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The Number Three

5 replies [Last post]
Fri, 05/29/2015 - 01:30
Tbone
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I have been in the development stage for Battle of the Monumentals for some time now And I am loving every minute (more like hour) of it.

I have one quick question though...

During development I have noticed that my game has a lot of "threes". I'll explain with examples...

Three victory conditions (kills, points, death).
Three Energy (resource) types (Chaotic, Stable, Constructive).
Three Unit classes (Aggressive, Supportive, Independent).
Three action maximum on a turn.
Three card Characteristics (attributes, abilities, hinderances).

Does this limit the game? Do they make sense? Is it okay to have so many threes? What are your thoughts....?

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Fri, 05/29/2015 - 04:59
#1
Soulfinger
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Well, in a Biblical sense, 3

Well, in a Biblical sense, 3 symbolizes completeness. :)

It's good to have recurrent themes. The consistency of three categories will help players remember the details.

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Fri, 05/29/2015 - 07:51
#2
Darwins_Dog
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The combinations you have all

The combinations you have all make sense to me, so I wouldn't change them just to make or break a pattern. Like Soulfinger said, it's good to have patterns to make rules easier to remember.

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Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:55
#3
X3M
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3

3 is awesome. One of my games is also heavy on 3.
Keep it, players love it.

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Sat, 06/06/2015 - 08:37
#4
Zag24
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I'll be a contrarian, here,

I'll be a contrarian, here, not because I disagree with anything anyone has said so far, but just to make you think.

It may be that all these choices are correct and well-supported, or it might be that you have a predisposition and resisting it could lead to better choices. I don't know your game or you well enough to judge, but here are some things to think about.

Do any of these include a rock-paper-scissors mechanic? In that case, three is probably the right choice. However, if they all include such a mechanic, you're probably over-using it.

Do some of these aspects define more than one trait, and you can see players wanting to mix them? For instance, I can imagine that Aggressive means that the unit attacks on sight and pursues to the death. Might I want units that are semi-Aggressive, where they attack on sight but don't pursue. (I have no idea if this comment makes sense for your game.)

When you play games that you know are very popular, do you often think that they are too complicated and would be improved by reducing the choices on some aspect (down to three)? If you do, then it might be a predisposition on your part that is not universal.

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Mon, 06/15/2015 - 04:31
#5
JohnMichaelThomas
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Three is a good number in psychology

As the lawyer said, it depends...

As soulfinger said, 3 is known as a number of completeness. Psychologically speaking, when there are combinations of things in 3's people consider them complete (as opposed to 2 or even 4).

To second the comment about consistency, keeping things in 3's makes it easy for people to remember them. If you have 3 of something and 5 of another thing and 4 of another thing it can sometimes make it harder to remember (wait - were there 4 victory conditions or was that the one with 5?).

And to second the comment about making hard choices about the game - definitely make sure they actually make sense, both mechanically and in the "story" of the game. If they do then OK; but maybe take a second look if you have a nagging feeling that you cut some corners to make things fit in 3's (which you may since you posted about it...).

Final note RE: KISS. In my own games I usually expand things to have 5 or 6 or 8 of lots of things - I like to bring in tons of ideas and flavor. But I almost always end up cutting it down because that's just too much complexity for the feel I want in my games. If your goals for the game and/or the "story" of the game evoke a fairly simple feel, then keeping everything in 3's may work great. But if you're shooting for a game with a more complex feel, then doing everything in 3's may make it feel too simple, so it may not appeal to your target gamer audience.

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