I was thinking of a few game Ideas, but I keep running into a scenario in my head where the game gets to a certain point where one player is completely in control of the game so everyone else just quits playing.
The other is finding a mechanic to keep everyone playing to the end so no one is "eliminated" mid-game.
What are some ideas and mechanics you all have used in the past to ensure the chance of something like this is reduced?
Cheers!
One of the things that Power Grid did that I liked (and it's a mighty short list) is that the players with less money or resources or cities) gets first chance to bid or grab for stuff.
One of the things that Airships does to keep stragglers in the game is that if you fail to make your combination roll to build a part you need you get a smaller consolation bonus. You can then cash in these bonuses to add points to your later rolls to help win the parts you need.
This is a good idea, but only a partial solution, as players can opt out (I probably would, rather than become an underling). If a vassal could, at a later time, rebel, well...that's a different story. :)
More generally, when I have a design in which a tipping point occurs beyond which victory is impossible for some players, I try to reformulate the victory conditions to be, "whoever reaches the tipping point first, wins." This generally involves abstracting concrete goals like "occupy all countries on the map" to abstract goals like, "accumulate 8 victory points." Victory point abstraction isn't always appropriate, but where it works, it provides a way for restricting play to the most interesting portion of the session's life cycle.
Mark
Apologies.
Deleted.
I agree with MarkKreitler's comment about some (many?) players not wanting to become vassals if this relegates them to an underling role for the rest of the game.
If vassals have the possibility to rebel later then the game could still be fun, but then you probably wouldn't want a "conquer the world" victory condition anyway because whenever a player came close to conquering the world their vassals would rebel to stop them, thus creating an infinite loop.
You could have a conquer-the-world style game that has a different kind of victory condition. For example, every time you conquer a territory you earn 1 point. You do not lose points for losing territories. First person to 20 points wins. In such a game becoming a vassal does not prevent you from winning, and in fact it may be a tactical advantage to become a vassal of a powerful player because now they can't attack you any more. This victory condition discourages turtling (which while a valid strategy in real life is generally boring in a board game) and avoids the Risk stalemate scenario where the last few players fight back and forth for hours on end with none being able to gain enough advantage to destroy the others.
Regards,
kos
If vassals have the possibility to rebel later then the game could still be fun, but then you probably wouldn't want a "conquer the world" victory condition anyway because whenever a player came close to conquering the world their vassals would rebel to stop them, thus creating an infinite loop.
You could have a conquer-the-world style game that has a different kind of victory condition. For example, every time you conquer a territory you earn 1 point. You do not lose points for losing territories. First person to 20 points wins. In such a game becoming a vassal does not prevent you from winning, and in fact it may be a tactical advantage to become a vassal of a powerful player because now they can't attack you any more. This victory condition discourages turtling (which while a valid strategy in real life is generally boring in a board game) and avoids the Risk stalemate scenario where the last few players fight back and forth for hours on end with none being able to gain enough advantage to destroy the others.
Regards,
kos
I really like this idea, thanks for the suggestion. And I agree that vassal would have to have the option to rebel later, to be an appealing option to players.
It could cause a lot of interesting scenarios, for example, your ruler is a dominant player on the map, and you are his vassal. In a few turns of over confidence, he leaves a few fiefs unguarded, and you take advantage, reclaiming your lost lands. At the same time, he loses his invasion battle, and suddenly he has almost no army, and other players swoop in for the kill and he is now a vassal while you are back on the up and up.
Your 20 points idea is neat, and somewhat in line with another victory condition I was pondering.
For example, there are four areas in the game players must try to max out in. Perhaps up to ten points in each area.
Power(Army), Influence (Money), Religion ( Catholic Church), Number of castles built.
Of course this makes the game much more complicated and with lots of bits to make and stuff... but just something I was thinking of.
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One of the things that Airships does to keep stragglers in the game is that if you fail to make your combination roll to build a part you need you get a smaller consolation bonus. You can then cash in these bonuses to add points to your later rolls to help win the parts you need.
Yes I did like that feature as well.
It's inevitable I think that in military conquest games everyone is playing to the end as elimination is what it's all about. The game I'm currently working on is Medieval themed and I was thinking that players about to be finished off could be given the chance to be vassals to their conqueror, thus keeping them playing and also being historically plausible.