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Asymmetric Games · Pick Up and Deliver

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(car engine rumbling)
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Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast
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where I pick up my audio recorder as
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I step off the train and deliver an episode to you
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while I walk home.
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I'm Brendan Riley.
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(upbeat music)
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Well, good afternoon listeners.
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It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago.
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It's partly cloudy and beautiful weather.
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The sun is shining.
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The temperature is probably in the high 60s
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or low 70s. It is a lovely, lovely day.
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I'm walking home from work today
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and enjoying the prospect of a game night.
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At my college board game club on Thursday.
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I played a game called Free Radicals,
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which was really neat.
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It does make me wanna talk about something:
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and I looked and I don't see any episodes
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where I talk about this directly
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so I thought I would.
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I wanted to talk about asymmetric games.
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Asymmetric games are games where players
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are doing different things
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and I assume that you know the term 'asymmetrical.'
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Essentially means "things do not match"
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and yeah, so an asymmetric game is where players do not match
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in what they're doing.
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There are variety of different kinds of asymmetry in games
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so I thought I'd talk a little bit about
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what those are and how they appear.
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The first one is the simplest in terms of engine builders
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or other games where you are making choices
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to change the state of your play.
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There would be emergent asymmetry.
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Most games have this on some level or another.
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The minimalist version would be something like checkeries
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where once you've gotten a piece to the end
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and gotten a king, then there's an asymmetry
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in terms of the pieces that you have.
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Most people wouldn't consider this asymmetric play however.
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I would all skip over that.
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I would say games that have emergent asymmetry,
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I would point to something like Orleans
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or maybe Everdell, games where in the course of playing the game
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you build up a tableau and the things that you add
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to your tableau change what you can do.
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Orleans is a good example because there are a number of ways
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that you can add different action spaces to your board
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that let you literally take different actions
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than other players can take.
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This is a fairly high level of asymmetry.
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Everdell has the same thing.
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It's got a number of different things
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that augment what you can do or change what you can do.
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But I think most of the things I've just mentioned here,
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most people would not consider asymmetry.
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Most people when they talk about asymmetry in board games
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they're talking about the situation where players have access
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to different kinds of things and that difference in access
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leads to a difference in play.
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So I wanted to talk about two kinds of asymmetry
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would all call "small scale asymmetry" and "large scale asymmetry"
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and talk a little bit about how those appear in games
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and what they do, I think.
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So start with what I'll call "small scale asymmetry."
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I would point to games like Obsession and 7 Wonders
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in competitive sphere.
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I'll talk about cooperative in a minute,
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but in the competitive sphere games like obsession
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and 7 wonders, as small scale versions of minor asymmetry.
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In both of these games, when you are playing
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you choose a faction that you're going to play.
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In 7 Wonders you choose an ancient culture.
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In Obsession, you choose a family and you get a benefit
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or a special thing that your family does
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that other families don't do.
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In 7 wonders, it has to do with how you can score your temple
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or your wonder and what kind of benefit you get from
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pursuing that.
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In Obsession, you get a starting benefit of some sort,
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either a little extra money, a little extra reputation,
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an extra family member or an extra servant
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and then that benefit gives you a leg up in a different way
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than the other players have and over time
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you get no additional benefit from that
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in the case of the money or the reputation
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but you do get additional benefit from that
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in terms of the extra employee
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because you can use them multiple times.
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Now arguably the thing that you buy on the first round
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because you have the extra money,
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maybe you can use that an extra time
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that other players wouldn't get to or whatever.
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I would consider that low level asymmetry
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where the gameplay for each player is roughly the same
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but you have a little bit of minor difference
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in what you have to start with
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or in what you can do that gives you some flexibility.
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A slightly more elaborate version of that
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would be something like Lost Ruins of Arnak
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where if you're playing the expansion
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that comes with the leaders, the leaders have different cards
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that they get to play
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and those different cards give them
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a different thing they can do.
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This is slightly more elaborate than the kind of benefit
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we'd see in 7 Wonders or Obsession
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but it's still in the same category
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I would say of minor asymmetry
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because what you're doing as you play
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is the same as what other players are doing.
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The advantage to this kind of thing is that it gives players
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a little bit of a direction in a lot of games
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that have a lot of choice.
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There's a lack of direction
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and so having a benefit often will give you
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somewhere to go to start by contrast
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or the negative of this kind of asymmetry.
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There's a some players feel hemmed in
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like if you get a particular benefit
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then you are stuck on that path if you want to do well.
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You really need to lean into the benefit
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that the game gives you
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and so it reduces your choices somewhat.
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There also can be the negative of
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if the game has randomized elements that come out
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those may or may not fit better
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with some people's built-in benefit
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and thus somebody might get an edge in the game
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because of randomness.
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And that can be a bit of a bummer
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but generally a well-balanced game won't have too much of that.
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In a cooperative game
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we see similar kinds of asymmetry in play.
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In fact, I would say it's more common
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because generally in a cooperative game
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if you all are identical, it's not as fun.
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Like most cooperative games I would say
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have this kind of minor asymmetry.
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The classic is Pandemic.
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Every player has a character.
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As a character you have a special skill
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that you can do that other players can't.
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This idea is copied in Horrified
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for example or in Flashpoint Fire Rescue.
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Although I think the base game of Flashpoint
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you don't have a special power.
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It's only if you're playing the advanced game
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which you should play the advanced game
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if you're gonna play that but
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so this idea of each player having a thing
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that they can do that's a little different
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than what other players can do.
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Again, gives you some guidance.
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The place I've seen this sort of minor benefit
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works strongest is in Harry Potter,
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the Harry Potter deck builder game.
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Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle.
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The reason I would say this one works strongest there
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is that that game is a game of inches.
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It's a game of very tiny benefits
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or tiny increments making a relatively large footprint
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in terms of the swing of the game
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that doing well in that game
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more than most games I've played deck builders anyway.
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Really depends on being very focused
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in how you buy your cards
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because of the way the negatives come out in the game
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it can often hurt you to spend much time buying cards
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that don't lean into whatever strategy you're going for.
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Well that's true of a lot of deck builders
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but I think Harry Potter is tuned very carefully to that
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and because the player benefits are actually pretty good
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if you get very many cards
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that aren't playing to your player benefit
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you're really undercutting the thing
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that the game gave you to try to do well.
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So I would put in terms of cooperative games
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you have that same thing where you have a minor benefit
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that you get to use and playing well
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means figuring out how to use that and lean into it.
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So those are, I would say,
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to the cooperative and competitive version
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of minor asymmetry.
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And then you get major asymmetry
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or these would be the games
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that would be called asymmetrical games.
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In this context an asymmetrical game
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is one where each player is essentially doing a different thing.
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In the game you approach the game in a different way
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you succeed at the game in a different way.
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There might be some unified measure
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like points that determine who wins
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but in order to get those points
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you approach them in a different way.
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Obviously I like asymmetric games at my core.
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My number one game of all time is Android NetRunner
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which is an asymmetric game.
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In that game you are either a corp or a runner
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when you are a runner
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you are doing runner things
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when you are a corp you are doing corp things
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and while there is an overlap in terms of resources
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and an overlap in terms of win condition
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you win when you have scored seven points
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the way that you score is different
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and the way that you play the game is different.
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So much so that one of the big complaints
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of new people trying to learn the game
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is that the game uses different words
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for similar things in what some people
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sort of think of as unnecessary complexity
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but it's completely valuable key wording
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for a large scale game in which you
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are building from a huge pool of cards.
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So for instance in NetRunner
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the runner player's hand is called their 'grip'
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and their trash is called their 'heap'
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whereas the corporation player's hand is called their 'HQ'
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and their trash is called their 'archive.'
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For example, other games that have this kind of extreme
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asymmetry, Root and Vast are two sort of famous ones
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root is a game where each player is a different faction
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of woodland creatures fighting for control of the woods
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you have a shared victory, a certain number of points
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but each team is gaining points in a different way
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and making use of the shared resources in the game
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in a different way.
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So there's overlapping rules
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but they also diverge dramatically.
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Root is of course inspired by coin games
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and so coin games would be similar.
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The one that I've played is a Gest of Robin Hood
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I've played that a couple times
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and that game has dramatic asymmetry as well
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if you are the sheriff of Nottingham
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and there is crew you have one set of things you can do
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if you are Robin Hood and the Merry Men
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you have a different set of things you can do
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and again, there's some overlap in achievements
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but not much overlap in the way that you execute the game.
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Now these kinds of games can be incredibly difficult
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to play because they're hard to learn
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and when you're learning them to do well
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you need to understand what the other players can do
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which means you kind of have to learn all the factions
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even if you're only playing one.
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Or you could get in the situation where
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you have a vague idea of what the other players can do
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and then you just have to trust that they are performing
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their factions actions correctly
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and this can be an equally troubling experience
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where you don't know if what the other player is doing is correct
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because you don't know how their faction works.
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Well I would say a game that sort of sits right in the middle
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in terms of the minor asymmetry and major asymmetry
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would be a Sidereal Confluence.
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In Sidereal Confluence, players have a few machines
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that they can use that function differently
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than anyone else's machines.
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Some players have special rules that apply to them
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but for the most part the trading and the scoring points
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and all of it functions basically the same
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but it's different enough that I would put it right in the middle.
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It's more complex or more diverse faction
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than something like 7 Wonders
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but not quite as completely different
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as something like Root or Vast.
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So asymmetric games like I said they can be really compelling.
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It's really fun to explore different
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the different pieces of the machine
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figure out which one you like best
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or how they play differently
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and as such I think there's a lot of drama to be had
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from trying to figure out how they work and do well with them.
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On the other hand, like I said they are hard to learn
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and hard to kind of check whether you and your opponents
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are all doing well and I'll play it incorrectly.
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I was thinking about radical asymmetry and cooperative games
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and I don't think I can think of any.
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The closest I can think of, I mean in team-based games
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you've got something like Captain Sonar
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where each team has one of four players
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who has four different players who are doing pretty different things
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but I can't think of a cooperative game with that.
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Oh maybe XCOM the board game has a variety of different decision
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points that are being made by different players
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and the things that you're deciding to do
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are radically asymmetric.
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So I would say there's one example.
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(Harp transition music) Future Brendan here. Of course I left out the game
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that I was thinking about the most
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when I was originally planning this.
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I was thinking about Root.
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I was thinking about 7 Wonders.
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I was thinking about Free Radicals
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and I was thinking about Spirit Island.
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I can't believe I left Spirit Island out.
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In Spirit Island you are playing distinctly different creatures.
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You're all kind of trying to accomplish the same thing
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but you have radically different ways of putting things on the board
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and moving them around.
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You have different core cards that you get
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and they activate your different powers in different ways.
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So it is a very asymmetric cooperative game
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and I can't believe I didn't mention it
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in the original recording of this episode.
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So Spirit Island would be the other cooperative
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major asymmetric game that I can think of. (Harp transition music)
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So I'm curious what you think of asymmetric games.
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How many of them have you played?
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What's your favorite?
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Head over to board game geek guild 3269
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and share your thoughts on asymmetry and games there.
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I'd love to hear what your experience of them is.
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Well thanks for joining me on my walk today.
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I hope your next walk is as pleasant as mine was.
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Bye bye.
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(music)
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Brought to you by Rattlebox Games.
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(music fades out)