The Lens of Emergence

I just realized this was still a draft and was never posted. So with further delay, heeeeere it is:

We had to pick a lens from The Book of Lenses and then apply the questions to our print and play game. I picked #23 The Lens of Emergence:

     How many verbs do my players have?
     How many objects can each verb act on?
     How many ways can players achieve their goals?
     How many subjects do the players control?
     How do side effects change constraints?

How many verbs do my players have? Verbs: Customize, move, jump, attack, defend, draw wild cards. Based on wild cards players can swap class tiles so I guess swapping could be a verb too. I added some different movement mechanics for certain classes. While I didn't introduce a new operative action I applied an existing operative action to a different class. In my game there is a class that can jump over friendly units. There are also secret tiles that, before I implemented the jumping mechanic, had no unique attributes other than they face down and their true identity was hidden. By giving the secret tiles the same jump mechanics as the jump class I added a verb to those classes.

How many objects can each verb act on? Apart from attacking, the verbs only act on friendly tiles.  Movement and jumping are only used on friendly tiles. When attacking you can only attack the enemy. If you have a +attack class tile the attack changes and you get +1 to your die roll which changes the combat mechanic. It might be interesting to implement some kind of checkers mechanic, where tiles can jump over enemy tiles. That way I'm adding complexity to the jump mechanic, allowing the player to do more with one operative action.

How many ways can players achieve their goals? In my game there is one goal: Retrieve the correct secret tile from your enemy. Each player has two secret tiles. One of the tiles is your "king" in the sense that if it is captured, the game is over and you lose. You can choose different strategies to achieve the goal but there is really only one way to actually win, and that is defeating the correct secret tile in combat. You can choose to customize your platoons differently to take an offensive or defensive strategy, you can rush the wild card spot in the middle of the board, you can flank your opponent, or charge them head on. There are many different strategies to achieve the goal.  Maybe I could add something like controlling the wild card space for x number of turns will win you the game also? I don't really like that idea but something along those lines could be interesting.

How many subjects do the players control? Each player controls two platoons of three units each. So at the start of the game they are controlling 6 total units.  The tiles in each platoon must stay connected, so even though you are controlling six units, the six units are making up two big groups you are controlling. A player can never have more than six units but can definitely have less. I have messed around with the idea of adding one more platoon of three units and making playing space bigger and adding one more unit to each platoon, making it two platoons of four units instead of two platoons of three. A requirement for the game is a 30 minute time limit, so for the sake of brevity I think I will keep it where it is at two platoons of three units each. It does make it fun though when you have the extra units to play with.

How do side effects change constraints? The book uses the example of checkers and how moving into different squares changes the game space. This idea of an evolving game space was an concept from early on I wanted to keep in my game. In my game constraints are changed the same way they are changed in checkers, as far as moving spaces. When you move a space you are threatening you opponent by denying them spaces to move into. By attacking and drawing some wild card you can change constraints by eliminating pieces from the game board, not only evolving the playable space, reducing the number of units your opponent has (or possibly the number of your own units).