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Lowell Kempf
United States
Chicago
Illinois
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In my life as a role player, story was king. Sure, learning how to make the numbers sit up and beg for you was definitely part of the game. Some of the groups I played in had people who dedicated themselves to studying the rules so they could find the loopholes, sometimes just they could do something that had no mechanical effect but was just neat. But other groups were more about having the narrative come first. Screw the rules, we have a story!
Yeah, when you’re playing an RPG, rules are important. As one friend of mine like to put it, they define the world that your character lives in. The rules make your fantasy world concrete. However, for me at least, the story is the thing when it comes to role playing games and the rules are just the vehicle for telling the story.
However, I will argue that, when it comes to board games, the rules are the meat and the potatoes. Rules let you play role playing games but board games are their rules.
When I first got into board games, I found myself in a brand new world to explore, one that fascinated me. For me, getting to see the kind of mechanics that were a part of the broader world of board games was like discovering a playground that had some really amazing jungle gyms and swings. The rules of a well-designed board game were like looking at an intricate piece of clockwork, one that only existed inside the mind. On the inside, my inner child was going whee!
I discovered that, for me at least, a well-balanced set of rules is a work of art. The word elegant gets used a whole lot to describe games. However, when I read a rule set in which all the fat has been stripped away and every element has a clear and definite purpose in game play and every possible outcome is covered, that is a work of beauty to me. I enjoy reading and studying games that are ‘elegant’ and I really enjoy seeing them in action by getting them on the table and playing them!
As one of the more extreme examples, take a look at Hex. It is a game that can easily be described in about six sentences, with two of them describing the board and the pieces. However, in about six rules, you can describe every possible contingency in Hex, a game that is simple to explain but complex to play. I know that’s not the sort of thing that makes everyone smile but it sure makes me smile. And don't even get me started on Go. 
So, when it comes to board games, yes, I am much more drawn to Euros and flat-out abstract games. Oh, I’m willing to play just about anything once and there are plenty of more messy and fiddly designs that I’ve enjoyed and had a good time with. However, there is something about a good, balanced rule set that just makes my mind feel like it’s been sent out to recess to play.
I’m not done yet, though. There are other elements to why I love playing games, ones that are more important than mechanics.
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