Dorran & Dorn EndGaming
Jan. 19th, 2006 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSo as usual for Wednesday night, I was at EndGame yesterday. I played three games, Louis XIV, Through the Desert, and Medina, and generally had a good time, though those first couple of games lagged a bit due to slow players. And my gameplay got me thinking about stuff to write.
See, recently I began a series of articles on game designers over at Gone Gaming. The first in the series was on the big names, Reiner Knizia, Wolfgang Kramer, and Klaus Teuber, but in starting the article series I really wanted to be able to talk about the less-known designers because people are less likely to know what their output is overall like. Steffan Dorra (who designed Medina) and Rudiger Dorn (who designer Louis XIV) are definitely both in that category, but I find that their outputs are so scattered that I don't really know what to make of them.
I've played 5 of Rudiger Dorn's games: Gargon, Goa, Jambo, Louis XIV, and The Traders of Genoa. I suspect that's all his best-known works, because the only one I even recognize from the rest is Emerald. Looking at the list I can say one thing that they all have in common: none of them thrill me. I have grave doubts about Gargon, butthe other four are all very well-constructed, but very dry games. We often talk about Knizia's themes being paper-thin, but for Dorn I feel like the theme is entirely absent. Traders, Louis, and Jambo feel nothing like their backgrounds to me, while Goa only does because of the spice markers.
Looking at those games from a mechanic standpoint, we have: Gargon as unusual trick-taking; Goa as resource-management with an unusual geographical auction; Jambo as pretty pure logistics; Louis XIV as an unusual geographical majority control; and Traders as an unusual geographical negotiation game. He really seems to like that mechanic of dropping down at a location on a map, then moving to adjacent areas.
So I guess I could write about Dorn.
For Steffan Dorra I've played: Amazonas, For Sale, Kreta, Linie 1, Medina, Njet, and Turn the Tide. I've heard of but not played The Bucket King, Marracash, die Sieben Siegel, and Tonga Bonga.
I suppose Dorra's games are generally somewhat light, but other than that it's a pretty eclectic list. We have: Amazonas as a very dry game of connectivity and logistics; For Sale as quick-auction filler; Kreta as a baroque majority-control game that would make Michael Schacht proud; Line 1 as a quick, smart connectivity & racing game; Medina as a pseudo-tile-placement game that feels equally like Reiner Knizia (Through the Desert) or Wolfgang Kramer (Hacienda); Njet as a simple and smart trick-taking game; and Turn the Tide, which fits into a similar category.
It's easy enough to say that Dorra makes quick, filler card games, and does them well, but for his bigger games Dorra feels more like other designers than himself.
So I don't know what to write about Dorra yet.
See, recently I began a series of articles on game designers over at Gone Gaming. The first in the series was on the big names, Reiner Knizia, Wolfgang Kramer, and Klaus Teuber, but in starting the article series I really wanted to be able to talk about the less-known designers because people are less likely to know what their output is overall like. Steffan Dorra (who designed Medina) and Rudiger Dorn (who designer Louis XIV) are definitely both in that category, but I find that their outputs are so scattered that I don't really know what to make of them.
I've played 5 of Rudiger Dorn's games: Gargon, Goa, Jambo, Louis XIV, and The Traders of Genoa. I suspect that's all his best-known works, because the only one I even recognize from the rest is Emerald. Looking at the list I can say one thing that they all have in common: none of them thrill me. I have grave doubts about Gargon, butthe other four are all very well-constructed, but very dry games. We often talk about Knizia's themes being paper-thin, but for Dorn I feel like the theme is entirely absent. Traders, Louis, and Jambo feel nothing like their backgrounds to me, while Goa only does because of the spice markers.
Looking at those games from a mechanic standpoint, we have: Gargon as unusual trick-taking; Goa as resource-management with an unusual geographical auction; Jambo as pretty pure logistics; Louis XIV as an unusual geographical majority control; and Traders as an unusual geographical negotiation game. He really seems to like that mechanic of dropping down at a location on a map, then moving to adjacent areas.
So I guess I could write about Dorn.
For Steffan Dorra I've played: Amazonas, For Sale, Kreta, Linie 1, Medina, Njet, and Turn the Tide. I've heard of but not played The Bucket King, Marracash, die Sieben Siegel, and Tonga Bonga.
I suppose Dorra's games are generally somewhat light, but other than that it's a pretty eclectic list. We have: Amazonas as a very dry game of connectivity and logistics; For Sale as quick-auction filler; Kreta as a baroque majority-control game that would make Michael Schacht proud; Line 1 as a quick, smart connectivity & racing game; Medina as a pseudo-tile-placement game that feels equally like Reiner Knizia (Through the Desert) or Wolfgang Kramer (Hacienda); Njet as a simple and smart trick-taking game; and Turn the Tide, which fits into a similar category.
It's easy enough to say that Dorra makes quick, filler card games, and does them well, but for his bigger games Dorra feels more like other designers than himself.
So I don't know what to write about Dorra yet.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 10:47 pm (UTC)Bucket King is a good light card game in the Ivanhoe/Beowulf family, Marracash is a good auction/economic board game, and Tonga Bonga is a good racing game with some majority-influence and economic aspects. These are all pretty different from each other, and from other Dorra games. I also enjoy Pick Picknic (aka Hick Hack in Gackelwack), although others like it much more than I do; it's a quick simultaneous-selection game with a few twists. I've heard a lot about Intrige, a nasty negotiation game, but haven't played it (not a big fan of that genre); I think it's due to be reprinted soon (Z-Man?).
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 11:26 pm (UTC)Thanks for all the other info.