Score Tracks

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A track to show players' scores.

Games with scores need a way for keeping track of these. While simply having a token for each point (and possibly some with higher values) is the most obvious reusable solution for non-computerized games, having Score Tracks on which each players has one lowers the number of tokens need.

Examples

Pachisi (and its offspring Ludo) is an early example of a game with Score Tracks. They are still quite common in Board Games, be it casual Party Games such as Balderdash or Pictionary, or more complex games such as Amun-Re, Carcassonne, Dominant Species, Inca Empire, Egizia, and Ursuppe. They are not so common in Category:Computer Games since players' scores can there be displayed more compactly in their own individual areas of the interface with is updated by the computer as gameplay progresses.

Using the pattern

While the amount of Movement one should make on Score Tracks is typically given, i.e. the amount of points on has just achieved, slight variations are possible. Ursuppe for example lets players who reach an already occupied spot skip ahead to the first free spot on the track.

Diegetic Aspects

Building on earlier sources[1], Parlett argues that it "seems intuitively obvious" that the use of Score Tracks led to the development of games with Races[2], both on a gameplay and thematic level.

Interface Aspects

Consequences

Relations

Turn Taking


Movement

Scores

Excise

Races

Game State Overview

Beat the Leader

Uncommitted Alliances

Temporary Alliances

Bookkeeping Tokens

Can Instantiate

with ...

Can Modulate

Tie Breakers

Can Be Instantiated By

Can Be Modulated By

Tie Breakers

Possible Closure Effects

Potentially Conflicting With

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

  1. Erasmus, C. J. (1950). Patolli, Pachisi, and the Limitation of Possibilities, Southwestern Journal of Antropology, 6 (Winter 1950), pp. 369-387 (as reprinted in Avedon, E. M. & Sutton-Smith, B. (1971). The Study of Games, pp. 109-129).
  2. Parlett, D. Oxford History of Board Games, p. 35. ISBN-10: 0192129988.

Acknowledgements

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