Rob Daviau: 'A new game has to do something different'
The creator of legacy games and Restoration Games co-founder on the Crossbows and Catapults update, high-concept elements and why designers should strive for innovation
Any board game collector perusing their shelves for family titles will notice one designer’s name crop up time and time again.
Rob Daviau is one of modern tabletop gaming’s most most decorated individuals. The Spiel des Jahres winner is not only known for creating some of the industry’s best known games, he’s even invented its most striking and innovative modern mechanic: the legacy game, thanks to 2011’s Risk Legacy, co-designed with Chris Dupuis.
With Heroscape, Pandemic Legacy, Cthulhu: Death May Die, and Betrayal at House on the Hill all on the CV, Rob is also the co-founder (with Jacob D Jacobson) of Restoration Games. It’s a label known for taking forgotten childhood games and modernising them for present day. Fireball Island (with Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar), The Dark Tower (Return to Dark Tower), Tempo (Downforce) and Thunder Road (Thunder Road: Vendetta) are all games that have received the Restoration treatment.
As such, do we, as purveyors of family board games, really need an excuse to speak to Rob about his career? No. But Restoration Games’s recent update of Crossbows and Catapults, that messy boulder-dodging floor-based slugfest from the 80s and 90s, seems like a jolly good place to start.
What's the response been from gamers since the launch of Restoration Games' Crossbows and Catapults this year? Are there further expansion plans for it?
RD: Reception for Crossbows and Catapults has been largely positive. It was a challenge to make a game with real rules and some tactical strategy but also know, at the same time, that most people were going to ignore them and just shoot their weapons at each other. But we have had people come up to us and say that we recaptured their childhood, which is exactly what we’re looking for.
There are no expansions for it at the moment, but you never know. We’ve had some success the past few years with Thunder Road, Return to Dark Tower and Unmatched. So we’re looking at extending all those brands. We’re a small company and it takes a little while to get everything done.
Which legacy game have you enjoyed creating the most?
RD: I think it was Betrayal Legacy. I did a lot of development/design work on the original Betrayal at House on the Hill and have always had a real soft spot for that game.
But it’s a system where things can go really strange since there are so many variables. And legacy games are a lesson in fragile systems as well. The challenge of putting those together was both exciting and terrifying. But the team was fantastic and everyone wanted to make a great game.
I remember writing the very last words I had to write for it and feeling sad it was over. Usually, when a game is done, there is a feeling of relief. You’ve lived with it and wrestled with it for so long that you are ready for something new. Not with this game.
“I never set out to create a game that has a complicated or difficult component. I’m just not afraid of including them”
Do you feel like most 'classic' games can have a legacy variant, or are there which really would never suit it?
RD: I’m not really sure. I like story and some classic games don’t have much of one.
Not sure if Parcheesi could be wrestled into a cunning tale spanning a dozen games. But I like challenges, so maybe? No one’s really asking me to work on those so it is largely a theoretical questions.
Many of your games have a lot of high-concept, elaborate elements, whether that be 3D boards, huge internet-enabled, mechanised play pieces or a 2ft-tall Cthulhu. They feel like an engineering problem to solve. When you approach game elements such as these, what tends to be your starting point or first question to answer?
RD: I never set out to create a game that has a complicated or difficult component. I’m just not afraid of including them.
I think of myself as an experience designer that largely works with traditional board game materials. But sometimes you just want something cool in there if the situation arises.
Is it a case of fulfilling that wish to bring these games back to life and elaborate on what they were trying to achieve at the time but perhaps the technology wasn't quite there, no matter how complex things may seem to begin with?
RD: Technology doesn’t really play into it. You use what technology you have (if any!) to make it work.
Sometimes I wish games could do cooler things with tech, but mostly I’m happy bending cardboard and printing on cards.
If budget, timeframes, technology and IP issues were no problem at all, what would be your ultimate out-of-print game to restore and what aesthetics and gameplay mechanics would you add or adapt to it?
RD: It was Return to Dark Tower so I’ve covered that one. Available now!
Horror-themed games such as Betrayal at House on the Hill and Cthulhu: Death May Die are among your credits. Have you ever felt fear while playing a tabletop game?
RD: Mostly when designing them and the game isn’t working and time is running out. But, no, I don’t think so.
It’s a medium that’s hard to evoke fear with. The Night Cage came close though. It really evoked a feeling of being in a nightmare.
Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar is one of our household's favourite ever games. It looks like there are no more expansions coming out for it. Seeing as Spider Springs created a peninsula at the back of the main board, Were there ever plans for another one at the front end?
RD: That would probably be our next expansion if we ever were to do one (and there are no plans now).
Making a game out of vacuum-formed plastic while having the physics make sense proved incredibly difficult to do. We tried a bunch of methods before using a design firm that specialises in toys.
What, in your opinion, is the key to creating a successful family tabletop game?
RD: They have to have a reason to be. There are so many games, a new game has to do something different.
Maybe it’s funny or short or intense. Maybe it plays seven people. Maybe it makes sound or lights up, or is different every time. But if a game is kind of like another game but a little different then it won’t likely find a big audience.
RD: What are your favourite tabletop games to play with family members?
RD: My kids are all grown up so I’m not playing many family games now.
When we get together with my mother and other non-gamer family members we often stick with various party games. And my mother loves Rummikub, so we play a lot of that.
Any upcoming projects that you're particularly excited about?
RD: Yes! But I can’t speak about any of them. Nice try, though.
For more information, visit restorationgames.com
