This week in his Ivory Tower segment of Board games Breakfast Scott Nicolson was telling us about reflection after the game. Gaming experience is something we do love, but to make it even better we perhaps should try to talk about the game after the game, discuss our strategies, point of view, discover why opponents played that or that way. After game reflection.
There are two main after game types of reflection about Robinson. The game is super narrative and thematic and playing it was a true adventure. I observed that players like to retell the most thematic moments of the game they’ve just finished. And the second one type of reflection. The game is super deadly. Players tend to discuss if they had any chance to survive and if there was a turning point, a bad decision that head them towards the final end.
And at some point Tim Norris wrote that:
Finally played our first game of Robinson Crusoe. We died. @trzewik
— Tim Norris (@GreyElepntGamin) May 20, 2014
Train of thoughts head me towards session reports which are some sort of after game reflection and… you know, in Robinson if you want to write session report it’s simple – either this will be epic novel, either it will be concise as the inscription on the tombstone.
So I asked my Twitter followers about shortest Robinson session report they can imagine. 144 characters seemed like a perfect format for this task.
The answers? Made me laugh. That was a flow of super fun reflections about Robinson! Look at them:
@trzewik Ready to play. Ooh we are in trouble. Dammit we lost.
— The Cardboard Jungle (@CBJPodcast) May 20, 2014
@trzewik Let’s hunt. Ouch! R.I.P.
— Wayne Walker (@wwalker98) May 20, 2014
@trzewik We’re doing ok. We can still do this. Let’s try again.
— Kirdy (@VetruvianGamer) May 20, 2014
@trzewik Yay Ignacy!! Grrr IGNACY!!!!!!!
— The Cardboard Jungle (@CBJPodcast) May 20, 2014
@trzewik 😀 🙂 :|. 😮 🙁 (no words required) 😉
— The Cardboard Jungle (@CBJPodcast) May 20, 2014
And my personal winner of this series of reports:
@trzewik For sale: signal fire. Never used.
— Joshua Buergel (@JoshuaBuergel) May 20, 2014
The last one made me LOL.
I show you this fun example of reflection about the game, but being serious for a moment I have to say, I 100% agree with Scott. I do love gaming experience, I do love play games, but without reflection, without these debates, after game bantering, without all that’s after the game, it wouldn’t be the same.
So gamers!
Let’s play.
Let’s discuss.
Let’s live our hobby!
I strongly believe that good board game is the one that tells a good story. You play it and suddenly you are sucked into it, you feel chills on the skin. Emotions grow. In a moment you defend castle. You hear roar of warriors. You smell boiling oil. You are into it.
That's how I design my games. I always want to tell a good story. I want players to be into it. As deep as possible.
