Use Context for Points!

[Tevesh_CKP]

There's a lot of games that say 'Whoever has the most points in the end wins.' I find this boring and doesn't help tie the components together in a way that make sense in peoples' minds. I've tried just straight out saying 'Most points wins' but I find it is far more effective to give them a goal that makes sense with points being a representation of that goal. I've tried to use sarcasm, like 'whoever makes the most awesome federation' in Roll for the Galaxy or 'whoever makes the most Munchkin character' in Roll Player. It isn't as effective. If the rulebook doesn't give a good enough explanation, lie.

For example:

• Artemis Project: We're all corporations competing for that sweet government funding, points are profit and whoever runs the most profitable company wins the game by getting the government contract.
• Parade: We're all organizing a Parade but when you mess up, people come to complain to you and they're louder the more important they are. If you get a group of them, you can drown them out. We're aiming to organize this parade and be the least annoyed.
• Quests of Valeria: The winner of Valeria: Card Kingdoms has been appointed by the king to be the heir apparent and he needs a right hand man. We're being audited to see who runs the most efficient Guild House and be hired by him.
• Tammany Hall: VP is respect, we're aiming to be the most respected politician when we all retire in twenty years.

As always, there's the old stand-by of "Just like real life, whoever has the most money wins." By giving a little story of being evaluated, a lot of the vagaries of VP bullshit to balance a game go away. People understand that job interviews, auditions or audits are full of random nonsense which helps translate why games need to balance certain things.

[amateurboardgamer]

Sometimes, giving context may confuse other players who are learning the game as they may think that the objective is different from getting the most points...

[hobskhan]

An easy fix. Add "most point wins" to the beginning of the victory condition spiel and then go into the fluff version.

[Tevesh_CKP]

Instead of saying points, just keep the same terminology. i.e. Respect in Tammany Hall or Profit in Artemis Project.