Post 2nd Anniversary Contest

Hi All

On my first year anniversary of this blog I ran a contest for people on BGG and for regulars that tune into my comments.

I am running one again.  This year there will have been over 10,000 visits to my blog.  To celebrate this I will be giving away a brand new copy of 10 Days in the U.S.A.

This contest is only open to visitors of my blog and the Google+ Board Game Community.

To win this gift just post a comment about which of my game designs you would most like to see come to fruition and why.  The deadline is 4th Feb (my birthday – yay me!)

You can find the list of my game designs at:

Designs

If You Go Down to the Woods… update and rule set

After chatting with a few fellow designers, I have updated the rules to If You Go Down to the Woods…

The game theme was thought of by my 8 year old daughter and I came up with the simple push your luck mechanism.  I would be grateful if anyone would read the initial rule set and comment, critique, rip-apart, praise etc etc…

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B15l4eFfwelcaWxXdndVOTBFQ1E/edit

Baseball Card Collecting – the card game

This is a ‘fleshed-out’ idea from the last post.

BASEBALL CARDS – the card game

2-5 players

30 minutes

8+

Overview:

Each player takes on the roll of a baseball card collector.  By trading and taking actions, players compete to acquire the greatest baseball card collection.  The player with the best collection of team players, all-stars and rookies will win.

Game Bits:

Card Deck

Hobby Store Deck

Action Cards

Coin cards

Signed Card Tokens

Trophy Case Tokens

Set Up:

• The Card Deck is shuffled and each player is dealt 10 cards – this represents the player’s starting collection
• The Action Cards are placed face up in the middle of the table
• The Hobby Store Deck is shuffled and placed in the middle of the table
• The tokens are placed in two piles to the side within reach of the players

Game Play:

The game takes place over a specified number of rounds.  In each round there are three phases:

1. Trade/Bidding Phase
2. Action Phase
3. Display Phase

1. Trade/Bidding Phase

In this phase the players congregate at the local hobby store to see what the store owner has to offer.  The top card of the Hobby Store Deck is revealed to reveal a ‘special’ item that will aid the players in improving their collection.

The players then select cards from their hand and place them face down in front of them.  Once all players have selected their cards they are revealed simultaneously.  The cards with the highest value played win the item.  The shop owner then places the cards that won the bid up for trade.  The trading continues in the same manner until only two players are left.  When two players trade for an item the winner will receive the goods and the final player gets no goods, but gets one card from the Card Deck and gets first choice in the Action Phase.

Action Phase:

Starting with the last player in the trading round and then working in reverse order to the first trade winner, players take one of the following actions:

• Get a card signed – only one player per round – cost 3 coin
• Buy a trophy case – only one player per round – cost 2 coin
• Buy a booster pack or packs (draw from the card deck) – open to all players – draw two cards from the Card Deck
• Online auction – sell one of your cards online – roll the auction dice to see how much you get for your card

Display Phase:

Players may place cards in front of them to start making sets.  These cards can be added to but not subtracted from.  These cards can no longer be used in trades or sold.  Display rules:

• If playing team cards – 4 cards must be played of the same team
• When playing All-Star cards – 2 cards must be played of any team
• Rookie cards can be placed individually

There will be physical placement rules that will make it easier for scoring.

 

Final Scoring:

Scoring will be determined by the number of outfield players represented by one team, the number of pitchers represented by one team, the number of rookie cards and the number of All-Star cards.  Also bonus points will be given for cards that are displayed and/or signed.  Coins will act as a tie breaker.

 

Bidding idea taken further…

With the help of David Short (designer of Ground Floor and Skyline), I have come up with a theme that could use the bidding system where players bid for an item and the items bid then become the next up in the auction (see previous post).  This is more a bartering/bidding system.

We tossed around themes – one of them Urban Farming, which got nixed – and finally came up with a game about trading and collecting baseball cards.  The players would meet at school and bid for baseball cards (trade).  The game would be a set collection game where players are vying for team sets, rookie sets and All Star sets of baseball cards.

Once the bidding/trading round has finished then players would get one or two actions to help expand their collections.  The actions would include:

• Getting cards signed to increase their value
• Putting cards in a trophy case to increase value but not to be included in sets
• Going to the store to buy a booster pack (drawing random cards from a deck)
• Go online and auction a card (players gamble on monetary return – could be good or not-so-good)
• and others to be thought of

The number of players that can complete and action would depend on the number of players playing the game.

More to follow…

Tower of Doom re-visit and a 2-player bidding game idea

Tower of Doom is a work in progress.  I have a prototype and play tested a couple of times.    If you search my posts you will find a few posts about the game.  Though I have not worked on it in a while, it is still at the forefront of my game designs.

The other day I shared the idea with a fellow designer on Google+.  He suggested that a reverse variant may be interesting.  In the Tower of Doom players play heroes who are trying to escape from the top of a tower by removing bricks (a la Jenga).  The more bricks they remove the quicker they descend down to the bottom of the Tower.  If any of the heroes die (it is a coop game) then the players lose.  If the Tower falls the players lose.  The suggested variant takes the heroes from the bottom of the Tower to the top.  The heroes are attacking the Tower of Doom, trying to reach the top to defeat the toughest of monsters.  This variant would be tougher as drawing bricks from the lower levels would make this game much tougher.

Another issue with the game in early play testing was how to determine when and if the tower collapsed.  I have decided that if the Tower collapses to the level that the heroes are on then the heroes fail and the game is lost and that if players displace bricks by accident but the Tower does not collapse then for every brick displaced the team takes damage.  The players assign damage as they wish – think of this as a rafter or beam collapsing on the heroes.

Is it possible to have a two player bidding game that works?  I cannot think of one that works…though there are some blind bidding games that are designed for 2 players and up. What if the players bid went to the other player?

Bad Elf update – play test #4

Last night I got to play test Bad Elf with friends.  The couple I gamed with are experienced gamers and were interested in trying the game.  Though I will be replacing the conveyor deck with a central board and a random draw bag for the presents, we played with the conveyor deck.

They both liked the game though were not singing its praises as the next Ra.  The feedback was excellent.  One issue the game has is caused by players passing on the bidding phase to avoid taking coal.  While this is a valid strategy there should be a consequence for passing.  After discussion, it was decided that when a player sends no elves to the conveyor belt they must send a minimum of two elves to the loading zone.  These elves can reorganize or trade presents on the sleigh as per the rules.  This means that players will not be able to pass and then have a full compliment of elves to bid with next turn.

In order to make this option clear to the players, one of the zero elf cards will be edited to have two small elf heads with the words loading zone underneath.

This change will also have a change in bidding patterns.  Now no player may bid 7 elves as this would leave no elves to bid in the next round…a bid of zero requires a minimum of 2 elves (that would be sent to the loading zone).  Now a maximum of six elves is the possible maximum bid.  There is a  risk to bidding 6 elves.   If a player bids six elves then for the next round they will only one elf left.  One elf is a must bid as a bid of zero elves requires two elves to be sent to the loading zone.  Though this sounds complex, I think it will add some extra strategy to the bidding process.

Because a bid of six elves is risky – due to the fact that the next bid is a must bid of one elf – this 6 elf bid now replaces the Pixie Dust Card.  Any player sending six elves will get the choice of any group of presents no matter what placement they are on the conveyor.

Now to re-prototype with the central board and with the new Dwarven Mining theme.  The suggested new name for the game is NINJA DWARF.

2013 – Will it be an EPIC year or maybe even Legen…wait for it…dary year!

The Christmas season is over and I am back to work tomorrow.  I managed to play a game every day of December except one!  I also received a couple of Runebound expansions, some Redakai decks and I supported boardgamegeek for the first time (long overdue).

My goal this year is to submit at least one of my game designs to a publisher.  I will keep working on building the ‘amateur’ game design community through Google+ and other forums.

I have a Kamloops Family Game Night scheduled for January 23rd and will keep helping any elementary schools in Kamloops that want to promote board games in the classroom.  Also, I am going to spend more time with my daughter and will be introducing her into my world of geekdom.  We will play games, read books, watch movies, build things and generally have fun.  I want my daughter to be a geek (or rather a Renaissance girl) and a G.E.E.K. (a Genuine, Empowered, Enthusiastic Kid).  I will be starting a blog that will follow all the wonderful activities that we do together.

Google+, more than just a social network

For those of you who don’t know about Google+, it is a social network formed by the people at Google.  However, it is very different from Facebook.   Google+ allows you to place your contacts in circles.  Then when you post a message you can direct that message to a certain group of people (as defined by your circles).  You can make the post public if you wish.

I have several game related circles:  Gamers, Game Publishers, Game Designers, and G+ GameLab.

The G+ GameLab is a group of individuals that are interested in game design.  Every now and then we hold a hangout (think a Skype meeting) where one of the members of the Circle presents a design they are working on and then this is followed by a discussion and critique of the design.

Now, Google+ has added Communities.  You can start a Community – I have started a Board Game Design Community – or join a Community – I am a member of two Board Game Communities, two Game Design Communities and an Arsenal FC Community.  Communities have categories where people post anything related to the Community that they wish.  These Communities are moderated.  I help moderate a Board Game Community and moderate my Board Game Design Community.  These are great places to share ideas, resources and information.

Google+ is about the sharing of ideas, unlike Facebook which is about the sharing of every silly little thing you are doing and when you are doing (and Farmville etc…).

Here are the links to some communities you might be interested in:

Board Game Design – 81 members

Board Games – 380 members

Gamecraft (RPG, miniatures, board and card game design) – 243 members

Board Games – 129 members

Cooperative games and how to let people make their own decisons

Many cooperative games end up being controlled by a dominant personality or a gamer who has a lot of experience in the game being played.  Group decision making is fine but one person making the decisions for all is not.  So, how can a cooperative game be designed where everyone makes up their own mind and creates their own strategy.  Some strategies include hidden information (Lord of the Rings to a certain extent) and simultaneous decision making (Space Alert – everyone agrees to do something but then the programming happens simultaneously).

I have another idea.  What if the decision a player makes might not be the best for the team in the short term but may help in the long term.  Imagine a game where players take on the role of a police detective.  All the detectives are working to solve a big crime while solving smaller crimes along the way.  The smaller crimes do not give any benefit to the team but allow the player to ‘level up’ who solves them.  This levelling up gives benefits to the team in the long term.  Now, I know many will say that the dominant player may still control the game by ‘telling’ the players when to solve small crimes as opposed to going for clues in the big crime but I think it might help.   Just another brain cramp I had while at home  🙂

Happy 2nd Anniversary!!

I am going to give myself a pat on the back!!  I have been blogging for four years now but this is the second anniversary of my Game Design Blog!!!  This anniversary reinforces a number of things to me:

1. That the hobby of board games is an important part of my life
2. Designing games and being creative is just as important
3. That I am getting great support from my family, friends and other designers

THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING AND READING MY BLOG!