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How many parts in the system?

I am doing some resurch about game systems and would like your help. It would be interesting to see how many objects are in many game systems. By "object", I mean object as the turm for the building blocks of all game systems. If you aren't familiar with that turm, objects are defined by there properties and together, when set in motion form the game system. Some example's are: the player, the game board, the pieces in chess, the dice.

So I want to put together a list of game titles by catigory, along with it's number of objects. I want to see if there is a consistancy in number. I want to compare game experiences with the number of objects it takes to create that experience. What do you get in a game experience for the number of parts in the system? It may be that we miscount in some of the games. We can correct eathother. "Risk" for example, you wouldn't count each infantry; you would count all the infantry or all the soldier peices as one object.
Just post comments with your game count and I will add it to the list. It would help if you also attach a catigory to the title.

The game list:

Mass-Market:

Monopoly (9)
Dread Pirate (10)

Europian:

American Specialty:

Hobby Shop Games"

Other:

Comments

More Details Please

I am curious on how you are making the count. Could you list the 8 objects you have for Monopoly?

Dralius wrote:I am curious on

Dralius wrote:
I am curious on how you are making the count. Could you list the 8 objects you have for Monopoly?

This number is an estimate out of my head. BTW, we will probably need to correct eachother often. Here is how I rough it out:

Monopoly:
1.player
2.board
3.bank
4.pawns
5.yellow card deck
6.orange card deck
7.properties
8. houses
9.hotels?

is there more?

Aw yes! The dice. I forgot

Aw yes! The dice. I forgot that. So far that makes (9) or (10?) maybe there's more for Monopoly.

Depends on how you want to look at it.

Unless you count the number of players adding player as an Object seems to be moot since it simply adds one to every game unless of course you know a game that plays by itself.

If the number of Objects in a game is to be taken as some measurement of complexity you might also argue that every component that has a different effect in the game could be counted separately. Each property has a different cost and reward level making it unique. This might be too detailed for your purposes and make gathering the large body of data difficult.

Just for pure bulk data you might download the rules for a bunch of Hasbro games that can be found here.

http://www.hasbro.com/customer-service/toy-game-instructions.cfm

I'm not sure

I'm not sure what this is going to accomplish, but I'll play.

I'm pretty sure that you'll just end up with Euros at under ten, Mass Market at over ten, Ameritrash at a comical number, and true wargames unclassifiable.

I'd submit that the yellow and orange decks in monopoly aren't really distinct. They do pretty much the same thing.

I'll do a rundown of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, which is, to my mind, the pinnacle of ameritrashy goodness. I've included the expansion, I stand by 8-player TI.

Star System Hexes
-Planets
--Many varieties?
--Mecatol Rex
-Hazards
--Supernova
--Asteroids
--Nebulae
--Ion Storms
-Homeworlds
--Many varieties?
-Empty Space
-Wormholes
Race Sheets
Race Tokens
-Triangles
-Leaders
-Flags
Racial technology
Trade agreements
Miniatures
-There are about 10 different sorts, each in 8 colors
Strategy Cards
-All sorts of variant ones
Action Deck
Political Deck
Combat Dice
Fighter Tokens
-Fighter*3?
Ground Force Tokens
-Ground Force *3?
Shock Trooper Tokens
Bonus counters
Trade goods
Victory Track
-Two sided?
Distant Suns Tokens
-Many Varieties
Planet Deck
Technology Decks
Rulebooks (2)
Artifact Tokens
Unit References
Objective Cards
-Public (I)
-Public (II)
-Secret
-Common
Players (You insisted)

Whoever spots what I missed tell me. One can't write a list that long without missing something.

My own Game

In my Game, Rise of the Chieftian, I'm finding it hard to count.

Some are obvious:
Players
Lackey Tokens
Totems
Dice
The Fire

But then there are the Cards. I don't think I should count them all as one. Perhapse I should count by the areas they can be? Let me try.

Ability Cards
Gene Cards (These first two overlap somewhat)
Instant Meme Cards
Tool Cards (Meme Ability cards)
The Deck (and I'll include Event cards here because you don't keep them)
The Discard Pile (very important during endgame)

So I guess I'm pretty consistant with an American trying to make a game with wide appeal.

Dralius wrote:Unless you

Dralius wrote:
Unless you count the number of players adding player as an Object seems to be moot since it simply adds one to every game unless of course you know a game that plays by itself.

If the number of Objects in a game is to be taken as some measurement of complexity you might also argue that every component that has a different effect in the game could be counted separately. Each property has a different cost and reward level making it unique. This might be too detailed for your purposes and make gathering the large body of data difficult.

This is a vary good point and I was thinking about this yesterday. It may not be necessary to count the player in all games. I know in my own game the player is definately a key component to the system and her properties. I'm sure lots of games would count the player.

I see lots of purpose in doing this resurch. I am vulnerable and many others, to adding lots of features to the system. If we can see at a quick glance how many parts to various game systems make them up, I think that is a good piece of information to benning designers at least to consider. It's like: just look how many parts it took to do that.

Does this make sense?

It can be difficult to make an official count. If we can help eachother, I apreciate your participation.
Just for pure bulk data you might download the rules for a bunch of Hasbro games that can be found here.

http://www.hasbro.com/customer-service/toy-game-instructions.cfm

I will be back later to

I will be back later to update this. My computer access is vary limited today.

The Magician wrote:Dralius

The Magician wrote:
Dralius wrote:
Unless you count the number of players adding player as an Object seems to be moot since it simply adds one to every game unless of course you know a game that plays by itself.

If the number of Objects in a game is to be taken as some measurement of complexity you might also argue that every component that has a different effect in the game could be counted separately. Each property has a different cost and reward level making it unique. This might be too detailed for your purposes and make gathering the large body of data difficult.

This is a vary good point and I was thinking about this yesterday. It may not be necessary to count the player in all games. I know in my own game the player is definately a key component to the system and her properties. I'm sure lots of games would count the player.

I see lots of purpose in doing this resurch. I am vulnerable and many others, to adding lots of features to the system. If we can see at a quick glance how many parts to various game systems make them up, I think that is a good piece of information to benning designers at least to consider. It's like: just look how many parts it took to do that.

Does this make sense?

It can be difficult to make an official count. If we can help eachother, I apreciate your participation.
Just for pure bulk data you might download the rules for a bunch of Hasbro games that can be found here.

http://www.hasbro.com/customer-service/toy-game-instructions.cfm



Sorry I messed this quote up. I some how blended my comment with Dralius's quote. Mine starts with "This is a good point.."

Anyway, with "Monopoly" I forgot to count areas on the board that have distinct properies, no pun intended.
Start, Jail, free-parking, and what's that other corner? These could be considered as objects along with some other areas I think. I will have to pull out the game at home to get a good count of everything and will update that one later.

brisingre wrote:I'm not sure

brisingre wrote:
I'm not sure what this is going to accomplish, but I'll play.

I'm pretty sure that you'll just end up with Euros at under ten, Mass Market at over ten, Ameritrash at a comical number, and true wargames unclassifiable.

I'd submit that the yellow and orange decks in monopoly aren't really distinct. They do pretty much the same thing.

I'll do a rundown of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, which is, to my mind, the pinnacle of ameritrashy goodness. I've included the expansion, I stand by 8-player TI.

Star System Hexes
-Planets
--Many varieties?
--Mecatol Rex
-Hazards
--Supernova
--Asteroids
--Nebulae
--Ion Storms
-Homeworlds
--Many varieties?
-Empty Space
-Wormholes
Race Sheets
Race Tokens
-Triangles
-Leaders
-Flags
Racial technology
Trade agreements
Miniatures
-There are about 10 different sorts, each in 8 colors
Strategy Cards
-All sorts of variant ones
Action Deck
Political Deck
Combat Dice
Fighter Tokens
-Fighter*3?
Ground Force Tokens
-Ground Force *3?
Shock Trooper Tokens
Bonus counters
Trade goods
Victory Track
-Two sided?
Distant Suns Tokens
-Many Varieties
Planet Deck
Technology Decks
Rulebooks (2)
Artifact Tokens
Unit References
Objective Cards
-Public (I)
-Public (II)
-Secret
-Common
Players (You insisted)

Whoever spots what I missed tell me. One can't write a list that long without missing something.


brisinger, please give me a total number for "Twilight" as I have never played the game, and I will add it to the list. Just come up with your best aproximation. That is good enough for me.

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