"Game Within a Game" Topic

There are lots of quick, casual games out there – dice games, card games, pen & paper games, etc. We play a few tabletop games where we run small, quick side games to determine controls for the main game like initiative*, gathering intel, action points for next turn, fixing tanks, etc. The best part of designing this into a game is coming up with something that fits the theme of the tabletop game.

So …

Meh …
It's a gimmick!
It's a trap!
Very interesting …
Sounds fun.
I should try that.
When's game day? Where do you live?
I'd buy that for a dollar!

* – You should see how quickly players can execute their turn when everyone else is coming up with a list of words found in a large word from an Internet random word generator for the next round's initiative.

I remember playing a large Celts against Romans game with a friend who was notorious for taking a long time to finish his turns. I broke my bodyguard unit into individuals and played a hurling match with some quick rules made up on the spot.

Maybe I'm missing something, but my first reaction is….why?

But if you guys enjoy it then crack on! Each to their own, and all that!

I don't like unrelated games, but I enjoy the additional strategy of, for example, Commands and Colors where saving/timing of the cards is important.

We play a Lord of the Rings game where you can find "gilders" and spend them on special things. Such as "find a path" whcih gives you a chance to find a path through the woods and move through it as clear. Or "fight again" allowing you a chance to fight a second round of close combat.

So you have a mini treasure hunt built in to the game that is mroe part of the game, less a completely unrelated activity.

Done right it can be a lot of fun. Done wrong it's just a big distraction.

Just boggles the mind, if you don't like what you are doing in the first place then why are you doing it? If you do like doing what you are doing it then why dilute it with something else?

Play ASL in miniature, or another highly interactive game, and ENFORCE time limits in some manner if an opponent is going slowly.

We occasionally do this, it depends on the specific situation though. I am a big fan of rock,papers,scissors for quick combat resolution, similarly the 'higher or lower' play your cards right type thing can work for some situations.

I used the former in a an air defence simulation game where we needed a (very) quick way of resolving air interception (as there were large numbers of players milling around talking on radios or holding model aircraft). The latter we've used a few times where you have a sequence of actions to perform – like escaping from a burning aircraft or defusing a bomb.

Not a separate, unrelated game …

The latter we've used a few times where you have a sequence of actions to perform – like escaping from a burning aircraft or defusing a bomb.

… this is the type of thing I'm talking about.

The random word game for initiative was not imposed to speed up play (that was just an interesting side effect). It was put into a modern infiltration game as a surrogate for offensive and defensive cyber operations (code breaking and cracking) in support of the tactical teams. The source words were random, the words players came up with had to relate to spec ops (infiltrators) or physical security (defenders) or computers (all).

We once used the classic game Mastermind as a minigame to open a safe in a modern skirmish scenario. 1 tactical turn meant 1 guess in Mastermind.

We also gave a modelkit and a bottle of glue to a specops team. They had 10 minutes to finish the model in order tomescape some secret base.

Lots of fun … If i remember correctly there was an article about this sort of game in one of the glossies a long time ago.

Found it! Wargames Illustrated 82 – Multi-Activity Wargaming.

In an RPG session of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, one player had to physically locate an object hidden inside his room, to pass a test from a spirit.

We've had a few like that.

Sounds to me you are just making the miniature game last longer by doing this. I am hard press to keep everyone around long enough to just to finish the main game.

Some really fun ideas in this thread. Let's hear some more!

The concept of a game-within-a-game isn't really much different than a wargame with multiple mechanical systems, e.g. a card game C3 system layered onto a typical dice-and-marker combat system. Extra Crispy cited some other good examples of appropriately themed mechanics, and I think his conclusion hits the nail on the head:

Done right it can be a lot of fun. Done wrong it's just a big distraction.

I couldn't agree more. From a game design perspective, the important things are to keep the players engaged, enhance the decision cycle within the theme of the game, and keep the mechanics clean enough to avoid slowing the game.

- Ix