Guest Column by: Jay Treat A friend of mine has been thinking about a game for years that lets your group play as the crew of a starship bridge. Each player would play his own mini-game that determines his station’s performance and the group’s individual successes would add up to determine how successful the mission is for the whole team.

Please keep in mind that the below piece, largely based on a single game, is NOT a review. I've played it only twice. As a designer I was inspired by our experience last night and I've spent the past few hours thinking about how I can attempt to bake that experience into my own designs.

A few friends on Twitter recently began a short debate regarding tying in a game. More specifically, what should the designer do (if anything) to reduce the chances of a tie. Furthermore, they pondered whether ties are bad in the first place, and what a reasonable tie breaker is.

I'm designing three different games, all within a science fiction theme. Although I'm not actively pursuing this or worrying about it, it would be interesting to have 3 different stories and experiences within this one universe.