different Outcomes: Games are repeatable in that there is considerable variability in outcomes for how the game is played and its results.

Most simple games lack the nuance of simplex games, and, consequently are often stereotyped in their play. Complex games are often too complicated and detailed for repeated play and mastery. Simplex games occupy a middle space in the complexity continuum, and they literally occupy that "sweet spot" in design space.

Junta

Junta
Company:  West End Games; Type: Ameristyle; Players: 2-7; Time: 4 hours; Genre: Treachery; Rating: 💥💥 Don't like it!

We used to play a lot of Junta back in the day. I enjoyed it a lot, mainly because of who and how we played the game. Players play in a "banana republic" -style country, where the goal is to secretly amass the most money in their bank account until the game ends. I have fond memories of Neil, as el presidente announcing each turn that "it's been a bad-f***ing year again. And then some of the in-game squabbling that resulted.

But actual gameplay was rather stereotypical and often just rather tedious. The president distributes the foreign aid budget to the interested parties. They then choose a location to go to -- from which we determine whether anyone is able to bank their money, whether they get assassinated or are able to participate in a coup. Since the president is el presidente for life, the only way to change who is president is to coup, after which the conspirators if successful choose one of their own to become the new president. Rinse and repeat.

Coups happen a lot! And this is what can make the game very tedious. A coup is a tactical war game in the middle of a game about political intrigue. The game can be anywhere from 2-4 hours in length. It all depends on how many coups there are in the game. There's not a ton of strategy to it either. We recognized this fact back in the day, and we tried to solve it by somehow simulating the coup without actually playing it out. (Didn't work so well.)

While your mileage may vary, I can't currently say that I would recommend playing it. OK in its time, but not so much now.

Tokaido

 

Tokaido

Company:  Stonemaier Games; Type: Eurostyle; Players: 1-5; Time: 30 minutes; Genre: Worker Placement; Rating: 💥💥💥💥 I like it!

Not all Eurostyle games achieve a true synthesis of theme to mechanics. Tokaido is one of those games that truly does. The theme of the game is holiday travel from Edo to Kyoto -- or the other way round, I can never remember which. Each player takes on a special role. As they travel on the road they each stop at various attractions and collect mementos. At the end of their journey, they then score their memento collections. Whoever has the most points wins.

As with any worker placement game, the core mechanic is choosing a point to place your meeple to gain a reward and incidentally to block other players from doing the same. One of the interesting quirks of the game is its "catch-up" mechanic: at any time, the player who is furthest behind on their journey goes next. So, while you may be blocked from achieving a goal at a given spot, if you take small enough steps in your journey, you can potentially get many more moves than the leader. Like any good simplex game, its a strategic trade-off that you must manage.

Simple and elegant rules with great nuance. And mwah! for the theme. Solid game.

Machi Koro

 

Machi Koro
Company:  Groundling; Type: Mixed; Players: 2-4; Time: 30 minutes; Genre: Acquisition; Rating: 💥💥💥 Meh.

This is a game that was introduced to me when I used to go weekly to the Beantown Gamers at MIT.

In some ways, it resembles my hated Settlers of Catan -- but without those elements that make me hate Catan so much. (Namely, no Robber and no pointless trading.) What it retains is the idea of rolling two dice, benefiting from the dice roll based on what you own, and the buying of properties, as opposed to building them. There is a little strategy to the game, but very little. An innocuous game, that I'm more than willing to play in the downtime between more desirable games. But not one that I'll keep to own or play otherwise.

Onirim

 

Onirim
Company:  Z-Man Games; Type: Mixed; Players: solo; Time: 15 minutes; Genre: Solitaire; Rating: 💥💥💥 Meh.

Onirim is a nightmare-themed solitaire card game. 

In this game you are a dreamwalker who must escape the dreamscape before being consumed by nightmares. 

The object of the game is to unlock each of the colored doors before the nightmares force you to deplete the deck. Play a card and then draw one. The cardinal rule for playing cards is to not repeat symbols (sun, moon, or key) consecutively. 

If it is a regular card, you just add it to your hand. If it is a door card, you can unlock it with a key of the matching color -- otherwise it is discarded and you continue to draw to replenish your hand. If it is a nightmare -- well, here is where it gets interesting! 

You can discard a door (winning condition), you can discard a key (necessary to unlock a door), discard the top five cards from the deck (time running out), or discard your hand (for a similar result.)

Actually, the game mechanics are OK, if not clever. The problem for me is that the game is too abstract and not thematic enough for my taste. I will confess I like to project myself into games, and this one just doesn't give me enough flavor for me to relish. Hence, the meh. However, your mileage may differ.