Limiting Collaboration #
In several turn-based collaborative multiplayer games I’ve played (Gloomhaven, Pandemic, Divinity Original Sin 2), I’ve noticed a common issue that draws out what would otherwise be a more streamlined experience. This is that, while these games usually have players control specific characters, in reality what happens is that the playgroup as a whole decides on the best move that everyone should take. Then everyone just makes the agreed upon move. This effectively turns a “multiplayer” game into a complex “single player” experience, where the single player is a group trying to come to consensus. Another way to say this is that the game starts getting “played by committee”.
This is not in-itself a problem, but it does lead to some issues:
- Often a few people end up leading the group, and effectively playing the game for everyone else.
- If leaders don’t emerge, it takes a lot of time to get everyone on the same page about a specific plan of action, which can make the game tedious.
A Solution: Secret Objectives #
Dead of Winter gets around this problem partially by giving players secret objectives that may be directly in conflict. This and some other mechanics make the game play more like a “normal” competitive game.
A Solution: Communication Limiting #
An elegant solution to the above problem (which I haven’t tried yet), is to put constraints on the communication that can be done between players during the game. Some ways of doing this include:
- Only letting players controlling characters that are physically close together on the board to speak to each other. This is very easily done with chat apps (Discord, SMS, etc.).
- Putting a time limit (or character limit) on communication. If the limit is exceeded, then the players will lose turns - their characters were spending time talking instead of acting.
These options are interesting because they produce a trade off - is it better for our actions to be more in sync, or should we just act with less synchronization?
Game mechanics could also play into this communication limitation - for instance, characters that can communicate telepathically with others may be immune to any limits.
Comments from coworker to integrate #
I guess you might break it up into a few more parts
- Permission (can I talk to this person at all)
- Duration (how much time can I communicate with this person)
- Dictionary-space (how much vocabulary do I have to communicate)
Physical closeness ‘permission’ and time-limit per-action/turn you cover, however there are two things I might add that limit effectiveness of communication:
- Role-playing
- Language limits
With roleplaying, while it may be optimal to take a course of action, it may not be what the character would do (for example, against a demon and a lich it may be optimal to disrupt the lich’s spellcasting, but your character may have hatred of demons). This is most applicable in TTRPGs like D&D and Pathfinder and less applicable in Video Games or some Board Games. This doesn’t limit theoretical communication, but may limits it’s impact depending on your group.
Language limits the dictionary of what can be said, but doesn’t necessarily limit how much can be said within that dictionary. For example, Gloomhaven before your two cards are selected limits communication to ‘relative’ values (ex. I am going as fast as possible and will do an AoE) rather than absolutes (ex. I am moving with Mana Bolt at 07 initiative and will top with coldfire). This still lets people communicate freely, but can limit knowledge. This also encourages players building knowledge of each others abilities and what they do in combat, somewhat like a small group of mercenaries would.
Categories: Gamedev, Mechanic Ideas
Backlinks: Dead Of Winter,