Games with harmonious theme/mechanics

I love this

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Interestingly, Iā€™ve said before and it still stands that given some bizarre magical-boardgame-transformation-magic, I would swap the mechanisms/themes between Snow Tails and Flamme Rouge.

If you've never played Snow Tails (which would be very sad!)

It uses a very clever hand management mechanism wherein you can play 1, 2 or 3 cards from your hand per turn. All cards played on one turn must be the same value (1-5). There are 3 positions on your sled to which you can play them: Left Dog, Right Dog, and Brake. A card played to a position replaces the previous card that was there. The Brake card is quite simple: you subtract its value from the number of spaces you would move forward.

The Left Dog and the Right Dog cards are where the meat of the game is: if both dogs have the same value, youā€™ll move directly straight ahead (and can opt for a bonus movement because ā€œbalanced sleds are happy sleds!ā€). But if the Dog cards are different, then you will have to perform a drift equal to the difference as you move.

Damage taken for bumping into stuff on the race course adds ā€œDentā€ cards to your personal deck, making it harder to get the cards you need when you need them.


I find Dungeon Petz an easy worker placement for people to remember all the minor fiddly details of because every minor fiddly detail rule makes perfect sense thematically. Once someone ā€œgetsā€ the story, every rule clicks into place and thereā€™s a sense of ā€œof course it works that way!ā€

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I think my most thematically satisfying game is Star Wars Rebellion. Itā€™s not my favourite game, but I think it captures the battle between an all powerful empire and scrappy rebels who are led by heroes fantastically well.

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I was thinking of this myself. The mechanics really do flow and let you get into the theme once everything clicks. It just takes a couple of turns for that to happen in your first game.

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Iā€™d like to, but I havenā€™t been around when it was happeningā€¦

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If I can source some assets, I will add it to the list of play-by-post games I should run (once things settle down a little around here)

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For as much as itā€™s not exactly a deep thematic game, the mechanisms in Photosynthesis do a decent job of simulating the race for light in a wood - and the effect of shading out the competition.

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This one is more of an accident but Azulā€™s candy aesthetic with its pieces perfectly matched the real life game of passing chocolates around, making sure you understand what everyone likes/dislikes so when it comes back you get maximum chocolate but not a whole bunch of strawberry fondant crap.

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Unrelated to the main thread, but is there anyone in existence who likes those strawberry fondant chocolates?? Why do they keep making them?!

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I think fondant should be illegal

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Fondant is the worst. Iā€™d rather eat a spoonful of sugar and cement.

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I thought that was how you made fondantā€¦

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Thatā€™s a good point. I also like that you have to cut down a tree to get the wood/points, and that smaller trees immediately try and colonise the space left behind.

This is an excellent interpretation of a game, and arguably more valid than the tiles nonsense.

Time for an Azul retheme? :thinking:

What is this candy? (US peep here).
I dislike any fake fruit flavor mixed with chocolate. Smells like despair. I am also pretty picky on frosting since seeing a grocery sheet cake frosting was Crisco and powered sugar.

On topic that fits-. I once did a game of candy land and when you landed on a color you got piece of candy from that color bowl.
I vaguely remember people really wanting yellow which was Charleston chews.

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I think Space Hulk: Death Angel fits into this. The heavily armoured marines are lined in a column and can face either left or right. Changing their position in the column and facing is one of key decisions, which I think does a good job of representing the tightness of the derelict they are moving through and the bulky suits of armour the marines wear. The aliens in comparison shift around all the time, outflanking the column by slipping through air ducts etc.

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Well, I did look into making a ā€œstreet Azulā€ set with Opal Fruits / Starburst, but to get enough pieces would probably cost more than the game. Also these days the colours are all quite close together; when I were a lad they had green ones.

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Oh, Netrunner is such an excellent example! Asymmetric gameplay with the Corp behaving exactly like a Corp, and the runner having entirely different tools and tempo to achieve their own goals.

Also impressed with Marvel Champions. Each hero functions differently, and the mechanical changes are REALLY well matched to the character. Hulk is coming up next, and he has a flaw where he might hulk out or revert to Banner at an unknown time and you donā€™t control that.

Black Widow, unlike everyone else, sets up traps while undercover and then springs them as the hero in a way thatā€™s opposite to every character so far.
Captain America keeps on getting up again, even when it costs him.
When you play them, you feel that the real comic version is having an effect on the board.