SignificantRounds

Players with an early lead like to be rewarded for their efforts, but other players don't like to be too far behind.

Many games have a small number (often 3) of rounds, each of which contains a substantial portion of the game play. When a certain condition occurs, the round ends and a set of special events occurs. Usually these events include game scoring. Doing scoring at the end of rounds instead of only at the end of the game breaks up both game play and scoring, to help maintain player interest, and also rewards players for their performance at all stages of the game, not only the end. Doing the scoring in rounds instead of continuously prevents the scoring from interrupting normal game play.

The round ending condition should fit within the game. The examples should illustrate

• San_Marco? inspired this idea. During the course of the game, players accept certain penalty points as a cost of other actions. When any player breaks ten points, the round ends and players receive scoring points based on having few penalty points. The penalty points are then cleared, so even players who did very poorly on penalty points in the early game can have a fresh start if they wish to change strategies.
• Mystik_Domination? uses the number of cards drawn during a round to determine the end of the round. During each round, players will contest for power, and usually their 'mystik crosses' will fill up, preventing many actions. Then players will begin drawing, which ends the round. Points are scored for power, crosses are cleared, and players receive some bonus cards to help re-arm them for the next round. It should also be noted that this round end is under some degree of player control, allowing it to become a point of strategy.
• Ra? use a random tile draw, and one tile type advances the round towards it's end. Therefore, the number of turns in a round should stay relatively independent of the number of players in the game.

Therefore, break the game into a small number of significant rounds, to provide some variation to game play and break up scoring.

CategoryGoodIdea