Through the Lens: Board Games - Game Design Theory - page 138

First, look at area-control games for inspiration. They are a fantastic
resource for interesting expressions of movement, methods for resolving
combat, and more. Abstract games also have plenty to teach the war-
game designer.
Consider using something other than a hex or a square grid—maybe
a triangular grid or an irregular grid would work better for your game.
Perhaps players could lay down the tiles as their troops are moving across
the map, like Carcassonne . There are thousands of possibilities out there.
Study the fundamentals of the war-game genre, but stay on the lookout
for game mechanisms that are used outside the genre as well.

Role-Playing Games

Examples: Dungeons & Dragons , Shadowrun , Paranoia , Call of Cthulu

Video-game players should note that here, role-playing games constitute
a completely different genre than the RPGs they're familiar with. Also
called pen and paper RPGS or tabletop RPGs , these are games that are
played with several people sitting around a table using dice and a rule
book, sometimes using a grid and figures for tactical combat, and often
using the imagination of a game master .
The game master is arguably the most interesting part of this breed
of interactive system, although also frequently a trouble area for it. The
game master (called the Dungeon Master when playing Dungeons &
Dragons ) is sort of like a real-time game designer. First, he either chooses
or creates the campaign that the players will go through. Then, during
the game, he takes the part of any monsters or other opposing forces. He
also is the storyteller of the game, setting the scene and describing what
areas look and sound like.
Are these systems games? Well, it really depends. The original ver-
sion of Dungeons & Dragons was heavily inspired by war games that
came before it, and early versions were more competitive (creator Gary
Gygax dreamed of D&D being played competitively, and there are even
first-edition modules that were designed for tournament play). But mod-
ern D&D is a huge mix of so many things—fantasy simulation, game,
interactive storytelling, and pure social activity—that it makes it difficult
to call it a game.
With that said, there are some systems that are more (and less) com-
petitive. John Harper's Agon is a quick, competitive system that I prob-
ably would classify as a game; same goes for Atlas Games's Rune . In con-
trast, there are also systems like Sorcerer and Dogs in the Vineyard that
are almost entirely about storytelling and have very few mechanisms.