Remixing Adjectivia...

What is Adjectivia?

When I had first designed Adjectivia, the premise was a game based on the creative and impromptu skill of the people playing. It was meant to test a person’s creativity and wit through a board game designed for 4-8 people. To me, it was the most unique race to the end board game that was simple and easy to pick up on the first run through.

The concept of the game lies in the exploitation of adjectives and how creatively they can be put to use as players sing, draw, act out and name movies related to the adjectives they draw up from the deck of cards. It's all about how witty players can be when pit against one another's ingenuity.   

So coming up with a modification for Adjectivia, I had to decide on which side of the game I wanted to adjust the focus to. Since there were both skill-based as well as luck-based components, I had to pick one of the two and run with it. I decided on adjusting the game to make it purely skill-based where the player’s creative skills are tested and luck plays no part in the mix.

The Modification

The game involves a die which is rolled to determine the number of spaces to move before picking up a card from the shuffled deck on the center of the board. Before a player is allowed to move they must perform the task associated to the suit and type of card presented to them. If they fail to perform the task adequately (this is judged by all other players), they must either remain where they are or challenge another player/team. A die is then rolled and depending on its face value, a luck-based challenge is initiated between the challenger and the challenged player. Should the challenged player win, he/she may move forward the associated number of spaces rolled by the challenger while the challenger must move back the same number of spaces.

When designing the game I had initially intended for the challenges to be all luck-based but with the Impromptu Mod, I have turned the challenges into a test of both players’ creative skills. The mod will be explained in the ruled below and just for clarity, I have included the rules of the original game and highlighted the modified rules using a different text color.

Rules

• When the game begins each player/team will roll the die – the player/team with the highest roll will go first.

• In order to move the number of spaces rolled, the player/team must first pick up a card from the deck and perform the associated task as indicated on the game board. (NOTE: Name it refers to the naming of 3 movies). 

• Upon completion of the task, all other players/teams will judge whether the attempt was successful or not. In the case of a tie vote, the player/team progresses.

• If the player/team fails to complete the task successfully, they have two choices – either remain where they stand or challenge another team of their choosing.

• In the case of a team, one player from both teams is chosen to compete.

• Depending on the suit of the card the challenger has picked up, both players must perform the action stated using the adjective (on the bottom of the board) that is the same color as the space the challenger is standing on.

• When the color corresponds to more than one adjective, the challenger gets to choose which adjective to perform the action with.

• If the color landed on is not among the colors of the adjectives on the bottom of the board, the challenger is free to pick and adjective they like.

• Should the challenger win the challenge, they are allowed to move the previously determined number of spaces.

• On the other hand, should the challenged player/team win they may progress the pre-determined number of spaces while the challenger retreats the same number of spaces (if the player/team is at the start, they will remain here).

• At the end of a turn the player/team places their card on the space labelled “DISCARD” and the dice is passed to their left.

Game Overview

Using this mod, the game tends to be more skill-based as I have managed to eliminate all luck-based elements from its design. The die now simply judges what creative task is to be performed by the player and doesn’t center the risk associated luck with being unable to improvise and put on a show for everyone else.

The foundation of the game remains the same where we’ve all got to learn to laugh at ourselves and that no one should be embarrassed to put themselves out there. However, the game is now entirely based on one’s skill to act/entertain making this simple game lean in favour of those who are used to public speaking and getting themselves out there as a pose to those who are more introverted and keep to themselves.

The game admittedly still fails to cater to every audience, but most skill-based games work in a similar capacity.

Creative Process & Playtesting

When I had initially created Adjectivia, I remember regretting certain decisions I had made and wanting to change various game elements around to make the game more fun. So when I had been given the task of remixing one of my old games, I immediately turned to my first prototype and put work into adjusting the rules to incorporate more skill-based gameplay mechanics.

I immediately looked over what I had initially wanted to alter/change about my game after I had created it by re-reading the blog post I had written (specifically concerning the Creative Process). One of my ideas was a Veto square where players/teams could simply decide on the progression of the current player/team (in addition to their own) by vetoing the collective decision on the performance. This could benefit the team itself while hindering every other team. It seemed unfair to implement a space which gave complete power to a single player/team and furthermore, this took away from my main focus by focusing the game on more primarily luck-based mechanics. As a result, I steered away from implementing this element within my mod and went on to thinking about eliminating all luck-based elements.

The prominent luck-based element in Adjectivia is the challenge mechanic where one of several luck-based challenges may allow the player a second chance or afford him/her an offset of several spaces thereby hindering his /her progression. So what if I implemented more improvisation for the challenges. I had also thought of incorporating the colored adjectives at the bottom the board in some way or another, so why not bring it into the challenges.

During the presentation of my game board, I was questioned on the color scheme of the squares navigating the player from one end of the path to the other and whether or not these were significant to a gameplay mechanic. At the time, they were not, but noticing that the colored adjectives and the spaces (which were initially simple decorations) were matching, I decided to incorporate both in the adjustment of one gameplay element, the challenge mode.

Playtesting proved positive as most of the luck was stripped from the game. There were, however, times when players would get simpler adjectives to work with or when player were allowed to choose their own adjectives on challenges. This usually resulted in an easier turn out for the challenger depending on their creative strength. However, the adjustment the mod brought definitely aided the skill-based focus of the game and made it further catered to creative and witty entertainers as well as players who were more outgoing than usual.

Conclusion

After modifying the game I found that it was more focused on skill and creativity than on luck. Since this is what I was going for, I feel like I succeeded. The fact that luck was taken out of the equation did not necessarily make my game any more fun. I did, however, manage to adjust the focus of Adjectivia and center it more prominently on its main theme.

Remixing Tic-Tac-Toe...

 
                

What is Tic-Tac-Toe?

Now everyone knows about the classic game of Tic-Tac-Toe set up on a 3x3 grid and played by people of all ages. The goal of the game is to get 3 of the same symbol – this is whatever symbol is yours (X or O) – in a row, whether vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The game is fairly simple and was initially designed to aid young minds to practice reasoning and problem-solving on a smaller scale. Parents often encourage their children to play Tic-Tac-Toe with each other as a stepping stone to stimulate brain activity. As a result of the simplicity involved in the gameplay, Tic-Tac-Toe is often neglected by adults and not really seen as a fun pastime in their books. This tends to be due to the fact that a certain set of moves can guarantee a tie, or at most a win against an unskilled player. The more you play, the more the simplistic patterns emerge and soon the gameplay gets stagnant and boring. So, being given the task of re-mixing the gameplay of Tic-Tac-Toe to make it more chance-based as well as more skill-based was an interesting task.

The Modification

There are only so many variations of the classic gameplay that can be implemented into a more challenging game with incentive for adults to play. My modification is shaped on making the game more of a luck-based challenge through the introduction of a dice as well as skill-based elements while maintaining the basic game mechanics from the original Tic-Tac-Toe.

My mod is called the Territorial Mod and works on the basis of gaining the most territory on a 10x10 grid. The rules are to follow.

Set Up & Rules

• A 10x10 grid must be drawn out.

•  A dice is rolled to determine who will go first – player with the highest roll goes first.

• On each turn the player rolls the die and performs the corresponding action based on the table below.

Dice Roll	Action Performed
1	Block off an entire patch of the board (vertical or horizontal) to prevent your opponent from progressing.
2	Place 2 symbols vertically anywhere on the board.
3	Place 3 symbols horizontally anywhere on the board.
4	Place 4 symbols vertically anywhere on the board.
5	Place 5 symbols horizontally anywhere on the board.
6	Place 6 symbols diagonally anywhere on the board.

• If there isn’t sufficient space for you to move the required number of spaces, you must forfeit your turn.

• The symbol for a block is a 2-headed arrow placed across the spaces it is blocking.

•  A block may be as small as one space or as big as 10 spaces.

• A vertical block is skipped over when progressing horizontally and a horizontal block is skipped over when progressing vertically.

• When a block is being skipped over (refer to previous condition), the player must no place a symbol on the blocked space but on the empty space following the block in the same direction.

• On any given turn your symbols must form a straight line.

• The game ends when players reach a stale-mate (no dice roll will help either player progress) or when players decide to draw. This may happen when 5 or less spaces are randomly scattered throughout the board, or when 3 dice rolls in turn have yielded nothing for either player.

• The winner is the player with the majority of their symbols on the board.

Game Overview

A typical game of Tic-Tac-Toe with my Territorial Mod can take anywhere from 5 – 7 minutes, but no more than that. The game manages to make things more challenging and interactive as the majority of the game is now luck-based. If you roll the right numbers on the die, the game can end sooner than expected. The premise of the game is to cleverly block the other player’s progress by reducing the number of spaces they can occupy. This concept largely focuses on territorial acquisition which was the foundation of the modification that came out of hours of thinking the assignment through.

To roll 1 on the die is bittersweet. This stems from the fact that blocking your opponent’s progression in turn blocks your progression if not planned out right. To avoid this occurrence the player must be strategic about his placement of the block. Diagonal placement on the board can be very helpful in terms of obstructing the progress of your opponent as well as covering as much space as possible on the board at any given time. However, this comes with a cost. 6 diagonal spaces to move are hard to find once well into the game, in turn making the roll of a 6 on the die void.

The game ends considerably quick (much like traditional Tic-Tac-Toe) keeping things simple and interesting.

Creative Process & Playtesting

When trying to figure out how to put together a modification for Tic-Tac-Toe, I kept coming back to the same conclusion, it’s such a simple game, what more can you add to make it more fun for adults. I did some research and thought about why I don’t play Tic-Tac-Toe anymore either. The answer was one in the same – it just gets too easy after a certain age. It was said that one step up from Tic-Tac-Toe is Chess which encompasses far more than ordinary game mechanics. I mean the gameplay itself is simple; any child of 8 or older can pick up Chess relatively quickly. Each piece has certain rules and restrictions to movement while the board is the battlefield where it all takes place. The real challenge, then, comes from strategizing a takeover of territory; planning out moves with your pieces in such a manner that the opponent can’t comprehend your game plan which reveals the challenge from which stems the fun of playing a good old game of Chess.

So what I was looking to create was something along the lines between Tic-Tac-Toe and Chess - easy enough for kids to pick up, but strategic enough to challenge adults. The result comes from working with the idea of acquiring territory in a strategic manner.

I spent hours upon hours designing games where rolling a die determines how many spaces you must move or where you can move on a given number of spaces. No combination seemed to work too well. In a lot of my prototypes I had managed to incorporate the aspect of luck using a die, but none of them were effective enough. I toyed with the idea of introducing pieces on a grid and having them move around based on a die roll to form an X or an O instead of simply having 3 symbols in a like to win. I went through a grid set up with a row of X’s and a row of O’s on either side for a game based on advancing across the board to get to the other side. Then I began to break down Tic-Tac-Toe to its bare components and figured out how basic the gameplay was – you either block or progress and you know you’re really good when you can turn a blocking move into a winning move.

I continued to ponder how to implement a blocking mechanic and use progression to hinder your opponent. My dad kept bringing up the idea of segregating the even and odd numbers on the die to alter their influence on your movement. I worked continuously playing around with all the idea in my head and created at least 4 different prototypes based on my latest idea, until I finally got it right and working. I then playtested it with my dad, my sis and a good friend from school, finally deciding that I was happy with the modification the way it turned out.

Conclusion

Remixing Tic-Tac-Toe was harder than I had initially anticipated. My mod began with an idea on a bus to Waterloo and I figured that I was done with my planning there and then. However, it proved to be quite tedious when I began playtesting and working out the bugs and kinks of my design. The result was a completely revamped game of Tic-Tac-Toe with similar elements to my original idea that the young and the young at heart would both enjoy if they’re up for a quick game of Tic-Tac-Toe. 

Murder He Wrote...

What is Murder He Wrote?

Murder He Wrote is a dungeons-and-dragons-style role-playing game based around Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting and the emotions we believe he was attempting to portray through his work of art. The game takes place in the town of Saint-Remy (the same town from the painting) and explores the lives of the townspeople and how this relates to a murder committed at the start of the game.

There is a single Van Gogh who must create a story around the town and the murderer he decides. This person is pretty much the Game Master for the rest of the play through, making critical decision, offering clues and giving players hints/behaving as all the NPCs in the game.

It is then the players job to either talk to other players or investigate buildings/areas on the game board (which acts like a map) linking motives to travel from one place to another with a story on every turn. There is a night cycle which comprises of 3 nights before the Van Gogh can kill another player but this mechanic is further explained in the rules.

Game Time

A typical game of Murder He Wrote can take anywhere from 45 minutes to more than an hour depending on how creative the Van Gogh is and how good the other players are at guessing/making assumptions/collecting clues/putting it all together.

Contents

·       Game Board (Map of Saint-Remy)

·       11 Character Bios

·       Player tokens (Gems)

·       Clue cards/blank cards for the Van Gogh

·       Van Gogh Guidelines

Set Up

·       At the beginning of every game, all players must place their player tokens (gems) at the Town Square which is the starting and ending point of every night.

·   The Van Gogh must go through the guidelines and stage a murder (this includes victim, place, time, and any other piece of information the Van Gogh decides to reveal).

·  Each player makes up a story to justify their reason for speaking with a character/investigating an area. The NPCs are played by the Van Gogh and the player may talk to other players as well.

NOTE: While the Van Gogh must tell the truth, other players are not obligated to do so and may lie upon being questioned.

Rules

•     Players will decide on a player to be the 'Van Gogh'. The Van Gogh acts as a game master and narrator for the game. The VG will then choose one of the 11 characters to be a murderer and one to be a victim. They will then create a plot as simple or complicated as they want using the rest of the characters. Use sample plot as a template.

•     Every player picks a character bio card (this is their character) and places their token in the town square.

•     The objective of the game is for players to successfully discover which of the 11 characters is the murderer.

•     The game will begin with the Van Gogh telling the players who the murder victim is and suspicious details about the townspeople that may or may not be relevant to the murder. The type and amount of information given is completely up to the Van Gogh.

•     Players gather information about the murder in two ways: Talking to characters and investigating areas around the town. Only one of these actions may be done each turn.

1.    Players can talk to any of the 11 characters to gather information on the murder. This is done by asking the Van Gogh any question they want that they feel is relevant to the crime. All characters have things that anger them.

2.    Trying to determine motive is a good place to start.

3.    Players may also talk to other players, but there is no guarantee that other players will share information or even tell the truth.

4.    Players may also investigate any of the places in the town in an attempt to discover clues about the murder.

5.    The players must justify to the Van Gogh why they are investigating certain places. If the Van Gogh determines an investigation to be 'successful', a player is rewarded with a clue card, which has valuable information on the murder.

NOTE: This game is a very role-playing 'table talking' game. The Van Gogh will always tell the truth, but may withhold certain information depending on how justified you are in asking what you are asking.

•     After every player has had a turn, the game advances to the next night. Every three nights, the Van Gogh picks another character (not being played) to fall victim to their murderer.

•     The game progresses until a player is confident that they know who the murderer is and what the murder weapon was. The player will make their accusation at the beginning of their turn. If they are correct, the game is over. If they are incorrect, they are out of the game.

Game Overview

A typical playthrough of Murder He Wrote consists of players making their way from one area/building to another and attempting to determine who the murderer was and what their motive was. Every night affords a turn for each player and after three nights, the Van Gogh may murder an NPC if they wish.

The fun in this game comes out of the creativity and imagination of every player. Much like the painting, Murder He Wrote may be interpreted in several different manners by all kind of different people. There are always people who will enjoy the creativity and really get into the role-playing aspect of the game. While others might not particularly enjoy the idea of making the story along as they go.

Character Bios are an important part of the game and are interesting to read and characterize by the various player as well as the Van Gogh. These are a few of the character in our game:

Name:	Basile Chaput
Gender:	Male
Occupation:	Butcher
Age:	32
Height:	5 foot 4
Important Relations:	Has a secret crush on the candlestick maker.
Facts:	Likes to walk alone at night. No one knows where he gets his meat. Is a vegetarian.

Name:	Léo Gosselin
Gender:	Male
Occupation:	Town Drunk
Age:	40
Height:	6 Feet
Important Relations:	Brother of the widow. On good terms with constable.
Facts:	Occasionally passes out in the graveyard or park. Sometimes gets arrested for public indecency,  drunkenness, etc.  Used to be a soldier.

Name:	Suzanne Lapointe
Gender:	Female
Occupation	Courtesan
Age:	26
Height:	5 foot 4
Important Relations:	Has a crush on the gravedigger. Is frequently employed by the baker.
Facts:	Extremely insightful. Knows everyone’s secrets. Is very good at keeping them.

Creative Process

Initially when we read our requirement for the Starry Night board game, we thought Prof. Nacke had lost it. An art game based on a painting? That too a painting by an artist who later went on to commit suicide – madness! We figured that the game would be dark and since the outline stated that the game didn’t necessarily have to be fun, we thought we would be able to create a game helping people with thoughts of suicide to make it through. An art game was a hard thought for us to comprehend and we couldn’t decide on what to do. We wanted to make our game fun, but at the same time, we couldn’t find many positive undertones in the painting. So we looked for examples of games with darker undertones which proved to provide hours of fun. Clue was a common one and Whodunit murder mystery books were related in the discussion.

Soon the idea of painting your own picture came about by playing the Game Master and naming that person ‘Van Gogh.’ We liked the idea of being creative and allowing your imagination flow as is common when interpreting art. As a result, we decided to make a game all about the creativity of the people playing which is when the idea of role-playing was born.

We are a creative group of guys with great senses of humor, if I do say so myself. But we also realize the flaw in our game is that it isn’t meant for everyone. Not all people enjoy the concept of role-playing and making up a story at every key moment throughout the game. However, we decided that these people are the same people that might not enjoy the process of interpreting art, then maybe we were on the right track.

Art is an expression of self, just as our game is an expression of who we, as a group, are. Hence our game is the result of our interpretation of the assignment and the painting of the Starry Night. We thoroughly enjoyed play-testing our game, especially coming up with our character bios. The end result was a game we are proud to put our logo on.

Conclusion

While our role-playing game might not be for everyone, we believe that it is a step in the right direction when it comes to art games and we are most certainly proud of our result after a week or so of hard work. We hope you enjoy our game as much as we do; the process of development was most certainly worth the time put in!