Game Mechanic - Trading...?

I personally am very interested in the trading mechanic and I am using it in my game design, so I will offer my insights.

Only a few trading mechanic games are really popular (Settlers and Bohnanza come to mind). The reason that both of these designs work so well is that there are mechanisms that encourage trading, in fact if you don't trade you likely won't do very well at all. In Settlers, trading also involves negotiation, which makes the process more enjoyable than simply swapping cards. In Bohnanza, players are forced to make a decision to plant a bean or trade it which further encourages trading and negotiation. A further incentive to trade in both of these games is that of trying to get particular card combinations that offer a benefit. Both of these games have innovative trading systems and therefore they are not popular just because they use the trading mechanic.

Trading can be used to reduce the luck in any game where you have card draws. If a player is just unlucky to draw the wrong cards, through good negotitation, he can get what he is looking for.

By no means. If you can use the trading mechanic in an innovative and useful way that makes sense, you should definitely think about using it. But adding trading to a game that does not need it - just to appeal to what you feel is a popular mechanic is probably not a good idea.

I am only familiar with its use for resource or card management. Some other games that I am aware of that use trading well are Advanced Civilization and Oltremare. The exception I know of is Pit which rewards speed over strategy in trading.

I think that the game Mare Nostrum utilizes a unique mechanic that I am adapting for my game that I am calling barter. How barter works is that one player plays a barter card and every other player must place a card of their own face up. The player who played the barter card takes the card of his choice. The player who has his card taken now takes the card of his choice. And so on, until the last player does not receive a card. The interesting strategy here is that you want to barter a card that at least 1 other person wants or you will get nothing. On the other hand, you don't want to give up too much either.

The use of stealing is another closely related concept to trading, look at how the Robber works in Catan. Stealing can be a blind draw or an informed choice by either the stealing player or the player he is stealing from. There are alot of variations that one could come up with by combining trading and stealing.

Settlers for me too, but I am hoping that my game design will give it a run for its money :) I have played Advanced CIV, and while the trading has some interesting mechanics, I don't completely like how it was designed. I would like to try the other games I mentioned (Bohnanza, Oltermare, and Mare Nostrum).

Some off the cuff brainstorming...

1) Encourages player interaction.
2) Can shift the 'focus' of a game. I.E. It levels the playing field. A person who is a good negotiator might now have a better chance against a straight analytical strategist.
3) Instead of now playing only against your opponent, you're now playing with your opponents. Trading by nature is a cooperative act. This adds or increases the level of depth a game might have.

My favorite game of this genre would have to be China Town... The fact that you are allowed to trade just about anything gives it a lot more open endedness and feels less rigid, IMHO. Plus I like the added aspect of the timed trading sessions which makes everything that much more tense.

-Darke

Thanks, glad you liked them, disclamer pointed me towards them a few weeks ago, and they're a great primer on the basic elements of Euro-games.

Another article I like on the strategy behind trading is by Greg Aleknevicus at the Games Journal:

http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/Strategy1.shtml