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As the Game Design Discussion threads have become a good source of info, I thought I'd start one myself!

There are a lot of games which use the basics like cards and dice for game mechanics, but what other physical game mechanics have people encountered or considered using?

X-Wing use their dials to lock in peoples actions before any are resolved, which really improves the simultaneous-style of activation.

I've considered using a mechanical card-holder to help with bookkeeping. The cards would have a table which details how the unit loses speed/strength etc as they lose wounds, which would line up with a sliding slot. As you push damage tokens into the holder, it moves the slot and shows you your current statline.

Has anyone else used or conceived any physical game mechanics? Do you think that they add to the game, or are just gimmicks?

I've seen some neat things like custom laser-cut wound counters and whatnot that looked ingenious but were hard to read and use.

The original Adeptus Titanicus had some neat stuff like play-and-play weapons, and a shield dial in the base.

Litko does brisk trade in fantastic laser-cut markers of all kinds, sizes, and such. They can be tricky to use because they don't tend to be beveled, but they're heavier than card chits.

Quite a lot of boardgames use a dashboard with chits and what-have-you to track 'internal states' of models or pieces on the board.

There's a type of game out there called a 'block game' where you can conceal information on the bottom of a block marked with unit markings and stuff. I accidentally made one once because the concept is really straight forward, although I used custom tokens from Litko so there was a concealed side and a unit-description side.

Oh, and there's Battleforce, the Battletech game of larger-scale actions. They had special standees that you could fit chits in and that you adjusted to track damage and whatnot.

I'm not a particularly big fan of physical mechanics a la X-wing / Heroclix, as they're more fiddly and stateful. I prefer "stateless" / minimal temporary states by exception.

I designed a couple fun games where all mechanical resolution was done via a "flick" mechanic. I.e. you flicked a penny around at it dictated results in a WYSIWYG fashion. I call them Dexterity games, but it is a truly physical game design.

As for other things, you see a lot of tokens, dashboards, battle boards, and the like in many games. Two that stand out in my mind. MERCS where the stat card was also used for pivoting and measuring. Saga where the main driver of mechanic resolution is a battle board.

That isn't to say that games shouldn't have physical components - I just think that it's easy to go overboard unnecessarily.

Maybe. One of the things about physical components like punchboard tokens is that you can buy them by the sheet and sometimes you can buy them by a pre-existing die so you don't even have to pay for that. Means there's fewer practical limits, like being able to cram those sheets into the box.

I think it helps if the markers and doodads fit into the game. Epic Blast Markers, for example, add to the experience.

First and foremost: I think that a correct definition of "physical" mechanics is different from what you offer here. Jenga use a physical mechanics. Wing of War probably does (but I'm really not sure about that, because if we substitute the cards with measuring tool for distance and degree we achieve the same results).

So I'll give a few example of "proper" physical mechanics, meaning mechanics that need to be played "in the physical world" and that cannot be substituted by something else.


-> "Bang!" is one of the biggest example.
[Bang is a card western game where the "distance" between players, that determine who can shoot you and viceversa is determined by the number of seat around the table. So, if we are in three, we're all at Distance=1 from each other. If we are in 6, I've got two people at Distance=1, two people at Distance=2 and one at Distance=3]
Because the game includes hidden roles, and you have to understand who is in your team and who isn't, this mechanics is also extremely interesting in the gameplay.


-> "Cash & Guns" is another one. In this game you play a gang - Tarantino style - that after a score is splitting the money. The game is composed by a series of round with some certain amount of money. Any player have a fake gun, and a number of card that represent the bullet they have. If I recall correctly, there are for anyone 5 Blanks, 2 Shot and a single "BamBamBam!". In any turn there is a countdown, and everyone point his/her gun to someone else face! Then, you have a few second to go "face down" (and renouncing your part of the money in play), or to stay up and check your fate. If your opponent has a blank, you don't have any effect. If it's a Shot or a "BamBamBam" you take a Wound and lose the round as if you go face down. There are some minor effect like "Doge" and so on, but the basis are here.
This game basically use a "pointing" system that is entirely physical, and that, by the way, fits extremely well the narrative (probably it's the party game that enforce more the roleplay, even if roleplay isn't a requirement for the rules).


There are other game for sure that use physical mechanics (miniature wargames to solve the positioning on the board, any LARP etc.) but those two are between the most innovative in my opinion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another one, which is almost a kid's game that I purchase at the Nemo Amsterdam was "The Experiment".


-> It is composed by a number of tiles and a couple dice. Tiles are shuffled and use to create a circle on the table.
The game goal is to find out the correct Amoeba that has escaped the lab and started moving in circle.
Dice are of 3 different type and has a number of feature: specifically the starting point, or Lab from which the Amoeba escaped (there are three - red yellow and blue) and the the direction it take (clockwise or counterclockwise).
Then there is a dice with the Shape (single horned or double horned), the Pattern (spot or stripe) and the Color (red or blue).
There are a few tile that introduce special effect when and Amoeba "moves" in them: one that transform the Pattern, another that change Color etc (plus three "Vent" systems that work as shortcut, skipping part of the circle).

The physical component is comprised by the fact that the game is based on speed (or has a Twitch mechanics if you prefer). Once thrown the dice (dice are the same to all for the round), everyone have to put his/her hand on a tile as fast as possible. Who pick first the correct Amoeba, considering the starting point and any transformation, gain a point (otherwise lose one).

It's a game of logic and eye coordination based on speed.

A peculiar thing that I noticed, is that is a really harsh game. If you're better at it than your opponents, you don't simply win... you dominate

 Cybtroll wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another one, which is almost a kid's game that I purchase at the Nemo Amsterdam was "The Experiment".


-> It is composed by a number of tiles and a couple dice. Tiles are shuffled and use to create a circle on the table.
The game goal is to find out the correct Amoeba that has escaped the lab and started moving in circle.
Dice are of 3 different type and has a number of feature: specifically the starting point, or Lab from which the Amoeba escaped (there are three - red yellow and blue) and the the direction it take (clockwise or counterclockwise).
Then there is a dice with the Shape (single horned or double horned), the Pattern (spot or stripe) and the Color (red or blue).
There are a few tile that introduce special effect when and Amoeba "moves" in them: one that transform the Pattern, another that change Color etc (plus three "Vent" systems that work as shortcut, skipping part of the circle).

The physical component is comprised by the fact that the game is based on speed (or has a Twitch mechanics if you prefer). Once thrown the dice (dice are the same to all for the round), everyone have to put his/her hand on a tile as fast as possible. Who pick first the correct Amoeba, considering the starting point and any transformation, gain a point (otherwise lose one).

It's a game of logic and eye coordination based on speed.

A peculiar thing that I noticed, is that is a really harsh game. If you're better at it than your opponents, you don't simply win... you dominate

The amoeba game sounds like a variation of the card game "Spoons". If you play a certain hand, everyone has to grab a spoon form the center of the table.

People are practically maimed playing this game at my in-laws house. It is a very "physical game".

This is why I'm against dexterity games in principle. I can barely wipe myself, let alone reach out and contact things without flailing.

I have to say that I was mainly thinking of props and the like more than actually fighting over a spoon.

EG I recently bought a game called Ryu, which is about building a dragon before your opponents. "Physical" game features in this are coloured cubes, screens, island tiles and dragon cards, tokens, counters... it's a very prop-heavy game (but good fun).

Props in x-wing are the movement templates, asteroids etc.

in 40k I guess they used to be blast templates, now there's nothing.

well physical components are split into two categories, visual components like most described and actual dexterity mechanics.

For example original epic to simulate drop pods coming down had tiny triangles that must be thrown from blast marker turned at a height of 30? cm above the ground?

In wargaming many dexterity elements are not included because of the damage they can do to painted models.

Physical mechanics however doesn't necessarily implies dexterity.
In the case of "Bang" those only provide in-game measurement (distance) and in case of "Cash and Guns" only pointing mechanics.

Now that I think about that, in "Cash and Guns" you can play it without physical mechanics by writing the name of your target and put it in front of you, covered. Not sure how to substitute the physical implication in Bang!... ...probably by adding an additional board that map the character locations.

P.S: this just to expand on idea that mechanics aren't given, they are constructed bu our necessities.

------------

However, to the OP. If you are more interested in props you have to consider:

1) Digitalization. I feel that sooner or later alternate reality with app to measure distance, show visual and sound effect and made calculation will because standard for wargames.

2) Innovation is made by observation. There are literally infinite games, and using existing ideas by itself never will really allows you to make something interesting if you don't feel the urge to thinker with them and change anything you want to change.

3) Use children as guinea pig ^^. A renown designer that I know was bashing his head on a practical problem (due to limited space on the board), and a child solved it in less that 2 second because, simply, wasn't constrained by any mental boundaries (basically the child put two game pieces one on top of the other... thing that, once observed, seems incredibly easy, but that beforehand wasn't).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
P.S @ Easy E
Yeah, they are similar, but they differs because in that game you have FIRST to do mental calculation AND THEN select a tile (that isn't necessarily the same for everyone).

You have to balance the rapidity of thoughts with the fact that your reasoning must be correct.

But it's a savage game neverthless. It's like water-polo or rugby (when compared to football): if someone is even slightly superior, he/she stands no chance. There is no randomness to soften the skills difference.

Geoff Engelstein (and Isaac Shalev) wrote a book about this sort of thing, now out on Kindle: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07TLF53L5/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_ulLfDb2Z58YS0

I just read a battle report of wierd war II where a group of OSS operatives were air dropping behind enemy lines and their deployment zones were dictated by throwing cotton balls onto the table.

Dexterity and props.

There have been some doozies in the past. Remember this gem?



Bonus points though for having tables and info on the inside flap of the box. Some current GW boxes are skinned as "stand in" terrain for starting players/games. Rogue Trader used to use a clear acrylic lay-over mechanic for targeting vehicles.

I forgot precisely how it worked but you laid an acrylic "table" over the side or front profile provided in the rulebook and rolled a dice to see where your shot hit, etc.

The Titan hit dice from Epic Space Marine II were about fiddling with grids too. Occasionally I wonder what they were aiming for that never quite worked out in practice.