Ep 24 - Mage Knight Deep Dive, Randomness & Strategy

In this episode we are joined by Kendall McKenzie (Rollway Station designer) to unpack the randomness in Mage Knight. Mage Knight has a very healthy dose of randomness and yet is considered a game with a high skill ceiling, we look to unpack that sophisticated use of randomness as well as addressing the criticism sometimes thrown around that "Mage Knight is too lucky to be a strategy game." We unpack the different types of randomness, how they can sometimes feel, what agency the players have over the randomness and the value we attribute to words like "strategy, tactics and luck" and ask is any of this value misplaced?  Is Mage Knight even a strategy game to begin with? Why does any of this even matter?

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Links to the mentioned Keith Burgun articles: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KeithBurgun/20141015/227740/Randomness_and_Game_Design.php http://keithburgun.net/three-types-of-bad-randomness-and-one-good-one/