Simplifying the core system

A lot of gamers are put off 18xx games because they seem too complicated and too time-consuming. We who love the system have various ways of keeping the game flowing. Some people use poker chips instead of paper money, which raises the question, why are we still making games with paper money? I'm not alone in sometimes using a spreadsheet, but you can see why many people would think that any board game that requires a computer is too complicated for them. Also, it means I need to carry a laptop around as well as the game itself.

So I'm looking at ways to simplify the game mechanisms while keeping the core ideas and level of strategy. Here’s one idea that may work.

The core mechanism of 18xx is that companies get income (in multiples of £10) from running trains. They then distribute 1/10 of this income to each share, so that a player holding 3 shares gets 3/10 of the company’s income. This mechanism was introduced in the very first 18xx game and has remained basically unchanged since. It was a brilliant design and has served all of us well. It's also the main thing that slows down the game, as the cash gets handed out to each player during every company’s turn.

My idea comes in two parts. The first is to make the dividend payments be multiples of £10. This will simplify the amounts that get paid out, keeping them to a smaller range. This enables the second part, which is to record player income by moving counters on a track, instead of handing out cash from the bank. This will be much quicker than handing out paper money (or poker chips) and making change each time.

For example, the track might have 50 spaces numbered from £0 to £490. If a player’s income reaches £500, a chit could be placed underneath his or her marker to show the extra income. The track could be placed wherever it fits best on the board; some eurogames have tracks around the edge of the board.

In this design, payments can only be kept to multiples of £10 if companies pay dividends for each £100 of their income, instead of each £10. So that is the core change of this approach. For example, if the LNWR has an income of £230, it will pay £20 to each shareholder (instead of £23). If I had 6 shares, I would move my treasury marker 12 squares along the track.

It's worth mentioning some secondary effects as well. We're not just swapping cash notes for markers on a track. We're also removing all the £1/£4/£5 denominations from the game, with reduces production cost and the space required to play. We are also simplifying the arithmetic.

The big question is how this change will affect the rest of the design and the play of the game. That is the topic of the next blog post.