Play with roles

A play with roles is a Board game in which the players play according to different rules according to the role which is allotted to them. The english-speaking speak about “variable power play” (variable power range) .

The roles can be freely selected or allotted by chance. They can be fixed for all the play or change with each turn.

This concept, called “play with roles” in the absence of a French denomination which remains to be found, is distinct from that of Roleplay, in which one interprets a role (in the theatrical direction).

In addition to playing according to different rules, the players can sometimes have different objectives. One distinguishes as follows:

the plays whose players have the same objective, for example:

Citadels : the players must do the utmost of points by building cities, and while trying to be the first to finish its city (to build eight districts); but with each turn, the players have a different character, who has capacity different from the others (the merchant receives more money, the architect can build more district, the condottiere can destroy districts…)

the plays where the players have different objectives, for example:

Wolves-garous of Thiercelieux : on the one hand, the wolves-garous have objectives different from the villagers, on the other hand, certain players play according to different rules. The wolves-garous awake the night and kill out of the villagers, unquestionable village have particular capacities, as the little girl who can awake the night or the hunter can kill somebody when he dies.
London 1888 : each character plays according to different rules: the chief of the demonstrators can block the streets, the chief of the police force can pass the stoppings of police force and to enter the police station, etc They have different goals in addition: the character who is Jack the eventror must remain free to perpetrate his murders or to commit suicide, the innocent ones must discover who is Jack the eventror and kill it, certain innocent must even protect Jack if it proves that it is their mission.

The plays whose players have different objectives, but follow the same rules are not strictly speaking “plays with roles”. One speaks rather about play with secret objective, like the Risk or Heimlich & Co..

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