I went back and forth on whether or not to call this article a ramble, because boy do I hate derived information. However, despite my strong opinions on the matter, I do think that I can discuss some of the pros and cons of it without being too biased.

What is Derived Information?

Derived information is a term that originated in the tournament rules for magic the gathering. Derived information is any information which is not public, but can be discerned through public information. For example, if you drafted a card from the center of the table and put it in your hand, the fact that you have that card in your hand is derived information. Your hand is secret, but everyone saw you put it in your hand, and until you play or discard it, everyone will be able to play around it. Deck builders, bag builders, and drafting games in general are the ones that bump into this most often, but any game could have it. Some games are even designed around it, like deduction or bluffing games.

Problem #1: Memory

On a personal level, this is possibly the reason I hate derived information the most. I don’t have particularly good memory. Derived information is basically turning every game it turns up in into a memory game. A player who has a better memory has an advantage in these games. Someone once pointed out that that’s true of all games in a matter of speaking (a player who’s better at math will be better at point salad games, for example), and that did soften me a bit on it, but I still don’t like it. Mostly because of my next point.

Problem #2: It’s Unnecessary

While not always true, much of the time derived information is kept secret for no reason in particular. For example, in a bag builder, there’s not a really good reason to not allow players to look in their bags. As long as it’s shaken enough before pulling things, there’s no reason to force people to memorize the contents. This does nothing but give an advantage to some players based solely on a trait they came to the table with. It would be like if randomly there was a dexterity element in the middle of a tableau builder. The only way to get around this is also it’s own problem

Problem #3: Slowing the Game

If a player knows that there’s derived information in a game but also knows they have a poor memory, what are they going to do to still give themselves the best chance of winning? If you’ve played or watched enough competitive TCG tournaments, you may know the answer: you write things down. Every time a player makes a move that becomes hidden, you write it down. If it give you an advantage (which it does in most games), then why wouldn’t you do it? Common decency, mostly. Because it slows the game way, way down. Players get bored and impatient as players try to write things down. Or, players might not go that far, but still have the issue that they slow down the game in order to wrack their brain, or maybe ask other players what they remember. If a player can’t access information that they know they had at one point, then they might be willing to stall the whole game to get it. Putting something in the way doesn’t stop them, it just slows them down and everyone else with them.

Silver Lining #1: Focus

I will be fair to derived infroamtion, though, and say some nice things. The whole thing that inspired this article was me realizing I might need to put it in my game. And why? Well, because players were focusing on the wrong thing. When I had a public, always-available discard deck, players kept looking at it. That’s all fine and dandy, but it started getting excessive. Players kept telling me that they felt the need to keep looking at and referencing it to make decisions. The only reaosn I let them look at it is if they wanted to, not to inform their every decision. Removing the ability to look at something hopefully informs the player they shouldn’t need to look at it. This is a reason I think most deck builders don’t have as bad of a derived information issue as other genres. In Dominion, for example, you don’t every really feel the need to write down everything your opponent has in their deck, because it’s their own deck, and it doesn’t really affect you much. You can feel free to focus on your own deck.

Silver Lining #2: Speeding Up the Game

Yes, this is directly opposed to problem #3, but it is something I noticed. As I jus said, I found that players who have access to information spend time looking at it even when they don’t need to. If everything is hidden from the player, then they never really have anything to waste time looking at. I think the key difference is how much of an impact it makes on a player. If the derived information is something that could have major ramifications on their decisions, then they’ll spend a lot of time trying to figure it out, slowing down the game. If the derived information is not something important, then not even giving them the options to look at it speeds up the game. Whether the piece of information is important or not depends a lot on the game’s design, sometimes on how an individual game is going, and occasionally on the players. Some player see everything as a disadvantage and will track everything, regardless of the quantity or quality.

Conclusion

Derived information is annoying, but I may have to admit it has its place. Leaving information off the table can help players focus and make sure they aren’t overwhelmed with the amount of things affecting their decisions. Just make sure you aren’t using it as an artificial barrier to block players from getting information that they need in order to have fun.