Interview with Charles Ward (Designer of Rokumon)

Cover art of Charles Ward’s boardgame, Rokumon

Charles Ward was the winner of the MGSN 2020 Game Jam with his two player strategy game Rokumon. We caught up with him to find out more about his inspiration for the game, and his work as a designer.

Tell us a little about your history as a games designer

I started my foray into board games as an English teacher in 2014. At the time, I was looking for an immersive English experience for my students. Now that I think about it, I guess I should have looked more into RPGs, but board games got the better of  me. I found boardgamegeek's vast library of games, reviews, and communities, and I was immediately hooked. I love the board game design community and all the print and play contests. I put the educational project on hold, started putting game ideas into shareable files, and rushed to self publish my first game in 2015.

Can you describe Rokumon for us?

Rokumon is a simple abstract strategy game for 2 players themed around the Sanada Clan, a Japanese samurai clan from the Sengoku period. The game is broken up into acts that follow 100 years of the clan's rough history. Each act adds a little wrinkle to the game, so you can learn the game as you play. There is also a solo variant.

What inspired you to make Rokumon?

The theme was originally centred around a Buddhist mandala, which acted as the board with point to point movement. I switched to the samurai theme due to how the components evolved. The spaces in the board could be colour coded to help show which spots on the board were connected. Then, the spaces on the board no longer needed the lines connecting them. Once free from the lines, the spaces could be moved and combined into many different arrangements. I settled on a 2x3 board made of 6 round tiles as the first and simplest board. This image matches the Rokumonsen, the Sanada clan's wartime crest.

Could you say a little about the way you set out the rulebook and the way that the rules develop across the series of games?

Once the game was reduced to its bare minimum, I could start to add new elements. It turned out that each element easily correlated with the important milestones in the Sanada clan's history. So the history informed the flow of the acts to some extent. For me, the connections between components, mechanics and theme are uncanny at times. Later on during my research, I found that the general whose men defeated Sanada had one eye. In the game the Tokugawa "1" is the only piece that beats the Sanada "6". Or how Sanada's men launched several attacks from the Sanada Maru, the fort in the last 2 acts. That is also how it plays out in the game. Another connection was the player asymmetry. Sanada, as the underdog clan, has fewer pieces. This imbalance was initially just an attempt to resolve the first-player-always-wins problem.

How integral is the rule book as a game component for Rokumon rather than a set of instructions?

I would say that the story is more integral to the game than the rule book. The rule book is used to tell the player that story but is not important as a component. An app would do a much better job at teaching the game and immersing the player in the history, with unlimited space for images, videos, and sounds. That would be a much better component, and one that would require a lot less reading.

You've made Rokumon available as a 'forever free' Print and Play (PnP) game. How important is it to you that your games are available as PnPs?

Not everyone can afford games, and I don't want to prevent anyone from enjoying any of my games. I even consider colour blindness in the design process. As it happens, you could play Rokumon even if you were visually impaired providing the components were textured and heavier. I hope to get a brass set made one day. The other reason why I make my games free to play is so that people play them, talk about them, like them, and maybe buy them. There are many games out there, and you need to try before you buy. This approach works for certain games and game companies. For me, it's the ultimate test as a designer and publisher.

Does making games PnP ready change the way you work on them?

I only work on PnP games so... no. But yes, I'm limited to certain expectations. For example, I will not make a game with round components of various diameters that require precise cutting, or a game with 500 cards.

Are there any plans to make a published/printed version?

Yes. Thanks to the help of many playtesters, the translators, and artist Andrés Agostini, Rokumon will come out in November. We have a booth at Tokyo Game Market (Fall 2020) and it will be available via my website: www.ex1st.com/games.

What was the biggest design challenge with Rokumon?

Time. I would have loved to enter it into the Two Player PnP Game Design Contest, but it was not ready. That said, the game design was started in January so things are moving pretty fast with this one. Rokumon came out almost ready to play, it just needed shaping (theme) and codifying (rules). The rule book is always the biggest design challenge.

What is more important to you, the mechanics or the theme of a game?

It's actually the components. And by that I don't mean how they look, but how they function. I like to try new things within the limits of what can be produced. So for me, the component leads to the mechanic, and the mechanic leads to the theme. I guess it is my approach to innovation. In other words: if you keep designing a car, you will never put wings on it. Put wings on your game and see what happens. As far as the process goes, there is a lot of trial and error. But that is all good practice. 

What is your favourite tabletop game, and why?

Unfortunately I have only played a few games compared to most designers. Scythe is a great game that I'm never sad to lose, as is Tak. Personally, I like intuitive games that offer fast turns, high complexity, and reactive play. Both of those games have all that in spades. Tak is just a lot more portable.

Which other designers are you inspired by?

I don't know... I'm more inspired by games, than by designers. A game is made thanks to the input of so many people involved. The designer is the one who pulls it all together, has the final say, takes part of the risk and the credit. So I guess I'm inspired by designers who know that game design is a team effort, that the process is important, that openness, inclusiveness, and collaboration is positive, and that games ultimately take on a life of their own thanks to the fans who play them.

What projects are you working on next?

I have been working on a 4X space game for 2 years now, called 4XL. I would like to finish that this year. I also revisited (and finished designing) a family card game from last year. So far, it has been requested by my wife, almost daily, since I showed it to her about 3 months ago. So that game looks promising. As with all my games, they will be published in the same way, as a Forever Free Print and Play Game. So, if you can, please thank me by purchasing my games.