Richard Garfield Talks HALF TRUTH, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, and More

Half Truth is a fun trivia game from the minds of Richard Garfield and Ken Jennings. I was recently given the opportunity to ask Garfield some questions and we talked about this new game and some of his other work including Magic: The Gathering and King of Tokyo. Half Truth will be available for pre-order from Studio71 Games’ website now and will launch on May 6.

Tommy: How did the idea of Half Truth come from and how did you and Ken Jennings end up teaming up for it?

Richard: Many years ago I read Ken's book Braniac which conveyed to me, his love of trivia. I wanted to make a game that brought out the best features of good trivia. A game that showcased everyone's amazing collection of unique knowledge. A game where the focus wasn't only "you know the answer or you don't", but could be answered with intuition, deduction, and metagaming.

After designing the framework, I invited Ken over for a playtest and invited him to be a part of the project - to lead the question creation for the game. He won the first game but lost the second - and that felt auspicious because I wanted a game where the best would win more often - but not all the time. That is generally how I like my games to be, especially party games - because a wider range of players can usually enjoy it.

Tommy: The core problem with most, if not all, trivia-based games is that after a few years they start to become outdated. How do you think you’ve helped make Half Truth less prone or impervious to this pitfall?

Richard: We have been mindful of that but it will still be an issue with some questions. Part of the problem is that while 'timeless' questions can be excellent, you lose something by ignoring what is in the forefront of the news or culture right now - even if it is temporary. However, the cost of having an outdated question is less in Half Truth than in most trivia games because the questions are all multiple choice with half the answers correct - so the game can still progress through guesswork.

Tommy: How long would you guess it took to come up with all the questions for Half Truth?

Richard: Hmm. Tough one. Well, I originally designed this game about 11 years ago and with that, a bunch of questions. Then Koni came up with a bunch. And some guys tried to make a french version, and we translated a bunch of those questions. And then Ken came in and did an enormous number of questions. And we did some more. Add it all up... maybe 12 years? Seriously, it took an enormous amount of time - but these days now that we know what we are doing we can probably generate a question in about 5 minutes. It was both the hardest part and the most fun.

Tommy: You created Magic: The Gathering. When you did that, did you know it would become what it is today? It is crossing over with Dungeons & Dragons and even getting an animated TV series. Did you think that would be a thing?

Richard: I was floored at the time with Magic's success, I never would have thought it would succeed like it has. I knew it was a good, compelling, and unique game when it came out - but many games I loved weren't super successful so I knew that being good wasn't enough.

Tommy: I’m guessing you play MTG, what kind of deck do you like to play? I’m partial to Angels myself.

Richard: I like draft and sealed deck - and when I construct a deck I like making weird stuff work - or more often failing at it.

Tommy: King of Tokyo is another game of yours that I absolutely love and it helped suck me into a deeper level of board games than I was previously. Who’s your favorite monster to play as and do you have a preference between King of Tokyo and King of New York?

Richard: I like Alienoid. A long time ago I started always playing yellow in games because no one else wanted to play yellow. Now I don't function well unless I am playing yellow. No one was taking Alienoid, so I always took him. Now I really like him and it is part of the reason I gave him a lot of character in the power up expansion.

I don't really have a preference between King of Tokyo and King of New York. When playing with new players or players who don't know games very well I will always go with King of Tokyo.

Tommy: You’ve worked on creating several games and they span a wide array of mechanics and ideas. Is there one aspect of game mechanics or genre that you prefer to another? Do you prefer using dice or cards, for example?

Richard: I enjoy exploring all of games to the best of my abilities. That said, I really like games where some players know something and others don't - and they are either using the game mechanics to hide the information (poker) or communicate it (bridge, or Hanabi). Cards are excellent for supporting that sort of play - they are really built for it.

Tommy: I know that this is an impossible question, but what are your top 3 favorite games you’ve created/helped to create?

Richard: Perhaps Magic, Keyforge, and Half Truth.

Tommy: Half Truth comes out next month, but are there any other projects that fans should be on the lookout for?

Richard: Nothing soon - but if they haven't tried Keyforge they might want to give it a shot, it is a pretty different game and always evolving.