Measuring Randomness in Tabletop Games

Tabletop games often incorporate random elements in the form of dice or shuffled card decks. This randomness is a key contributor to the player experience and the variety of game situations encountered. There is often a tension between a level of randomness that makes the game interesting, and a level at which the outcome itself is effectively random and the game becomes dull. The sweet-spot for any given game will depend on the design goals and target audience. We introduce a new technique to quantify the level of randomness in game outcome due to these elements. We use this to compare 15 different tabletop games, and then to disentangle the different contributions to the overall randomness from specific parts of the game. We show the utility of this approach by using it with a game publisher as a tool in the development phase of a new commercial board game.