This doesn't measure how difficult the game is, but more how much your skill counts versus how much the random element of the games does the work for (or against) you. A 10 on the scale can be a much simpler game than a 5, it's just that the 10 relies wholly on your skill and a 5 has a lot of random elements working alongside.
In the case of games that are player versus player, the scale measures how much you rely on your skill to defeat your opponents skill and how much you rely on a random element of the game jumping out to save you... though this of course only works where the two of you are playing by the exact same rules, so I'll do a bit of hand waving where one side of the game has different rules and mechanics to the other.
As an aside, it's also a scale of how easy it would be to program a random number generator to play it.
That said, this isn't a scale of how much I like a game. Admittedly the games at the bottom end of the scale bore the pants off me and need to be set on fire, but once you get to the middle and top ends of the games they are all fun for different reasons. Sometimes I like a game that is skill against skill. Sometimes I like a game where a bad die roll adds tension and makes you swear profusely.
Sometimes the right amount of randomness in a game makes it all the better.
Let me furnish you with some examples. I haven't listed every number because... well, I haven't yet played enough games to work out exactly how the scale works. But it's a start
0 - Snakes and Ladders
You roll the dice, move your piece that many squares, and go back and forth depending on whether you land on a snake or a ladder. There, I've just described the entire game and at no point did I use the word "choose", because that's the point of being a 0 on the scale: you make no choices whatsoever.
Except to play in the first place. Snakes and Ladders is not a game. If you are planning on preoccupying small children at least have the decency to give them a game that will make them think.
Perhaps the designer wanted to generate some random dice rolls and needed to find a way to con his kids into helping.
1 - Monopoly
I could pick one of many the selection of Toys R Us "family" games, but Monopoly wins the crown for also being the greatest cause of family feuds since the middle ages.
Roll the dice, move your piece, if you land on a empty lot you may choose to buy it (and if not put it up for auction). You also get to choose where and when you build houses and hotels.
Either way it's all a bit fruitless. You keep moving in the same circle letting the dice dictate where you land and what you do, and ultimately your skill in winning is not down to any shrewd investment but more to do with being fortunate to buy all of the oranges, all the reds, and Mayfair you lucky sod.
Also, if it was any further indictment, you buy Monopoly in almost any variant and it's still the same damn game.
2 - Talisman
The first time I played Talisman - a massive several-hour game at a friend's party - I fell in love with it and immediately went out and bought a copy. Two half-finished games later and I have now donated it to another friend after brushing half an inch of dust off of it.
Talisman is a fantasy themed board game: move around a map, fight trolls and orcs and dragons, pick up loot and spells to improve your character, level up, find the mythical Talisman and use it to enter the Crown of Command section of the map and win.
That doesn't sound too bad... except yet again everything involves rolling a die, or a random card from a deck. Movement around the map is dice based, with the slight improvement that at least you can choose which direction you're moving in. Which monster you fight comes from a deck of cards. Who wins comes down to dices rolls, with some influence from your character stats versus the monster's stats. Loot also comes from a random card from a deck... though if you're lucky you might find a shop and actually get to choose. Some squares can give you bonuses or punishments but these two are all random options.
In short, it looks like there is a lot of choice but there really isn't.
There are some choices that do redeem Talisman. There are a bunch of different characters to play as all with different abilities that you can use to your advantage. There is a long list of expansions that I haven't played but look interesting and appear to add new content. You also get to choose to fight other players if you land on their square and either try and kill them or steal their stuff. Not that I would ever do that of course...
In all honesty, the main reason I dislike Talisman is that if takes such a long time to play it. If any of you are interested in trying it, there is an iOS/Android version that is quite good... mainly because you can have a very short game of just you against one AI which gives you the maximum amount of Talisman fun without the nightmare of finding a table large enough to play at.
5 - Eldritch Horror
I'll lead with the fact that I really like Eldritch Horror. It's a very good game. Except for the moments where the game manages to kill you and there isn't really anything you can do about it. I'll get on to that.
You and your team play various investigators and other Cthulhu protagonist style characters on a quest to save the world from one of the many ancient tentacle beings with almost unpronounceable names.
Cthulhu and his ilk are invading the world and it's up to you to stop them. Each villain comes with their own character sheet, favourite monsters, and objectives for you to complete. Complete the objectives and you win. Fail the objectives and... well, you don't actually lose straight away, but rather you get into a last-ditch effort to win against much greater odds in a different way.
Similarly there is variety for you to choose from for your characters. Each has different abilities, equipments, skills, and stats. Some feel very unique, thought a few are a bit interchangeable, though an equal number are absolute power houses that make the game quite a bit easier for the other players. If you are so minded you can craft a wonderfully synergistic team, but a lot of fun does come from picking one at random (see, random can be good!).
Half of the game exists on a map of the world, where you each take it in turns to move around and set yourselves up in a named location on the map. There might be a clue to investigate. There might be a monster to fight. There might be a portal to realms unknown. You might just be in a city and get to go shopping.
Once you've chosen your location - and fought the monsters first if there are any - you get a random card and follow the events accordingly. This is where your character's stats come in, and you get to do some dice rolling. If you win you get a victory condition - find a clue, close a portal, improve a skill and so on. If you fail you can sometimes just get nothing, but more likely you get driven mad and lose your sanity.
The other half of the game is the villain fighting back. Mythos cards cause random events to occur, opening portals, summoning monsters, and generally making everything a bit darker and a bit worse. This is the bit where the game can randomly kill you: sometimes the order of the events, the wrong monster spawning in the wrong place, the wrong event, and all of sudden you're on the back foot and struggling to win, and then everything goes black and it's game over. This is the really frustrating part, because you can lose through no fault of your own despite having played the best you can and won every dice roll along the way anyway.
Ultimately a game with a random element can make you lose through no fault of your own. The main problem I have with Eldritch Horror is that it's a hard game to begin with, so as soon as things start to go even wronger you do genuinely feel quite hopeless.
7 (ish)- Magic the Gathering
To save my sanity (especially after I lost most of it to Cthulhu up above), I'm leaving this to a completely separate article that I will link in here once I've written it.
Suffice to say, Magic is a game of immense skill but the sheer selection of cards, possible combinations, tournament legality rules, and of course the fact that it's a randomly shuffled deck, it's quite complicated to explain exactly where it fits on my scale.
Plus it isn't technically a board game, but shush.
9 - Letters from Whitechapel
This is one of my favourite games of all time, but I had to hold back from making it a 10 for the simple reason that there is one (but only one) random element that does affect gameplay.
Letters from Whitechapel is an asymmetrical game. One player is Jack the Ripper, out on the streets of Whitechapel, running around with wild abandon and murdering prostitutes (known in the game as The Wretched). The other players - 1 to 5 - control 5 pieces representing members of the various police forces chasing after Jack before too many lives are lost.
The game is split into four rounds or nights. Jack begins the night by murdering a Wretched. He then has to flee to his safehouse within a number of turns. The police have until he reaches his safehouse to catch him. If Jack remains uncaught by the end of the fourth and final night then he wins. If the police successfully arrest Jack, or Jack fails to reach his hideout before dawn breaks, then he is thrown in the slammer and the police win.
The board itself is a beautifully detailed map of Whitechapel as it was in the 1800s. Jack moves from street to street, each with a numbered circle. He can use stagecoach tiles to take two turns in a row, or alleyway tiles to cut through the board itself and jump from one road to another. Conversely, the police move from street corner to street corner, each represented by a small square. Once the police have moved they get to look down each street and investigate whether Jack has been there, or make an arrest if they think they've found him.
That last bit might have sounded a bit confusing, so here's the key: Jack doesn't have a playing piece on the board. The player playing Jack has a small notepad in front of them that they use to mark the street numbers as and when they move. The police only know if Jack has been on a street by investigating it and have the Jack player announce that he has indeed been there (though fortunately Jack does not have to announce whether he is there right now). This does involve a bit of trust, but if you're going to cheat at this sort of board game then it isn't at all for you. Also, get out.
As the nights go on the police get a better idea of where Jack is heading to. Some of the police can start a night where they left off the previous night, letting the wily coppers form a blockade around the potential hideout and prevent Jack getting home. Jack can get past blockades with his alleys and stagecoaches, but they too dwindle as the nights go on making them a more and more precious resource.
The only random element is one that does, occasionally, get in the way: each night the policemen move in turn order depending on a random selection. The policemen can't move through each other, so sometimes this turn ordering means that a player can't move to where he needs to be and in the later nights this can make or break it for either side.
Skill does count for a lot; the most experienced player should generally play as Jack to make the game last any reasonable amount of time. That said, a small addition can make it a lot easier for the policemen: pen and paper to note down the streets Jack has been to.
10 - Chess
I don't think I need to any more words the end my article really. It's Chess. It has no random element whatsoever. It is 100% skill and everyone knows someone who is ridiculously good at it that you can't beat no matter how hard you try.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my list.
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