In an attempt to standardize abstract strategy games, I have worked on
this below, and would like feedback on it.
[Key elements]
There are multiple key elements that define all abstract strategy
games. These elements are:
1. Turns. A turn is defined an action or a series of actions that a
player can perform that change the state of pieces in a game.
2. Players. Actors in a game who change the states of pieces in the
game.
3. Pieces. These are items players control in the game that are used
to define state of game.
4. Board (play area). Board is a term used to describe area where
pieces are positioned and interact with one another. A board may also
represent a Board with no spaces.
5. Null (off play area/board). This is used to descibe where pieces
are located that are not on the board. Null can be defined and
configured many different ways. It can consist of a queue or multiple
queues.
[Turn attributes]
* Sequencing of turns:
- Turn order: Only one player may perform actions at a time. Rules
governing when order of players moving.
- Real-time: All players perform their actions at same time.
- Simultaneous: All players plan and record all their moves and then
they the moves are acted out at same time.
* Information level: Degree to which what players do is known. Perfect
means everything is revealed to all at same time. Hidden means that
some or all of moves are revealed, or only revealed when certain
criterion are met.
[Players]
* Types:
- Intelligent (aware of game conditions and acts upon information in
game to adjust plans)
- Unintelligent (Unaware of game conditions and acts either
deterministic, reactive or random). Can act as a mix of all three.
1.
Deterministic (unaware of conditions in game, and acts
according. Non-reactive, objective driven)
2.
Reactive (deterministically, by rules, acts based upon
conditions in game, but not goal-driven)
3.
Random (unaware of conditions of game, and acts unpredictably)
* Relation****ps:
- Enemies: Has goals opposing other players in the game.
- Partners (Allies): Share common goals, and win conditions.
- Neutral: Has no goals in game (can't win).
[Piece attributes]
* Owner****p (who owns the piece): Piece(s) may be owned by one or more
players. Owner****p is defined as a player being able to manipulate a
piece during their turn.
* Traits: States of a piece that determines how it is governed by
rules.
[Board attributes]
* Discreteness of spaces:
- Discrete (finite): Multiple spaces that fit distinct piece on each
other.
- Non-Discrete (Infinite): Can be argued it is a "spaceless" board.
Boundaries are defined by pieces, not spaced on board.
* Boundness of board:
- Board is finite: Board has boundaries
- Board has infinite number of spaces (non-discrete): Board is
expandable, and has boundaries extended.
* Traits: Attributes of board spaces (and board) that are governed by
rules, and impact how rules govern pieces.
- Static: Attributes don't change
- Dynamic: Attributes can change
[Relation****p of Board to Pieces]
* Unispace: Each space on board may contain only one piece.
* Multispace: Each space on board may contain multiple pieces. Rules
regarding limits to quantities is required (even if unlimited).
Mancala and stacking games apply to this.
- Queued (stack): Pieces enter and leave in a sequence from one
another.
- Pile (Mancala games): pieces freely leave or gather independent of
each other, not in sequence.
Rules govern which pieces may be grouped together on which spaces, and
leaving.
[Null attributes]
* Types:
- Void: Pieces into Null never return to game (eliminated).
- Single space: Has capacity of one. Prior pieces sent to equivalent
of Void (described above)
- Pool: Pieces can enter back into play into play in any order
- Queue: Pieces enter back into play into a sequence.
- Multiple Queue: Each player has his own queue.
[Proposed Categorization by C.D Rodeffer]
Board Target (claim, occupy, connect or capture a specific goal space
or spaces)
Piece Target (claim, capture, immobilize, eliminate or checkmate a
specific goal piece or pieces)
Board Majority (claim, occupy, connect or capture the most (or more
im****tant) goal spaces)
Piece Majority (claim, capture, immobilize, eliminate checkmate the
most (or more im****tant) goal pieces)
Claim, occupy, connect, capture, immobilize, eliminate
[Categories of abstract strategy games]
Cl***** of game types (based on Zillions site, used for Athlon
determination):
1. Escape (Breakthrough/Race) [Location of pieces to positions on
board matters]: Players try to get a piece(s) onto key positions on
board.
* Bi-sided (Race): Both players try to get from one location to
another with one or more of their pieces. Arimaa is here. Both sides
have key positions to get to. Locations can be identical or different.
* Uni-sided (Breakthrough: Navigate/block): One player tries to get
piece or pieces to location(s) on board and opponent tries to stop
them. Tablut is here.
In Escape (Breakthrough/race), win positions for pieces on board is
absolute. Victory is occupation 100% of all critical areas.
2. Territory (Occupy/Claim): Player tries to control/own most spaces
on board. Go and Othello count here.
* Occupy (absolute): Players occupy spaces directly. Othello applies
here.
* Claim (relative): Players try to own spaces indirectly, based on
position of pieces on board, according to some rules. Go applies here.
In Territory, owner****p of board spaces determines winner. Victory is
a control/own majority of all critical areas.
3. Positioning (Chain/Cluster or Connection/Arrangement) [Relation****p
of pieces' locations to each other matters]: Players configure groups
of pieces on the board in some manner.
* Connection (chain): Players try to connect two or more spaces on the
board with a chain of their pieces. Hex and Twixt are here.
* Arrangement (cluster): Players try to get their pieces in a certain
configuration. Lines of Action, Groups and Teeko are here.
In Positioning, win positions for pieces on board is relative.
Relative here means pieces could end up partly being on absolute
spots. But the relative positions are governed by a set of rules.
4. Elimination (Capture/Immobilization) [Quantity of usable pieces on
board matters]: Players seek to capture or immobilize one or more of
opponent's piece(s).
* Royal: Players try to capture or put a particular opponent's piece
or all of a type of pieces where piece(s) are threatened and into a
place they can't escape capture (checkmate). This is for chess, chess
variants, Shogi, Chinese chess, Ploy, kinglet, extinction chess, etc...
* Multipiece: Players try to eliminate (or immobilize) all, or a
number, of an opponent's pieces (in general, not) before their
opponent. Checkers fits here.
In Elimination, win condition are piece(s) in Null (meaning not on
board) or piece(s) are immobilized. Try to eliminate something for
win.
5. Fortuna: This is a unique category. It is for games that are less
than perfect/pure abstract strategy games. Games with either hidden
information or a randomizer fit here. To be part of IAGO, a game in
the Fortuna category either belongs in Hidden or Tali, but not both.
* Hidden: These are games where players don't have perfect
information. Kriegspiel (Dark Chess) and Stratego would fit here.
* Tali: These are games where a player uses a randomizer before they
start their turn, such as dice. Backgammon and Parchisi fit here.
Tali is Latin for Knucklebones (a type of dice used in ancient roman
games). Games randomized at start of game, before either player moves,
don't fit here, but can still be an official game for IAGO, provided
that they are fair to all players (either board layout is balanced,
players have free setup that is fair, or players get to play all set
ups by all players in the game).
[Action types]: Move, capture, place
* Move: transferring location of piece on board from one location to
another. A move can also be defined as moving a piece to the Null
area, and then back onto board in following turn (with the prior
position recorded). Rules governing movement are based on position of
piece on board at start of move, the type of piece it is (or other
pieces are), and/or the relation****p of the piece to other piece(s) in
the game.
* Capture: Transfer of piece from Board to Null. Pieces may either
return to board (capture) or not (eliminate). A capture may change
atttributes of piece as it goes into Null (such as owner****p).
- Immobilize is a contrary subset of capture, where piece stays on
board, but is incapable of being used by its owner.
* Place: Transfer from Null to Board.
[Elements that reduce determinism of players in an abstract strategy
game]
1. Degree playing environment is not controlled by players
(randomized). This involves pre-game set up and post game set up.
Also, randomization of player set up fits into this. Players having
complete control over where they place pieces doesn't count as
randomization. Only exception for randomization would be the
determining of turn order/player seating may be determined at random
(ideally it would be preferred this not happen).
2. Degree information to players is perfect. This means known at start
of turn or the game, players know the exact conditions they are
facing, and expected results based on what moves they make.
3. Variants of board environment, and degree players have control over
it. In a case where players have a fixed set up and the board set up
is randomly determined, unless the set up is balanced for all players.
4. Number of players. More than two leads to more uncertainty. It is
implied that there is a minimum of two players for a game.
[Elements of a game that is 100% deterministic (pure abstract)]
1. Playing environment: no randomness. Players either control their
set up of pieces, or they are fixed (not randomly determined). All
players in the game are intelligent.
2. No hidden information.
3. The board is identical every game, or at least symmetric in its set
up so that it is fair to all players.
4. The game is played with two players only.
[Other issues]
Stacking games(?): I personally would include this under what other
category they belong to like, Elimination. Focus and Byte would
possible be here. These would usually be best fit under elimination
games, unless like Dipole, then that is an Elimination game. This
could possibly relate to sowing games.
Sowing games: Pieces start in a pile, and are distributed. Games in
the Mancala family. Also included would be games like Swahili or Space
Walk.
* Solution: Have classic abstract strategy games in their own
division, not codified like this. Also the idea of board attributes
covers this.
Also note that a game could combine one or more of the above. The
trick is to see what is most dominant, or perhaps have an order of
priority. A game where you have breakthrough OR capture, would likely
be just breakthrough, because capturing is just a way to prevent a
person from breaking through. Using this reasoning, elimination games
will be classified as something else, if they have another class of
games they belong to.
Misere' versions of game fit into mirror versions of what they are
opposite. A game where you try to get all your pieces or all pieces of
one type of yours onto the board would be a be a misere' version of
capture/immobilize. A game where you try to get all your pieces off a
certain spaces on the board would be a misere' version of breakthrough/
race. A game where you force your opponent into a certain
configuration is a misere' version of chain/group game.
[Categories/Cl*****/Divisions of games to be played]
1. Classic (and Classic variants): There are classics such as chess
and go. There is also variants on classics, like Speed chess,
bughouse, and mini-Go. These games are one off the main games and I
don't believe have champions, and no association to promote them. Also
fitting in here would be the idea of -athalons. Multigame events where
players play a set of very different games. Like someone plays speed
chess, mini-go and another game (say checkers) as a classic
triathalon.
2. Standard (Modern): These games use classic game equipment, but
things completely different. Mark's designs fit into this
particularly. These games center around a standardize set of equipment
for IAGO.
3. Alternative (Commercial): These games are usually one game
standalone products, which require purchasing of separate equipment.
If a game is not able to be played with standard classic game
equipment, then it would fit here.
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