At the heart of any cooperative tabletop game is its challenge system. In the absence of a human opponent, players expect the game to offer a challenge appropriate to their skill level. Challenge
Many tabletop games feature mechanics that let one player benefit from another player’s choices. For example, in Scythe, the Enlist action grants a long-term bonus that triggers whenever a neighbor takes
Players want two contradictory things in games: to feel in control of the outcome and to be surprised by it. Surprise normally contradicts agency because players feel helpless to predict the future, but
One goal of game design is to make players feel they have made progress by the end of the game. A game where the end feels the same as the beginning has an
Some choices are reversible, such as moving armies around a board in Risk or discarding a power card in Spirit Island. Others are permanent, such as constructing a building in Catan or earning