{
  "Quarterbacking": {
    "thread_id": 3726687,
    "forum": "Game Design",
    "subject": "Is quarterbacking a design problem or a player problem?",
    "total_posts": 21,
    "posts": [
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-21T09:49:18-05:00",
        "body": "I've been thinking about this a lot lately, partly because I know I've fallen foul of quarterbacking when I've been trying to help and partly because I'm designing a co-op game at the moment. In my opinion quarterbacking happens because board gamers are natural problem solvers. If we have full information and a shared win condition then it's hard not to, especially when calling it out is tough because it usually looks like genuine assistance. I think rather than try to fix it with social etiquette, it has to be solved at the design level. This has also got me thinking a lot about mechanics which do a good job of this: [heading] Specialist roles[/heading] In theory players will focus on their own role, in practice it doesn't work once everyone knows the roles well enough. Pandemic's Medic i"
      },
      {
        "author": "Ryan Keane",
        "date": "2026-06-21T10:38:45-05:00",
        "body": "Quarterbacking is fundamentally a player issue. Many many gamers and groups happily enjoy full coops with completely open information and open communication like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Castle Panic, Sleeping Gods, etc. (often groups house rule open hands since there’s no rules about not communicating exactly what you have, so hidden hands as a rule is pointless). They are able to avoid making others feel like they are being told what to do and don’t have agency. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with many gamers and groups preferring co-op game designs that make it more difficult or simply not possible to quarterback either because they just prefer games that have that or because they or their fellow gamers have difficulty not quarterba"
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-21T10:57:02-05:00",
        "body": "Thanks. I'll add that to the watch list! I think one of the reasons I often dislike open information and comms is that I'll naturally try and solve the puzzle across players and then it can be tricky to find the line of being helpful and taking someone's fun/autonomy from the game"
      },
      {
        "author": "dprcooke",
        "date": "2026-06-21T11:04:29-05:00",
        "body": "Speaking from the perspective of a player: quarterbacking is a player problem, but which the design of a game can enable or discourage. Like, I've played intro games of Pandemic where I make one suggestion (sometimes relatively vague), and then let the newbies figure it out. I've listened to players form a strategy that I knew would absolutely result in us losing, but I kept my mouth shut and played along with what everyone else wanted to do. Just shut your mouth and let people learn the game the same way you did: by making some mistakes and learning about the game from them. If you wanted to play multi-hand solo you could've done that without inviting others to your table to boss around. That said, Pandemic enables quarterbacking by having all information open and visible to all players. "
      },
      {
        "author": "Barazantathul",
        "date": "2026-06-21T11:04:55-05:00",
        "body": "Another path to limiting quarterbacking is complexity. In Spirit Island for example each Spirit is quite asymmetric (way more than in Pandemic). In addition, there are a ton of permutations for the consequences of your actions, so it is very hard to play your own game and to have an overview of the options of you fellow players. These two elements lead to a game that has open info, but is still hard to quarterback."
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-21T11:56:57-05:00",
        "body": "Barazantathul wrote: Another path to limiting quarterbacking is complexity. Really good shout I hadn't considered as a mechanism for stopping quarterbacking! I've not played spirit island but have heard secondhand of people still having been quarterbacked but maybe they're an exception!"
      },
      {
        "author": "lbleicher",
        "date": "2026-06-21T12:02:23-05:00",
        "body": "It is a design problem. By the way, there's an excellent geeklist that may provide very useful examples on how to avoid the problem: Co-ops that are IMPOSSIBLE to play solo"
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-21T12:11:32-05:00",
        "body": "Ryan Keane wrote: For your coop: what parts of the experience are supposed to be fun for the players? Are they supposed to have fun by discussing the details together? Lean Pandemic. Are they supposed to have fun by building complex Spirit engines that get only vaguely directed at a problem (\"who's dealing with these invaders?\") by the table? Lean Spirit Island. Or are they supposed to have fun by taking risks with the limited amount of information they have and seeing if it works out? Lean Hanabi. I've tried to really couple couple the limited comms with the theme - a lot of the fun comes from working out when to talk or whether you can do other things to let the other player know your intentions. Not sure if that answers the question but a big bit is \"we need to work together but how\""
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-21T12:11:43-05:00",
        "body": "lbleicher wrote: It is a design problem. By the way, there's an excellent geeklist that may provide very useful examples on how to avoid the problem: Co-ops that are IMPOSSIBLE to play solo Amazing, thanks!"
      },
      {
        "author": "Ryan Keane",
        "date": "2026-06-21T12:21:37-05:00",
        "body": "One aspect that I would consider a design decision that allows quarterbacking to be a potential player issue is how most coops still use the standard board game framework of “your turn” and “your player pawn.” I’ve never heard anyone complain about Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective or Exit Games having a quarterbacking problem because there is no sense of “this is my turn” or “this is my piece to move.” Once you instill that kind of ownership/independence, it can create resistance to working together and being receptive to the ideas/influence of others about what you should do, a problem of its own making that designers then need to consider how to “fix.” Of course most of us enjoy coops with player turns/ownership, so I’m not saying that coops without these are better."
      },
      {
        "author": "cferejohn",
        "date": "2026-06-21T12:47:56-05:00",
        "body": "lbleicher wrote: It is a design problem. By the way, there's an excellent geeklist that may provide very useful examples on how to avoid the problem: Co-ops that are IMPOSSIBLE to play solo Disagree. It is a design *choice*. Some groups really enjoy being able to tackle a problem together with everyone having all of the information. There are some groups that doesn't work for. Neither of these groups is \"right\" and it is entirely fine and not a \"problem\" to target one group or the other with your game design. I remember watching Matt Leacock give a speech about when he was playtesting Pandemic and afterwards someone came up to him excitedly and said \"it was like a meeting!\" and Matt was like \"umm, ok?\", and the other person said \"no no! like a really good meeting where everyone is contribu"
      },
      {
        "author": "TeamAbsolute",
        "date": "2026-06-21T13:20:23-05:00",
        "body": "I regard it as a player problem - I’m happy playing open information cooperative games and don’t view the design of things like Chronicles of Crime , MicroMacro: Crime City or Horrified as being flawed. I don’t like limited communication co-ops, they take away from the social aspect of gaming which, for me, is most of the point of playing them. But given the success The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine , Sky Team , etc, I’m clearly in the minority on this one. To change things up from perfect info, I’m much happier with the system in Perspectives where each player has information on their own picture cards which they need to communicate to their teammates in order to solve the “mystery”. Lots of discussion, everyone equally involved, quarterbacking eliminated."
      },
      {
        "author": "Antistone",
        "date": "2026-06-21T15:31:25-05:00",
        "body": "As a matter of cause-and-effect, quarterbacking is greatly influenced both by the players and by the game design. I think the only difference between calling it \"a player problem that game design can influence\" and \"a game design problem that players can influence\" is where you are choosing to place the blame, not in how it works as a matter of cause-and-effect, and I think that placing blame on your customer is usually a poor strategy for making a good product. You can choose to aim at a smaller audience of players who are less prone to have this issue, or at a larger audience of players that includes some groups who are more prone to it and therefore places more stringent requirements on your design, but either way you ought to own that choice, not make speeches about how it's the player"
      },
      {
        "author": "cymric",
        "date": "2026-06-21T16:26:09-05:00",
        "body": "Fundamentally a player problem. It is an inability to accept that in a coop game, others might arrive at different conclusions and insights; and this irritates the quarterbacker as a little stone in a shoe irritates the wearer. Thus, they begin to dominate the proceedings. In some cases, the quarterbacker is applying a 'playing to win'-mentality to the group; and will therefore not accept team loss because a team member made what they felt to be a suboptimal choice. If the rest of the group is not capable of reigning in the quarterbacker ('Hey you, are you aware of what you're doing? Please allow us to play our own game, and make our own mistakes, and learn from them.'), then the problem spirals out of control. Essentially, the game becomes a singular effort instead of a team effort. I adm"
      },
      {
        "author": "Jakobgg",
        "date": "2026-06-21T16:54:17-05:00",
        "body": "Just a small point: I think a coop game will tend to feel more 'quarterbacked' when there is mostly one narrow set of similar solutions. Then everyone will agree and the acting Player basically has to do what the game/the other want. If there are two or more different options where it isn't easy to judge which one is the best, the last say will be with the acting player. So one could also watch out not to put the players on rails / make the game undercomplex"
      },
      {
        "author": "Ryan Keane",
        "date": "2026-06-21T17:19:52-05:00",
        "body": "The supposed “Medic problem” is interesting. While I can’t recall specifics, after Pandemic I feel I have played some other coops where certain roles/powers a specific player has lends them to having more prescribed turns, where they are basically a tool to constantly put out fires/avoid triggering the all-lose condition, and less getting to contribute progressing towards victory which usually lends itself to more options and decision-making about how best to do that. I don’t mind being the person that happens to be the one physically moving the Medic pawn and removing cubes while contributing suggestions about what others might do - I don’t feel much ownership of any pawn in vanilla Pandemic - but there’s something to be said for making such pawn a “neutral” pawn that officially all playe"
      },
      {
        "author": "GrimacePCH",
        "date": "2026-06-21T18:25:57-05:00",
        "body": "It's certainly a player problem, augmented by the game. I've played many cooperative games, and I can tell which games are more prone to having a quarterback occur. I make a point to inform the players that each person needs to think about their turn and act based on what THEY think, not what someone else thinks. I've had some players act like they are unable to think, and basically want to be quarterbacked. They don't say that, but they say stuff like \"I don't know what to do.\" That basically invites a player who may be prone to quarterbacking to jump in. I've had some players be so prone to quarterbacking that they jump right in trying to get other players to do what they suggest. I generally mention something if I notice this continue, suggesting they let the other players learn on thei"
      },
      {
        "author": "ProxyDamage",
        "date": "2026-06-21T22:01:04-05:00",
        "body": "It's essentially a player problem. It's just social dynamics. You really have to go out of your way to \"fix\" or discourage it, by hiding information from players or limiting communication. If those approaches don't work for your game, there isn't much you can do about it usually."
      },
      {
        "author": "Nicolas Weiss",
        "date": "2026-06-22T02:16:33-05:00",
        "body": "Quarterbacking is a player/game inadequation problem. Some players are more prone to it, some designs too, you don't want both in the same room. The question asked by designs prone to quarterbacking is: \"This a solo-by-commitee game that could be reasonably groked in its entirety and played reasonably well by a single player, but that is artificially split betweeen multiple players. Now a committee might come to more correct conclusions than a single person, but in a case of asymmetric contributions to the debate of said commitee, to which extent are the players with the strongest opinions willing to regularly self-censor (in a way that makes the game the game less fun for themselves) for the sake of the autonomy, fun and learning of some other players?\" And the answer will vary depending "
      },
      {
        "author": "Ryan Keane",
        "date": "2026-06-22T06:30:53-05:00",
        "body": "Nicolas Weiss wrote: Three categories of solutions have so far made games more quarbacking-proof: • Private information. (The Crew) • Real time. (Kites) • Being complicated enough that players are incentivised to divide tasks. ( I would consider a 4th as dexterity games - you could probably solo the non-real time ones, but when not solo there’s no real qb-ing you can do, telling someone how to better flick their disc or whatever. I’d expand the 2nd to cover those with simultaneous turns but are not real time. And expand the 3rd to cover those that are more puzzle than strategic (eg SHCD and Exit Games) vs those that are strategic and complex (eg Spirit Island). While the puzzle games can be soloed, with one player exalting all the possible sources of clues, there is a benefit to having mor"
      },
      {
        "author": "JHolub",
        "date": "2026-06-22T07:09:04-05:00",
        "body": "I my opinion it's a player problem. Some games lend themselves more towards quarterbacking, especially those with fully open information. The original rules of Pandemic told players to lay their cards open on the table if I remember correctly. This makes it easy for a single player to make all the necessary decisions. Spirit Island had a design goal of making quarterbacking as hard as possible by making the spirits very asymmetric. In the end it's always a player that decides that they now want to decide for everyone at the table and ruin the experience for everyone. I prefer to lose but everyone made their own decisions that to win by quarterbacking."
      }
    ]
  },
  "Design Diary 2026": {
    "thread_id": 3721277,
    "forum": "Game Design",
    "subject": "Design Diary is back for 2026!",
    "total_posts": 43,
    "posts": [
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-09T09:35:42-05:00",
        "body": "DESIGN DIARY IS BACK FOR 2026! If you don't know about Design Diary, we ran this for a very long time back in the 2010's(?!). Essentially it's using a word of the day to inspire game design. Almost like a mini game jam each day - well we'll be doing it Tuesday through Friday. (Spend the long weekend fine tuning what you came up with!) So each day we present a word of the day, and everyone can spend the whole day riffing on the word, trying to come up with themes, mechanics, etc... based on the word. The idea isn't to come up with a complete game, just to see where it inspires you in your game designs. Eventually you'll have a full notebook of great stuff to look back on. We're working a week ahead here so that we can record an audio version of our notes and share with everyone here. Feel f"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-09T09:36:21-05:00",
        "body": "And the word of the day for June 9 2026 is"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-09T09:37:53-05:00",
        "body": "Here are my notes for the day CRUX A puzzling or difficult problem My first thought is giving the crunchiest of choices on your turn. And maybe the whole game is that. You draw two action cards and only get to do one, but everyone else gets to do the other. Draw a Card Play a Card Move a character Plant a crop Water your crops Sell a valuable Attack your opponent Cull a card Ok, here’s something interesting. Micro deckbuilding, where you are deck building your action deck. Cards are just the actions you can do on your turn. So it’s tricky in what you want to set up for drawing each turn, as a mix of great and not so great would let you offer something lesser to your opponents, but on some turns you’ll draw two great, or two not so great cards and then be stuck. If I were to develop this no"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-09T09:39:36-05:00",
        "body": "And here is our team, reading and discussing our notes for the day. Youtube Video Feel free to join in and share your thoughts on the word of the day. We'll keep this up Tuesdays through Fridays, and we're doing it over at the Button Shy Discord too with a great group there."
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-09T10:59:19-05:00",
        "body": "When I think of Crux I think of the coat of arms. I am thinking something like a game using the semi-transparent cards and you are overlaying cards of different colours, patterns, symbols - all to make a coat of arms. The final bit to 'lock in' your design is the frame which is opaque except for the shield part. Gameplay could be drafting? trick-taking (the final 'trick' is a coat of arms - and the 'stronger' coat of arms wins), Or could it be a worker placement where players are artists trying to come up with a coat of arms where you are fetching dyes, getting stencils made, and so on."
      },
      {
        "author": "entrogames",
        "date": "2026-06-09T13:06:08-05:00",
        "body": "Looks like fun! What the 'crux' of the situation is something that can (or could / should) be different to each player. What *I* want is different from what you want... so the choice I want to make could be one of priorities... How important is it for me to mess with you vs. help myself..."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-09T14:31:06-05:00",
        "body": "MarksmanGames wrote: When I think of Crux I think of the coat of arms. I am thinking something like a game using the semi-transparent cards and you are overlaying cards of different colours, patterns, symbols - all to make a coat of arms. The final bit to 'lock in' your design is the frame which is opaque except for the shield part. Gameplay could be drafting? trick-taking (the final 'trick' is a coat of arms - and the 'stronger' coat of arms wins), Or could it be a worker placement where players are artists trying to come up with a coat of arms where you are fetching dyes, getting stencils made, and so on. Hey thanks for joining in on this on our day 1 back. And nice job with the word. I love semi-transparent cards and since I know all of this week's words already I can share that I'm def"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-09T14:31:56-05:00",
        "body": "entrogames wrote: Looks like fun! What the 'crux' of the situation is something that can (or could / should) be different to each player. What *I* want is different from what you want... so the choice I want to make could be one of priorities... How important is it for me to mess with you vs. help myself... Good to see you over here! I love to form questions like this with the words \"How important is it for me to mess with you vs. help myself\""
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-10T08:21:03-05:00",
        "body": "Another day, another word. Today's word is Engender We're starting out with some hard ones here."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-10T08:22:13-05:00",
        "body": "Here are my notes on it. I’m going to go with cause to exist. Whatever I’m building / creating could not exist without my contribution. So what is my contribution? Let’s go with a whole bunch of skills and stats. You start the game with a similar number of them as all other players, or alone as a solo player. And each step of the game you are going to give away a little piece of you for this creation you are working on. It could be a work of art, but it could also be building a castle or a temple of sort. Or building community. Or simply just teaching people. I give some wisdom up, I give some of my skill in negotiation, whatever it is… but the trick is that you are giving it up forever. I no longer have access to it once I’ve given it up, so I need to be careful in the timing of giving up"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-10T08:22:50-05:00",
        "body": "And the rest of the team as audio / video. George gets way into it. Youtube Video"
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-10T10:03:46-05:00",
        "body": "Angel Investors I approached it as engendering trust rather than creating things from nowhere - although creating things on Earth my count on a separate level. Players take on the role of management-level angels (\"Mangels\"?) responsible for overseeing Earth. Unfortunately, Earth is constantly facing disasters represented by Crisis cards. Example: Brand New Virus (Product Recall) Demons! (Hostile Takeover) White Picket Fence (Union Strike) At the start of each round, a number of Crisis cards equal to (player count - 1) are revealed. Each crisis lists the resources required to resolve it. Brand New Virus (Product Recall) Who knew humans didn't like bleeding from their eyes? Requires: 2 Tech 1 Legal 1 Prayer 1 Sacrifice Players hold resource cards that can help solve these crises, but there i"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-10T11:19:48-05:00",
        "body": "MarksmanGames wrote: Angel Investors Hello whole game! Haha. Nice work. Love to see this."
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-10T15:55:38-05:00",
        "body": "sometimes inspiration is a breeze, other times its a freight train. I think i have to at the very least prototype this now."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-10T16:51:36-05:00",
        "body": "I absolutely get that. Keep us in the loop if you get somewhere with it."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-11T10:16:25-05:00",
        "body": "Today's word is...."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-11T10:17:04-05:00",
        "body": "My notes are: Smell is a hard one to get into board games. Taste too. Sight and touch are easy to focus on in dexterity / realtime / real space games. Hearing as well. But taste and smell require additional materials, and most of those materials will not be inside of a board game box. So to step away from trying to determine a scent of something, maybe we can look at a flower patch and the mixes of the scents. Maybe even in a wizard of oz poppy field sense. Each flower has an aroma, but when mixed with others it can be great or potentially disastrous. You are building a walkable garden but you need to be extra careful in how the scents mix on the trail. So each flower has a range of how far its scent reaches, and for each other flower that it mixes with creates a formula. These gain points"
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-11T11:19:21-05:00",
        "body": "Brief one today. It's impractical but fun to think about. A party game about memory. They'll be a deck of cards with things like.. fun fair, seaside, forest, camping, favourite food.. etc.. One player will be the judge, while the other players are trying to choose cards that fit what the judge's card says. These cards are base scents.. eg: lemon, sugar, smoke, trees, chocolate, mint..etc Cards are played facedown. But the back of the cards are just giant scratch and sniffs. The judge has to smell a combination of 2 cards -- then guess who played what two cards."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-11T14:47:14-05:00",
        "body": "Someone at discord mentioned the game Aroma and it made me think of how much scent has to do with memory. They said: I remember, to play it, you smell the vials and you need to match the right label to the right essential oil. Interesting to see you go in that direction, sort of. Also scratch and sniff is always great."
      },
      {
        "author": "JudgementDave",
        "date": "2026-06-11T16:47:20-05:00",
        "body": "MarksmanGames wrote: Brief one today. It's impractical but fun to think about. A party game about memory. They'll be a deck of cards with things like.. fun fair, seaside, forest, camping, favourite food.. etc.. One player will be the judge, while the other players are trying to choose cards that fit what the judge's card says. These cards are base scents.. eg: lemon, sugar, smoke, trees, chocolate, mint..etc Cards are played facedown. But the back of the cards are just giant scratch and sniffs. The judge has to smell a combination of 2 cards -- then guess who played what two cards. Hate the idea of scratch and sniff, as the cards would have limited use before they were already scratched. Probably still impractical due to costs, but (if I recall correctly) something like 15-20 years ago I r"
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-12T03:41:18-05:00",
        "body": "RIP Smell-o-vision. I do think the tech already exists (that is not using scratch and sniffs) and can exist in a more practical and less costly form - but that being said, it will still be costly and you will need to evaluate if the novelty and/or experience of it outweighs the costs. That being said, I want to get those RPG candles that smell like campfires or damp dungeons - cause I think that will enhance my TTRPG experiences"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-12T09:52:22-05:00",
        "body": "Today's word is Interloper 1: one that interlopes: such as a: one that intrudes in a place or sphere of activity b: an illegal or unlicensed trader"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-12T09:53:01-05:00",
        "body": "My notes are light but I think this word is really fun. Trading games are tough, but it does make me think of coming to an agreement with another player and then getting a chance to change it a bit. I would love to see the ability to just edit one value. So let’s say you showed them a card and it said 6 potatoes. And I could give 6 potatoes, or I could give a different number of potatoes or 6 of something else. I feel like this could be Uno level easy. I make an offer, you respond. I have to take it or give it up to the other players maybe? Each player has 1 interloper token where they can make a shift. When they make that shift, they must give the token to the player that they traded with. The shifts should feel huge and impactful. Looking forward to your ideas!"
      },
      {
        "author": "Woodland_Alliance",
        "date": "2026-06-12T09:54:38-05:00",
        "body": "Maybe a worker placement game with an interloper worker who blocks spaces?"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-12T09:56:45-05:00",
        "body": "We're still testing where we will post our group's thoughts on the word, but today we have it at Bandcamp as audio only. This has been a little easier. If you want to hear two other takes on it, check it out: https://designdiary.bandcamp.com/track/interloper"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-12T09:57:22-05:00",
        "body": "Woodland_Alliance wrote: Maybe a worker placement game with an interloper worker who blocks spaces? Sounds like a great name for a solo bot in a worker placement game. They just clog things up for you."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-16T09:54:26-05:00",
        "body": "Week 2 of Design Diary starts now. 🙂 Here are my notes. I got way into references more than design, but I think this is an interesting word. Harmful in a subtle way. I want to lean into harmful in a subtle way. I think that little things that chip away at what you were doing or what your opponents are doing can be harmful in a subtle way. I think my favorite version of this is probably in the game Livingstone, where players can give money to the queen at any time and secretly donate some of their coins. At the end of the game the player who donated the least CANNOT WIN THE GAME! I have played many games, including my last where I would have won but I donated the least amount of money. So I do feel like that was harmful in a subtle way during the game but a major way at the end of the game "
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-16T11:16:16-05:00",
        "body": "Without really thinking too much about theme yet, or even the exact gameplay loop, I was imagining something in the tableau-building , deck-building , or action-selection space. The core idea is that players can take actions that either give certain icons to their opponents or gain those icons themselves (through actions, a market, card effects, etc.). As the game progresses, more and more actions, cards, or other game elements become affected by these icons. Some icons would be generally beneficial, acting almost like multipliers or bonuses. Others would be more of a mixed blessing: they might have a few positive interactions, but there would be a larger number of cards/effects in the game that interact with them negatively than positively. But also as the game progresses -- players gain "
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-17T10:08:15-05:00",
        "body": "NEW DAY NEW WORD"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-17T10:09:19-05:00",
        "body": "My notes are weak and rambly, but hit a little stride near the end. I think the first definition where it is part of a sword is harder than the second definition, but I want to go with the first because I think it’s fun. Trying to think of what the middle of a sword means and how to apply that the gaming. Let’s say the sword is made up of three parts the handle, which is important for you to hold, carry, grip, and it’s protected. There’s the point which is what you used to hurt somebody or cut something with, and there’s the middle which essentially provides length, and I guess can provide a deeper cut. So let’s apply this to a war game, where you are controlling some kind of force and the length of that force can matter. So I deploy my army and the front line is the part that is engaging "
      },
      {
        "author": "buttonshygeorge",
        "date": "2026-06-17T15:29:05-05:00",
        "body": "Foible Thematic: You are a master blacksmith’s assistant. The blacksmith is working on a sword that will be used in a knighting ceremony for Sir Fearful. Sir Fearful is worried that his head might be chopped off during the knighting ceremony. Your job is to work with the master blacksmith to craft a sword with a foible that is dull enough it won’t hurt him, but must appear sharp as to not hurt his reputation. Mechanics: In this push your luck game you are hardening the edge of a sword. Draw a card from the resource pile. This has various metals with different hardness scores. Play cards that represent hammer strikes. These cards will have a number and sometimes an action. Each hardness score can not be exceeded. Push your luck hitting the hammer to meet but not exceed the hammer strike. Ot"
      },
      {
        "author": "Woodland_Alliance",
        "date": "2026-06-17T18:14:24-05:00",
        "body": "A deck builder where you can manipulate other players decks by secretly inserting cards that must be played when drawn. Maybe everyone is spending money, but some of the cards are counterfeit money that has a risk."
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-18T05:17:00-05:00",
        "body": "A game about being in a mental ward - and it's about overcoming character behaviour/trauma/etc while being treated. It is a co-op where players all are trying to fight hallucinations, navigate social norms, and supporting each other (and not making other players worse) on the road to recovery."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-18T08:23:11-05:00",
        "body": "Today we have... a fun one"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-18T08:23:33-05:00",
        "body": "Let’s go with born on Saturn and go completely silly with making the rings of Saturn a racetrack. So a space race around Saturn, on top of the rings which are Mario Kart Rainbow Road style tracks. Why not? I’d have to incorporate the second part of the definition into this, which is gloomy and sad. So this race isn’t very celebratory, instead it’s some sort of requirement, maybe even a race of survival which isn’t even just sad that’s completely dark. But that’s Saturn’s culture for you. You’ll have to talk to them about it. But what makes this race different than any others? Well it’s mostly a perfect circle so there’s never a straightaway, it’s just constant curves so I think some of the fun mechanics where you are sort of fighting the elements of a curve by working against certain die r"
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-18T08:37:52-05:00",
        "body": "jtagmire wrote: Saturnine Reading the definitions - and coupled with my dyslexia - my first thought was: Saturnine (Pronounced Saturn-ninny) A two player games where players move around a city that is on a 5x5 grid. When you move you get to destroy an adjacent building piece (buildings start of 4 levels high). When you destroy a building piece you can either keep it in your scoring pile, or throw it in a straight line at another player (as long as they are on equal level or below you - with no buildings that are higher than your level in between) Objective of the game: Be the player who has destroyed the most building pieces by the end of the game, or reduced your opponent to zero health. End of the game: When a player has 0 health, or a row or column no longer has city pieces. At the star"
      },
      {
        "author": "Woodland_Alliance",
        "date": "2026-06-18T09:16:53-05:00",
        "body": "An engine builder that starts off extremely slowly but ramps up as you play"
      },
      {
        "author": "buttonshygeorge",
        "date": "2026-06-18T10:36:04-05:00",
        "body": "Saturnine Thematic: You are a woodland sprite that transforms into a magical creature when the planet Saturn is closest to earth. This will happen October 4th. You must get all the magical items and use them to aid your transformation on midnight. Choose your animal you will transform into and become a new magical being of the forest. Mechanics: In this pick up and deliver game you are bringing woodland items (rocks, acorns, pinecones and seeds and such) and you are infusing them with magic. There is a map of face down forest tiles. You will have to locate the items first. Once located (flip a tile and reveal the item underneath) you will gather the appropriate token and you will need to bring it to one of 3 places. The magical stream, the tree of life, or the owl of wisdom. When brought t"
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-19T07:38:07-05:00",
        "body": "Today's word is...."
      },
      {
        "author": "jtagmire",
        "date": "2026-06-19T07:38:22-05:00",
        "body": "My immediate thoughts are that each player is dealt five cards at the beginning of the game and they win when they get rid of all five of their cards. You get rid of a card by giving it to another player, which helps them. I think the game should hinge on really big trades where I say I’m going to give you this and in return you can’t give me something but you have to give something to player B, and player B says I’ll do that but you have to let me do XYNZ, and these huge negotiations where every player is involved and every player has say. Then when all have agreed and this could be like 10 minutes of silly negotiation, the players say deal and boom the trade happens. The game can end that point! If somebody has all five of their cards gone, it ends. You just have to sneak things by all o"
      },
      {
        "author": "LeonardoMachado",
        "date": "2026-06-19T09:53:00-05:00",
        "body": "Sounds great, would be awesome to see some pics or video of the game!"
      },
      {
        "author": "buttonshygeorge",
        "date": "2026-06-19T10:33:16-05:00",
        "body": "Blandishment Thematic: You are Half Price Harry, a slimy used car salesman known for selling worn out, junky cars. Half Price Harry hasn’t been 100% honest with his customers and some need a little convincing to go through with the purchase. Harry needs to sell 8 cars to pay this month’s rent. Can he convince some chumps, I mean customers, to buy these jalopies? Mechanics: In this solo game one player will play as Half Price Harry. There will be a market row of junky cars. Each car has it’s flaws listed on the card. You will use “Enhancement” cards and “Smooth Talker” cards. The enhancement cards are things like “Scatch Buffer” “Tire Patch” and “Air freshener”. These things will add positive attributes to the otherwise junky cars. “Smooth Talker” cards are incentives to buy the car. Things"
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-19T10:50:40-05:00",
        "body": "jtagmire wrote: Today's word is....blandishment I immediately think of a political intrigue game where players are the lord or lady of a fief, all competing to become monarch. The core of the game isn't really resource management, warfare, or even espionage (which you have in the game) —those are just tools. The real game is blandishment: persuading other players to support you even when it isn't necessarily in their best interests. Players would harvest resources, tax their fiefs, raise armies, and send out spymasters to learn hidden information such as upcoming events or what resources other players possess. But before the end-of-age vote for monarch, the table opens up for negotiation. Resources can be promised. Marriages between influential families can be arranged. Players can pledge "
      }
    ]
  },
  "UKGE Speed Dating": {
    "thread_id": 3720413,
    "forum": "Game Design",
    "subject": "UKGE 2026 publisher speed dating — what actually happened (follow-up to my prep post)",
    "total_posts": 3,
    "posts": [
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-07T14:32:02-05:00",
        "body": "I posted last week about preparing for Designer Publisher Speed Dating at UKGE and promised a follow-up on what actually happened — here it is. [heading]What paid off[/heading] \"Prepare but don't script\" proved itself immediately. Several publishers asked questions mid-pitch — a script would definitely have derailed me. By the second half I was also noticing which questions kept coming up and working the answers preemptively into the pitch, which I could only do because I wasn't locked into a script. Researching publisher catalogues beforehand helped more than expected — not just for targeting the pitch but for handling rejections. One publisher said it wasn't for them as they focus on family games. Having looked at their range beforehand I genuinely agreed so it didn't dent my confidence "
      },
      {
        "author": "LeonardoMachado",
        "date": "2026-06-19T09:53:59-05:00",
        "body": "Will try to attend it next year with some new stuff to show and play!"
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-19T10:07:55-05:00",
        "body": "What are you working on at the moment if you don't mind my asking?"
      }
    ]
  },
  "Escape from Colditz": {
    "thread_id": 3726991,
    "forum": "General Gaming",
    "subject": "Behind the Board - Escape from Colditz - The world's most talented escape room players",
    "total_posts": 1,
    "posts": [
      {
        "author": "TabletopJunkieMarket",
        "date": "2026-06-21T23:47:25-05:00",
        "body": "View the original here on Tabletop Junkie Here's a mad bit of board game history. Pat Reid designed Escape from Colditz (1973) based on his own experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II. Captured by the Germans in 1940, he refused to sit still, organising breakouts across multiple POW camps until the Germans lost patience and shipped him to Colditz Castle, Nazi Germany’s highest-security camp for Allied officers' most stubborn escape artists. The Germans thought concentrating these guys in one place was a masterstroke. It wasn't. It turned into a giant Nazi-themed escape room filled with highly skilled participants. More than 300 escape attempts were recorded, around 120 prisoners made it out of the castle, and roughly 31 actually reached Allied or neutral territory. Compared to"
      }
    ]
  },
  "Kickstarter ohne Ads": {
    "thread_id": 3723700,
    "forum": "Game Design",
    "subject": "Can you launch a Kickstarter with no ads budget?",
    "total_posts": 12,
    "posts": [
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-14T15:33:23-05:00",
        "body": "I'm about a year out from launching my first Kickstarter ( Station Decimus ) and am trying to build an audience with no money for ads. It's a small card game (probably going to end up caround the £25 mark) so I don't think the maths on paid ads works out. I've got a list of things I'm planning to try (convention demos, board game cafes, podcasts, etc.) but would love to hear from anyone who's done this before! What actually moved the needle for your email list / Kickstarter followers? Anything that completely flopped that you'd warn others away from? Anything you wish you'd started earlier? I'm documenting the whole thing as I go in the hope it'll become a useful resource for others. My current numbers, full plan, and links to an article/video on it are on my BGG blog if anyone wants the f"
      },
      {
        "author": "Jakobgg",
        "date": "2026-06-15T16:00:58-05:00",
        "body": "I have no experience, but some advice might be better than none, I guess. A few years ago, I stumbled upon the term 'guerilla marketing' that has the same goal I think. No money, but efficient advertisement. Maybe it might be a good concept to look up. The seem to have a fee methods. Good luck either way :-)"
      },
      {
        "author": "Damir_Debanic",
        "date": "2026-06-15T16:09:49-05:00",
        "body": "You can. The sucess if you are doing all the promoting yourself is a summ of effect from paid marketing and unpaid - Facebook groups, forums, events, other social media posts. Complete and utter Flop - paid tiktok add 🤣🤣 thpusands of visits, 0 conversions. What worked - facebook bg groups. For mailing lists - time and I do give a discount to email subscribers. Hope this helps 😀 Removing paid marketing just reduces your reach and effect so it will depent on what is your kickstarter goal and the time and effort you want to invest in it."
      },
      {
        "author": "mamcx",
        "date": "2026-06-15T23:40:49-05:00",
        "body": "In general terms, without marketing there is not sell. \"Ads\" is way of marketing, but the main thing is *targeting*. If you can meet will all billionaires that will buy your thing that billionaires love that is 1 billon times better than plaster ads all over the globe. In the other hand, if you know where to put your ads, will be easier that meet the people on person. So all is about: What is my targets, what is the best means to get to them?"
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-16T00:13:40-05:00",
        "body": "Thanks, I'll look into it some more! 😊"
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-16T00:17:20-05:00",
        "body": "Damir_Debanic wrote: You can. The sucess if you are doing all the promoting yourself is a summ of effect from paid marketing and unpaid - Facebook groups, forums, events, other social media posts. Complete and utter Flop - paid tiktok add 🤣🤣 thpusands of visits, 0 conversions. What worked - facebook bg groups. For mailing lists - time and I do give a discount to email subscribers. Thank you! Any Facebook groups you'd recommend? I know a lot of them want people who contribute a lot and not just try and advertise their game there which I'm happy to do but I imagine will take time!"
      },
      {
        "author": "Damir_Debanic",
        "date": "2026-06-16T01:44:23-05:00",
        "body": "SpaceSlugJoe wrote: Thank you! Any Facebook groups you'd recommend? I know a lot of them want people who contribute a lot and not just try and advertise their game there which I'm happy to do but I imagine will take time! I subscribed to a lot if them and usually the best results are with those who require your contribution. That is the trade away...it is free but it costs your time."
      },
      {
        "author": "ex1st",
        "date": "2026-06-18T21:54:51-05:00",
        "body": "Can you launch a Kickstarter with no ads budget? Yes. Just set a low funding goal. Can you fund a Kickstarter with no ads budget? This is much harder."
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-19T03:13:49-05:00",
        "body": "SpaceSlugJoe wrote: I'm about a year out from launching my first Kickstarter ( Station Decimus ) and am trying to build an audience with no money for ads. Appreciate any thoughts! I'm seeing you here and everywhere on instagram.. pretty sure you are doing alright in that aspect."
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-19T09:25:09-05:00",
        "body": "Hopefully you're not too sick of the sight of me 😅 I think you're right and I'm starting to get somewhere with engaging communities online but I bet there are loads of things I haven't thought of around conventions, demo copies etc..."
      },
      {
        "author": "MarksmanGames",
        "date": "2026-06-19T09:44:25-05:00",
        "body": "SpaceSlugJoe wrote: Hopefully you're not too sick of the sight of me 😅 Nah you seem cool - also I haven't even been to UKGE yet so I think you're a tad bit more experienced in all of these"
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-19T10:02:00-05:00",
        "body": "Thanks 😊 I'm hoping I can exhibit there next year for the first time 🤞"
      }
    ]
  },
  "To Bot or Not to Bot": {
    "thread_id": 3725017,
    "forum": "Game Design",
    "subject": "To Bot or Not to Bot?",
    "total_posts": 12,
    "posts": [
      {
        "author": "andwat",
        "date": "2026-06-17T12:46:59-05:00",
        "body": "\"What are the advantages and disadvantages of including a bot in a game design, and what proportion of design time should it occupy?\" might be a better question, but it wouldn't be as snappy a subject line. For example, I've just designed a bot for Sorcerers' Apprentices . Each player is a Sorcerer, vying to be the organization's next CEO (Chief Enchantment Officer). Each Sorcerer has Apprentices, represented by cubes in the player colour. Cubes live in little buckets. There is one bucket for each of the elements Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Spells are represented by cards, each of which shows a specific combination of elements. The spell in the photo below requires five apprentices: one each Earth, Water, and Fire, and two Air. A turn is often as simple as placing a cube on a spell. The bu"
      },
      {
        "author": "Woodland_Alliance",
        "date": "2026-06-17T17:03:06-05:00",
        "body": "IMHO, I don't play games that require a bot"
      },
      {
        "author": "MartinWin",
        "date": "2026-06-17T18:16:28-05:00",
        "body": "I also don't like bots. The reason: When I play a game I want to make interesting decisions. As soon as I play a bot I have to follow strict rules what to do without any choices. This is work and not fun. You could add this for a solo option, but I would do this last - it's more important that the game is perfect for the optimal player count. Another problem I have with bots is that there are only two cases: Either the bot follows the same rules as the player. If the bot has any chances of winning the game is obviously so easy that you just have to follow a simple strategy. So why bother to think about it? The other case is that the bot has some rule advantages (maybe more start ressources or some other modificators). Then I think that the game is unfair and the bot is cheating. The only s"
      },
      {
        "author": "GeoffreyB",
        "date": "2026-06-17T18:27:49-05:00",
        "body": "Bots at times can be used to balance out game play. It may be a necessary evil to include a bot but use of them shouldn't be malicious in nature."
      },
      {
        "author": "nelumbogames",
        "date": "2026-06-18T00:59:30-05:00",
        "body": "I think you can use your bot for play testing or game balancing while development, but I don't think it's healthy for the game to have one as part of it's release. Mainly because - No one likes book keeping . This is where board game industry really differentiates from video game industry who has advantage of hiding this layer behind the pretty animations. There are many good games in the market but people are pulled away from it because keeping track of game elements by the book takes away from the emersion of the game. Your game is really sorcery-thematic, bot does not fit in this world. IF (and it's a big if) your world was more futuristic, cyberpunk, you could have sold the brainless bot a bit better in the world. (I understand it's apprentice-bot, but they should have autonomy too, or"
      },
      {
        "author": "RLFoster",
        "date": "2026-06-18T09:10:22-05:00",
        "body": "Woodland_Alliance wrote: IMHO, I don't play games that require a bot And I am in the other camp, one where I greatly prefer my games have a bot. However, I am exclusively a solo gamer and therein lies the difference."
      },
      {
        "author": "aqsgames",
        "date": "2026-06-18T15:08:35-05:00",
        "body": "As a largely solo player I need an opponent . But…. I don’t want a decision heavy, admin driven bot. An enemy only needs to emulate the effects of another player. Not the actions."
      },
      {
        "author": "andwat",
        "date": "2026-06-18T17:13:07-05:00",
        "body": "aqsgames wrote: As a largely solo player I need an opponent . But…. I don’t want a decision heavy, admin driven bot. An enemy only needs to emulate the effects of another player. Not the actions. That's what I'm going for! My bot is like the bot in the base game of Architects of the West Kingdom . Turn the top card of the bot deck, and do what it says. The expansion Architects of the West Kingdom: Works of Wonder includes a different bot, which is better in many ways, but takes more to run."
      },
      {
        "author": "Ryan Keane",
        "date": "2026-06-18T23:29:31-05:00",
        "body": "I dislike playing most game modes with bots because the games generally only offer one bot/automa, designed specifically for solo mode, and I don’t want to play the game 2 player at all, solo or with 2 humans. If they offer more bots, so you can play 1 human + 3 bots, 2h+2b, 3h+1b, for example, then I am intrigued. That said, even when there are good bots that do this like COIN, I will usually just play multihanded solo controlling 4 or 5 hands (and my wife and I will play controlling 2 hands each independently)."
      },
      {
        "author": "oRd3s",
        "date": "2026-06-19T11:39:30-05:00",
        "body": "Bots just suck. I wont play games with them. I tried. But its boring and annoying. That's why I never made it to solo gaming. .. But everyone to his liking. I think regarding that topic, most opinions will be either yes or no. I don't think there are many in between ( fine with both). Looking at our own playgroups and all the players i I know. I would give it a 90 to 10. 80/20. Not liking the bots."
      },
      {
        "author": "SpaceSlugJoe",
        "date": "2026-06-20T03:07:19-05:00",
        "body": "I think for me the biggest negative isn't on the list - the extra mental overhead and time to play the bots actions. If it's really simple it's not too bad but as soon as you get into the space of decision trees or long explanations of what the bot does it can ruin a game for me"
      },
      {
        "author": "engelstein",
        "date": "2026-06-20T06:49:10-05:00",
        "body": "I gave a talk about bots, and implementing artificial opponents in various ways a few years ago. Might prove helpful! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9rEIadqGNs"
      }
    ]
  }
}