Handslap!

In our group, if you make a rules mistake and inadvertently try to cheat, Jake will say “Give me your hand.” He becomes quite insistent until you present your hand, at which point, he will slap it on the backside like a nun’s yardstick. This is his way of enforcing the rules, and I believe, trying to give a negative stimulus to enforce a rule in people’s minds.

This may be way we have the term “handslap issue.” A handslap issue, in our game design parlance, when a rule is accidentally broken by a player, often repeatedly. Sometimes handslap issues arise from unclear rules explanation, or by not paying enough attention to the board.

However, if a rule has a consistent handslap issue with everyone, then it becomes a game design problem. Clearly, something in the players’ heads is telling them that an action SHOULD be legal. Should you just beat them silly until they get the rule? Maybe, but more likely, you should address the issue.

For example, there’s the classic “simultaneous play” mechanism, where everyone selects a card and places it face down. When all players have done this, the cards are revealed and resolved. This is a very common mechanism that you will see in many games, and has a number of interesting properties. However, what happens when you play a game that has everyone select a card face down, and when everyone is in, the cards are slid into the center? You have a handslap issue. Sure, you could argue that someone who hadn’t played any simultaneous play games would not make this mistake. It’s not simply a matter of experience; there is something about revealing the cards that is very appealing psychologically. You get immediate feedback about your guessing and bluffing when you select and then find out about the consequences. In the other example, you’re still as in the dark as you were before.

This is an important lesson for all of game design: your playtesters make not be able to verbalize what problems they have with a game, but they will show you problems whether they mean to or not. By watching them play, you can determine which rules are handslappy, which rules are too complex because they keep needing refreshers, and if they understand the strategic decisions by what they play. These issues are all REALLY easy to dismiss by saying such things as “if you play a few times, you won’t make that mistake.” An important skill in being a designer is recognizing when that becomes a problem, or when it really is because you’re playing with a bunch of drunk morons. Remember, your job as a designer is to make a game that entertains and challenges… not show everyone how much of a genius you are.

Another handslap issue to watch out for is a breakdown in clarity. If a game element is not easy to catch (and requires the players to catch it to operate) then it’s a handslap issue, and could lead to games being corrupted easier. (We sometimes refer to this specific problem as a “headslap issue.”) For example, I played a prototype where cards were played on to the table to form a grid. The grid was limited to how big it could be- anything beyond 7×7 was illegal. Since you’re building this as you play, and because you’re not necessarily counting how many cards are each direction each turn, it’s easy to miss and play illegally. It’s also easy to miss when it happens, and discover it several turns later, and then not be sure how to proceed with the game. That’s a problem. Sure, it doesn’t make the game broken per se, but it is an issue that is best avoided to give the best experience. My group is currently working on a game that is great… up until the end, when you have to compare colored dice to a resource pile and see if there’s enough of a resource to make sure the game continues. We could just say that people should notice… but if the game can work some other way that avoids this, all the better.

Keep an eye out for handslap issues in your designs, especially during the playtest phase. Otherwise, you might just hear Jake say “Give me your hand…”