Social Structure

Term

Belongs to the term

Ludic Social Structure: The Ludic Social Structure orders the agents of a game towards one another - with whom: with, against, in a team.

Stack

What it is about

The Social Structure stack orders the agents of a game in relation to one another. It asks how many take part, in which basic relationship they stand to one another – against each other, with each other, half and half – and how they group: each person alone, in fixed teams, in shifting alliances, or one against all. What counts is every seat in the game that someone takes and on which decisions are made; the chess computer in Black’s seat as well. The dragon in the dungeon or the disease in Pandemic, by contrast, occupy no seat; they are moved by the rules.

The 17 cards come in two parts. The six basic configurations are the starting points: Solo, Duel, Free for All, Team vs Team, Cooperative and One Against Many. The eight modifiers change a basic configuration: Asymmetric Roles, Secret Roles, Scalability, Semi-Cooperative and four cards on a counterpart who is not a fellow player. The resistance then comes from entities with their own behaviour, from the rules themselves, from the space, or from a built agent such as a chess computer. A guide card with combination rules, a separator card and a blank card belong to the stack.

Familiar games can be read as combinations: Chess is a duel without a modifier, Pandemic cooperative and scalable, Werewolf One Against Many with secret roles, Dead of Winter cooperative with semi-cooperation and secret roles.

How to use it

Method: (1) Lay out the basic configurations. (2) Discuss in the team which one fits the desiderata and the target group – what the players can do, what they look for and how they tend to play. (3) Choose one basic configuration. (4) Go through the modifiers: does one or more of them apply? (5) Transfer the combination to the worksheet.

Note for facilitation: The stack is deliberately short. The social structure is a decision of direction that is specified in more detail later in the rules; in ideation a rough decision is enough. To go deeper: compare your own combination with a familiar game, and ask what changes if a modifier is dropped.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

Sequence: after the Agent stacks that describe the target group, and before Form, Activities and Frame – the stack connects the understanding of the players with the design of the game.

Relations

The Agent stacks prepare the choice. The Capacitas set limits: the more agents take part, the less the game may demand of each individual person. Motivation gives a direction – whoever seeks community tends to play cooperatively or in teams, whoever seeks challenge rather in a duel or everyone against everyone –, and so does Habitus. The Situation narrows things down in practice: alone at home means solo, a large group requires scalability. The Social Frames – alliance, guild, family – lead one to expect relationships; whether the teams are fixed or shifting is only determined by the Social Structure. The Organisational Structures order what happens between the agents: how alliances come about and break, how fights are decided. The stack touches the Spatial Structure at the layout – who owns which place is set there.

cards

The cards

AP-01 Solo A single agent in the game – alone with oneself, with the resistance of rules, space or entities, or with a self-set challenge.

AP-02 Duel Two agents in direct opposition, the most intense competitive constellation.

AP-03 Free for All Several agents, each for themselves – all against all, without fixed alliances.

AP-04 Team vs Team Two or more fixed groups compete against each other – cooperation within the group, competition between groups.

AP-05 Cooperative All agents play together against a resistance from rules, space or entities – win together or lose together.

AP-06 One Against Many One agent has a special role over all others – a fundamentally asymmetric basic relationship.

AP-07 Counterpart by Entities The resistance comes from Ludic Entities with their own behaviour, controlled by Ludic Regulation – figures, units, monsters that keep the agents from winning. They do not occupy a participant's place but a place that only the rules create; in addition to or instead of opposing players.

AP-08 Asymmetric Roles Different agents (or teams) have different abilities, rules, resources or win conditions. The game does not treat all alike.

AP-09 Secret Roles One or more agents have a concealed identity, a secret goal or a hidden team affiliation. Not all know who is on whose side.

AP-10 Scalability The number of agents is variable. The game works with various group sizes, from few to potentially unlimited many.

AP-11 Semi-Cooperative The agents are neither purely cooperative nor purely competitive – they share a basic interest but also pursue their own goals. Cooperation and competition exist simultaneously.

AP-14 Counterpart by Regulation The resistance comes from the rules themselves – distribution, chance, escalation, time pressure. No counterpart acts; Ludic Regulation is set up so that victory is not assured.

AP-15 Counterpart by Spatial Structure The resistance comes from the space – terrain, track, route, obstacle. The Ludic Spatial Structure has to be mastered; nobody plays against the agents, and the space does not act.

AP-16 Counterpart by Robot The resistance comes from a Ludic Robot: a built agent that occupies a participant's place and decides for itself – in the place where a human could also play.

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