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Play Games - Interact - Have Fun!
United States
California
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I play all kinds of games in all kinds of genres with all kinds of mechanics. I typically enjoy them all and am usually willing to try just about anything. When I am the one picking the game however, I find myself gravitating towards those games with a well integrated theme and it's this subject that I want to talk about today.
Some Background
I've always loved immersing myself into a good book set in some imaginary place, or spending an evening watching a great Sci-Fi or Fantasy film and most of my life there has been some form of indulgence along those lines. I'm a very forgiving moviegoer for the most part and I can overlook problems with a movie if the film is entertaining and draws me into the setting. Consequently, I tend to like a lot more so-so films than my friends - something to which I take a bit of grief for (I enjoyed the much maligned Batman & Robin for instance - campy as it was).
As a teenager, I was into D&D and later AD&D very heavily - though almost exclusively as the Dungeon Master and not a player. I would spend hours and hours designing new levels and areas in my dungeon, creating scenarios to draw the players in and build a mood that contributed to the story.
My favorite video and computer games also fall into the heavily thematic realm. Some early favorites include Herzog Zwei, Populous, Star Control II and Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. These games sucked you into the setting and allowed you to play around as part of it, not just as an outside observer. I know that most have you probably have never even heard of Herzog Zwei for the Sega Genesis,but it was the first Real Time Strategy (RTS) game out there and even to this day it was unique as it placed YOU into the game with a special command unit that you directly controlled. I can remember playing this game for hours and hours and hours with my friends. We became very adept at it and the controls were second nature after awhile. In the game, you are trying to take over a series of smaller bases from your opponent enabling you to move in closer and closer to ultimate attack his home base. We would spend hours fighting over a SINGLE BASE - with ownership see-sawing back and forth repeatedly.
Other games added in role playing aspects like Star Control II, which was - in one sense, an RPG video game with another whole level of 1st person shooter and RTS layered over the top.
Once More With Feeling
Looking at my list of Top 10 games, you can see my preferences for a good theme here as well: 7 of my favorites are very thematic - 8 if you include Agricola:
#1: Man O' War
#2: Railroad Tycoon
#3: Agricola
#4: El Grande
#5: Doom: The Boardgame
#6: Fury of Dracula
#7: Tikal
#8: Dungeon Lords
#9: Die Macher
#10: RoboRally
There are quite a few things that draw me towards a good theme. In some cases like Doom, it's the combination of being thrust into a video game with great looking figures, lots of rules to simulate the video game feel, and enough variety because of the theme to make the game very replayable. As you play as a Marine or the Invader, you can feel the intensity ratchet up as time continues to run down and you are either trying to find the way out or trying to Frag the marines enough to win. The marines neevr have enough ammo, weapons or time to take a prolonged stand and fight. The Invader has to rely on the cards he draws to make it as difficult as possible for the marines to succeed. Eitehr way, it's an exciting, tense game that always delivers a great, memorable time.
Fury of Dracula is different however. There are no miniatures, the game is nothing like video game and the game plays out very similarly each time you play it. With Fury of Dracula, the hunt for Dracula seems very realistic and I feel like I'm one of the characters in a real life or death struggle with the Lord of the Undead. The cards and events depicted in the game evoke the time period and make you be creative in how you go about tracking down the count.
Maybe this can be summed up by saying the game has a great narrative. I would say that most of my favorite games do and it's games with that aspect that also lend themselves well to some good session reports. Each of the following will take you to a report I wrote where the narrative of the game played out into the session report: Man O War, Last Night on Earth and DOOM.
Finally, the visual appeal of a game with a good theme is a big part of my enjoyment of the game. Obviously a game like Man O' War with cool miniatures and detailed scenery helps create a certain mood in a game. I've always been a big fan of miniatures ganmes and Man O War is one of the best I've seen. The game is visually stunning to look at and each race in the Warhammer world has it's own unique set of rules and weapons to individualize the style of play that will be used with them. Orc fleets for example are big and slow and have almost comical weaponry like a huge smash hammer or a big drill mounted on the front of a ship, but in the fantasy setting it works well and adds immensely to the enjoyment.
However, the visual appeal can also just be in the artwork and the way the game's mechanics incorporate the theme. Take Tikal for example. Here, you are deep in the jungles, searching for temples and treasures from a long lost civilization. In the game, this simple idea is represented by the game board being printed as a dense, full jungle and the game tiles being printed as if As players take their turns
sections of the forest have been cleared out and a temple or treasure site has been found. As each player takes their turn, they place the new tile on the board and "explore" the jungle. It's a simple effect that works very well - and again, contributes greatly to the feeling of you being an explorer in the the deep jungles of some rainforest in South America.
Last Night on Earth is another example of great artwork drawing you into the game. The game board is comprised of a center piece and 4 surrounding "L" shaped boards (offering a huge variety of set-ups) that combine to represent the small town of Woodinvale. Each board depicts one of the building in the town with an overhead view of the insides of the buildings and the surrounding outdoor area depicted as if a zombie atack has already occured - with blood smears, broken windows and scattered debris visible on each board. Some thought went into this obviously. Someone said "Hey, all the artwork needs to show this as having already happened. Not all pristine and orderly as if the attack hasn't yet begun." It looks great, adds to the overall mood and makes the game that much more intense.
I'd argue that most wargames are very thematic and the fact that they succeed so well in allowing players to feel like the commanders of the units and battles they represent makes them qualify for having a good theme. Play a game of ASL or Anzio and see if you don't feel some anxiety when your pinned units are taking some heat and could be lost at any moment. Why is that? They are just cardboard counters, yet you care and will do what you can to save them. It's the theme that draws you in.
I think the common denominator among all these game is immersion. Each game above uses a combination of visuals, mechanics, settings and overall gameplay to ultimately draw me into the game and really make me feel like I'm a part of the action. If a game does that well, I will enjoy it - regardless of the kind of game it is. I think this goes a long way to explaining the varied collection I have (and my style of rating games), better than anything else.
Discussion Points:
What about you? Are thematic games high up on your list of games that you enjoy or do you prefer any game that presents a challenge and is fun to play - whether it is themed or not? If you do enjoy thematic games, what are your favorites? Which games could you recommend to me to try?
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