Visiting old friends
Last weekend was pretty unusual for me. Believe it or not, but I did not play any new games. Yeah, I know. It’s like hashtag woow, hashtag really?!
It was crazy rush to discover all those new releases from Gen Con, and then to discover all those releases from Essen, and then to play games I brought from BGGcon (and in the meantime trying to catch up with different releases on Polish market). It was six months of reading rulebooks, setting up new games over and over. Playing new game once or twice and opening a new one. And another one. And another one.
So last weekend we did with Merry something extraordinary. We closed (literally!) all those new ’to-play’ games in a closet and we decided we won’t open it for a few days. Then we took old games from shelf. Those with dust on them. Those we love and we had no time to play for a long time.
We played Lewis & Clark. We played Dragonheart. We played Theseus. And I tell you, it was a tremendous weekend.
With old game it is so simple. When you play it, you feel like home. You know all rules, you don’t browse through rulebook, you don’t feel confused. You feel comfortable, you feel safe.
You can really explore the mechanisms. You start seeing all those small cogs that fuel the game. You can easily understand what does opponent (this is so important!) and prepare and react for that. You see the whole picture, the whole game play instead of just trying to understand what’s going on on your part.
If I can make a crazy comparison I’d say that playing those new games over and over is like watching one episode of a great show. It’s like watching 5th episode of House of cards. It’s like watching 8th episode of Homeland. It’s like watching 11th episode of Lost.
You watch this episode, you understand there is something here, something you like, but to be honest you don’t exactly understand what’s going on.
Playing old game, is like starting to watch first episode of second season of House of Cards after you just finished season 1. You now everything, you understand the plot, you know characters, you are ready to taste it with all your senses. It’s a treat.
So my message to you today is – give old games some love. I promise you, you won’t regret it. Hashtag treat.
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.
Speaking of old games, will we see any more New Era/51st development? Will Ruins ever make it to US shelves? Will Winter ever be produced again?