Table Top Games - the Nerdiness Scale

Okay. I've decided to start reviewing games in earnest now. No more puttering around. Up till now I've been an amateur: just another TableTop watching nerd. No longer. I am kicking my spectator judginess up a notch.

I judge board games on their level of nerdiness, I do. So rather than a review of how I feel about the games, I will rate each game from 1 to 10 on nerdiness, so I thought I'd explain the system first. 

Although I play a wide variety of tabletop games, I prefer the nerdy games best. (I know there are some of you are arguing with me that I mean geeky, not nerdy. Too bad, dorks. But you can go to my post on the subject here.) Anyway, the nerdier the game, the happier I am to play, though I'm sometimes hard pressed to find people to play with me. Every time I get together with new people, I'm always trying to decide how nerdy of a game they might be willing to play with me. Of course, I could go strait for more general games like Quirkle or a 2500, but what if they would have enjoyed Dominion and I missed the chance to play it with them because I underestimated their nerdiness!! 

In addition to knowing the nerdiness of my friends, I also have to calculate the nerdiness of my games. My task would be easier if every game was required to list how nerdy it is right on the box. But alas, they don’t. There is no official scale for nerdiness. Somebody needs to get on that, right? Am I the only one thinking this?? But who even has that kind of time? Or is boring enough to do it?

Well. Lucky you, I am just such a boring, free-time possessing gal. It was this or binge watch Fringe again. I name it (cuz I never do things halfway) the Tabletop Game Nerdiness Scale. TGN Scale for short. Now you can learn how to rate your games yourself! Aren't you excited?

The scale is made up of an average from ratings in 4 categories.

The first category is Story. The more complex or fantastic the story, the higher the rating in this category. 

Many games, such as Catchphrase and Bananagrams, have no world, theme, story or premise. These are all about the mechanisms of the game. Most party games fall into this category. Nobody starts the explanation of a game like Apples to Apples or Curses with, "OK, so we're all prisoners in a intergalactic military prison . . . ." Nobody tells you the story, because there isn't one. Most party games rate a 0 in this category. 

Of course, some board games have a theme or story, but not a nerdy one: such as Monopoly. We know in Monopoly that we are supposed to be bigwigs buying up properties, but not only is that a one sentence story without plot or characters (unless a shoe and an iron are characters) but the story doesn't affect gameplay all that much. In other words, the fantastic setting does affect its rating as well. 10's on this scale are usually sci-fi and fantasy. Elves, dungeons, space, super heroes, pirates: these are usually gonna be right at the top of this scale.

The second category is Immersive. This is slightly different from story because it tells how deep the game draws you in. Lots of games out there have complex stories, but the story doesn't actually mean very much once the game starts. if the theme and feel of the game is an important element of gameplay, it will be high on the immersive scale. 

Role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons are obviously going to be a 10 in Immersive, because they are almost entirely about the world, characters and story you create. Munchkin and its many expansions are pretty nerdy in Story (maybe a 7). But Munchkin keeps a certain distance once you start playing, and isn't Immersive into that world (maybe a 4). The more a game demands you get involved in the world, the higher it rates on the Immersive scale.

Learning Curve is the next category. Games that are hard to master rate high on this scale. 

You can often judge how high the game will rate in Learning Curve by the size of the instruction booklet. There are games out there with such complicated rules that it takes a novel size rule-book to explain them. The Mistborn Adventure game manual is larger than some of the Mistborn books. On the other hand, Games like Chutes and Ladders can be explained by a friend in less like ten seconds. Also, with games that rate a 10 in Learning Curve, you can expect to keep the rulebook handy every time you play. With 0 rated games, you lost the rules years ago and don't care.

Time is the next category. This one is easy because it is often written on the outside of the box. Even if it isn't (and the nerdiest sometimes aren't), knowing how long a game takes to play isn't difficult. Quick games rate lower than long ones in nerdiness. Which is partly why Monopoly and Clue rate about the same over all, even though the Setting and Immersive levels of clue are slightly nerdier than that of monopoly, because Monopoly takes so much longer to play on average. A couple of notes: 

• many gamers like me play and enjoy games all over the scale, not just those that rate high. But while the good games that are low on the scale attract everyone, the nerdier games only attract a certain kind of people. 

• Also, nerdy does not necessarily mean fun. There are some games out there that I personally don't rate very high on enjoyment, but that rate a 10 on nerdiness. Honestly, that doesn't happen often. But it does happen. 

So. Lets do an example most people are familiar with.

Risk

Story-wise, I would put it at 5. It is about world conquest, epic wars and battles, though there isn't really a story about it, there aren't really characters, backstories, or a plot. 

Immersive is 5. The story is mostly shallow but it does have some importance in the game play.

Learning Curve is about 7; the basic rules are fairly simple, the rule book isn't very long. But there is a lot of strategy involved, which takes many games to master. 

Time is about a 9, depending on who's playing. There isn't many games that take longer than Risk does, though some games like D&D take months to complete a single story line.

So that would make Risk about a 6.5 on the TGN scale. Meaning it is nerdy, but not exclusively so. It is a step or two above games like Ticket to Ride, but a few steps below more immersive games like Race for the Galaxy.

Wow. I'm impressed that anyone is still reading. That was long. But necessary. For the world.