Do your Mechanics Matter?

[Eric Farrington]

Mechanics are the tools you use to play-out the game on the tabletop. Their purpose is to create and end result, and output that the player uses to continue the game or get a result. They are simply a process. It is the result itself that is useful to the game. Therefore, does it matter to your game what mechanisms you use to get to the end result?

The mechanics of a game are simply the series of steps or actions that lead to the results you need to move the game forward towards its conclusion. A process has a series of suppliers, inputs, outputs and users that make use of the process. Mechanics can be the steps and equipment used to process the inputs for the suppliers and create outputs for the user. In the case of Wargamers the suppliers and the Users maybe the same player, or a different player.

In short, mechanics are simply a tool to get you from Point A to Resolution B. Does it matter if you use one polyhedron dice over another? Does it make a difference if you use cards rather than dice? What about charts?

Game designers spend a lot of time thinking about the mechanics. Does all this thought and effort actually help make a better game?


More on the blog here:
bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2024/03/wargame-design-do-your-mechanics-matter.html