The Shallow End of Play

I was talking with a couple friends about tabletop games, and I found myself using the metaphor of "The Shallow End" a lot, and I figured I should write a little blog post explaining what I mean. I think this metaphor is a useful way to think about player engagement and how to build games that make room for a wide range of player needs.

So imagine a public swimming pool. Swimming pools are architectural objects that have a unique set of design constraints: they have to be useable by basically everyone regardless of familiarity and skill level, all at the same time. At a large swimming pool, it should be possible to have young children and grandmas splashing around near professional swimmers and divers. A family should be able to go to the pool together and no one feels left out. It also needs to facilitate people moving from one intensity level to another, as they build up courage or get exhausted. It accomplishes this with multiple zones — a shallow end and a deep end, places to sit and places to jump, staircases and ladders.

We can imagine a tabletop game is a lot like a public swimming pool, where the "water" is about engagement and relation to the game mechanics of the system.

The shallow end is a very light level of mechanical engagement: perhaps someone playing as a fighter with a sword who just rolls one attack every once in a while, and otherwise ignores the rules. The deep end is a very involved level of mechanical engagement: perhaps someone playing as a powerful wizard with a fistful of spells, who makes large and dramatic choices with many complicated implications. Some people might just dip their toes in, or climb up the diving board and leap into the deep end.

It's easy to conflate which end of the pool someone wants to splash in with inexperience, since many people new to swimming want to stick to the shallows. But there are some people who have been to pools all their life who prefer the shallows, and there are some first-timers who take to water like a fish. There are also people who normally prefer the deep end who are sticking to the shallows for a moment, or people pushing themselves out of their comfort zone into the deep. The distinction between shallow and deep end of a game is not about skill or experience, but rather comfort and enjoyment.

Some play groups might choose to spend all their time in the shallows or in the deep, but a game with a broad range of players ideally supports people all over the pool. It can feel bad when you're the only person in the shallow end and all your friends are off in the deep, but a facilitator or other players can help ease that tension.

Not all games are built the same, much like how there are many swimming pools with different functions. The private swimming pool in my backyard is going to be designed to fit my needs, and probably won't work as a public pool. Some games don't have a deep end. Some games don't have a shallow end. Some games are hot tubs or those deranged subterranean labyrinths. Not everyone is designing public swimming pools, but I think if your goal is to make a space that anyone can swim in, it's good to think about the shallow end of your game.

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