Dexterity: Between Choice and Randomness

In table-top games, players are provided with choices and random events. It is these divergent moments in a game, which allow the games possibility space to be explored. The game responds to the players and the players to the game. Dexterity, where the physical skill of the player is judged, lies between these two aspects. The player chooses to take certain movements with their bodies but the outcomes are uncertain. Depending on the skill of the player and the difficulty of the task success can lie anywhere between simple and improbable. Just as a player can get better at making the correct choices, a player can improve their dexterity over time. This improvement in player skill moves them away from randomness and closer to choice.

Where simulation in games, seek to represent skill through varying statistics and randomness, something that is most commonly seen in table-top role play games (Dungeons and Dragons). Games of dexterity can either create games where one skill is abstracted for another (Subbuteo, Flick-em Up, Catacombs) or games which purely exist for their own sake (Jenga, Twister). It is in this first set of abstracted skill games that we can seek some meaning of narrative play.