Friday Night Shots – The Art of the Pass

Last week, I talked about people intentionally breaking a game by doing something that doesn’t change the game state.

In the post, I referenced everybody in a game of Terraforming Mars just passing as their first action, which doesn’t do anything to make the game advance.

That made me think about games that actually have some benefit when you “pass” or end your round or something.

Then I thought “Dude, why are you wearing shorts when it’s 50 degrees out?”

I had no answer for that. I’m just weird.

I also thought “hey, that’s a great idea for another post!”

And here we are.

Many games have round structures where, when you pass, you are out of the round. You’re essentially saying “I have nothing left to do while all of these other people have tons to do so I’ll sit here and twiddle my thumbs.”

Terraforming Mars is one of those games!

But I do like these types of games for one reason: It’s a great time to say “I’m passing, so I will go to the bathroom while you all take the rest of your turns. I may be a few minutes but I know you all won’t be done yet when I get back.”

But not every game is like that.

In fact, some actually give you some benefit!

What do I mean?

Let’s take a look.

Most of the time, the games I’m talking about are continuous games, rather than games with rounds.

These games don’t have a set round structure, but instead just have you “take an income action” or “rest” or whatever.

Many of the Garphill trilogy games do this, like Wayfarers of the South Tigris.

In that game, when you don’t have any actions you can do, or want to do with the dice you have left, you “rest.”

There are no set rounds in this game, but the “Rest” action basically has you reset all of your dice and also do any “Rest” actions that your townsfolk will let you do (if you only have one or no dice left).

The default one, of course, is to let you journal (if possible) and gain a coin, but you can also hire townsfolk to place below your open water cards to get you other Rest actions, like gaining more coins, or grabbing a worker off of a card, or whatever.

Thus, in Wayfarers, you are never actually “passing” and you are never not actually doing something.

There is no set period of inaction on your part, unless your fellow players are all slow idiots using up 10 minutes to take their turns.

Terraforming Mars: the Dice Game does not follow its parent game’s lead by having you pass out of a round.

On your turn, instead of doing “actions,” you can “produce”.

This has you discard dice down to three (so most likely you’re already at 3, or you don’t want some of the dice you have), gain dice equal to your production (above you get a green die and a wild token) and can gain new card possibilities.

It’s just a break in the action and allows you to reset.

Your turn will come back around once everybody else has taken their turn.

Sometimes a “pass” is really simple, like in Concordia or Century: Spice Road, where you spend a “pass” action by reclaiming your cards (plus, in Concordia, you are actually playing a card to pass, which will also give you money income based on how many cards you have already played).

You don’t do much, but it’s something!

And the game continues. You have your normal turn when it comes around to you again.

I actually really like games that are continuous like this, where “passing” is just you resetting for your next turn.

Even my most recent game, Into the Machine, is like that, where passing brings all of your workers back (which may help the other players by making actions cheaper) while also gaining you a new bot.

That doesn’t mean that games that have a set number of rounds that you “pass” out of are bad.

Terraforming Mars is still in my Top 50, of course (though falling a bit).

But my preference is games that are continuous or, along the same lines, where everybody gets the same number of actions each round so there is no “passing.”

Games like Grand Austria Hotel or Lorenzo il Magnifico are two great examples of those.

You just take your actions and then you’re done.

There is a subset of games that are almost as attractive, but I can only think of one example. I’m sure there are others.

Inventors of the South Tigris has a set number of rounds and you can “pass” out of the round by taking a tent action.

This has you place your tent in one of the available tent spots and you can no longer take any camel actions with your dice and you can’t use any leftover workers to do something.

The bonuses you get when you Tent are randomized, and the player who tents the furthest to the left is the first player in the next round.

However, what’s most important in regards to this post, is that you’re not out of the round!

When your turn comes around again, you can use a workshop (if you have remaining dice and available workshops), brighten a die, flip over a craftsman so they can be used again, pay a craftsman to open up a workshop by removing the dice already there, etc).

Thus, while your actions are a bit more limited (no camel actions and no worker actions), you can still do pretty much anything you want!

And it will allow you to flip over craftsmen if, for example, all of yours are used up, before the next round begins.

If you’re going to have set rounds where you are essentially “passing,” then this is the ideal way to do it.

Give the player a more limited set of actions that they can still do so they’re not just sitting there reading their phones or something.

Don’t get me wrong.

I still love a good game where you can pass out of a round and not having anything to do until everybody passes.

SETI is one of my new favourites (and very high up in my Top 50), and it has that issue.

Don’t even get me started on Tapestry, which does have the “reset one turn and then continue” mechanic, which I like, but then has you pass out of the whole fricking game when you’ve reached the end of the final era while potentially others have just started their final era and will be taking multiple turns.

Your score is already set while everybody else will still be gaining points.

That’s insane!

But more and more I’m finding myself drawn to games where passing does not end your participation in the game.

Either continuous games where passing is just another action to take, and it also gets you something, or games where passing still gives you limited options for something to do, both of them are far more preferable to me.

Or just games with a set number of actions for each player each round.

Those are great too, because they are still continuous.

They just have a set end time.

The White Castle is another great example of that genre.

Of course, quick and simple card games and tile-laying games don’t have this problem at all.

Probably why I like them so much!

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Are there any games you can think of that make passing interesting?

Let me know in the comments.