Last week I talked about The Triangle of how to approach a game design. One of those points of the Triangle is “Theme.” But there are different ways of looking at what theme is, and if a game is well-themed or not.
When people talk about theme, they’re generally talking about what is otherwise called “chrome” or “color.” Any game can have images related to a theme slapped on it. This is the color of the game: the graphics and materials used to convince you that a game is about X. To me, though, color doesn’t make the game thematic. Using the game’s mechanics to make you feel like you’re a part of the intended theme, to give you an “immersive experience”, that is what I call theme.
To me, if a game cannot survive being “color-stripped”, it is not thematic. So if you were to take away all the graphics, replace the miniatures with colored cubes, and remove any colorful names of the pieces, you have color-stripped a game. If, after this is done, a player cannot tell you what a game is about, you have not invented a richly themed game.
This is not a bad thing per se. Themes generally help people understand and relate to a game, even if it is not thematic. Even saying that a game is abstract can be a kind of “theme” that helps people get into it. Just realize when you’re designing that if you’re trying to have a game that emulates the travels of 14th century Cistercian Monks, you can’t just put “Cistercian Monkland” on the box and hope that does the trick.
Also, I realize that for some people, the color is an intrinsic part of their game experience. Some people cannot play a game without extra graphics adding to the theme, and so the notion of color-stripping takes away a part of why they like games. This is fine, but a really good game is going to feel thematic in gameplay as well as color. You shouldn’t have one without the other.
Some games that I would say are very thematic are Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings, Warhammer Quest, Ticket to Ride, and Power Grid.
Some games that are not very thematic BUT are helped by the theme are Ra, Puerto Rico, San Juan, and Carcassonne.
Some games that rely entirely on color for theme but are not thematic in gameplay are Lunch Money, Chez Geek, Munchkin, and Cartegena. Of those Cartegena is the only one that I enjoy playing… but the game feels like a weird Candyland variant. It’s obstensibly about pirates, but how many pirates when escaping jail worked in teams of three and liked to play leapfrog?
Oh, and one last thing: when working on a ruleset, I prefer to make the best game possible instead of trying to leave in crappy rules that relate to the theme. Your mileage may vary, but themes are far more common then good games. I can always change the theme for the game, or use abstraction. After all, you’re playing a game, not a VR simulator!
What would a game like Axis & Allies be, then? It seems like it’s ‘color’ (i.e. real-world historical locations, actual military units, etc) is intrinsic to the game. The mechanics, if bleached of color, would still simulate a war that took place in the WW2 era due to rules for different units, movement, etc. But the mechanics aren’t why people buy the game; they buy it because of the ‘color’, as you put it. What do you think about Axis & Allies? Is it thematic or not?
While I’m on the subject, I’d also say that I’m suprised you didn’t list Acquire as a game that’s very thematic. To me, Acquire has virtually no color at all, and yet you still feel like you are playing the stock market and ‘the game of corporate acquisition’. Thus, by your definition, I would call it very thematic.
I’d describe Axis & Allies as colorful, but not necessarily thematic. I don’t know that the mechanics will necessarily tell you that you’re playing in WW2… you’ll definitely feel like you’re playing a wargame and be able to identify the types of pieces, but you probably couldn’t say what kind of battle. (To me, the units of each empire and what they start with just isn’t different enough.) However, I hear the new edition has new rules for different countries, so maybe that changes things.
I agree that Acquire is very thematic. Even though its driven by a numbered/lettered grid, everything about that game is about absorbing and getting good dividends and all sorts of great mechanics.