Is There Nothing New in Modern Board Games?
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
Such is the wisdom of Solomon.
I doubt that Solomon had board game mechanics in mind when he wrote these words. I’m pretty sure he intended them for more important topics.
But I wonder if all the significant mechanics have already been invented or if there are still some earth-shattering (okay…board-game-rocking) ideas still to be discovered.
Look at some of the fun board game mechanics we have today. Listed at Board Game Geek are 44 mechanics, a few of which I’ll mention here.
Area Control – The Carcassonne family of Euro board games fits in here as does the funnest (in my mind) board game ever, El Grande.
Auction/Bidding – The classic Euro in this group is Ra by Reiner Knizia.
Chit-Pull System – This means digging bits out of a bag. And excellent example is Thebes where players are archeologists.
Pick-Up and Deliver – Railroad-themed board games seem to favor this mechanic: Steam, Age of Steam, and Railroad Tycoon, for example.
Action Point Allowance System – You have a set number of points to spend each turn to perform the actions you need. One of my favorites in this group is Tikal.
Card Drafting – You add a lot of cards to your hand in Dominion and the Ticket to Ride series.
Set Collection – Samurai, where you try to collect the most high helmets, rice paddies, and buddhas fits the bill.
Tile Placement – This is one of my favorite mechanics. Tigris & Euphrates is a great game that employs it. Carcassonne obviously belongs here too. Being a gateway game, it’s probably the one most people think of first when you mention tile placement.
Worker Placement – Agricola, Le Havre, and Caylus are some heavy weights in this corner. I like Pillars of the Earth too, which has been called “Caylus lite”.
Again, these are only a few examples of mechanics along with some sample board games. But I’ll still ask the question: So what’s new?