Game system
From The Tic-Tac-Totality
Game systems vary in flexibility; i.e., how wide a spectrum of tones and mechanics its games occupy. While there are many games that can be played with dominoes, for instance, these games tend to resemble each other more closely than card games do, and so dominoes would be considered the less flexible game system. Flexibility, however, may be more perceptual than actual, and should not prevent designers from attempting to create innovative games with ostensibly less flexible systems.
Game systems can also be combined to create new game systems; the Turducken itself, which combines dice and chips, is, at the moment the most obvious example.
- Flexible game systems are ones with which a wide variety of
Examples
- Chips/Coins
- Dice
- Dominoes
- Billiard Set
- Turducken
- Cards
- Icehouse
- Piecepack
Further Reading
Ron Hale-Evans's four-part article on game systems is both even-handed and epically complete:
Part 1: Introduction & Invented Systems
Part 2: Card Game Systems
Part 3: Board Game Systems
