Description
This is a meta-mechanism for Turn Order. Players may take an action that interrupts the normal turn flow.
Discussion
This mechanism can be used with almost any of the turn structures discussed. The ability to interrupt an opponent during their turn can be an important part of the design. The interruption can be a standard ability that players have and can be based on cards in their hands or other special tokens. Squad Leader is an example of the “standard ability” style. During the Movement Phase, one player moves their pieces or stacks one-by-one, one space at a time. The other player (the “defender” for that turn) may, at any time, interrupt movement to take a Defensive Fire opportunity at the moving units. This is an option that is always available to units; no special ability is required. Magic: The Gathering, by contrast, features cards that are labeled as Instants. These cards, but no others, can be played on the opponent’s turn in response to an opponent’s action. Other games frequently will call these cards Reactions. If you don’t have a Reaction card, you will not be able to take a Reaction. Incorporating Interrupts into the design has several positive features. First, it keeps players engaged. If players can interrupt their opponents and find the perfect opportunity to strike, they are incentivized to pay attention to the action at all times. This reduces downtime, or perceived downtime. Before Squad Leader, war games mostly had a strict “I Go, You Go” structure, which made it appealing for players to mentally check out when it was not their turn. In Squad Leader, even if defenders never take a Defensive Fire shot, they were still engaged throughout their opponent’s turn because they were always evaluating the option to fire. Similarly, in games where players can play reaction cards, players need to monitor the action continuously.
Interrupts add uncertainty and chaos to the game and undermine the ability of players to create a perfect plan. Players cannot be certain that their squad will make it across the street or that the monster will successfully attack. This can be positive or negative depending on the goal of the design. Interrupts give a leg up to players who are more familiar with the game than new players. Understanding the range of possible opponent responses gives experienced players an advantage when formulating their plans. Even if they can’t be perfect, they can plan contingencies for possible opponent responses. Because of their asynchronous nature, Interrupts require rules and conventions around their play to give players the opportunity to react and also to adjudicate if multiple players want to react at the same time. In Squad Leader, for example, there is a specific rule that a player moving a stack of units must pause briefly after entering each space, to give an opponent the opportunity to announce Defensive Fire. This requires the cooperation of the players to keep these pauses long enough for players to decide but short enough not to unduly lengthen the game. Conventions may be developed, such as a player being allowed to request a few extra seconds to make a decision. Similarly, when playing reaction cards, there needs to be an opportunity for players to play them. Some designs allow Interrupts to themselves be interrupted. Obviously, the system needs to prevent infinite Interrupts, such as requiring the play or discard of a card and/or resource(s) to execute an Interrupt. There also needs to be a system to handle the order of resolving multiple Interrupts. Magic: The Gathering uses a LIFO system and an Instant stack. If a player wants to play an Instant in response to another Instant, they play the card on top of the earlier card. When all Instants have been played into this stack, they are resolved from the top down. The first card to be played will be the last to be resolved. Some games will allow the Interrupt to change the turn order. For example, in Mille Bornes, a player may respond to a Hazard card being played on them by playing the matching Safety. If they do, the interrupting player— the one who played the Safety—immediately becomes the active player and takes a normal turn. The players between the old active player and the inter-rupting player are skipped, losing their turn (TRN-16).
Sample Games
Magic: The Gathering (Garfield, 1993) Mille Bornes (Dujardin, 1954) Squad Leader (Hill, 1977)
描述
这是回合顺序的一种元机制。玩家可以采取打断正常回合流程的行动（Interrupts）。
讨论
此机制几乎可以与讨论的任何回合结构一起使用。在对手的回合中打断对手的能力可能是设计的重要组成部分。打断可以是玩家拥有的标准能力，并且可以基于手中的卡牌或其他特殊代币。《Squad Leader》是“标准能力”风格的一个例子。在移动阶段，一名玩家一次一个、一次一格地移动其棋子或棋子堆。另一名玩家（该回合的“防御者”）可以在任何时候打断移动，对移动的单位进行防御性射击。这是单位始终可用的选项；不需要特殊能力。相比之下，《万智牌》（Magic: The Gathering）具有标为“瞬间”（Instants）的卡牌。这些卡牌（但没有其他卡牌）可以在对手的回合中打出，以响应对手的行动。其他游戏经常将这些卡牌称为“反应”（Reactions）。如果你没有反应卡，你将无法做出反应。将打断纳入设计有几个积极特征。首先，它让玩家保持参与。如果玩家可以打断对手并找到完美的打击机会，他们就会被激励时刻关注行动。这减少了停机时间或感知到的停机时间。在《Squad Leader》之前，战争游戏大多有严格的“我走，你走”结构，这使得玩家在没轮到他们时精神上离开变得很有吸引力。在《Squad Leader》中，即使防御者从未进行防御性射击，他们仍然在对手的整个回合中保持参与，因为他们总是在评估射击的选项。同样，在玩家可以打出反应卡的游戏中，玩家需要持续监控行动。
打断给游戏增加了不确定性和混乱，并破坏了玩家制定完美计划的能力。玩家无法确定他们的小队能否穿过街道，或者怪物能否成功攻击。这可以是积极的也可以是消极的，具体取决于设计的目标。打断让比新玩家更熟悉游戏的玩家占据优势。了解对手可能的反应范围，给经验丰富的玩家在制定计划时带来优势。即使他们不能完美，他们也可以针对对手可能的反应制定应急计划。由于其异步性质，打断需要围绕其游戏制定规则和惯例，给玩家反应的机会，并在多名玩家想同时反应时进行裁决。例如，在《Squad Leader》中，有一条特定规则，即移动一堆单位的玩家在进入每个空间后必须暂停片刻，给对手宣布防御性射击的机会。这需要玩家的合作，既要保持这些暂停足够长以便玩家决定，又要足够短以免过度延长游戏时间。可以制定惯例，例如允许玩家请求额外的几秒钟来做出决定。同样，当打出反应卡时，需要给玩家打出它们的机会。有些设计允许打断本身被打断。显然，系统需要防止无限打断，例如要求打出或弃掉一张卡牌和/或资源来执行打断。还需要一个系统来处理解决多个打断的顺序。《万智牌》使用后进先出（LIFO）系统和瞬间堆叠。如果一名玩家想打出一张瞬间牌来响应另一张瞬间牌，他们将该卡牌打在较早卡牌的上面。当所有瞬间牌都被打入这个堆叠时，它们从上到下解决。第一张被打出的卡牌将最后解决。有些游戏允许打断改变回合顺序。例如，在《Mille Bornes》中，玩家可以通过打出匹配的“安全牌”来回应打在他们身上的“危险牌”。如果他们这样做了，打断玩家——即打出安全牌的玩家——立即成为当前玩家并进行正常回合。旧的当前玩家和打断玩家之间的玩家被跳过，失去他们的回合（TRN-16）。
游戏范例
Magic: The Gathering (Garfield, 1993) - 《万智牌》 Mille Bornes (Dujardin, 1954) - 《Mille Bornes》 Squad Leader (Hill, 1977) - 《Squad Leader》