Should you die?
I got my butt handed to me in a game of CLANK!. It wasn’t close. I was killed by a dragon deep in the dungeon about a third of the way into the game. I was out, with zero points, in last place, fin.
My death didn’t kill the evening, I was with family (playing with my dad and fiancé), so I hung out, flipped over the dungeon cards, and heckled my dad (who ended up winning).
Dramatic reenactment of my defeat
CLANK! Is a gateway game. It’s relatively lightweight, has intuitive gameplay, isn’t cutthroat, and has a light upbeat feel.
So, what gives? What would my experience have been like if I was a new player, or a novice gamer, and I had to sit on the sidelines for forty-five minutes while my friends navigated the dungeon and stole all the treasure?
Under what conditions should games eliminate players?
I am going to approach this in a few sections
Common design reasons for player elimination
Some background on CLANK!
Why player elimination works in CLANK!
[Update: it turns out I’ve been playing CLANK! wrong this whole time, and the end of game countdown triggers when a player dies (not just exits the dungeon). So the player elimination mechanic works even smoother than how I’ve been playing.]
Why Eliminate Players
There are a lot of potential reasons to allow for player elimination. A few stand out to me.
It’s the point of the game: Risk being a prototypical example, sometimes wiping players off of the map is the point of the game. Players go in with the full knowledge that it is win or die. Dudes-on-a-map type games are famous for this type of gameplay – but other genres employ it as well, like multi-player Commander games of Magic the Gathering (where you are dueling wizards).
To add stakes to decisions: Player in game decisions need stakes. Failure – or bad play should have repercussions, whether it is a penalty, lower probability of success, or falling behind. What better way to raise the stakes than player elimination?
Short game length: When game length is short enough, the cost of being eliminated is low, and players can play multiple rounds. Party games are great examples of this, or fast paced deduction games like Love Letter (I know that each round isn’t technically a full game, but it feels that way in practice).
Player agency: Definitionally strategy games give players agency. Not necessarily full agency, but some level of control. Random feeling player elimination, or situations that are unwinnable are feel bad moments. If a player is eliminated, they should feel like they had some level of agency over the outcome – that their death was because of their own choices.
If you’ve played CLANK! feel free to skip ahead, this is to give a little context to people who are less familiar with the game.
CLANK! is a gateway level complexity game (that is accessible to non-entrenched gamers) that combines two major mechanics: Deck Building and Dungeon Crawling.
The Secret Tome is worth a lot of victory points, but dilutes your deck
Players take on the role of adventurers exploring a dungeon. They set out to snag as much treasure as possible without awakening the dragon and incurring its wrath. A deck of cards is used to direct character actions – cards that allow them to move, to fight monsters, and to draft more powerful cards for their deck.
The game also has a large push your luck element. That is the more aggressive you are with advancing through the dungeon, and snagging treasure, the more likely you are to get attacked by the dragon.
Why Player Elimination Works in CLANK!
In our game (which I lost in a spectacular fashion), I recklessly delved deep into the dungeon in an attempt to snatch up the choicest treasures. It was a high risk, high reward gamble. If I skirted by and avoided the dragon’s wrath for another turn or two, I could heal some damage, and make my way towards the exit – escaping the dragon by the skin of its teeth.
The cards didn’t fall my way, and I died, but I had agency over that outcome (I chose not to play it safe), and it was thematically appropriate.
I am sure an early death has spoiled the game for some players – but it isn’t a common occurrence, and the risk of death can be approached eyes wide open. You know if you are pushing your luck – and you know the stakes.
I find it unintuitive that that player elimination works in a gateway game like CLANK!
What design choices make player elimination additive to a game? And what are some unusual examples of player elimination working?
