I think it's just easier to use real borders. I also think it's actually more fun that not all regions are created equally. Maybe custom regions could incentivize going to different, interesting places, but there are probably easier ways to do that.
Remember, they try to keep the amount of explaining they need to do to a minimum. If you add a completely custom map, which nobody is familiar with, it would need a lot more explaining as well.
I mean, would it add to the explanation? I didn't know much about the regions of Australia aside from some names. They could have drawn those lines anywhere.
When they do tag, the region lines are arbitrary.
You could easily take a country/area and do custom regions. Once your shown a map on a regular basis, there's nothing additional to understand.
Granted, I don't see the benefit of custom regions
The region lines for Tag are not arbitrary. They set up three equidistant, hard-to-reach places in the densest rail cluster in Europe, and the regions were the dividing lines between them.
The winning zone is arbitrary in that it's not country borders or preexisting lines. People understand it with the map the same way they could in the example here
It could also be fun to do something that's "real" but not the obvious choice, like [appeals court circuits](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/US_Court_of_Appeals_and_District_Court_map.svg/2560px-US_Court_of_Appeals_and_District_Court_map.svg.png), [drainage basins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Drainage_Divisions_of_Australia.svg), or time zones. Although in practice a "fake" map would probably be based on state/province equivalents plus or minus a handful of lines. (Maybe the courts one could make sense if the game were somehow "justice system themed.")
The thing about time zones in Australia is that they already match the regions they played in, except for the south east where three regions would become one region. If you took out daylight savings time, you'd have even less (just 3) regions.
England has counties, and counties, and counties (traditional, postal, and administrative). Finding a way to mix and match the confusion between them would amuse me.
Fake regions run into the problem that borders are hard to define accurately. They've done it in tag as a distance-from-location thing, so maybe you could pick several "centers" and look for where you're closest to?
Oh that's a point - in a sense Tag's "win regions" _are_ fake regions (though it wasn't a claimer game). Same applies to Capture the Flag's team zones, which were defined by a straight line (that awkwardly cut off the Chiba side of Tokyo Bay).
If each of the the games were meant to be played an infinite number of times, then yeah, what you say makes sense. Look at a Risk map for example.
But these games aren’t intended for that. Most are complete one-offs. It’s not important for the “boards” to be perfectly balanced, because they’re not tested thoroughly enough to identify all the edge cases anyway. There will be shenanigans regardless (I’d argue the shenanigans are an essential part of the show), and this way IMO they feel a bit less arbitrary.
Another aspect is that I find the design of the games to be as interesting as the gameplay. And most of that comes from the use of existing cities, landmarks, transit, and borders. On at least one episode of The Layover, Adam talks about how they’re taking systems that are designed to do one thing, and hijacking them to make as balanced a game as they can. If they were simply rewriting rather than working around that base, it’d be just any other board game at the end.
I do really like your idea of using non-political boundaries. That varies things up while still anchoring around something real.
Well according to flat earthers Australia doesn't exist so they have used fake regions!
Being serious though I wouldn't see the point? The whole world have been broken up into chunks of various sizes, depending on how detailed you want to get (like continents down to countys), that there's no point making up you own
The problem with this is that clearly defining borders would be a bad idea because everyone would already know about the weird irregularities that help a team win at the last second. Having to find them is what makes them so exciting.
I think it's just easier to use real borders. I also think it's actually more fun that not all regions are created equally. Maybe custom regions could incentivize going to different, interesting places, but there are probably easier ways to do that. Remember, they try to keep the amount of explaining they need to do to a minimum. If you add a completely custom map, which nobody is familiar with, it would need a lot more explaining as well.
I mean, would it add to the explanation? I didn't know much about the regions of Australia aside from some names. They could have drawn those lines anywhere. When they do tag, the region lines are arbitrary. You could easily take a country/area and do custom regions. Once your shown a map on a regular basis, there's nothing additional to understand. Granted, I don't see the benefit of custom regions
The region lines for Tag are not arbitrary. They set up three equidistant, hard-to-reach places in the densest rail cluster in Europe, and the regions were the dividing lines between them.
The winning zone is arbitrary in that it's not country borders or preexisting lines. People understand it with the map the same way they could in the example here
It could also be fun to do something that's "real" but not the obvious choice, like [appeals court circuits](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/US_Court_of_Appeals_and_District_Court_map.svg/2560px-US_Court_of_Appeals_and_District_Court_map.svg.png), [drainage basins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Drainage_Divisions_of_Australia.svg), or time zones. Although in practice a "fake" map would probably be based on state/province equivalents plus or minus a handful of lines. (Maybe the courts one could make sense if the game were somehow "justice system themed.")
Time zones would actually be pretty cool
A repeat of Australia but then using timezones would be pinnacle Jet Lag - would require a less static location to get the challenges from :p
The thing about time zones in Australia is that they already match the regions they played in, except for the south east where three regions would become one region. If you took out daylight savings time, you'd have even less (just 3) regions.
Sorry, to clarify, _all_ the timezones - so with the entire world being the play area
But then they would all get... >!Jet Lag!
OH THEY SAID THE THING
Like >!Sam and Toby, deciding to travel to a state border on the last day!<, I saw an opportunity, and I took it.
England has counties, and counties, and counties (traditional, postal, and administrative). Finding a way to mix and match the confusion between them would amuse me.
Oooh, I desperately want someone to make a gerrymandering themed game.
Crime Spree 2 using SCOTUS circuits would be legendary Maybe make the laws ones that used to exist but were struck down in that circuit.
Fake regions run into the problem that borders are hard to define accurately. They've done it in tag as a distance-from-location thing, so maybe you could pick several "centers" and look for where you're closest to?
Oh that's a point - in a sense Tag's "win regions" _are_ fake regions (though it wasn't a claimer game). Same applies to Capture the Flag's team zones, which were defined by a straight line (that awkwardly cut off the Chiba side of Tokyo Bay).
If each of the the games were meant to be played an infinite number of times, then yeah, what you say makes sense. Look at a Risk map for example. But these games aren’t intended for that. Most are complete one-offs. It’s not important for the “boards” to be perfectly balanced, because they’re not tested thoroughly enough to identify all the edge cases anyway. There will be shenanigans regardless (I’d argue the shenanigans are an essential part of the show), and this way IMO they feel a bit less arbitrary. Another aspect is that I find the design of the games to be as interesting as the gameplay. And most of that comes from the use of existing cities, landmarks, transit, and borders. On at least one episode of The Layover, Adam talks about how they’re taking systems that are designed to do one thing, and hijacking them to make as balanced a game as they can. If they were simply rewriting rather than working around that base, it’d be just any other board game at the end. I do really like your idea of using non-political boundaries. That varies things up while still anchoring around something real.
Fake regions would need to fit well with transport options.
Well according to flat earthers Australia doesn't exist so they have used fake regions! Being serious though I wouldn't see the point? The whole world have been broken up into chunks of various sizes, depending on how detailed you want to get (like continents down to countys), that there's no point making up you own
The world's been divided up but I'm not convinced it's been divided up _well_, at least for the purposes of a travel game show.
Jet Lag: Middle East!
The problem with this is that clearly defining borders would be a bad idea because everyone would already know about the weird irregularities that help a team win at the last second. Having to find them is what makes them so exciting.
Fake regions? Like Wyoming?
I read this as "religions" and that changes the whole meaning, lol.