Peter’s Time Rules for Strategy Games

Peter’s Time Rules for Strategy Games

The only way to end a 3+ player strategy game is for the game to have:

A. preset teams, which essentially turns the game into a 2-player game

B. a catalyst, which adds a high-octane fuel to the game, usually at the end, pushing one player into the lead

C. an agreed upon time limit

D. an independent scoring mechanism that isn’t a zero sum game (players can generate points without taking them from another player)

The surest ways to have a seemingly unending strategy game are to:

A. give players the ability to form loose alliances or teams, which creates striangulation (strangulation by triangulation)

B. have MAD (mutually assured destruction) when any 2 players fight against each other

C. have a system that rewards people doing nothing (ie net accumulation of resources, or giving advantage to inaction or defensive positions)

D. have limited action each turn

E. reward the nickel-and-dimers (ie gains are made so incrementally, that the person who always optimizes every single unit, or position, will typically win)

F. have no catalyst, that speeds up the rush to Armageddon

G. have no time limit

H. have no independent scoring mechanism that allows players to win by achieving goals that other players can only minimally impact.