What… is your quest?

When it gets right down to it, there are three main reasons I design games:

1. I look at a design and say “I can do that better.”
2. I have not yet achieved all of my “Holy Grails” of game design.
3. My brain won’t let me stop.

It’s the second that I’m mostly concerned with today. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the question posed if there are any games that I consider to be without flaws or problems. (Posed to me by a knowledgeable source, no less. I only assume he asked it to torture me, and in fact knows the answers already!) The answer(s) will come, in some fashion, next week.

But for now, let me just tell you some games that exist in my head in a Platonic ideal, and have not yet come into this world in a playable fashion.

• The Perfect Push Your Luck: I expounded in the explanation post what I’d like to see in a PYL game. This is probably the one on this list I’ve tried the most, and ended up failing every time.
• The Perfect Dungeon Crawler: I want to play a dungeon crawler that does not require a GM, but still has monsters that pose a threat and are not totally mechanical (or random!) in their movements. I want hard choices posed to me like what comes up in D&D: do I heal the fighter to try to get him to take down the ogre, or do I try to take one last swing myself? I want character options as flavorful as Talisman but not as unfairly unbalanced. I want to work together with others, but also not be entirely cooperative.
• The Perfect Negotiation Game: Everything has to be tense. The skill in the game should come from creative negotiations, not obvious trades or unknowable futures. I should be able to make alliances, and then back stab them in a dramatic moment… but still be wary of my new enemy.
• The Perfect Werewolf: I suppose more accurately, I’d like the perfect psychology game. But really, I just want all the interesting properties of Werewolf, without the stuff I don’t like (requiring a moderator, requiring a lot of people.) Werewolf is my #1 game of all time, and yet, I still want more. I’ve worked on a few Werewolf-ish games, which often turn into a really interesting game with a lot of the feel that I want… yet, I still yearn for Werewolf.
• The Perfect Epic Space Game: For many, this already exists. Not for me. I want a game that feels epic in scope, that features branching technologies that make every player feel, well, alien. I want diplomacy and science fiction weirdness. I want it to be simple and elegant, yet still feel deep. I want a game that is decided upon my wits and the ability to take advantage of strange new worlds and civilizations, not because of dice rolls and action cards. I want a game that lets me go where no board game has gone before!

The more games I play, the larger this list grows (due in part because of #1 and #3.) I’m hoping that even if I don’t design these games, that somebody does (and they send me a review copy!)

So what are YOUR Gaming Holy Grails?