Turn Order and Structure
One of the elements that separates “games” from “play” is the introduction of structure. This takes many forms, including restrictions on how players perform activities and when they may perform them. Out of this arises the concept of a turn—an order or structure within which players take their actions. The concept of taking turns is one of the first game-based concepts taught to young children. Many simple games, like Candyland, exist to teach how to wait your turn, among other early building blocks of playing games. The turn structure of a game can set the tone for the entire experience, whether it is playful, strategic, or intense. Selecting the appropriate turn structure for the game is an important part of the design process. This section includes a wide variety of these structures, including some that, while appearing unstructured, like Real-Time Games, actually contain their own internal structure, logic, and design challenges.
Terminology
For this book, we have adopted the following commonly used terminologies when describing turn structure:
A Turn is typically one player taking a series of Actions or Steps, although sometimes other players may interrupt or otherwise participate.
A Round is composed of multiple Turns taken by several players. This can be a fixed number of turns or variables depending on player actions or random events. For example, Agricola consists of 14 Rounds. In each Round, there is a Start Player, who takes the first Turn. During that Turn, they perform two Steps: Placing a worker and performing the Actions designated by the space where the worker is placed. Players continue to take Turns in clockwise order until all workers have been placed. This concludes the Round. There may be activities that take place at the beginning or end of a Round. For example, in Agricola, you may need to feed your workers or new Actions may be added to the available options.
Many games also introduce the concept of a Phase. Phases can be inserted at different places in the hierarchy depending on the needs of the designer. For example, a Round can consist of several Phases, and each Phase can have a series of Turns, or alternatively, a series of Rounds may make up a super-structure called a Phase. The section on Interleaved vs. Sequential Structures (TRN-15) discusses this in more detail. The key distinguishing feature of Phases vs. Rounds or Turns is that there are usually multiple Phases, and each is named with a different and specific purpose. For example, there may be a “Feeding Phase” and a “Scoring Phase,” and those can be radically different from each other. In contrast, Rounds and Turns are rarely distinguished in this way. Tey are identical in their basic structure. This is not to say that each Turn, for example, always consists of exactly the same Steps. Many games give players a choice of actions to perform. But a Turn performed by one player is typically very similar in structure, if not identical, to another player’s Turn.
Some games also have levels above Rounds. These have a variety of names, from the generic Stage in Die Speicherstadt to the more thematic Age in Through the Ages. This terminology is not written in stone, and there will be esoteric structures that may require different names. However, anything that is outside what players are expecting, or that inverts this customary order, will add cognitive load to the players, both in learning and playing. You can build a car that puts the windshield wiper controls underneath the radio instead of on a steering wheel stalk or make a new icon to represent the defrosters, but drivers will find it more challenging to drive. Eventually they will adapt, but the best approach is to keep to conventions unless there is a strong reason not to do so.
回合顺序与结构 (Turn Order and Structure)
将”游戏”与”玩耍”区分开来的要素之一是结构的引入。结构以多种形式呈现，包括对玩家如何进行活动以及何时进行活动的限制。由此产生了回合的概念——玩家采取行动的顺序或框架。轮流的概念是教给幼儿的最早的游戏概念之一。许多简单的游戏，如《糖果乐园》（Candyland），其存在目的就是教授如何等待轮次，以及其他玩游戏的基本要素。游戏的回合结构可以为整个体验定下基调，无论它是轻松有趣的、策略性的，还是紧张刺激的。为游戏选择合适的回合结构是设计过程的重要组成部分。本节涵盖各种各样的回合结构，包括一些看似无结构的类型，如实时游戏，实际上它们也包含了自己的内部结构、逻辑和设计挑战。
术语
对于本书，我们在描述回合结构时采用了以下常用术语：
**回合（Turn）**通常是一位玩家执行的一系列行动或步骤，尽管有时其他玩家可能会打断或以其他方式参与。
**轮（Round）**由多位玩家执行的多个回合组成。轮可以是固定数量的回合，也可以根据玩家行动或随机事件而变化。例如，《农场主》（Agricola）由14轮组成。在每一轮中，有一位起始玩家执行第一个回合。在该回合中，玩家执行两个步骤：放置一个工人并执行工人所在位置指定的行动。玩家按顺时针顺序轮流行动，直到所有工人都被放置完毕，这标志着一轮的结束。一轮的开始或结束时可能会有一些活动发生。例如，在《农场主》中，你可能需要喂养你的工人，或者可能会有新行动加入可用选项中。
许多游戏还引入了**阶段（Phase）**的概念。根据设计师的需要，阶段可以插入层级结构的不同位置。例如，一轮可以由多个阶段组成，每个阶段包含一系列回合；或者，多轮可以构成一个称为阶段的更高层级结构。关于交错与顺序结构（TRN-15）的部分将更详细地讨论这一点。阶段与轮或回合的主要区别在于通常会有多个阶段，每个阶段都有不同的特定名称和目的。例如，可能有”喂养阶段”和”计分阶段”，这些阶段可能彼此截然不同。相比之下，轮和回合很少以这种方式区分，它们的基本结构是相同的。这并不是说每个回合总是由完全相同的步骤组成——许多游戏为玩家提供了选择执行何种行动的权利。但是，一位玩家执行的回合在结构上通常与另一位玩家的回合非常相似，甚至完全相同。
有些游戏还设有轮之上的层级。这些层级有各种各样的名称，从《仓城奇兵》（Die Speicherstadt）中的通用”阶段”（Stage），到《历史巨轮》（Through the Ages）中更具主题性的”时代”（Age）。这些术语并非一成不变，一些特殊的结构可能需要不同的名称。然而，任何超出玩家预期或颠倒这种惯常顺序的做法，都会增加玩家在学习和游戏过程中的认知负担。你可以制造一辆将雨刷控制装置放在收音机下方而非方向盘拨杆上的汽车，或者设计一个新的除霜器图标，但司机会发现驾驶起来更具挑战性。最终他们会适应，但最好的方法是遵循惯例，除非有充分的理由不这样做。