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.