The Rondcala

I have been thinking a lot more about theme and how to make a good strategy game in which the theme works.  In Seth Jaffee’s blog, Cumbersome, he comes up with a great theme for a game – The Knights Templar.  In his game he has a mechanism that combines the traditional mancala mechanism with a rondell.  The movement of tokens around the rondell allows for the control of actions to be taken throughout the game.

Trying to combine theme with mechanism, my thoughts led me to wonder what other themes might naturally fit with the rondel/rondcala mechanic. My only idea so far is something to do with the Knights of the Round Table.  Maybe the rondell is the table and by moving around tokens you activate different knights that have different abilities to help you in your quest.

I guess for theme to fit the rondell mechanism there has to be some kind of circular event/thing used in the setting.  Finca uses a rondell in which you move your people around a windmill to gain fruit.  While the mechanic is cool and I like the game and the windmill fits with the theme, there is not logical reason for people to be moving around the windmill picking fruit.

And so the age old problem persists…how do you make a strategy (Euro) game that immerses the player in the theme?  Is it possible?

More thoughts on Darkness

It has been suggested that my idea about a game where darkness is creeping slowly into a town, enveloping and wiping out the residents, should use real light.  Currently I have a hexagon shaped board with a hex map.  This map will represent a small town.  Black hex tiles with differing levels of darkness will start to invade the town from the perimeter.  The players must either protect the centre of the town from the darkness or create a route out of the town and ‘off ‘ the board to win.  Players can halt the progress of the darkness by creating light (for example – fuelling a generator with a spotlight, protecting the power station so city lights are still working or maybe building a fire).

Thinking about using real light gave me the idea of having a translucent board with a light source from below.  Differing areas of the board would be more opaque than others.  The darkness would place various tiles that would block the light from below.  The more opaque the map section the less opaque (level of darkness) the hex piece would have to be.

Some ideas I have been having

I have had a couple of ideas on themes for games:

1. Holmes vs. Moriarty – a two player game where one person takes on the role of the great detective and the other his arch nemesis.  Could be a card game with maybe some area control.  Each player would control a set of characters.  Holmes, Watson, Lestrade et al on one side and Moriarty, Moran and Adler et al on the other side.  There could be various scenarios with varying win conditions.
2. A game that would be themed around the idea of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Players would draft teams of fictional heroes in order to solve a puzzle or problem.
3. Urban Farmer – with the demand for organic products there has been a growth in urban farming, where families keep chickens and cultivate crops in an urban setting.  I foresee this as an Agricola type game but with events/restrictions.  The events and restrictions would be municipal regulations and by-laws or the chance to cultivate a new crop etc…
4. Bucket List: The Party Game – bucket lists, or things you want to do before you die, are becoming more and more common.  In this party game five cards are drawn with various events that might appear on a bucket list.  People have five tokens (one check marks and four crosses).  The players then place their check mark by the item most likely to be on their bucket list and crosses by the other four cards.  Players then bet who will have the most similar items for each round.  Points are awarded for guessing other players answers.  Players write down their answer on their bucket list card.  At the end of the game the player with the most points wins and every player has a bucket list.  This is a game of discovery, discussion and fun!

Happy New Year and some ‘resolutions’

Welcome 2012!!

I am aiming to make this a productive year.  Here are my goals – or what some might call resolutions (not all are board game related – some are):

• Drink more water
• Walk 10,000 paces a day
• Get my board game business up and running
• No buying of board games (gifts and trading and thrifting are exceptions)
• Lose some serious weight
• Play soccer this year
• Get a job
• Be a more patient and caring husband and father
• Track all games played

GOOD LUCK TO YOU IN THE NEW YEAR

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,000 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!!  We have not quite reached Christmas and yet my December has been filled with gifts of games and the gift of sharing them with friends.

My BGG Secret Santa sent me Panic Station and Jaipur!  Jaipur is an excellent two player game!

My BGG Thrifty Secret Santa sent three games for me – Aton, Rumis and Can’t Stop, six games for Sophie – 39 Clues, Phase 10, Feed the Kitty, Blink, Jungle Speed and Chomp, and one for the smartest person in the family – Spin Out (a puzzle – I am obviously not the smartest or most patient!).

THANK YOU SECRET SANTAS!

I have also played a game every night in December (so far).  Check out my geeklist (link below) to see what I have played:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/76691/an-advent-of-christmas-games

I hope to game lots in the New Year and hope to get Risk: Legacy on the table as soon as possible along with many other games.

In the New Year I will be working on getting the Tower of Doom play tested with the more stripped down version and then slowly add things as needed.  Also, I hope to play test Small Talk and Tombstone (formerly Redemption City) over the holiday break.  I am also pushing to get my new business idea off the ground – GAMED.  A business that links GAMEs and EDucation.

I hope the holidays and New Year bring everything you and your family wish for and need.

May your god go with you.

Twas the week before Christmas…

and all through the home, not a game was designed, not even one based in Rome…

however, the games on the table were set out with care, so everyone could play and have fun there

My apologies for my lack of poetry skills!  Game design has been on the back burner BUT game play has not!   I have been trying to play a game like an advent calendar – playing games every day up until Christmas.

You can follow my progress at:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/76691/an-advent-of-christmas-games

 

Weekend Update

• My December Advent of gaming is progressing – so far I have not missed a day of gaming.  If you want to follow here is the GeekList which I update daily.
• Had a conversation with David Gregg, designer of Nightfall, today.  He is working on a new prototype, Just in Time – a game where players travel through time and space in a town trying to correct harmful events.  He also listened to my idea, Darkness, and gave some good feedback.  The picture below is a mock up of the Darkness board with the darkness tiles starting to invade.

• I have 55 people who have entered my Anniversary contest!  More welcome – check out the earlier post.
• Have stickers that need sticking on Pot of Gold dice game
• Downloaded SoloPlay rules for San Juan and Endeavor – expect to see them as part of my Christmas Advent of gaming
• Taught my seven year old how to play a modified Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.  She had her cards laid out in front of her and I placed counters on the board so she could see her routes.  We each had three routes.  The first to complete their routes wins.  Sophie won!
• Taking Sophie to friend’s for an annual tradition of making gingerbread houses.  Hopefully will get to play a couple of games – I am taking No Thanks! and Apples to Apples.
• GAMING TOMORROW!!  A gaming buddy who has been MIA sent me an email asking if I wanted to game tomorrow night!  HECK YEAH!  With Pam’s permission  🙂

A Gaming Christmas Advent

I am trying to play a game every day over December.  This seemed like an easy task but I was wrong.  We are only on Day 7 and I am finding it hard to complete this goal.  I am playing a lot of games with my 7 year old daughter and have resorted to playing solo games – or solo variants for multi-player games.  I am going to start play testing games and including that as a ‘play’.

Tonight I will be playing Forbidden Island and Taluva solo games.  I already went through the rules of Panic Station which will hit the table tomorrow.  It will be nice to play with friends – once a week is not enough.

PS.  I love playing games with my daughter but Guess Who? can only played so many times.   Tomorrow we will play Rattlesnake, Kids of Carcassonne and I will teach her a variant of  Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.  Here is what I am going to do:

1. Use markers to show which routes she has to complete.  She is a little young to find the Scandinavian countries but I am sure after a few plays she will catch on to some of them.
2. Let her put her cards in front of her in groups – this is not a competitive game so I am not going to block my daughter for the win (unless she keeps beating me)

On the design front:

• Have a Rainbow/Pot of Gold dice game that I am testing
• The Streets of Pamplona tiles have been printed.  Now I have to work on rails
• Cards being printed for Tower of Doom
• Maybe play test Space Pirates game tomorrow (we will see – not feeling good about it right now)

The Darkness

A thematic idea – what if a place were being overcome by darkness – the darkness representing something evil.   Your job is to keep areas of the board lit up until helps arrive.  Maybe it is a co-op game.  The  darkness creeps in from edges of the board depending on how well you defend with light etc…

I can feel the creepiness now…

Any ideas