This week, I’m on vacation, but I’ll be back with a new blog post on January 9!
Reading time: 1 min
I’m playing a game called Nevsky with my buddy from the USA over WhatsApp. He makes a move while sitting in Charlotte, North Carolina, records a video message, and sends it to me via WhatsApp. I update the board here, make a move, record a video message and send it to him. He updates the board there… It’s not the fastest way to play, a game takes us about two months on average, but that’s not what I’m talking about today. Today I’m talking about rolling dice. And about how players are crazy.
Last week during the game, there was a battle under the city of Koporye (photo above shows the castle!). My troops approached the castle and encountered a unit of Rus, who occupied the fortress. An exciting moment. Tokens of our troops land on a special battle board, charges start, dice rolling, fingers crossing, all that jazz—the salt of war games.
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I downloaded the BG Stats app in February 2018. Since then, I have recorded 1178 sessions in 475 different board games. I played five or more times in only 53 of those 475 board games. What’s more, I played 258 games only once and never got back to them. I learned the rules, prepared the game, and then one session and never again. That’s a scary statistic.
Merry and I got a board game accessory for Christmas this year. We chose 10 titles that we love, games that bring us a lot of fun, games that, damn it!, deserve much more time on our table. Sorry, new releases, this year, get in line to be played…
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Does every board game have to be innovative? Should every designer try to include something in their game that the world of board games doesn’t know yet? Do players expect innovation when they buy a game?
I think not.
Stephen King has been preaching for years that writing books is a job like any other. He calls himself a craftsman. I myself believe that there are only a few geniuses, and outstanding designers, such as Garfield, Wursch, or Cathala. The rest of us must try as hard as we can to be the best in our craft. To be like Stephen King. That’s all it is.
Reading time: 4 min
Every time I dig into my disc, into the depths of archival folders, and come across this photo, I can’t help but think how unexpected life can be. I don’t know who took this photo, and I don’t know when, but it had to be taken somewhere around the time Blaszak and I were visiting conventions, promoting Neuroshima RPG. It was 2005 or 2006. Two twenty-something-year-olds, completely broke, who tried to sell a few copies of their RPG rulebook. A few years have passed since then…
On the left, Marcin Blacha, the Story Director at CD Projekt Red, creator of Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
On the right, Ignacy Trzewiczek, nominated to Spiel des Jahres, designer of world-famous hits such as Robinson Crusoe or Detective.
When we were sitting on those stools back then, there was no damn way we could predict how our paths would unfold.
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Kindle Edition
MY DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
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.VISIT BTTS AT BGG
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