My Top 10 Favorite Games with Player Mat Upgrades

[@lostfanatic6]

I've been slowly chipping away at my first design idea and Scythe's boards have been a huge inspiration for me! Specifically the unveiling of benefits. This was a great list to get even more inspiration from, so thank you!

[@jameystegmaier]

That’s great, Ryan!

[@Ravnkel25]

Absolutely fine that you included Scythe and Tapestry on this list. If it's what game utilizes upgradable player mats the best then I would say scythe should have been a clear number one.

[@StevenStJohn-kj9eb]

This is one of my favorite gimmicks in board games. Off the top of my head, some favorites: Scythe, Terra Mystica, Clans of Caledonia, Spirit Island, Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done, Carnegie, Viscounts of the West Kingdom, Beyond the Sun, Tapestry.

[@istari13]

My top 10 would certainly include Lisboa! Although the mechanic is very subtle on that game, it is perfectly integrated with the theme and is one of the possible end-game triggers.

[@mikemudrow]

One of my favorite mechanisms too! From a gamer's psychology standpoint, I think it's doubly fun because you get to build something and you get a reward for doing it. And that somehow feels different from buying something for your tableau that would give an ongoing benefit. For the games that do it well, it feels like you get the reward for free on top of building the building (even though technically it factors into the cost of the building), and that feels really good.

[@mrp4242]

Root, Scythe, Tapestry and Terra Mystica were the first games I thought of for this. All are great fun too, which is nice.

[@sonjaborst3354]

Paladins has both mechanism you mention actually. Moving some of the tokens blocks ánd offers bonuses, either gaining new workers and blocks worker cost (the green houses), or (the other tokens) advancement on the track on the left that you really need to be able to take further actions ánd a bonus. Really clever system, we love it!! Can't wait to try Tapestry btw.. looks so awesome.

[@echoes6092]

My top 10 here would include _A Feast for Odin_ - I particularly like the way that you get more vikings each round, but doing so forces you to feed more people. In addition, there's also the emigration action which allows you to put vessels on your feast hall symbolizing people who have left permanently, so you don't have to feed as many people each round.

[@jameystegmaier]

I didn’t think about that, but I definitely should have included it on this list!

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

My favorite here is definitely Gaia Project/Terra Mystica (I love them both pretty equally), Scythe uses this really well, and I really want to try Barage..

[@do_hickey]

I know it's not everyone's favorite in the series, but Century: Eastern Wonders (the pick up and deliver one of the series) does this. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, so I can't speak to how well it does this particular mechanic. Most of it is for point scoring, though there is that row bonus for mid-game upgrades. Nice video! These videos help me think more deeply about the mechanics of the games that I normally wouldn't look at in detail.

[@unclesamb]

This is a really fun mechanism that lends itself to that feeling you always talk about, getting more stuff all the time. I should note that you missed the part of Paladins that does this the most, which is the rows of buildings above the action selection spaces. When you take an action, you get to move one of those buildings to gain a bonus somewhere else (the red and black buildings go onto the central board, the blue buildings into your own personal selection of bonuses, and the green buildings make future action selection cheaper by blocking the worker placement spaces.) They also uncover rewards, usually moving one of your attributes up to be more powerful. And a lot of endgame scoring is tied to how far you advanced on the various tracks. Main reason i point this out is that it's maybe my favorite gave that uses this mechanism, probably because all the tracks are so intensely interconnected.

[@caroljohnson3686]

Not a pulling pieces off to upgrade, but after you mentioned Praga, I thought about how Tidal Blades has the interesting player mat wheels upgrade system.

[@jameystegmaier]

You’re totally right-I didn’t think of that!

[@caroljohnson3686]

@@jameystegmaier I didn't either until you mentioned the wheels in Praga!

[@teypan]

Great list! My favourite right now is Circadians First Light.

[@JayJay-if5rl]

Great list Jamey - I’m quite keen to try Great Western Trail now I know it has a player board. Apart from increased abilities/resources and other benefits, there’s also something satisfying about having your own board and moving pieces on it. I do think as well that this is one aspect of game mechanic/design that Stonemeier games has earned a place on this list so I’m glad you included the two you did.

[@mbillard]

Thanks for sharing my BGG list! I'll have to add a few you mentioned and I'll probably link to the video for people who want a ranked list with comments from a designer.

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks for creating that list on BGG!

[@rickadam6051]

Great video Mr. Stegmaier! I would have responded sooner but there were riots in my city when people saw Scythe was snubbed of the number one spot. Dwellings of Eldervale basically has this, except it came with a tray to hold your bits so you don't set them up on your player board. But when you gain workers you pull them from the tray which not only gives you more workers to place but also variable player powers you unlock and each worker lets you take additional card actions at the end of each round as you trigger them with workers after pulling them back. If they had designed your player board with a spot to place these unlockables it would be the same thing as you're describing here I feel. Empires of the Void II has this mechanism. On your player board you have different technologies you can build up, removing them increases things like your income or hand limit but you also place these on other parts of the board or map to gain benefits. The others that came to mind immediately were Clans of Caledonia and Near and Far, but you mentioned both of those. Look forward to the next one!

[@jameystegmaier]

I really look forward to playing Dwellings for that reason!

[@BillyIndiana]

Very interesting video. I'd not thought of this action specifically before & I've only played Scythe & Tapestry from this list. I do love this action in those games. The only game I can think of with a similar action is Caverna: Cave vs. Cave. There are a couple of spots that when you excavate to gain the ability to renovate the room, you also gain food automatically.

[@susannaheisenbraun6635]

My friend Ryan at Nights Around a Table has coined this mechanism "Peekaboo powers," which showed up in either his video for Terra Mystica or for Scythe :)

[@bbrecailo]

I'm eager to try Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria. It also has this player mat system, together with a worker placement/dice drafting mechanism that seems quite simple and entertaining. Not to mention the art by the Mico!

[@orbesteanu4tsa]

Name for the mechanism: Reveal-Benefit or Benefit-Reveal, or something like that, must be simple, and tell exactly what it does, like for “worker placement”, etc. :-D

[@CincyAirshipPirate]

It's a borderline case, but I'm going to mention Brass here simply because you are required to remove your tokens to advance to higher tiers in each resource/commodity. Removal of the token grants you the immediate benefit of whatever youre doing (building a resource source or a commodity you later hope to ship) but also unlocks the ability to construct higher tiers. You could argue that you get an income benefit as well to each draw, but since that benefit is delayed till the tile is flipped, that's probably straining a bit too hard to make the example fit. Still a great game and a great use of a player board, no matter how you look at it.

[@jameystegmaier]

Oh, I totally agree I should have mentioned it on this list--great example!

[@richardshay2356]

The original game told you to just stack each kind and build/develop from the top. The opposite of dual layer mats. Players created mats pretty soon. Terminology: player-board development?

[@wolfshui]

I know this is over a year old, but a game to consider with this mechanism is "Beyond the Sun". I haven't played it yet, but bought it for this mechanism and their innovative tech tree.

[@jameystegmaier]

It's been a while since I played it, but I completely agree!

[@MindsetTabletop]

Jamey you've got to try Viscounts... tons of options and double benefits.

[@axj763]

Cats jumping on the table are the real reason we need dual layered player boards 😆

[@mitsakosL]

Interesting, I hadn't drawn the connection between these games on the list but I like all of them. Still think gaia project is superior to clans and terra :)

[@kimbelov]

The camera focuses on the chair on the background, not on the face. Not sure it's intentional! The list is great, Scythe player boards are genuis

[@RichMulholland]

I expected some of the Chip Theory games on this list. Too Many Bones and Cloudspire specifically. I think you'd appreciate both from a design point of view

[@brentonswenson4125]

Yokohama would be on my list. While unlocking the different buildings doesn't exactly count as an instant upgrade, the bigger worker pool certainly does.

[@davidrendsburg9363]

Heads up, the image for Tapestry is set up wrong! You have 6 income buldings in each track, rather than having the first benefit exposed

[@dennisgarciamolero]

It's true!!! Haha

[@mrp4242]

10:44 HaHa. I’ve done this a few times..then seconds later go ooops. First one is cleared....

[@michaelstaub1950]

I noticed that.

[@Cecekcz]

Jamie is a reptillian overlord, confirmed.

[@flatbat777]

Nice, thanks for this list. It's a great mechanic that makes games a lot more elegant, making it easy to see a lot of information quickly and without too much accounting on the part of each player. I've heard the term 'tableau' or 'tableau engine building' used for the smaller board each player gets to build their engine. Is this the same mechanic or a different one?

[@jameystegmaier]

There is a little overlap in those mechanisms. A tableau is any assortment of things (cards, tiles, tokens) that you've acquired for your own use during the game, often to provide ongoing benefits.

[@danpalmer7676]

Think it would have been more advantageous to keep visuals on screen for longer......just saying.

[@olanmills64]

I agree; that's good feedback. Jamey/Joe, please keep the game visuals up for a longer amount of time or - even better - include more different visuals that are related to what Jamey is discussing as he is discussing it.

[@hatchimmmmm]

On mars

[@jeffharned3905]

Paladins have double gains

[@sirjames2837]

Hansa Teutonica should be number 1, all the others are just ripoffs. The cult of the new guys only mention the hyped ones. Weak. The one who introduces the system MUST always be nr 1. BGG = 100K+ Games, maybe 60 original ones.

[@StevenStJohn-kj9eb]

Cult of the new is sometimes worth making fun of, but it's also a little silly to say Hansa Teutonica has to be #1 because it was first. Was The Queen's Messenger the best TV show just because it was the first aired? Is White Castle the best fast food chain just because it was first? It would be "weak" to adopt a stringent criterion of earliest = best. It's not "weak" to use multiple criteria when making a top 10 list.

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

You seem angry. I hope you can find a good way to work through it and find peqce in your life.