Playing The President

Solitaire Boardgaming: Being President

This will be a post that I update periodically as my thoughts ripen.  We start on March 16th, 2016 with my initial notes.

GMT Games' Gene Billingsley is developing a game that will, ideally, replicate a contemporary US president's four years in office.  Here is the link.

Engaging with foreign powers, advancing a domestic agenda, the game will have it all.  Or at least that's the hope.

My focus here will be on any shortcomings I see as preparations for publication unfold.  It goes without saying that I'm greatly interested in the concept and have already pre-ordered a copy.  Publication is expected in late '16 at the earliest.

1.  There's been considerable push-back against GMT's choice of a title for this project.  It is currently known as "Mr President".  In addition to being the same name as an earlier, well-regarded boardgame (and thus a cause for confusion), there's also the obvious grounds for a charge of sexism inherent in using the "Mr." at a time when one of the two likely candidates for the office is female.

2.  My other initial take on GMT's effort is that not enough time is being allowed to develop the game's potential.

We'll get into specifics as the days pass, and I have time to gather my thoughts.  There'll also be updates from Mr. Billingsley that I'll occasionally link to.

Update 3/17/16 ........................................................

Right off the bat I can say that of the two points above, the first is the no-brainer.  Boardgaming is gradually attracting women to the table, and so insisting on a title like Mr. President, for whatever reason, won't win any points for charm, at best, and at worst, aligns with hard-line fundamentalists at home and abroad.

With that said, let's lay out how the game seems to work, and where it might be improved.

You, as the player in the Oval Office, choose your cabinet to start the game.  Each cabinet member has an effectiveness rating that is used during the game to implement your agenda at home and abroad.  This takes the form of die rolls to see whether you're successful with your agenda items.  Your cabinet members act to add points to these die rolls, and each roll, plus modifiers, must reach a certain level to be successful.  Successful rolls result in progress on your agenda, leading to an increased standing in public opinion, for example, and other positive spillover effects.  Thus forward momentum.

There is, of course, a crisis around every corner.  Cards that contain Events are drawn and revealed, some of which help you, but many of which set back your plans.  The key is to react intelligently to unfolding events.  

A possible problem (Mr. Billingley has revealed only a few sample turns so far, so we will see) is that foreign affairs dominates the game.  Since GMT Games is mainly a wargame company, this is not surprising.  Plus, it's much more difficult to model an economic system, or most other domestic policy interactions, at least compared to the relative strength of armies, for example.

Naturally, I have suggestions to augment the domestic system:

A.  Have 2-3 possible presidential styles to choose from.  Maverick, where a greater range of policy choices is on offer.  Bridge Builder, where opposition to your agenda is weaker and more variable, as is party support.  And Party Animal, where choices are constrained by the party line, but your cabinet has greater effect.

B.  A binary choice between a Democrat/Republican.  For each party there would then be the above 2-3 choices that would afford a slight edge in some respect; these would be marked, once chosen, on the relevant Candidate Card.  A Maverick, Bridge Builder, or Party Animal token with strengths and weaknesses would be placed on top of one's candidate card.

C.  Starting with one party or the other, we can then begin to model economic, environmental, even drug policy and how much room to maneuver a Maverick or a Party Animal would have, how much each could rely on party support, even the time required to fundraise for the party, time that would otherwise be spent on an agenda.  In general, these models would allow greater government activity for a Democrat and less for a Republican, with corresponding costs and benefits.

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Update 3/20/16

An accounting for how a president projects not just power, but cultural awareness.

Perhaps the game as designed already accounts for this.  If not, it could be a card that appears periodically and that sees the player taking a chance at connecting with popular culture.  Factors could include whether a foreign or serious domestic crisis is currently on-going (negative), previous attempts to connect (successful +1 or unsuccessful- 1) and perhaps an initial chance to spend time each turn on this facet of the game in order to increase one's odds in the form of a positive die roll modifier cascading into other die rolls.

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Update 5/30/16

My hopes for this game took a surprising turn for the better when it was announced that the election window for this game, Nov. '16, would be missed.  Ideally, this design would wait for 2019 or so, giving numerous developers a chance to submit ideas.  Instead, this will be the first in a series, and subsequent titles will likely correct past mistakes and flesh out inadequacies.

A Boardgamer's Concise Manifesto

What Makes A Boardgame Great

Each year hundreds of boardgames appear on the market (here's a list of the most popular).  Most people don't know about these games because boardgame aisles only have Monopoly, Battleship and Clue for sale.  Meanwhile, dozens of new boardgame publishers appear each year, many to hawk self-published titles which are money-losing and time-wasting for all involved.  So, here's a handy guide to finding the occasional diamond in the rough.

#1: Is it Fun?  This criterion eliminates most kiddie games like Candyland, and most self-published games that weren't first tested, then revised, then retested by professionals working for game publishers.  Beyond this, everyone has their own tastes (see mine below).

#2: Does it speak to you?  If there's only one other person in your life who likes to play boardgames, don't buy a game that can't be played by two.  If you don't like to be reminded about war, or disease, or nasty creatures, or frightening space aliens, don't buy games with those thematic settings.

#3: Just looking at it, is it captivating?  Sure, some popular games like checkers and chess have boards that are plain checkerboards.  But wonderfully designed boards are the first step on the way to an exciting world drawing you in.

#4: Have you enjoyed playing it?  That's right, you can attend a convention, try out games that look good, and buy after you play.  Here's a list of convention resources.

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And what game categories interest me?  Here I whittle away at the tens of thousands of boardgames published in the past 50 years:

* No disturbing images, objectives or settings.  This eliminates war, horror and colonialism as game categories.

* 2-player games are preferred.  I don't care for the relationship struggle that means favoring one opponent over another.  I'd rather focus all my energies on crafting a 'win', rather than being fair and civil to everyone.

* Beautiful boards!  If I'm staring at it for an hour or so, I like to open my eyes wide and soak in the image.

* Crafting.  It takes skill to start with a subject like a high school dance and not only make a game that's fun, but artfully include the characters in attendance, the music played, the food/drinks consumed, the clothes characters are wearing and what those characters are allowed to do at the dance.  Then, it takes imagination to raise the game to a higher level, by, for example, creating shifting personalities (a wallflower becomes the center of attention), song requests, illegal booze/penalty, even different venues at the school (bathroom, dance floor, behind stage, parking lot, janitorial closet, etc.)

This last criterion, of raising a design to a higher level, is where much of my winnowing occurs.  There are many games where a designer has invented a new way to play cards, roll dice, arrange tiles, rank turn order, etc.; has sketched out something of a mechanical drawing to show how the idea works; and then casts about for a subject to tack on.  Sometimes the fit is surprisingly good; usually it isn't, though; and sometime it's woefully inadequate.  A favorite for game designers who like to tack on thematic settings after the fact are fantasy, space and other imaginary realms where there are none of reality's constraints.

I prefer games that begin with a subject and develop a game idea around the setting.  This is much harder to do well, because it's very tempting to take shortcuts, rather than hone the same design for years, until fun is maximized and depth absolute.