As the last few pages of the
boardgames thread have shown us, there are a lot of people here working on new games of their own design or tinkering with the mechanics of existing games. Since that discussion has kind of dominated an unsuspecting thread, let's move it here.
Have a game you're working on and want help with a sticky balance issue?
Need a more elegant solution to a design problem?
Hate a given rule in a game and want to change it?
Need someone to explain the arcane arts of dice statistics?
This is the place to discuss it.
In addition: a new service called
Game Crafter is offering per-unit production and prototyping of homebrew games as well as providing a store. The terms seem decent, though the prices are a bit steep, and it's only a matter of time before someone here tries them out.
Posts
I'm working on a board/card game based on managing a presidential campaign. Each player is a campaign manager in charge of various facets of running their team's campaign. I have most of the details worked out, but the sticking point for me (and kind of an important one, to boot) is the actual voting process at the end.
The country is divided into a handful of voting sectors (south, mountain west, west coast etc.), and each sector will have different leanings based on the campaigns' actions. Players can follow a 50-state strategy or focus on a couple of key areas to secure a win. Each state in the region will have modifiers to the region's base outcome depending on local support, which essentially means six separate elections with multiple modifiers. This strikes me as entirely too complicated, but I haven't come up with a less complex solution that still provides some variables to the vote.
Also - how the hell do I make a good, statistically balanced, and above all fun voting mechanic? I need the expected outcomes to follow a good bell curve but still be easy to implement (rolling a shitload of dice is not fun). Ideas?
You're familiar with/have played 1960: The Making of the President, right? That's a territory control game using influence counters to show who is leading in a given state. Probably a different approach than what you're wanting, though.
I should point out that your candidate winning isn't necessary to win the game. The players are the managers, after all, and their careers continue regardless; a good book deal or a spot on a news roundtable is better than retiring after landing your guy a win.
I'm keeping all of the actual issues out of it. You can say your candidate's campaigning on the Handguns for Toddlers ticket and the people will love or hate them regardless.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
I think I've only got a vague idea of where you're trying to go with it, but:
Elections are generally quite predictable; with several polls are focused upon them, tracking the same ideas over and over again, they shift slowly over time and then at election time just jerk one way or another very slightly. Rather than try to make something random with the system twisted to stack odds in favour of a particular outcome (bell curve), perhaps you could assume a certain outcome based on the influence in that region, and then add a tiny bit of squirm-room on top of that?
So for a really basic, crude prototype of the idea; say the "polls" in a particular area show a two-point lead in favour of Blue, and election time is here. You could then roll a die to see where the election headed - a "1" means the result moves three points toward Red (meaning he somehow, magically fluked a win in the election there) and a "6" means three points toward Blue (a very very solid win together with his two-point lead). And everything in between you can guess.
Or you could go for a bidding system, with each player having saved up a certain hidden amount of swing-voter-type tokens that they can bid toward individual elections. Waste too many trying to win in one area and you're powerless when he plonks plenty you didn't know he had down in another you'd thought secure.
Or something.
Absolutely dice and cards are included.
If you use that bidding system, players could earn points by drawing event cards that would have stuff like town hall meetings, interviews, debates, and photoshoots.
I would say as long as the focus is on the details of the mechanics and not the setting and fiction, RPGs are probably fine.
As for publicity/debates and such, that's all handled in the cards.
I should do a proper writeup tonight and get some real input.
This is what I meant to say, but was too busy playing Champions to properly type.
The Plot Thickens -- Battlestar Galactica meets Chrononauts meets Agricola meets Once Upon A Time meets Arabian Nights!
The core mechanics, although I'll almost certainly leave something out:
THE BOARD
THE THEME
In addition, all players are dealt Character Motivation cards. One player will take on the role of the Big Bad Wolf, disguised as a good guy. This player's goal will be to obliterate any chance the other players have of becoming real heroes. More on how that happens later.
TURN ORDER
Each character draws a different combination of "trait" cards, from the following types:
-Courage
-Cleverness
-Riches
-Luck
-Magic
These cards are used for various purposes, but primarily for resolving Plot Thread cards.
2. Movement
Players may move to any location within their current square on the map, or any location in an orthogonally adjacent square.
3. Action
Players may activate their location for various effects, or certain "companion" or "item" cards may allow them to do specific things.
4. Plot Thread
A card is drawn from the Plot Thread deck. This could be any situation which might be encountered in a fairy tale: "The Dark Forest", "Wizard's Duel", "Roving Dragon", etc.
Now, here's where one of the biggest departures from BSG happens. These Plot Threads are not simple pass/fail situations. Instead, they may have any number of conditions which reference paragraph numbers within the manual (a la Arabian Nights). For instance, the card "The Dark Forest" may read as follows:
Less than 5 Courage ---> #1242
Greater than or equal to 5 Courage ---> #67
Greater than 8 Luck ---> #333
As in BSG, all players contribute Trait cards anonymously. Results are tallied, and all relevant paragraphs are read aloud. In this case, failing to surpass 5 Courage may have the players unable to use a particular location for a time, or may have no effect at all. Surpassing a total of 8 Luck with the check may result in some bonus to the players, or only to the current player.
Because results are not listed on the card itself, players are free to choose their play-style: do they want to read all the relevant paragraphs and approach the plot thread with full knowledge, or do they just want to play it like a story, not knowing what will happen next?
WIN CONDITIONS
It is co-op because there is a villain character, who is actively seeking to destroy the heroes. The way he accomplishes this is by allowing "unresolved" plot threads to accumulate (compare to the paradox mechanic from Chrononauts).
Some plot threads will have a condition that, instead of referencing a paragraph number, ends with "---> UNRESOLVED". When a plot thread is unresolved, it is placed alongside the board, so that a total count of unresolved plot threads may be kept. When 5 of them accumulate, the heroes have failed and the villain wins. There will, of course, be ways to remove unresolved plot threads from the game by undertaking special actions and quests. More on that later.
The game, however, is not fully co-op. This is because ultimately, only one player can become the lead character of the fairy tale. Throughout the game, players will be accumulating "fame tokens". Once a player (who is not the villain) accumulates a certain number of these, he wins the game.
There will also be "shame tokens", in contrast to the fame ones. For instance, if the "Save the Princess" plot thread comes up on your turn and not enough Courage points are contributed to the check, you may receive a shame token for failing to rescue her. It is impossible to win the game while you hold any shame tokens.
ANYTHING ELSE?
ITEMS: There will be a deck of (let's say) 60 item cards. Some of them will be awesome (such as the Magic Mirror, which you may discard to check one player's Motivation), others will be just OK (such as a Four-Leaf Clover, which adds 1 Luck card to your draw each turn). Somewhere on the board is a Marketplace location, where you may exchange accumulated Riches cards for these items. However, only 5 will be on sale at any given time, replacing any items bought with the top card of the item deck.
COMPANIONS: After you have at least 1 Fame token, you may go to the Tavern location and hire a companion. To do so, you draw the top 2 cards from the companion deck and pick one. You may have only one companion at a time, and all of them have their advantages and disadvantages.
For example, you may be able to hire a rogue as your sidekick. If you do, at the start of your turn you may choose to exchange any number of cards from your normal Traits draw for an equal number of Riches cards. However, there is a downside: The rogue counts as a shame token, and therefore you cannot win for as long as he remains your companion.
So. If I can get this thing together in a very bare-bones format (meaning it would be all text and stick-figure maps, no fancy card art or anything), would you guys be interested in play-testing it here?
Absolutely. You may even be able to make a VASSAL board:
http://www.vassalengine.org/community/index.php
Which you could probably do in less than an hour.
here is something (well all i have transcribed from my notes) for a players vs rules (pve) dungeon crawler (something similar to Descent but not requiring a player to operate the monsters). its very MMO-y and im not sure how it would ever play (mostly speed wise) but its something ive been working on
Monster Management
Agro
>Awareness
line of sight
sight based
sound/hearing
stealth
senses
>aggressiveness
instinct
ferocious
docile
>intelligence
brainless
cunning
>boldness
courage
fear
Agro Determines:
>when monsters attack
who can it see/sense
who has attacked it
>who monsters attack
who threatens it the most
who it hates the most (highest Agro)
>how monsters attack
range/melee/magic
Awareness
Different monsters have varying levels of Awareness.
Awareness determines the monsters ability to sense a player.
Awareness covers the different senses a monster has to detect players (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Other)
Of all a monsters senses only Sight is not limited by distance*. (*although it is more difficult to see a player the further away they are (make some rule about sight distances).
The monsters natural senses (non magical) are assigned a rating. Eg a giant sewer rat has an Awareness value of 3
Monster LOS Diagram
A monsters visual Awareness has 4 areas.
Front -red - 100% detection
Sides -orange - 75% detection?
Rear -yellow - 25% detection?
Behind -grey - 0% detection?
Agro
When a monster senses/hears/sees a player or when a player attacks/casts magic on a monster, the monster becomes Agro.
An Agro monster may perform many actions including: Attacking, Fleeing, Alerting, Hiding, Etc.
Agro Radius
Is the # of squares away a creature can sense a player (non visually).
As soon as a player enters the Agro Radius of a creature he must make detection rolls.
Each turn a player spends undectected inside a monsters Agro Radius she must successfully evade the detection of the monster by passing the relevant checks.
Player skills such as camoflague/stealth/deception/mezmerize/etc can alter the roll needed.
The closer to the monster the player is, the harder it is to pass the detection checks.
Monster Agro Radius Diagram
Pictured above is a Monster with an Agro Radius of 4.
This means that every square 4 units away (2 of which can be diagonal (Agro Radius halved rounded down to determine how many can be diagonal) is within the Agro Radius of this monster.
The Yellow region is Agro 4, the Orange is Agro 3, the Red is Agro 2 (Agro 1 would be the 8 squares adjacent to the monster)
Player skills such as pacify/lull/sleep/etc can reduce the Agro Radius of a monster.
A monsters Awareness level determines what its Agro Radius is. Eg a giant sewer rat has an Awareness value of 3 so its Agro Radius would extend 3 squares out (or 2 squares and 1 diagonal)
How a Monster Acts/Reacts
Agro & Hate
Players accumulate Hate Tokens through actions such as: attacking a monster, healing an ally, being detected by a monster, using skills, etc.
The player with the highest number of Hate Tokens has Agro.
A monster will attack/act against the player who has Agro.
A monsters Intelligence can give it alternative targets aside from the player with Agro.
Different actions garner varying amounts of Hate Tokens Eg. being detected in front of a monster +1 Hate Token. Being detected behind a monster +3 Hate Tokens.
Hate Tokens from detection are only given out to the first player detected by a monster.
Skills can raise or lower the number of Hate Tokens a player has (raise Taunt/Enrage/Grapple lower Fade/Escape/Distract)
*Critical strikes gain Hate Tokens
Hate Tokens are individual to each monster, so gaining Hate Tokens from monster A will not gain the Agro of monster B nescessarily
>>instead of players gaining hate tokens, mabye the monster (on its card) gains a token from each player for Hate, easier to track per monster basis?) -OR-
players have a board with monster 1, monster 2, monster 3... (or a board with coloured sections on it) and the monsters are assigned colours on a per-encounter basis
Intelligence
A monsters Intelligence determines what actions are availible to it
i also am thinking about a fantasy based warfare game which would be similar to axis and allies (sort of a board game version of master of magic). but dont have much to show for that.
Yeah, let's do this thing.
But for my picks:
And most likely to go entirely reviled:
As for theme, I have a couple of ideas:
I'd see this as more a zoomed-out view, though, controlling several characters each, managing supply and your collective inventory, distributing weapons amongst the militia, maintaining lonely sniper/lookout posts and building up facilities in the settlement; with the map being an entire city and its environs, rather than something more tactically-sized. Not being able to see when an attack wave is coming unless you've got people out there watching would be pretty cool.
an idea i had that spawned from the old boardgame thread would be a game that combines (this came from that settlers of riskopoly someone was talking about) the settlers of catan and magic the gathering. think about it there are 5 resouce types in settlers and 5 colous of magic. you place settlements as normal, but they are more like castles and keeps, you then gain mana instead of the usual settlers resources and you build armies and cast spells with that mana (creatures would form up in armies and move around the map attacking other castles etc).
I really really like this idea. Are you thinking of using card decks, though, like in Magic? Because The Game Crafter isn't really set up to deal with the general CCG mechanic right now, since it doesn't have random card packs available.
The game idea itself is awesome, though.
You could do a LCG with it easily, though.
This is an interesting idea actually. I say run with the The Thing feeling.
You could have a game kinda like Space Hulk + BSG. You'd drop the tactical miniatures aspect probably, as that would just bog down the system alot and create problems. (More on that later)
So basically, each player is a member of the team investigating/trying to escape/etc the facility. There's stuff to investigate, things to fight off and so on. Except one of you is actually an alien in disguise, trying to sabotage the whole thing.
One of the problems would be automating the enemies though. Which is why I'd suggest dropping the tactical miniatures aspect, as that would make automation much easier. (You could probably keep the idea of blips though, to build tension)
You'd have events and crises and such you pull and must resolve, along with enemies spawning that must be killed. Have card decks for different skill types maybe? (Science, Repair, Combat, Exploration, etc), And then play those to defeat enemies and research what happened and how to repair things and get out and such.
The goal would probably be to get ahold of something or other, radio for rescue, kill time till the chopper arrives and then get out.
You could probably make the board modular too and built on the fly.
I'll have to think more on it.
If the core game is cheap enough and addicting enough, you would basically be printing money.
I was thinking something along these lines too. Except no real settlement type thing.
It'd be post-zombie-apocalypse and each player controls a group of survivors. You start as only one person. But as you explore, you would discover new people and add them to your team. Each new person would be drawn from a deck or some such (probably multiple decks, one for each type of location) and would add skills to your team.
You explore the city, which is abstracted to a certain point. Say each building has 1 space per floor more or less. You encounter things, gain equipment, people, fight off zombies, get supplies, etc.
Around the city streets though, wander Zombies. Most zombies just mill about. Unless you get spotted or make a ruckus. If you get spotted, all the zombies that can see you start moving in your direction. If you make alot of noise (with fighting or blowing something up or the like) you create "Zombie Interest Tokens" or something of the like, which cause nearby zombies to swarm on that position.
You could sabotage the other groups, steal their members and supplies, even fight them.
You'd make the victory condition escaping the city, but first you need enough supplies of certain kinds to survive the trip. Or maybe have other ideas for victory conditions.
Card games are also one of the cheapest things to make on that site.
New packs could be a combination of shuffle-in expansions - the same way a couple of Arkham's expansions are - where they're just new cards that take advantage of one or two new rules introduced in the pack, and actual new missions and plots.
One of the ideas I omitted because I thought it might sound stupid was actually a combination of the facility exploration idea and that common but excellent tabletop RPG trope: a rogue outfit of mercenaries with their run-down ship. So it's funny you say that, Gandalf.
initially i would say it would use regular decks of magic cards, but not sure how that would work, i hadnt really though that far into it.
here are some more resources for printing your own game components (although none do boards)
http://www.guildofblades.com/pod.php (cards and instructions)
http://www.artscow.com/ (cards)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/322382 (board game geek stickied thread of game design & self-publishing info)
Well it would be something like Betrayal at House on the Hill, except each time you bought a new deck, you would essentially be buying a new "House" to explore, with its own unique challenges and goals. Or if you wanted, you could start mixing and matching between the expansions, to create your own missions.
Must be a modular board or have Card events that mimic a modular board.
I also had some charts laid out about the difference between efficiencies of diagonal motion on a hex board vs a checkerboard that I should try and find for this thread. It's mostly relevant to abstract strategy games.
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
Name: Lone Wolf HP 40 [Dark]X2 ("tap" 2 Dark mana to play)
(Pic)
Beast-Type Warrior
Attacks:
(Range: 0) Howl: Search your deck for one Beast-Type warrior and place it in a square next to Lone Wolf. You do not have to play mana for this summon.
(Range: 1) Bite: Do 20 damage to enemy warrior. If another Beast-Type warrior is next to Lone Wolf, add +10 to this attack.
Weakness [Light] Movement [1 square per turn]
I remember (trying) to design a Master of Orion wannabe hex-based grand strategy game 5-6 years ago. (Sounds original right )
It was surprisingly similar to twilight Imperium, considering I hadn't even heard about the game back then.
Now where did I put my early alpha rules. They just lacked the fun part. Otherwise fine set of rules.
The (extremely under construction) rules and deck can be found at the Dvorak Wiki. Let me know if you're interested in contributing, I'll add you to the list of designers.
I'm working on a worldbuilding game. Would be neat to play the worldbuilding game and then play the city-building game for the various cities.
http://worldbuilder-rpg.wikidot.com
Spore: The Board Game! :?:
This is really, really early.... but I hope we can play some day Help me make it great.
DIMDUMS is a 'board game' specifically designed to be friendly to play-by-post forum games. The game simulates and is based upon the game content of Dwarf Fortress by Bay12 Games. All credit is due to toadyone, the DF community, and the tileset artists - all of from whom (at this early stage in development) I intend to shamelessly steal. I will mention HMXMoss, at the risk of both fucking up his name and leaving out other similarly "important contributors".
In the game, each player represents one of seven dwarves who have journeyed out on an expedition together to found a new dwarf settlement. Each player is from a different family, working cooperatively together to ensure the fortress' survival while simultaneously attempting to get a stubby leg up with regards to dwarven politics (aka booze and dimdums.)
Ideally the game would actually support up to 7 players, in reality it might be hard to do more than 4 + 3 general laborers for the starting team. It is played on a 2D board reminiscent of the older versions of DF (think a blank-slate Boatmurdered) but certain cards might allow for elevation-play (card: "Hey, we can dig down!" stairs icon on board, 5x5 room on card or abstract. perhaps only usable for dedicated stockpile? "root cellar" "beer cellar" "wine cellar" "log... attic?")
Determining Fort Name
First, each player fills out a very brief character sheet and submits them anonymously to the host, who posts them without identifying the associated players. Next, each votes for the fort name (can't vote for your own) from the submitted sheets, and similarly votes for the best dwarf tidbit. The players responsible for the winning submissions win some starting trifle. Alternately, some variation on this method can be used to ween a group down who has too many players.
After this, players customize starting resources and equipment for their dwarf by spending their starting dimdums, then play commences.
Basic Play Concepts
Each season (think round) every player can spend their Influence Tokens to assign tasks to the fort's dwarf citizens (who increase in number annually via immigration in the spring and births at times, and decrease with a stunning variety of deaths all year long) across the Craft (make products at locations), Build (make locations in dug out areas) , Designate (dig, chop, gather) and Harvest (pick up stuff and move it to stockpiles) phases.
Immigration has a chance to yield a special dwarf from the Immigration Deck (working title). This deck will include both useless and useful nobles as well as jobs not in constant demand of varying utility - Animal Trainers (good) and Soapers (horribad) for example.
Players will be able to permanently move a small number of dwarves into their control and train them as they see fit for both labor and military through some as of yet undetermined mechanic, most likely via immigration rather than depleting the existing labor pool.
At the very beginning of every season, each player draws a card from the Event Deck and follows it's instructions. These are generally representative of the variety of challenges the dwarves face and will at times have lasting effects on a fortress.
Towards the beginning of every season, all of the dwarves return to a common room in the fortress from which they can be 're-hired' and sent out to labor on a new task for the new season.
At the end of every season, a card from the Seasons Deck is turned face up and it's instructions are followed. This deck is built in seasonal order pre-game and simulates the events that occur annually on each season as well as some random effects.
SPRING cards will include things like Migration.
SUMMER cards will include a wide variety of events and issues. (? possible solution to various "where does this DF element fit" problems)
FALL cards will include things like Merchants.
WINTER cards will include things like water shortages and food related challenges.
Occasionally Event and Season cards will dictate an invasion of some sort. Depending how quickly the fortress deals with an invasion, this can disrupt fort activities even beyond causing death and destruction to property.
ALTERNATE WIN CONDITIONS
1 card per player at the beginning of each game, with exclusive and non exclusive win conditions or bonus dimdums based on difficulty
religion related?
booze related?
specific development related?
potential for ....... eeeeeviiiilll? idk
DIGGING INSTRUCTION PROTOCOL
Digging will be done in squares via Illustrator, color coded by player to denote whose 'burrow' it is.
***illustrator and possibly other factors may make this a very limited game in terms of host-ability, solutions? care? yes.
All areas are either ROOMS or CORRIDORS.
All areas should be described as "X wide by Y high"
Cave-in prevention dictates that no ROOM may be larger than 6x6
Cave-in prevention dictates that no CORRIDOR may be more than 3xY.
CHARACTER SHEET
1) Name & Fort Name
2) Deity
3) Likes
4) Dislikes
5) Skills
6) Equipment
FORT CHARACTER SHEET
1) Name
*BUILDABLE* WORKSHOPS etc and their respective *CRAFTABLES*
notes~
certain locations like "office" might allow a player to take control of a noble or other dwarf who likes/uses offices (maybe kitchen + cook and the like as well?) and gain benefits
players can only build in rooms.
they can only build in their own rooms, or they have to pay the player who dug the room X dimdums based on room size. room 'owners' have build dibs in a given round, and maybe can buy a deed to make the room permanently theirs, pending player agreements.
Farm Plots
-buildable like a workshop, craftable like a workshop for food/brewing
Stonecrafter's workshop
-stone weapons
-stone doors
-stone goddam everything
Woodworker's workshop
-beds & buckets?
-most of the stone shit
-xbows? own workshop?
Mechanic's workshop
-traps and gears and shit
Metal Forge
-metal stuff
Still
-booze
Kitchen?
-food? or does hunting and farming just yield it? maybe at a better rate based on a cook's skill, but only if you have a kitchen. i like that.
SKILL LIST
Mining (digs via Designation)
Woodcutting (chops via Designation)
Farming (Builds & Crafts in farm plots)
Cooking (if kitchen, skill yields more food from farming/hunting. X capacity per cook & kitchen.)
Brewing (if still, skill yields more booze from farming. X capacity per brewer & still.)
Hauling (the peasant's only skill - 'peasant may be purchased along with a miner, chopper, farmer for X extra influence and is assigned to Haul that worker's product in the Harvest phase, place the two together in the work zone)
PHASES
1) Craft (activate workshops and sow seeds)
2) Build (workshops, farm plots and structures)
3) Designate (dig, chop trees, gather seeds/plants)
4) Harvest stone per miner, wood for woodcutter,
LEVELING UP
+Influence
+Skills
TOKENS
Dimdums - both a commodity used to purchase goods and, for all intents and purposes "victory points"
Stone - raw rocks for crafting and construction (common)
Wood - logs for crafting and construction (moderate availability) wood cutters Designated to the 'forest' location on the board to perform task.
Metal - ore for crafting metal goods (rare, miners assigned to it similar to woodcutting once vein is discovered)
Luxury Materials - (working title) gems, precious metal etc, possibly also leather and others
Influence - command points, power points, mana - whatever you want to call it.
Mood - mental state of your contingent within the fort
Animals - convertible to food (and leather?)
Booze - life itself. major effects on mood.
Food - lack of food can hurt Mood and also kill dwarves
Miasma - injures mood. placed on the board or abstract? should be used to keep mood levels somewhat common amongst players maybe? why?
DECKS
Seasons Deck (1 at end of each season, in rotation)
Event Deck (1 per player at start of each season)
Immigration Deck
INVASIONS AND TITANS AND SHIT
probably split goblin invasions etc into season cards and kobold thieves and megabeasts into event cards
said cards will scale in difficulty based on current fort pop and/or total military value
all normal events stop until invasion is dealt with or fort is wrecked.
number of special battle oriented "invasion rounds" that pass before the invasion is killed off determines the potential amount of work lost due to interuption - maybe influence costs?
each round more of the fort is threatened - ie wood cutters and outdoor gatherers in danger first, then front gate, then interior etc etc
needs to be resolvable concisely - maybe each player & invaders set a battle plan then the whole thing plays out?
DF ELEMENTS THAT STILL NEED CONSIDERATION
combat, leveling, and training mechanics.
Mood and insanity mechanics and results.
animals?
trade depot implementation?
trap implementation? (something like 6 traps max per area, N or less 1d6 eats a trap & scores a hit? entry hall only? corridors only? balance? preservation of threat?)
fey moods etc... event cards?
elephants and hippos and carps. event cards?
randomness and "losing is fun" vs game value - ameritrash alert weeeeoooooweeeoooooo
?
I'm a google whore.
I'm googling right now.