DISC Personalities and Boardgames

My full time work, the one which is able to feed my family, is leadership training. One topic which many trainers conduct training on is the DISC Personalities. This is a simple framework which categorises people into four personality types. It is a tool you can use to understand other people and also yourself. By understanding people’s behaviours, we are able to communicate and work better with them. We reduce conflicts and build better relationships. I have taught this topic many times, and I realise when I look at it from the lens of a boardgamer, the DISC personality types can be described using boardgames! Let’s take a closer look. 

The four personality types are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. The Dominant type are people who are direct, want to be in control, are impatient, and are action oriented. They are decisive. They can be sometimes blunt. They get straight to the point. In boardgame terms, they are the minimalistic Japanese games. No fluff. Deep Sea Adventure, Love Letter, Hanamikoji. They are the open information abstract games. Chess, Blokus, Patchwork. They like both the good and bad laid out in the open. They take responsibility for their actions. They like a healthy debate. They are the Splotter games - unapologetically honest. They don’t beat about the bush. Antiquity, Food Chain Magnate, The Great Zimbabwe. 

Love Letter

Blokus

Antiquity

Who would have thought? Antiquity, Blokus and Love Letter in the same category!

To work well with the Dominant type, show your competency, be well prepared, and be direct. They respect these. Don’t spend too much time on pleasantries. Respect their time. As opposed to proposing actions, give them options, because they like to feel in control. They like making decisions. Let them feel they are doing that. 

The Influence type are people who like to be the focus of attention. They like to talk and express themselves. They tell stories. They are performers. They care about how others think of them. They like making connections with people. They are often extroverts, often cheerful and bubbly. They are the type who talk about ideals and dreams, about lofty goals. In boardgame terms, they are your party games. Charades. They are the kind of games when you need to impress the judges, like Cards Against Humanity. The kind of games where you chat a lot with your friends. The social deduction games. Negotiation games, to some extent. Dexterity games and speed games. Codenames, Animal Upon Animal, Dixit, Halli Galli. 

Charades

Dixit

Animal Upon Animal

To work well with the Influence type, be a good listener, praise them, and be more casual with them. Convince them through stories and anecdotes and not numbers and statistics. They can talk but may not be as good in detailed execution, so you may need to monitor their work closely and help them when appropriate. They can get bored easily, so keep them entertained. Do have pleasantries even at the start of formal meetings. They appreciate making personal connections. 

The Steadiness type are people who tend to be quiet but supportive. They enjoy being part of a close-knit team. They can be a little resistant to change because they like predictability. Sometimes they find it hard to say no. They are kind. They like to feel appreciated. In boardgame terms, they are the modern Euro family games. No player elimination. No direct aggression. Mostly singing kumbaya and holding hands around a campfire. They are the pleasant point salad games where everyone scores points. Think 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Agricola, Splendor. Everyone feels like a winner. The Steadiness type are the cooperative games. Everyone works together to try to win. Like Hanabi and Forbidden Island. They are the games which offer catch up mechanisms, because they don’t want anyone to feel left out. 

Carcassonne

Agricola

Hanabi

To work well with the Steadiness type, take time to build trust, and let them know you appreciate them. Be patient with them. Don't rush. Be sincere. They may be slow to warm up, but when you earn their trust, they will be steadfast supporters. 

The Compliance (or Conscientious) type are rational people. They are logical, fact-based, and may sometimes seem a little cold. They follow rules and they pay attention to details. They are the kind of people who collect large amounts of data and analyse them to death. They are disciplined and meticulous. They set high standards. In boardgame terms, they are the heavy Eurogames, the complex economic games, the spreadsheet games. They are also the wargames. Those games in which we see rules lawyering. Brass: Birmingham, Through the Ages, Here I Stand, Paths of Glory, High Frontier. 

Brass: Birmingham

Here I Stand

Paths of Glory

To work well with the Compliance type, stick to facts and figures. Present logical arguments and supporting data. Be punctual, be precise, be realistic. Don't talk airy-fairy. Don't tell them your hopes and dreams. Tell them why they are feasible and how they are to be achieved. Pay attention to detail. Give them time to think through and gather information to come up with their own conclusions. 

So here you are, something not so much about boardgames, but about a framework which you can use in your work and also personal life. I always tell my students, when you consciously observe people and make the effort to understand them, you will be able to work better with different types of personalities. You will be more productive and you will enjoy your work more. 

What are your top three games, and what DISC personalities do they have?

King and Peasant preorder is up

Preorders for the second edition of King and Peasant are up now. This is a microgame from Malaysian publisher nPips Games. I have the first edition which had a limited print run. The second edition has much nicer art. If you are in Malaysia or USA, scan the QR code below to preorder. If you are from other countries, reach out to Jon to enquire: https://www.npipsgames.com/king-peasant. 

Loot

The Game

Loot is the official game of the 2024 Essen game fair. When I bought the entrance ticket for the fair, there was an option to purchase a fair kit, and this official game was part of the kit. The other part of the kit was a huge tote bag, which can be used to carry quite many boardgames. I didn't expect to be a regular visitor of the Essen game fair, so I did not hesitate to add the fair kit to my purchase. It would be a good souvenir. I must admit I did not have any particular interest in the game itself or high hopes. It is a roll-and-write game, and I don't particularly fancy them. However now that I have finally played the game, I have to say it is enjoyable, and it also matches the setting well. 

The idea of the game is you are visiting the Essen game fair, and you want to visit many interesting game booths. Every player has his own map (i.e. player sheet). You will have a pawn moving around a 7x7 grid which represents the fair. Every space on the grid is a fair booth (and there are booths in four colours), or an encounter with Meeps the mascot. You start the game with your pawn off grid on the left edge, next to any space you fancy. During the game, everyone moves his pawn using a common die roll. 

There are three dice in the game. You roll them and place them in a queue. Every round, everyone must move his pawn using the die under the exclamation mark. The next two dice will be used in the subsequent two rounds, so you know what is coming up and you can plan ahead. Once a die is used, the queue moves and that die is rerolled and goes to the end of the queue. 

When you move your pawn following the die value, you must move in a straight line and you must move the exact number of steps specified. You can't bang against a wall. Also the walls do not wrap around to the opposite side. You mark your landing space with a slash. If you land on the same space again, you mark it again, turning that slash to a cross. Once a space is crossed, you are not allowed to land on it a third time. If you go to Essen you shouldn't be visiting a booth a third time! That's not the right way to spend your time unless you work there. If you are unable to move because there is no valid move, that can actually be a good thing. You are then allowed to place your pawn on any unmarked space in the board. You can't mark it, but with this flexibility, you can set yourself up for good subsequent moves. 

As you fulfil certain criteria, you score points. For example when you completely mark a booth (they come in sizes 1 to 4), you score points. When you fully visit a certain number of booths of the same colour, you score points. When you fully visit a certain number of booths of the same size, you score points. In a round where you score points, you note your updated point total at the bottom right of your sheet. There is a limited number of point recording boxes. The game ends when any one player fills the second last box here. This player scores an addition 3 points, and fills the last box with his final score. 

Whenever you meet the mascot, you score points and circle this track. Some spaces that you circle on your player board give you special abilities. This third space on the mascot track allows you to move one step more or fewer than the die value. Once you use a special ability, you cross it out. These abilities are all single-use. 

Here you can see that when you fully visit three booths of the same colour you'll score 3 points. Fully visiting a booth gives you points based on the booth size. When you visit multiple booths of the same size, you get special abilities. 

The Play

Although the player sheets are all the same, and you play using the same die rolls, if you start your pawn at a different location, you will get very different outcomes. Even if you happen to start at the same spot, you will likely diverge pretty soon. Every round you have up to four options, i.e. moving in the four directions. You can look forward to see the die rolls for the next two rounds. There is some planning you can do. When you have no valid move that adheres to the die roll, that actually means your possibilities open up significantly. You must move your pawn to an unmarked space. I find that often it is beneficial to force yourself into such a situation. You will mark one space fewer, but you can likely mark a space you really want, and that will be worth the sacrifice. 

When you mark spaces, you need to focus on completing conditions which score you points. You can't do everything and you must have some level of focus. It is better to do just a few things well, than to do many things half-heartedly. There is no direct interference between players, but you do want to watch your opponents' tempo. The player interaction, although limited, is present in the scoring tempo. You may want to patiently go for the big scoring opportunities, but if your opponent is scoring frequently and only aiming for the low hanging fruits, he might end the game earlier than you wish, when you are still some way from making your big wins. 

The Thoughts

The game is mostly solitaire, but it presents an interesting puzzle. The die rolls you get depend on luck. You do your best to make use of what life gives you. When you get the special abilities, you get a bit more flexibility and you have to think carefully when to use those abilities. Despite the dependency on the die rolls, you feel there are several things you can do. It is a pretty abstract game. Ways of scoring points and gaining special abilities are rather arbitrary. However I do appreciate how some of the elements relate to the setting. When you are a fan of a specific genre of games (e.g. blue is card games), then of course you'd want to visit all the booths of that genre. Loot doesn't change my mind about roll-and-write games, but I must say I've truly enjoyed playing it. 

Feedspot ranking: 48

 

A website called FeedSpot maintains rankings of blogs of various topics and categories. They have a boardgame blogs category. My blog is currently ranked #48. It's nice to be featured. For a long time I've felt blogging is rather outdated. People mostly watch videos now. It's nice to know there are still many blogs which are active. 

Tiger & Dragon

The Game

Tiger & Dragon is a tile game from Japan, from Oink Games. It is a shedding game, as in players compete to play all their tiles, like in Big 2 and Tichu. You don't actually have the tiger and the dragon fighting. In fact the tiger tile and the dragon tile will never have any confrontation because they are of different suits. However they are important tiles in the game because they are jokers.

The game uses mahjong-like tiles. They are smaller than standard mahjong tiles. This could have been implemented using cards and it would work fine that way. However using mahjong tiles does provide a fun playing experience. There are some other useability advantages too. 

This is the player board. Everyone has the same board. When you play a tile, you place it on your player board. There are marks on the board indicating when you will win a round. Those 10 holes at the bottom are for placing your point markers. This is the first time I see a player board which looks like a punched sprue. When you buy this game, don't punch the components and throw away the sprue! 

Here is how the game plays. Every round most of the tiles are taken by the players. The start player takes one tile more because he will be first to play a tile. Every round only one player will score points. This is the player who is first to play all his tiles. The number of points you'll score depends on the situation on your player board. What your last tile is determines your points. If you have any face-down tiles on your board, they also score 1 point each.

Tiles are numbered 1 to 8. There is one tile for 1, two tiles for 2, three tiles for 3, and so on. So 8 is the most common, with eight tiles. Odd numbers are red, even numbers are blue. The tiger and the dragon are jokers in blue and red respectively. There is only one tiger and one dragon. When the start player plays the first tile of a round he is the attacker. Going clockwise, everyone has a chance to defend against this attack. You defend by simply playing a tile of same number or a joker of the same colour. When you manage to defend, you immediately become the new attacker, and you play a tile to start a new attack. If no one is able to or wants to defend, and the turn goes back to the original attacker, he "defends" against his own attack by playing any tile. This tile is played face-down, and scores 1 point if this player eventually wins the round. The player then starts a new attack by playing a tile. 

On your player board, tiles played to attack are always played in the lower row. Tiles played to attack are always played in the top row. 

The two jokers are mostly used for defense. You can attack with them, but when you attack with them, defense can be done using any tile of the same colour. So the jokers are weak attackers. 

Your points are the black disks. When you gain points, you put them in the holes on your player board. 

This is a battlefield card. There are many such cards in the game. They determine how you score points for the particular game you are playing. This is equivalent to making available different scenarios. Always pick one battlefield card before you start a game. The game rules remain the same. Only the scoring at the end of a round differs. However there are two common rules across the battlefield cards. If you win a round by playing the 1 tile, you score 10 points, which means you win the whole game immediately. The 1 is a powerful tile and the only possible defense is the dragon (red joker). If you have the tile and can resist using it and still win the round, you deserve to win the game. The other common rule is if you win a round using the tiger or the dragon, you only score 1 point. Even your face-down tiles do not score points. The tiger and the dragon are useful tiles and often we want to save them for later use. However if we keep them till the end, that is not good for us.

The Play

Tiger & Dragon feels a little like Big 2, Fight the Landlord and Tichu. These are climbing games and also shedding games. Tiger & Dragon is not a climbing game. Players do not keep outdoing one another until someone plays a tile which no one else can top. The moment one opponent is able to play a tile to defend, that opponent immediately becomes the new attacker and initiates a new attack. Tiger & Dragon is a shedding game, because every round you try to play out your hand. Unlike the other games, Tiger & Dragon has no combo. You only play single tiles. 

You will try to plan your hand so that for your last few tiles no one else will be able to defend. That's how you can go out. It is easy to count cards, because all the tiles played by every player are neatly laid out. You will be constantly counting tiles, so that you know whether a tile you have can be defended against. At the start of a round some tiles are removed from play. Also sometimes some tiles are played face-down. Because of this the tile counting won't always be exact. There are still some uncertainties. 

There is certainly luck in what tiles you get, however the game does have tactics to ponder. Even if you get many common (and weaker) tiles, e.g. many 8's, it is still possible to win. If I have many 8's, I will try to wait for others to use up their 8's, since they may think these are weak tiles not worth keeping. If all the other 8's are out, then my hoard of 8's will be unstoppable, except by the tiger (blue joker). Knowing when to hold on to a tile even when you can use it to defend is an important skill. 

The Thoughts

Tiger & Dragon is a beautiful surprise. I am thrilled to have tried the game. This is the kind of game you can play while chatting and catching up with friends. Just like mahjong. It is not very taxing, but it has meaningful decisions. It is simpler than mahjong, and non-gamers will be able to handle it. I highly recommend this game!

boardgaming in photos: Ponzi Scheme, Innovation, Attika, Sabah Honeymoon

I was back in my hometown Kota Kinabalu recently. I met up with an old friend, Nicholas, a classmate from secondary school, to play boardgames. After graduating from secondary school we lost touch for some time. I only found out he was into boardgaming a few years ago. Once in a while we meet when I'm back in KK. This was the first time we met up to actually play games. I brought my prototype of Pinocchio and I asked for his help to blind test it, i.e. he and his group read the rules by themselves to play the game, pretending I am not present. After the blind test, we played other games. One of them was Ponzi Scheme. I had played Ponzi Scheme before, but it had been quite some time so I had forgotten most of the rules. 

My impression from when I first played the game was the mechanisms were solid, but the game felt a little dull. Every turn, you must start a scheme, which will earn you some money, but you will commit to making a payout of a specific amount to your investors every few rounds. You must honour the payout if you can, because the moment anyone fails to do so, the game ends, and that player is automatically disqualified from winning. The other players compare points from their companies to see who wins. There are four types of companies. You can start a company each time you launch a scheme. Your first company of a type scores 1 point, the second scores 2 points, the third 3 points, and so on. So you want to have many companies of the same type. During the game you can buy companies from or sell them to other players. You send a private bid to an opponent who has a same company type as you. They must either sell their company to you at that price, or buy yours at that price. This mechanism can be a way to force someone to sell their company to you, or to buy your company. 

Having played the game again, my impression remains the same. The mechanism is pretty solid. I don't see this in other games, so it is unique. Unfortunately the game feels a little dry to me. The bland art makes the play experience less exciting. Other editions of the game look better. The theme of scamming people also makes me feel a little uncomfortable. 

There is a gamer group in Ara Damansara which meets regularly, and they share what they play. It always makes me happy to see other people playing my games, in this case Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 

I played Attika with younger daughter Chen Rui. We are both quite familiar with the game by now so we do not need to do any rules revision. We bring out the game occasionally. In this particular game, I (green) attempted to connect the two temples in the early game. Now in Attika winning by connecting temples is not easy to do. It is difficult to execute and easy to defend against. However sometimes it is worth doing because you can force your opponent to make suboptimal moves to defend against such an attack. If you can disrupt the tempo of your opponent, that gives you an edge in efficiency.

My first attempt to connect the temples was blocked. I continued trying, picking a right moment to drop that new terrain tile at the top right. That terrain tile opened up a new opportunity.

I caught Chen Rui off guard. She had just placed several buildings on that terrain tile on the left, and she was short on resource cards in hand. I managed to place that one last tile to connect the two temples, and subsequently won the game. 

We played Innovation. Chen Rui had played this before but she had forgotten how to play. In recent weeks we played quite a lot of this, so by now she knows she game well. It took her many games to finally get her first victory. There were a few times she came close, but Innovation is a game with unexpected twists, and sometimes just one specific and timely card can turn the tide. When she eventually won her first game she was overjoyed. Since we played a two-player game, we rarely reached the 8th age. Most games ended around the 6th or 7th age. 

After many years, I still think Innovation is a splendid game. It feels like every other card is overpowered. Yet often they are only overpowered under certain situations. There can be sudden twists of fate. There is always some excitement about whether you will draw the next killer card. Building a strong and stable empire is important. It protects you from attack and allows you make use of other players' actions. However it does not guarantee points. Sometimes opportunities to score points (called achievements in Innovation) pop up, and you just have to grab them, even if it means sacrificing part of your empire. 

After this recent spurt of Innovation, I feel the game is quite luck-heavy. If you are unlucky and don't draw scoring cards, it can be very difficult to catch up. That can be frustrating. Sometimes you draw the perfect card for your situation and you'll score lots of points. Still, you can take solid steps to build your empire, and there are cards you can anticipate. You also need to digest the situation and find the best use of the cards you draw. There is still much you can do to keep improving your situation, and that's what makes you feel you have some control. Well, maybe when I play even more of the game I'll see more strategic aspects and I'll have an even better appreciation of strategies that reduce the dependence on luck. 

I recently shipped two cartons of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves to USA. A US-based retailer Portland Game Collective contacted me and they were interested to stock Ali Baba. This was my first time distributing the game to the US, so I was pretty excited. I hope the game does well and I'm glad to see it reach more gamers in America. 

My old boardgame kaki (fellow enthusiast / partner) Allen has moved to Singapore because of work. Three of us - Allen, Han and I - used to be referred to as the Midah Group. We played together regularly and we played a good variety of games. Now we are all in different places - Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Johor Bahru. We still meet up and play once in a while. Allen has been visiting some discount stores and he often found good deals. Not long ago he bought for me Ticket to Ride: Nederlands. Then recently he bought for me 7 Wonders Duel: Pantheon. Had I come across these expansions at regular prices, I probably would not have bought them. However when he found them at super deep discounts, I could not resist. I tell myself this must be fate, and who am I to defy fate. Pantheon was SGD3.00, which is less than MYR10! Normal price is about RM115. That's more than 90% off! 

This year, Gray from Kaki Tabletop has been hosting game nights at Xiao by Crustz. Mostly on Friday nights, 8pm - 11pm. These are public meetups. Entrance fee is RM35, which includes one drink. Sometimes there are themed nights. Sometimes he has local designers showcasing their games. I arranged with Gray to join one such session to demo Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 

Xiao is a very nice place, comfy and classy. There was quite a crowd when I was there. In addition to boardgames, there were people doing roleplaying games. I taught players Ali Baba, and also managed to playtest several of my designs in progress. This one above is Sabah Honeymoon. 

Opportunities to observe others play my games are precious. Through observation I can learn a lot. One thing about Sabah Honeymoon is I definitely need to make the board bigger, at least double the size.

The presentation day for the game design competition organised by STTOS is 19 April. A few of my game designer friends are going to fly all the way to Kota Kinabalu to present their games (a 2.5-hour flight). I am a Sabahan myself but I won't be making the trip for the presentation. I will be doing my presentation online. Every contestant is only given 15 minutes to present. There won't be enough time to complete a full game. There are quite many participants, so I dare not have too high hopes. I am just happy that this competition gave me the inspiration and motivation to create a game about my home state Sabah. It was a fun and fulfilling experience. Also, I rarely design games with boards. For this competition I designed one with a board and that was an interesting aspect of game design to explore and learn.

In Sabah Honeymoon, you play a newlywed couple. You've agreed to go to Sabah for your honeymoon. However the two of you have different must-see attractions. You need to plan a trip where both of you get to go where you want, plus some other new experiences. In the photo above, the first card on the left is your honeymoon card. This is your secret objective. To win the game, you need to be first to plan an itinerary which covers all five destinations on your honeymoon card. Gameplay is simple. During the game you collect cards and then spend them to make bookings. You'll book flights, entry passes, overnight stays, boat trips and so on. Designing and crafting this game has been a happy journey in itself. Everything in the game reminds me of home.