Journey to Cheeseland Part 5: Randomzing & Customizing Story

Story is about conflict, Without it there is no story. Without conflict there is also no game. Conflict is an obstacle (or series of obstacles) in a character’s/player’s path that must be overcome to reach the ultimate goal. The conflict can either be established through limitations (a player can’t just exit a room, she must overcome enemies, solve a puzzle or perform some other dastardly task first) or by having players compete against each other. 

Let me be clear, “Journey to Cheeseland” isn’t a “story” game. It’s a cat & mouse board game with story elements but because of my narrative design background I wanted to maximize these elements to make the game feel like an adventure and create a new experience each time players venture out onto the board. 

In this serie’s first blog (https://pixeldoriangm.blogspot.com/2020/05/journey-to-cheeseland-beginnings.html) I mention that story is much more than cutscenes and lengthy (sometimes interactive) dialogue sequences. It can be told through elements like your board, items, tokens etc. as well as the type of conflict you face and the goal you are trying to achieve. In this blog I will focus on randomizing and customizing key story elements to create a more unique experience within an established “frame” or world. 

World Creation: Telling a story requires defining the world and the time in which the story takes place. This can range from a realistic world to a fantasy setting. “Journey to Cheeseland” transports players into a current day city in which mice have human level intelligence but are driven by mice instincts and desires (at least themed as such even if not real). The city is experienced from their perspective and point-of-view. Humans only exist on the periphery and are generally to be avoided (except for the all-knowing librarian and a friendly street musician). Were it a cartoon humans would only be seen from their waist down (like in the classic Tom and Jerry movies) and their words would sound like the trumpet woap woap noises the teacher makes in “Charlie Brown.”

My primary goal was to make the players feel like the heroes of the story. In the initial concept of Cheeseland players were competing against each other to reach the magical Cheeseland. But such a selfish goal didn’t feel heroic. So I added a mystery (the disappearing cheeses) and a reason for the mice to work together, finding Cheeseland while the city’s inhabitants suffer from cheese withdrawal. I also gave the mouse heroes a rudimentary knowledge of technology (mostly gathered from scavenging items from scrap yards and trying to put them together) and the use of old-fashioned walkie-talkies to communicate and plot together. This sets them apart from the city’s other mice who see technology as something alien and most likely, not to be trusted.

Randomizing Story: The background of the disappearing cheeses is part of the “embedded” story, meaning that each session has the same starting point and overarching goal. Though the objective in what would be  referred to as a “gather quest” in role-playing games is always the same I wanted to randomize some of the components to mix things up. Yes, yes, in an ideal world I would also randomize the setting and the goal but that would have been too complex for this game’s requirements (remember when I mentioned that one of the requirements was to keep this game simple). It could easily become part of expansion packs though, using the same board and mechanics but with a new set of cards and it’s something I’m definitely considering (so be forewarned of more to come!). 

So I started with identifying elements I could “easily” randomize:

Clue Givers: Each game starts with a different set of Clue Givers, some eager to help, some not so much. Note that convincing each of these Clue Givers to help is optional. It’s just the most efficient way to collect clues. 

The Cheeses: The last five cheeses and their location are also randomized during the setup. As with the Clue Givers the difficulty level of these cards varies with the Blue Cheese being the easiest to “sniff out” and the Mysterious Cheese X only found on the black market the hardest to track down.

The Secret Entrance to Cheeseland: This randomized location is only revealed once all the cheeses are tracked down. It is the only way to access Cheeseland and confront the mastermind. 

These elements don’t change the overall story but they change the key destinations on the board and vary the encounters you have. 

The Mastermind: This may be the most important randomized element as it affects the story’s final scene. I’ll get more into this in the section about branching narrative.

There are two reasons why I didn’t randomize more of the starting elements:

1. Card count. I’m currently designing this as a print-at-home game. Adding more cards adds more pages to print and more cards to cut and glue together. Even if eventually published as a boxed game a higher card count adds to the printing cost. 
2. Board layout. The randomized cards are currently laid out as follows:

Adding more random elements would require more space on the board and more setup time.

Encounters: The main random story element of the game are the encounter cards drawn every time a mouse rolls a 1 or 2 while moving. These encounters range from humorous to dangerous. You never know what is waiting for you around the next corner.

Items: Randomized items found by the player may only tell a micro-story (hey, I found a cool stinky fish) but have a real game impact as many of them can be used to the player’s advantage (not the stinky fish though) and in turn create a new story moment (I used Duke, the dog, to chase Maxo away!).

It’s your Story, Morninglory! 

Taking a cue from role-playing games narratives in many other genres have evolved from the linear “let me tell you a story” to the more interactive and customized “tell your own story.” Branching stories (making choices and experiencing the consequences of those choices) and customization (creating your player character, defining elements of the world etc.) gives players a way to express themselves. I decided to borrow some of the elements of this narrative evolution in Cheeseland.

Making Decisions: I wanted to give players the option to make a decision beyond the expected tactical choices (where do I go next, which goal should I tackle first etc.). I added these kind of decision points in the encounter cards. 

My current thought on encounter cards is to have players hand them over to either Maxo or another player to read aloud. This gives each reader a storyteller moment as they share what happens to the active player and wait for her to react to it.

The main decision will have to be made by the mice when confronting the Mastermind at the end of the game (assuming Maxo doesn’t stop them first). 

Some of them were designed to be plain silly ...

..others have a more of a classical villain flair with some dicey options (see what I did there?).

So though each journey has the same beginning, its middle and end will differ each time.

Customization: This is another role-playing element I wanted to introduce. It starts with each player being able to choose a character with a unique “power.” Even though limited, these “powers” help each player feel unique and encourage collaboration.

(Player card wip)

Filling in the blanks is another way for players to customize their story. The most obvious “fill-in-the-blanks” is each character’s bio but I introduced other instances on the cards for players to create their own story moment. Sure, these moments are purely for flavor (they don’t affect the game itself) but players have fun coming up with reasons why they got themselves in trouble or have an opportunity to yell out their favorite superhero’s name. 

My final story task is to explore options for players to create their own encounters or Mastermind using some preexisting format to avoid unbalancing the game. We'll see how that goes.

Whatever game you’re working on it’s worth taking some time to explore these types of narrative devices. If done right it can make the game more immersive and memorable. So think about it as you introduce your game’s story.

My next blog will be about prototyping, something I strongly recommend even for electronic games. 

Have fun with the new exercise. If you enjoy this series and the games I'm developing you can support my work at https://ko-fi.com/pixeldorian. Thanks for sharing and see you soon!

Exercise

Take two different types of games like “Pandemic” (yeah, I know) and “Mousetrap” (!) or “Cards against Humanity” and “Checkers.”

• What is the conflict in these games? If there doesn’t seem to be a story is there a theme that could be turned into a story? 
• How do the conflict in both games compare?

Journey to Cheeseland Part 4: Do you Feel Lucky, $%&*!

Welcome back to Cheeseland where mice try to solve the mystery of the disappearing cheeses while evading their arch enemy, Maxo the cat. To those new to this series of designer notes you can find the first installment here: https://pixeldoriangm.blogspot.com/2020/05/journey-to-cheeseland-beginnings.html

So let’s talk about luck!

As you’re about to roll your dice “you've gotta ask yourself a question: 'Do I feel lucky?’  

Well, do ya *****?”

(Okay, so I bastardized the quote in the title. This is Harry’s actual line without the dice part of course)

Why did I decide to use dice in “Journey to Cheeseland?” Dice are the most obvious introduction of chance in a game. What I like about them is that the act of rolling a dice is simple yet exciting. Players shake them in their hands or cups (often dramatically), willing them to give them the perfect outcome as they release them. Then everyone holds their breath, waiting for the dice to settle. Though the result is random, players who roll high will feel lucky and experience a form of “high” from the roll. Rolling low on the other hand can induce a sense of frustration. Either way dice introduce an element of suspense.

In the case of Cheeseland there was another Important reason for using an element of chance: It evens the playing field between children and adults. 

Yes, some gamers abhor any reliance upon “luck” and want to win by their skills alone and that’s okay. Just know who you’re designing your game for. In the case of Cheeseland that’s  parents and children wanting to have fun together. Personally I like a combination of luck and skill. It adds randomness while still making players feel smart when they win. On a side note: it’s an interesting psychological phenomenon that players who win mainly by luck or even by having been given an unfair advantage will still be convinced it was due to their superior skills. This applies to other life events too. 

So how are luck and skill combined in Cheeseland?

Let’s talk about luck first. How do you make rolling a dice as exciting as possible? It’s a combination of odds and rewards/punishment. Imagine I tell you I’ll give you  $1 if you roll a 6. Not super exciting as the reward is pretty low (but don’t underestimate the simple satisfaction of winning). Now let’s say I promise to give you a million bucks if you roll a 6 (No, I won’t, but just go with it). What if I tell you I’ll give you a million bucks if you roll anything but a 1? What if you do end up rolling a 1?  Would you feel the same if you rolled a 2 instead of a 5 or 6 though the outcome is the same? What if I offer a million bucks if you roll a 6 but you lose something valuable if you roll a 1? Would you take that bet? (it most likely would depend on how valuable that item is and how drunk you are) Though in each case you would roll a dice, the feelings the roll and results would evoke would most likely be quite different. These are the kinds of variables a game designer can play with. 

Here are some different “Journey to Cheeseland” card examples that require rolling dice:

Traps have a simple difficulty progression with decreasing odds and more severe punishments for failed attempts. 

How many of each of these cards I put in the deck determines the odds of a player encountering such a trap and being forced to escape it. Note that instead of having the player be caught in the trap and trying to escape, I could have themed the encounter as “detecting” a trap with the same odds of not ending up being trapped but I liked the idea of mice being smart enough to figure out a trap instead of being able to detect traps better. Detecting a trap would also seem like something mice would have to choose to do (like in RPGs) instead of a passive skill and would fit better as one of the potential actions players can take after moving. This would require some sort of mechanism to secretly determine if a trap is present or not and make traps a more common obstacle, not something I wanted to add to the design. So that’s why I have mice simply realize that they walked into a trap and are now forced to extricate themselves.

Since the success requirement for Level 1 traps is so low I liked the idea of rewarding players for a high roll. It’s a mechanic I like in general when rolls are involved as it often feels frustrating to have an awesome roll when it doesn’t matter. The feeling is often of having “wasted” the great result and that’s never a good feeling for a designer to strive for. Instead consider acknowledging the superior result and giving players a bonus for it. It’s a principle I also use in my TTRPG “Kaleidoscope” where the attack and damage rolls are combined into one. Instead of just determining the success or failure, how well you roll also determines how much damage you do if you hit.

Another feature I dislike with a passion is punishing players by forcing them to skip a turn i.e. sit around and do nothing! So when a mouse is trapped it can’t perform its move action but can still perform several of its other actions. More importantly, other mice can help their trapped friend escape by using their walkie-talkie action.

Back to the cards: The Librarian is an example of “I’ll give you a fortune (5 Clues!) unless you are unlucky enough to roll a 1 or 2.”  Players get only one attempt before the opportunity is lost.

Note that how you present things also count. I could have written something like “unless you roll a 1 or 2 she gives you 5 clues.” For consistency though I formatted the info for all clue givers the same. Usually players have to roll high(ish) in order to succeed.

For some encounters I didn’t just determine a win/lose outcome, but also a medium outcome which is very RPG dialogue inspired and more fun. Here’s a sample encounter with a sewer rat.

I gave players an option to just “walk away” which is of course the safe option. The consequence for failing the “try to startle” roll is pretty severe (Maxo gets a free roll) while the potential reward isn’t particularly high (1 item card with most items being of medium value) but I’m giving the players an option to roleplay and be devious by describing it as playing a prank on a pesky opponent. Will they bite? I bet quite a few will at least be tempted to do so.

This brings us to the topic of skills, more specifically in this case, taking calculated risks. People often overestimate their odds (that’s why we have lotteries) so skill comes into place when you’re able to more accurately calculate these odds and make your choice accordingly.  Rolling a single d6 (six sided dice) makes it pretty easy to calculate these odds but things can get much more complex when adding more dice or other random factors. For Cheeseland I kept it  simple if a player wants to calculate the odds of Maxo or one of his Minions being able to pounce on them for example. The decision then becomes taking that risk or not. 

Here’s another example where players have to weigh risks versus rewards. 

Contrary to the Librarian the spider stays in place after a failed attempt since players suffer negative consequences for this failure.

In a game like Cheeseland where outcomes rely on dice rolls skills are mainly about improving your odds and mitigating risk. Mice can improve their odds by spending items that will allow them to add to their roll or take an action that will give their opponent Maxo a disadvantage. Items that have to be spent before a roll force players to decide if they want to take the risk of  “wasting” the item, a choice I rarely find interesting. So for items that add to the movement (rarely a critical outcome) I let the players decide after the roll if they want to spend it or not. After all, they still have to decide if they want to keep it for a more crucial moment. 

Collectibles allow players to improve their odds with certain Clue Givers. 

Mice can also improve someone else’s odds by using their walkie talkie action. This basically adds another dice to someone else’s roll. But instead of implementing this as a passive action where the recipient gets to roll an additional dice, I have the giver use their “skill” by rolling the dice, then giving the result as a bonus to the recipient. Whenever possible I prefer giving players an active task. I implemented the same notion when a mouse is pounced upon by Maxo or one of his Minions.

Pounce Attacks: These too are resolved by dice rolls. Another thing I dislike are static roll against another player. In other words when the attacking player has to match or beat the target's static “defense” number (like in D&D). It’s a frustratingly passive moment for the target player who simply waits to find out if she was hit. Instead I much prefer engaging both players in a dramatic “roll-off” where both players roll against each other.  In “Kaleidoscope” the offensive player rolls his attack roll based on his weapons and associated skills (and other potential bonuses) while the target player rolls his defensive skills and adds distance and potentially cover as a bonus. In Cheeseland I kept this “roll-off” much simpler and fast paced. Both players roll a dice. Maxo wins draws. If applicable the mouse can add a bonus to the roll with an item. If the mouse is hidden Maxo gets a penalty. That’s it but it gets both players engaged and makes the winning player feel like she truly defeated (or evaded) her opponent. 

Though most outcomes in Cheeseland are determined by a single d6 (six sided dice), search rolls require three d6. That’s because finding clues and cheeses is a critical part of the game and I wanted the requirements to be more granular.

For finding items I kept the requirement slightly below average. Why? Because it keeps players excited and keeps the game moving along. If only few rolls result in finding an item it gets boring pretty quickly, especially for the kids. No one is excited by a result of “nothing happens” so I kept these moments to a minimum. The way I still control the difficulty level is by the kind of items players can find. Most are useful but minimally so, a few are great and very few are awesome like the Trap Manual that gets you out of any trap. Then there are a bunch of “Trash” cards. Yes, literally trash mice find on the streets. Though they may seem completely useless, three trash items can be dropped in a trash can to receive a reroll token. This doesn’t just represent cleaning up the city but it is actually useful as the trash items are removed from the item stack when trashed. Each time the item stash is reshuffled it becomes more valuable as your odds of finding a useful item increase.  Another example of increasing your odds while doing something good. 

So these are the ways I introduced luck and skill to “Journey to Cheeseland.”  I’ll talk about the narrative elements in my next blog. Meanwhile have fun with the exercise below and feel free to share your thoughts. If you enjoy this series please share.

Now roll that dice and make my day!

Exercise 4: 

Take a dice game you’re familiar with like Yahtzee and analyze what is luck vs. skill. Could you add an element that would make it more skill based? Vice-versa take a skill based game and try to replace one of the features with a random outcome. How does it change the game? If you want an example, study the original “Pandemic” (I know!) Board Game and compare it to the later spinoff “Pandemic, the Cure” a stripped down version of the original that relies on dice rolls to determine the outcome of turns. 

Here’s a video on how to play pandemic if you’re not familiar with the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RxqzBA_HRs

And the rules for Pandemic, the Cure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZEsgr3Myo0

Journey to Cheeseland Part 3: Designing the Key Mechanics

Welcome back to my designer notes about the board game “Journey to Cheeseland.” For those who just joined me you can check out the first part of this series here: Journey to Cheeseland: Beginnings

Today I’ll talk about designing some of the key mechanics for the game.

Game mechanics are defined by the ways players can interact with the various game elements (in the case of a board game the board and various pieces) and how these actions affect the game state. Or more simply put: What can players do? How do they do it? What happens when they do it? 

The most important question that defines the potential actions is: What is the players’ ultimate goal? 

So what is the main goal in Cheeseland? Originally it was simply finding the secret entrance to Cheeseland. The first player to make it to Cheeseland won. But as the story evolved it became more about solving the mystery of the disappearing cheeses and confronting the evil mastermind behind it. As mentioned in the first blog I also changed the gameplay to a cooperative gameplay instead of a race to the final destination. In the new version finding and entering Cheeseland is a requirement to confront the evil mastermind and return the stolen cheeses to Grand Central. Although I introduced a clear “lose” state for the mice with Maxo’s track (Maxo wins the game if he manages to move his token all the way to the end of the track before the mice make it to Cheeseland) I decided to leave the “win” state a little more story driven and open ended. By entering Cheeseland and confronting the evil mastermind the mice put an end to the disappearance of the cheeses but the final choice players make and the outcome of the final confrontation changes the ending to their heroic journey.

First of all I made the evil mastermind a random card the player places on Cheeseland and uncovers at the end. I’ll talk more about randomness introduced through various cards in another blog, but its purpose is to add discovery and replayability. If the adventure changes every time you play it’s obviously more fun. Not all evil masterminds are technically evil. Some of their motives for hoarding all the cheeses are either misguided or just silly. Players get to choose from two different options when exposing the mastermind and then roll for the final outcome. So a game may end with exposing the evil mastermind but him getting away or you actually going along with his crazy scheme, something that is very RPG inspired. You may not always get the perfect outcome you were looking for but you get at least the partial satisfaction of having solved the mystery and put an end to the disappearing cheeses.

Games often have intermediate goals that need to be achieved first. In video games these are often levels players have to complete in a sequential order but intermediate goals can also be conceived in a less linear fashion (although there may be a strategic advantage to doing them in a certain order). Either way these milestones give a sense of progression. In Cheeseland the goals are visually represented by cards turned face down and five tracker tokens that need to be placed. The players must reveal all the cards in order to win the game. Specifically these cards (selected randomly at the start of each game) are:

Five Cheese cards: These represent the only remaining cheeses in Grand City. Players need three clues in order to turn over each card (the order is up to them). Doing so will reveal the location of a particular cheese. Once a cheese location is known the mice can head there to find the cheese and place a tracker on it.  Note that collecting clues and tracking the cheeses can be done in parallel as soon as at least one of the cheese cards is revealed.

Secret Entrance to Cheeseland card: This card can only be revealed once all cheeses have been found and a tracker was placed on them.

Evil Mastermind card: This card can only be revealed once all mice made it to Cheeseland. It will outline the final confrontation.

  

Here is how this flow is currently laid out on the board:

Here’s a sample Cheese card once revealed:

And a sample location card revealed after all the cheeses are found.

This leads to the final confrontation in the center of the board.

Note that I added setup instructions directly on the board (though I will distinguish them better in the final version). My goal is to have as much information as possible in front of the players (board and cards) instead of forcing them to constantly refer to the manual. 

You may have also noted that I try to convey story elements through the cards by adding flavor text (like with the cheeses) or the way instructions are conveyed (like with location card).

Maxo’s goal is to interfere with the mice as much as possible and he scores points by catching them. His goal is visualized by a track.

Note that the final length of the track may vary after playtesting.

Taking Action: So what are the actions players can take to achieve their goals? The game is themed as a cat and mouse game so I based the initial actions on what cats and mice can do. Being a cat Maxo and his goal being to interfere with the mice he can move and pounce. To make him more effective he can also recruit and move minions. Note that giving him this “special” ability defines the world of Cheeseland and requires some thought as to what cats and mice are like in this setting. 

The mice are trying to evade Maxo and his minions while finding the secret entrance to Cheeseland. As mice some of the obvious actions are: move, hide and evade. Just like Maxo though they are smarter and more resourceful than their real-life counterparts. Here too defining how smart and resourceful they are defines the world. I mentioned giving Maxo the ability to recruit and move minions to make him more powerful (a gameplay decision). This worked from a narrative standpoint as I knew that I wanted to give the mice similar “unrealistic” abilities. I could have given them human-like abilities and intelligence with actions like crafting gadgets or flying airplanes. I could also have turned this into a magical world with the ability to cast spells and whatnot. But I wanted to stick with the theme of tiny mice having to confront a large and dangerous city. I wanted the dangers and obstacles to be inspired by real dangers a mouse would face like traps, poison, traffic and of course, cats. I envisioned more of a Tom and Jerry kind of world than for example Mouseguard. Though obviously enhanced the abilities should remain limited. So here is the current list:

Move: The players roll a dice to move their mouse token on the board. The total can be affected by items spent or conditions the mouse may be suffering from.

Hide: This is a preventive action a mouse player can take to increase its chances to evade Maxo or one of his minions. 

Evade Maxo and his Minions: This action is automatically triggered when Maxo or one of his Minions launch a pounce attack. Instead of giving the Maxo player a static number to beat I preferred giving the mouse player an active chance to escape by having both roll against each other. Some factors like hiding mentioned above or spending some items can affect the outcome of the roll.

Search:  Mice can search the streets for clues. What they find is randomized. 

Interact with various citizens of Grand Central: Humans are mostly off-limit (I made two exceptions for the Clue Givers though here too took more of a Tom and Jerry approach where humans are only seen from the animal’s perspective). The type of interaction is defined by the Encounter and the Clue Giver cards. The Encounter cards usually give a couple of options to choose from and then require to roll for the outcome. The Clue Giver cards give the option to try to convince one of the inhabitants to give you clues about the whereabouts of the last five cheeses. Here the action is defined as a “convince” action and the outcome dependent on a roll.

Resolve Encounters: I mentioned that I wanted the obstacles to be inspired by real dangers like poison, traps and traffic. These random encounters are also resolved with a dice roll and usually have a binary success/failure outcome.  

Use the Walkie-Talkie: This is the most blatantly unrealistic action for mice but it fills an important role I mentioned in my first blog: co-operation. Besides providing a logical explanation for the mice’s ability to communicate and strategize, the walkie talkie is also used as a way for players to help each other by using their action to add their roll to another mouse’s roll. I’ll go into more details about the use of the walkie-talkie to enhance cooperation in another blog.

I briefly considered giving the mice some high-tech devices to introduce more of a “Mission Impossible” feel but much prefer the simpler retro feel of the walkie-talkies. From a narrative standpoint I imagined the mice scrounging up parts from a scrapyard to put together these simple (yet still effective) devices. (Purely narrative background, not an activity in the game though it opens the door to one for sequels of the game). This introduces the notion that mice have at least some very basic technological skills which also justifies the existence of trackers and gives me some options for the final confrontation with the evil mastermind.

You may have noticed that most actions are resolved through dice rolls. I’ll talk about the role of randomness, chance and strategy in the next blog but know that this was a conscious decision balanced with the players’ ability to strategize and improve their odds. 

Exercise 3:

Take some of your favorite games and look at the actions players can take and each game’s end goal. Do the goals have anything in common? Can you think of a different goal for one of these games while keeping the same actions?

Share your thoughts on this exercise and if you enjoy this series you can support my work at https://ko-fi.com/pixeldorian. See you soon and stay safe in the meantime.