The Common Thread

Post by: Grant Rodiek

Oh look! A blog post. That’s correct, I’m not dead. Just busy. We’re damn near finished with The Sims 4 at work, which should return some free time to me, and my personal life will hopefully settle down. This past week has been a flurry of births, deaths, and sick pets, which makes it difficult to concentrate on silly things like games.

I had a personal revelation, which is the topic of this post, but before we get to it, we need to go a few years back to my origins as a board game designer.

When I started, I looked up to designers like Vlaada Chvátil due to the absurd breadth of their catalog. Though I’ve ironically only played one of Vlaada’s titles (Tash-Kalar, excellent), I sought to emulate him. Other designers that fit this profile (for me) include Ignacy Trzewiczek and Antoine Bauza. I’ve played their games far more, so it’s very easy to appreciate them as a designer and customer.

I’m also impressed by designers like Stefan Feld, who sticks to euros, but does something quite unique with each of them. Or even Richard Borg. On the surface, yes, many of the Command and Colors games seem quite similar, but once you’ve played a few you’ll be quite impressed (I am) with how distinct each feels with just a few thoughtful changes. It’s very inspirational to me.

After a while, I began to realize that even the most unique designers often have a common thread between their designs. I know a Bauza game or an Ignacy game when I play them. I would have used Ignacy’s last name for consistency’s sake, there, but I’m too lazy to spell it out. That common thread is important for this post. You can see a designer’s finger prints on their work. The special thing they bring to the table because it’s something they love.

At the outset of my print game career I wanted to design wildly different things. Euros, co-ops, solo games, RPGs, war games, social games, party games. I’ve tried to design many of these. I’ve taken good cracks at a Euro and a Co-op to no avail. They were just missing something or in some cases, couldn’t come together at all.

I’m quite stubborn, though, and I kept trying. But, my mind always veered towards other things. Conflict things. Military things. After York I dove head first into Sol Rising. Yeah, Sol is another war game, but it had dice and fleets and was quite different. The two projects I’m researching now? Military. The prototype I’m building now? Military. The prototype I’m testing but don’t talk about much? A heavy dose of conflict.

It isn’t just my design habits, but my purchase habits. In the last 6 months I’ve been selling my euros and similar titles because frankly, they don’t grab my attention. I just don’t want to play them. Instead, I’ve double and tripled down on Combat Commander, Memoir ’44, both Dune AND Rex, Race to the Rhine (not a War Game, but as close to one as a Euro gets), and I have to block GMT’s P500 page in my browser because I want to buy everything sold.

I even invested in a new tabletop miniatures game, Dropzone Commander. Something that requires glue, and paint, and thick rule books with rulers, and effort. I can’t even feel my finger tips any more, yet here I sit painting with my tongue out as I try to add just the right dab of glue.

I’m sick.

It all started me to thinking that perhaps I don’t need to fight it anymore. To thy own self be true, right? I think for the longest time I felt like I needed to design co-op and euro to be a real designer. It’s what so many of my peers enjoy to discuss and design. Nobody wants to be the weirdo off in the corner storming their own beaches. (Editor’s Note: Not a euphemism.)

But, I think war games are what I’m good at. They’re most definitely what I think about, want to design, develop, and play. The reality is that I don’t think I’m going to be Vlaada, at least not in terms of breadth. But, I can tackle the issue of variety and seek to craft fresh experiences within the far more narrow lens of conflict.

This is a very crowded genre, but also room with a great deal of space to still grow. I definitely think it’s a realm where my particular obsessions with shorter play sessions can make a difference. I think my common thread will be a great way to fight and just accepting that is very comforting to me. Moving forward, at least until I change my mind again, my large designs will be war games and my small games will be silly card games, like Farmageddon or Hocus Poker. It’s a good mix.

Or, put another way, it’s the right mix for me.

Do you have a common thread? Do you have a philosophy for the course of your personal works? Share it here. Who are some of your early design idols?

6 thoughts on “The Common Thread

  1. Bravo, Grant! There’s no law stating that you’re not a “real” designer until you’ve designed games in an arbitrary set of genres. It’s good for a young designer to branch out and try different things, but at some point, if your muse is pointing you in a specific direction, better to not fight it and go in that direction.

    Here’s the next question: now that you’re no longer fighting upstream to try to design a Euro or a co-op, will you suddenly get unblocked for those games? Will the resolution just come to you, despite your focus on conflict-oriented games?

    Reply
  2. It seems you and I have recently had similar revelations. I wrote about my new design philosophy, which is basically to keep myself in the gateway/light-to-medium weight Euro world. But it was great to just think about where my design realm sits. And now that I’m cognizant of it I think I’ll be better able to design good, enjoyable games.

    Thanks for sharing and best of luck with your designs!

    Reply
  3. I agree that designers leave their finger prints on their designs, such that the name on the box isn’t always required if you know how to look at the game. I don’t think this is a game-type thing, so much as a design style. It could well be that your style fits best within conflict games, for now.

    That you also do little card games shows good diversification too, mind you. There is still lots of time for more variety, if that’s where your muse takes you.

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Today in Board Games Issue #211 - One Zero One; Tavern Brawl Interview - Today in Board Games

  5. All you *have* to do is design games that you enjoy and that you believe others might enjoy as well. That’s it, end of discussion. Don’t apologize for what you enjoy — we need more folks like you running straight for their passions. Congrats for finding yours!

    Reply
  6. Thanks for sharing Mr. Rodiek! I look forward to your”short war games ;-) I love the idea of the genre but can never give enough time. So, I’ll be anxiously awaiting your projects :-D

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: