Monday, May 4, 2009

Uno RPG

Well, in the spree of Uno games that we've been trying to make, we ended up trying Uno RPG. We initially decided that since it was an RP the best way to go would be to try to assign stats to the decks, but it didn't ultimately work out. It was too hard to balance things and we couldn't get it to be fun.

We ended up having a sort of card combat game akin to war but with multiple features. There were defense, heal, damage and magic damage cards. Heal cards regained HP and didn't negate attacks. Defense cards simply negated attacks. Magic and Damage cards simply hurt the other player, but when two of the same type were played the player with the highest value would inflict damage of the value of (winning card value - losing card value). The HP would be set to a certain value and combat would basically go on as long as possible. Essentially like war.

Some potential changes: Remove "magic" damage and change them to "Technique" cards where the player can attempt to do something fancy and/or outside the standard bounds of the rules. Player succeeds if card value beats out opposing value. A set of rules or a DM would have to set how reasonable these actions could be.

-Karl

Monday, April 27, 2009

Deathmath Uno!

Our group today was playing Uno and we decided to play something new after finishing a game after complaining about being bored with it. And so I grabbed the deck and started diving the entire deck among all the players, announcing that I'm making new rules. Deathmatch Uno is actually more about keeping as many cards until the end.

Changes in rules:
There is no drawing deck. Players draw from the bottom of the played cards deck when hit with "draw" cards.

Players lose when they have no more playable cards, rather than still drawing from a pile and continuing.

The player who runs out of cards completely, and not just playable ones wins.

I don't think we changed anything else. It ends up being a pretty interesting game in the end when players are afraid to run out of playable cards.

-Karl

Monday, April 13, 2009

Game revision Thoughts

Today we need to revise a game. And that brings me back to the worst game I've made to date, which was the one for the the business cards. I needed to establish enough rules to make it so that it's even playable. I was thinking of trying to establish some rules that can make the game have elements required to "kill" somebody as a zombie or a human. I was thinking that it might be fun to try to implement complicated speech rules such as a zombie must say a series of sentences that have the letters "Brains" in that order or something like that and it's the human's job to call them on it to kill them.

I intend to speak with my group in class about how I could make it better through some competition like that.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Edits to World Hunger Extravaganza!

Each player rolls the die for prosperity. If no players roll below a 10 or above a 15, everyone rerolls. This is your country's prosperity level. Being above 15 means you can feed yourself as a nation and being below 10 means you cannot.

When the game starts every nation is given 5 tokens for food.

Food consumption chart:
1: Lose 3 food
2-4: Lose 2 food
5-10: Lose 1 food
11-15: Stable food amount
16-20: Gain 1 food.

Is your nation prosperity is above a 15, you may pass up your obligation to roll for events at the costs of 1 food. Nations take turns having events happen in them, and every single turn, nations may trade or give food each other.

Rolling for events- Each turn, players roll to see if anything happens with their nation. What happens depends on the number of the roll. Prosperous nations mitigate all negative events by 1 point. All prosperity effects are permanent unless said otherwise.

1:Civil war: -4 prosperity permenantly
2-4:Famine: -2 food
5:Military uprising: -3 prosperity. If you roll an even number next two turn, it will end. Otherwise it is permenant.
6-8:Rise in food prices: -1 food and nation loses -1 Prosperity
9-11:Drougt: -1 food for this turn
12:Rampant Piracy: -1 prosperity
13:Resource War: You and the person (dice roll value) to your left lose 2 food this turn and -2 prosperity for next turn.
14-15:Stability: No numbers change for you this turn
16-18:Good Rains: +2 food, +1 prosperity for next turn
19:New Agricultural technology: +3 food, +2 prosperity
20:Genetically optimized food: +4 food, +3 prosperity

Winning? You guys are wimps. Maybe you should stop if you can stabilize things for a few
turns, but nothing is ever perfect in the world! Everyone dies or everyone is happy in the end.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

World Hunger Extravaganza!

For making this game, I wanted to do something that was in a way unbeatable. Problems more or less always stay. But beyond that, it's the case that the better off nations help the ones that aren't doing well for things to not collapse. I guess that means that I want the game to be frustrating and annoying, but leave the possibility of success if players don't just work for themselves. We'll see how it plays out during play testing.

On another note, I also tried to make something that doesn't require supplies to be written and cut out since I'm a tad pressed for time this weekend.

Supplies needed:
Tokens,
1d20

Each player rolls the die for prosperity. If no players roll below a 10 or above a 15, everyone rerolls. This is your country's prosperity level. Being above 15 means you can feed yourself as a nation and being below 10 means you cannot.

When the game starts every nation is given 5 tokens for food.

Food consumption chart:
1: Lose 3 food
2-5: Lose 2 food
5-10: Lose 1 food
11-15: Stable food amount
16-20: Gain 1 food.

Is your nation prosperity is above a 15, you may pass up your obligation to roll for events at the costs of 1 food. Nations take turns having events happen in them, and every single turn, nations may trade or give food each other.

Rolling for events- Each turn, players roll to see if anything happens with their nation. What happens depends on the number of the roll. Prosperous nations mitigate all negative events by 1 point.

1:Civil war: -4 prosperity permenantly
2-3:Famine: -2 food
4-6:Military uprising: -3 prosperity. If you roll an even number next two turn, it will end. Otherwise it is permenant.
7-8:Rise in food prices: -1 food and nation loses one prosperity.
9-11:Drougt: -1 food for this turn
12-13:Rampant Piracy: -1 prosperity permenantly
14:Resource War: You and the person (dice roll value) to your left lose 2 food this turn and -2 prosperity for next turn.
15-16:Stability: No numbers change for you this turn
17-18:Good Rains: +3 food, +1 prosperity for next turn
19:New Agricultural technology: +1 food, +1 prosperity permenantly
20:Genetically optimized food: +2 food, +1 prosperity permenantly

Winning? You guys are wimps. Maybe you should stop if you can stabilize things for a few
turns, but nothing is ever perfect in the world! Everyone dies or everyone is happy in the end.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Updating a game!

This week I decided to improve a bit on my bard game, if only to make the rules that we reestablished in class more official.

Revisions:
Bards will now draw cards from three piles. Beginnings, Middles and Ends. THis way they never run out of those parts of the story.

Bards will play as many cards as there are patrons playing.

The * cards for bards and patrons increase or decrease the value mentioned permanently from the victory thresholds for either side, rather than simply increasing the number for that round. A * card with -1 for a bard would make his goal further away. For example placing a -1* when his goal was 23 would make it 24.

The beginning value of the game will be 2*The number of patrons. The goal for victory for patrons is 0. And for the bard victory is at 4*The number of patrons.

I had some thoughts on adding more cards to the game, but I couldn't recall balance issues with the game so I didn't want to ruin anything. Here are some options.

Players alternate between bard and patrons playing. If bards end up overpowered, then they'll play one less card than the bards. Or one more if they end up weaker.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Prototypin'!

Prototyping!

I've found that when I don't think about the game and the game experience that I'm trying to make I wind up with something that's not very fun. It's important that you get an idea for the game before you fully commit to designing it. Especially with programming. How can you possibly commit so much time to making the full product if it's nothing worth following through with.

I think it's interesting that when prototyping for the iPhone, they realized that they had issues with things as simple as not having the right site. Having a prototype representative of the game that it makes, while not being too inaccurate to make it a different experience and not being too similar to make it too much work is important. That makes paper prototyping for a game that might be electronic a legitimate possibility.

I think that prototyping is a way to simply make sure that people get your idea and that your idea is what you wanted it to be to other people. Game developers should absolutely have an organized, set process for testing games before any significant development occurs.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Revisiting Games

I neglected commenting on the game experiences and the thought process during the creation of a lot of the games previously mention in this blog, so I'll be going back and commenting on them here.

Minotaur
This game had some issues with conveying who is where on the map. Design is a bit difficult for the maps because if one person outright makes their maze more frustrating, they win. I don't think that's a good style of determining a victory.

The game had a decent reception, but I think that as a whole, it wasn't fun enough to keep modifying. There wasn't that outrageously enjoyable like I would like to happen. Gameplay just sort of progressed if I recall correctly.

Terra Cube Death Spelunking
I think that this game was ultimately over-ambitious. The board was complicated and hard to follow. I think that since everyone had so many ways to move through the map, it didn't encourage competition. If the game board and map was simplified or maybe if I had a more advanced board where it wasn't such a chore to move from the inside to the outside of the box.

I could stand having a bigger box and larger tiles that are easier to use. Unfortunately, I only had a small square box. The day we played the game, it was warm and uncomfortable and I don't think anyone really had an enthusiasm. I would basically have to rebuild the entire box from scratch. Admittedly, it was a lot of work to make the board and I don't think I could stand rebuilding it to make it more enjoyable, not to mention that I don't have another square box.

I Have a Dream
This game went over pretty well. People had a lot of fun with it and the idea of making more cards to play with worked nicely. It was easily expanded upon and quick fun without having to put too much work into the game. However, it was basically just like Apples to Apples and I'm hardly proud of something that ended up being so derivative. It's important to note, though, that player driven games can be a lot of fun with what's basically very little work.

Business Card game
This one is notably my biggest failure. I didn't build up a good rule base and force gameplay. Also, it was one of those uncomfortably warm days where nobody really had the enthusiasm to play. I struggled a lot with an idea for a game and this one was forced. I think I could have done a better job with this one if I had more time.

Storytelling- The Epic
This game got a pretty good reception with the group. There were some balance issues between the bard vs. the patrons. It's really hard to have something where multiple players are going against a single one. However, this one is absolutely working on.

The theme for this week was storytelling and I admittedly took a really cheap way out of making a sort of "generic" shell to fit the formula since the gameplay is representative of stories. I could probably get away with adding very precise and entertaining bard/patron cards to make the game more interesting.

Gold Rush
This game was a good concept, but I think that it would do better on computer than it would on the semi-game board that I used by making a grid of paper. When playing this game, we revised the rules on just about everything. The tiles are face down and the players don't know where the gold is. It could be anywhere. The rocks all have reactions based on you finding them instead of reacting to you moving near them. Avalanches pile up dirt over the player to give a proper reaction. For example, when trying to dig through the large rocks that collapse, you take damage unless you can spend 2 movement points to get through it and be safe. Otherwise you move through it and take damage.

I think this game had promise and I enjoyed revising it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Theme Game- Wargame

When we ran out of games to play on Monday, I mentioned that I had a half-formed game concept. And from there we had to figure out the rest of the game on the fly. We argued over rules, and then argued over the rules. Afterwords, we played for about 5 minutes, and then argued over the rules. It's pretty obvious that this isn't a very good way to develop a game. Devin is right. Bring up a concept, test it out, and try again. Testing and revision is a better idea than talking conceptual rules. Even if we don't like the new rule, maybe it makes the game play better.

The concept I wanted for my game was a more life-themed sort of Risk-like game. I took away the map because this sort of nation-based complexity wouldn't work per country on a Risk board. Some countries within this game will clearly be at a disadvantage if they get the wrong cards at the start. That's how things work in real life sometimes and some players will inevitably be doomed. I think that's an important element of the game.

Rules:
Setup:

Each player draws 2 random economic and 2 random war trait cards. Players get 4 riches and 4 armies at the beginning and their total modifiers are added or subtracted from those beginning 4 armies or riches.

Traits:
Countries have traits that modify war and riches gain. Every single turn, aside from the first turn, you gain or lose that many riches or armies per turn. Players can not have negative armies, but they must go in debt and take out loans to stay solvent when they are losing cash.

Riches:
Riches can be spent on armies. 2 riches for 1 army. If a player is out of money, they may take out loans. If a nation hits 11 loans, they lose the game. Loans function as normal money, but must be kept aside even from normal cash to show debt. Riches can be used with any negotiation with other players. There are no restrictions on how cash can be exchanged.

Armies:
Armies can be stationed within a country for defense or used to invade other nations. Combat within the game works like Risk's combat: The attacking nation can attack with as many armies as they would like, but may only roll 3 dice for attack. The defender may roll 2. Ties are in favor of the country owner.

Taking over a nation:
When a defending nation runs out of armies, they are an occupied. An occupied nation is still technically owned by the initial owner. The next turn the occupied nation owner gets a turn, they get the total bonus of their cards in free armies for one turn and have a chance to retake their country for one turn. Even if they are negative bonuses, they still are given as armies. Players also are allowed to trade remaining cash with players to buy armies to save their country.

Deals and agreements:
Allied nations get one extra army and one extra riches card every time their turn begins. This number does not increase with extra allies. There must be a return for any alliances and the bonus can not be shared without additional benefits. Any stated terms for alliances must be agreed upon. Loopholes are allowed.

Repairing bad traits:
When a nation has a negative economic card, they are permitted to spend 2.5 the total positive value of the card to make it a positive trait. The positive, fixed card gives a ½ the positive number of the card instead.

Winning:
Players win when all the involved players are finally stable and not at war. This can involve stabilizing all players or eliminating the rest.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Gold Rush: Digging Destruction Edition

Introduction:

When I tried to think of an idea involving a moving game board, one of the things that came to mind was the earth itself. Consequently, I made a game where the players have to move down through the earth and deal with gravity and the instability of what they've done to manage. The game was inspired by dig dug. I think that if anything I need to increase the size of the playing board.

Objective:

The objective of this game is to successfully dig down through the map to the gold cache below. Players dig through the map and exploit the dangerous environment to prevent other players from doing it.


Setup:

Players will randomly shuffle the deck of map cards and place them face up in a 4 x 8 grid. The gold cache will be randomly placed on the bottom. Players will each place their token representing their vehicle above one of the squares at the top.


All players have 8 HP. If a player runs out of HP they will die. Each player draws 5 cards for themselves to hold in their hand. The first player to roll a 3 on a D10 goes first. Play is done in a clockwise order.


The turns:

At any time in a turn, a player can use an item card as long as he is not at the surface. Players roll a d4 to decide how many squares they may move per turn. Moving through an open square takes 1 point. Players can only move horizontally or down. Moving through ground takes 2. When a player succeeds in digging through a square of ground, the square is flipped over to demonstrate that it is cleared out.


When a square is removed, there is a danger of collapse if there is a collapsible rock directly above or a unstable boulder any square above, there will be a tunnel collapse.


The special map cards:

Gold Ore: The game objective. Get here to win.

Unstable Boulders: These boulders are large and indicated with a skull and crossbones on them. When a player moves within 3 squares below one of these by digging, the terrain will collapse and the boulder will immediately move directly above the player. This will end their turn and deal 2 damage.

Oil Caches: Oil caches are indicated by black blobs with an oil barrel within them. When you run over one of these squares, you get two bonus movement points.

Collapsible Rock: When a player moves directly below one of these rocks, it will collapse on their vehicle and deal 1 damage to the player. After dealing the damage, the rock goes away and the squares below shift down one square to fill the place.

Underground Grue Lair: The black mass. If you go adjacent to this square, you take 2844318 damage and die. Players may choose to play without this card.

Old Sovient Landmines: These are the small spiked balls. Going through these mines inflicts 1 damage to the player. Any open spaces within 1 square of them will collapse.


The Player Deck Cards:

Doomalanche: All unsupported open spaces collapse.

Drillaser: Opens up two spaces in a direction of your choice. Players hit by this take 1 damage.

Artificial wall: Place this piece in an adjacent open square to make the next player moving through have to dig to get through the space again.

Mines: Must be placed within an open square. Deal 1 damage when moved over.

Rocket booster: Player can use to move 2 extra squares in any direction including up. If the player hasn't already used a card, a booster can be used to avoid a collapse.

Support Beams: Place to prevent a collapse. Can be used as a reaction to a collapse if the player hasn't already played a card. The space can still be used to move as an open space.


Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sid Meier

Second person in the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame

Big Titles:
Civilization
Railroad Tycoon
Pirates!

Sid's Game History

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization (2008), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (2008), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword (2007), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Railroads! (2006), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Civlization IV: Warlords (2006), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Civlization IV (2005), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Pirates! for Xbox (2005), 2K Games
Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004), Atari, Inc.
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests (2003), Atari, Inc.
Age of Mythology (2002), Microsoft
Sid Meier's SimGolf (2002), Electronic Arts Inc.
Sid Meier's Civilization III (2001), Infogrames
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack (2000), Electronic Arts Inc.
Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (1999), Electronic Arts Inc.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999), Electronic Arts Inc.
Sid Meier's Antietam! (1998), Electronic Arts Inc.
Sid Meier's Gettysburg! (1997), Electronic Arts Inc.
Sid Meier's Civilization II (1996), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Vikings: The Strategy of Ultimate Conquest (1996), GT Interactive
Sid Meier's CivNet (1995), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Sid Meier's Colonization (1994), MicroProse Software, Inc.
F-15 Strike Eagle III (1993), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Pirates! Gold (1993), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Return of the Phantom (1993), MicroProse Software, Inc.
High Command: Europe 1939-45 (1992), Three-Sixty Pacific
Gunship 2000 (1991), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Civilization (1991), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Railroad Tycoon (1990), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Covert Action (1990), MicroProse Software, Inc.
F-15 Strike Eagle II (1989), MicroProse Software, Inc.
M1 Tank Platoon (1989), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Red Storm Rising (1989), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Sword of the Samurai (1989), MicroProse Software, Inc.
F-19 Stealth Fighter (1988), MicroProse Software,
Pirates! (1987), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Conflict in Vietnam (1986), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Gunship (1986), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Crusade in Europe (1985), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Decision in the Desert (1985), MicroProse Software, Inc.
F-15 Strike Eagle (1985), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Silent Service (1985), MicroProse Software, Inc.
Solo Flight (1985), MicroProse Software, Inc.
NATO Commander (1984), US Gold
Spitfire Ace (1984), MicroProse Software, Inc.

http://civanon.org/main.html

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Theme Game: Storytelling

The Epic

In this game, it is the goal of the bard to get the patrons drunk and happy enough to tip him as much as possible. Ultimately the patrons want to get distracted and tip him as little as possible. There is one bard and all other players are patrons.

When the cards I drawn, the Bard and the players alternate between draws. The bard draws, then a patron, the bard goes again and then the second patron and so on. Patrons are always in the same order.

Bard Rules:

The bard has a deck of the number of patrons +1. If there are 5 patrons, the bard holds 6 cards.

When the bard begins his planning phase, he sets out as many cards as there are patrons. His goal is to make the value of his cards played as high as possible. His turn must have a Beginning card (marked with a B) at the start, his stories middle portions must all be M's and it must end with an E. Failure to comply is -2 to his score.

Patron Rules:

The patrons may not communicate about what cards they will play. Patrons may have two cards at a time, and draw new ones at the end of the round. Each patron places his card face down. They are drawn one by one as the bard draws his cards. There are no specific rules on the order of cards to be played.

Card descriptions:

If a card gives business for multiple players it is indicated with (2+: 1 per card). This means that if there's 2 or more players, it's 1 per player).

1, +1 for each player would mean that each card of that type placed gives the value of 1, and then if there are 2 cards placed, you get a bonus of 2 for a total of 4. 3 cards placed would be 6.

Winning:

There are 30 interested patrons in the room at the beginning. Whoever gets the higher score in a round adds the amount that it won the round by to the number of patrons (if you're the bard) or subtracts it from the number (if you're the patrons). Whenever the number of patrons is reduced to the number of participating patrons, the patrons win. If the Bard brings the number of patrons to 45, the bard wins.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Game Challenge 5: The business card.

This information may need trimmed to be put on the card. I figured that since on a business card, you're trying to get your name out there, a social game would be a better fit. And what's more social than players eating each other? Nothing!

On the back of the card: A small indicator of zombie or survivor.

If you were just handed this card you are now either a zombie or a survivor. Unfortunately, this isn't a normal zombie outbreak. Zombies look and act like normal people outside of their terrible hunter for your flesh.

Tell no one which of the two you are. As a zombie, your goal is to infect the remaining players. However, you cannot tell who is a zombie or not. If you eat a zombie, you kill one of your own. If a hunter kills a human, they're destroying the human race. Kill or eat a player by tapping their copy of the business card. You must have your card out while playing this game. You'll find out if they're a zombie or a human after you kill them. Mark your human and zombie kills down on the card.

Social interaction between all players, not mindlessly tapping cards, is encouraged.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Game Challenge 4

This game pretty much came to me through trying not to make another literal board game and some mild brainstorming. I didn't want to do something relating to the most obvious "I have a Dream" concept, which is Martin Luther King. While it could have been done, I had no ideas that could have been put into a non-electronic game form. I figured that this concept for a game might be more fun since it involves  mostly group interaction.

I Have a Dream

Rules:
There are two decks of cards: Dreams to be had and Dream Fragments. Dreams to be had are blue. All other colors are fragments.

  1. Players are all given 5 cards.
  2. Each round, one player is appointed the judge. The judge does not play in the round that he judges.
  3. A random Dream to Be Had card is drawn and placed in view of all the players.
  4. Each player then chooses 2-5 of his cards to make a dream most fitting to the word.
  5. One by one, the players unveil their cards to the judge in their proper order and describes them if need be.
  6. The judge chooses which one is the most accurate and the Dream to be Had card is awarded to the winner in order to keep score.
  7. All players redraw the number of cards they spent during the turn at the end of the round.
  8. The winner is the player at the end with the most Dreams to be Had.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Chess Symbolism

These are the discussions questions for 2/11.
The group members are Karl Scheer, Kate Losiewicz, Nick Chamillard, Cameron Lee, and Disere Brink.
  • Is the game representational? Think about what kind of world or aspect of the world the game might be representing, even if it does not specifically do so.
Yes. The game of chess represents war and conflict and the monarchy in the way that the pieces fight and have different ranks and powers. The king, consequentially, represents power.
  • Are the pieces differentiated? If so, what does differentiation of pieces (or lack thereof) say?
The differentiation says that different people are more important than others. Some are strong and some are not. This is shown in their movement and positions.
  • Can all the pieces or only some of the pieces move? (Note: ‘pieces’ are any tokens)
All of the pieces can move, but they all move differently, once again, this goes back to the power and rank of the pieces.
  • How is space arranged in the game? Is it linear or planar? What might this say about the game?
Space is planar, it show the battle format of the game and two different sides in battle lines just like normal warfare.
  • What are the pieces in the game referred to as? (ex. ‘Men,’ ‘King,’ ‘Bishop’) This is a type of ‘color’ given to the game. What can we learn about the game world from this?
All the pieces have different names according to their rank. The names show that the world has an imbalance of power and that some pieces are better than others.
  • What do the pieces look like? Why are they shaped or colored in this manner? If they are representational, how accurately do they reflect their real-world counterparts?
The pieces all have looks that demonstrate their names (The bishop has a bishop hat, the knight has a horse).
  • Which player moves first? How is this determined?
White player always moves first because the rules say so. This once again shows a bit of inequality.
  • Are there any unique (or humorous) situations that can arise in the game?
When only the kings are left. Without their minions, kings can do nothing.
  • Are there any variations to the game? (including house rules) What aspects of the game do these change?
Speed chess! There are not many prevalent alternate versions.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Before I go on with the rules, I'd like to point out that my posts rarely survive the process of copy/pasting them into the blogger. Anyone who wants a more reasonable format can email me (waffles297@gmail.com) and ask for a PDF or .odt of the rules.

Terra Cube Death Spelunking


Introduction: The world is a dark dangerous and empty place. All that remains in the empty shell of the Terra Cube is you and your opponents, your deaths and the means to eliminate everyone!

The game is played on a box with the map both inside and outside of the box. Players are shown on the map with push pins and the key locations are numbered 1-12.

Every player will have a vehicle:
Players can choose between one of three types that all have their ups and downs.
The Badger- This heavy vehicle isn't as fast as some, but it takes more damage.
The Scout- This vehicle is faster, but has less HP
The Pondpwner- This vehicle has the speed of the badger and the HP of the scout, but it can navigate water paths without penalty.


The goal of the game is to simply destroy the other players. This can be done one of two ways:
1.Outright destruction of the enemies through gathering and using weapons
2.Racing to the super bomb square on the map and using it to deal damage to all players.
At the start of a match, a D12 is rolled to see which pad the bomb starts at and then always start on the far side of the Terra cube from the bomb on the outside on the number pad on that side.
The first play to tag the bomb gets to deal 3 damage to all players and then rolls a D12 to determine the next location of the bomb. Reroll if it is the same location again.
How to set up the players:
Each player will choose a vehicle and will be randomly given two cards
. At any time you can have no more than two weapons attached to your vehicle.
Players can hold 6 cards in their inventory at a time, and no more. Equipped weapons do not apply towards the maximum number.
The players will all start at the same numbered pad and roll to determine who goes first.
How to conduct a turn:
1.Roll your movement die that is assigned through your chosen vehicle card
2.Move the numbers of spaces in a direction that you choose.
1.Playing Chicken- When you choose to turn around and pass a player, you must play chicken with them to see who wimps out first. Players will roll D20s against each other to see who gets a lower number. The first person to roll lower twice in a row loses. If the winner is the person trying to pass, they succeed. If the winner is the person being passes, the player passing takes one damage.
2.Landing on the same space- If you land on the same space as a player, you have to roll a D6 to see if you pass him or stay on the space behind the opponent. 4 or higher passes, 3 or lower stays behind.
3.Water Spaces- When trying to pass over water squares in a vehicle that is not the Pondpwner, each space costs twice much to move through each square. Where you can move 4 spaces from rolling a four on land, you may move two in water. If you have an odd roll or number, round down.
4.Special event space - Using a special event space does not end your turn unless it specifically says that it does.
3.Combat- At any time during your turn, you may use a weapon or card that you have have in your hand unless otherwise stated.
1.All weapon and utility cards have two uses and must be equipped at the beginning of a turn. Use tokens to indicate how many uses are remaining. When a weapon expires, the player may either remove it from the vehicle and return it to the pile of used cards or keep it on the vehicle. Expired weapons can not be kept in the inventory.
2.Weapons can be recharged at ammo caches.


The Special Event Squares:
Special event squares differ from normal movement squares on the Terra Cube because when you pass over or land on them you either are forced to conduct a specific action or are given a choice.
Ammo Cache- At an ammo cache players can do one of two actions. They may either completely recharge one of their existing equipped weapons or gain a new one. If the inventory is full, they must turn in a card.
Caverns- Caverns permit toll-free and easy travel between the over and the underworld. Treat like going over a single movement square and appear at the corresponding cavern entrance below.
Soviet base- These commies have stored their own Super Bomb, but it's not as carefully built! It will deal 3 damage to all players including you. They're willing to sell it to your for one of your weapons. Can only be used once per game. 
Waterfall- This waterfall cascades into the underworld, you appear in the water below it in the underworld.
River- Rivers flow in a specific direction and give a player moving with the flow a +1 to movement on a turn. Moving against the flow is -1.
Dire Cave Mole Ambush- Dire Cave moles ambush your vehicle, you are hapless and take 1 damage.
Volcano- when you arrive at the top of a volcano you flip a coin to see if you plunge through the lava and appear in the underworld or get rocketed out to a nearby square. If you roll heads, you are launched up and move 1D10 squares of your choice away from the volcano.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Updated Challenge 1: Simple Board Game 
Minotaur 1.02


Introduction: My original inspiration on this game was the desire to create something that's easily playable during a class or another boring activity. I wanted something that two players could play together in silence while anyone who needs to remain oblivious to the activity doesn't notice. 

Supplies needed: 
 1.Writing utensils for each player
     *Players should not use pens in order to prevent permanent errors on the       maps. 
 2.1 D4
 3.One sheet of graph paper or a sheet with a grid on it.
 4.Tokens to dictate player position and wall locations on an indicator (5+ tokens)
 5.A "compass" for demonstrating where walls are.
 6.Players should make a compass with the player indicated in the center for showing the other player what's around them. If there is a wall to the north, a token is placed to the north of the compass and so on. 



Description: 
In this game, players will each design a simple maze on their sheet of paper to be hidden from the opponent, whose job it is to reach the end of the maze and get the “treasure” before the other player does. The map will be slowly given away to the other player as he moves through the maze according to the number of squares that he rolls. A series of obstacles (minotaurs) will be placed throughout the maze to prevent the player from having an effortless time through. 

Instructions:
 1.The piece of paper or playing board must be divided into two equally sized pieces of paper where each player will created two 10 x 10 grids of dots. Of these two grids, one should be easily hidden to act as a key for the maze that the player designed.
     *The grid size to be used for the map may be adjustable in order to alter the play time.
     *One of these grids will be a key for the map that the other player navigates and the other for the        player's exploration of their opponents maze.
     *Make sure that the graph paper you use is of an acceptable size so that players can put tokens on it effectively.
 2.On one of the two grids, each player will design a maze with a start and a finish.
 3.Each maze can have up to 4 minotaur tokens in it that the player must roll a 1 to get by. If they roll any number other than that, the opponent will move them back that number of spaces.
 4.If a player encounters a minotaur during movement, he immediately stops moving and must deal with it before continuing.
 5.Once a player is moved back by a minotaur 10 times, they lose the game.
 6.The two players will roll a D4 to see if the player got a 1, 2, 3 or 4 space move.
 7.When a player moves to a square, all the “walls” adjacent to him must be shown to him as well as all openings shown in that square as well.
 8.The first player to reach the finish of the maze wins.

Rules:
 1.All mazes must have a start and a finish that are not only accessible, but have more than one path through the maze. It must have more than one path and an interactive design. Simply expecting a player to move in a single line and take longer is not acceptable.
 2.Players can play the game in one of two ways: Players can take turns going one at a time, or may tally how many turns it took them to navigate the maze.
 3.Players must draw the beginning of their maze for their opponent so that there is no confusion on how to draw the map. 
     *A compass rose for each map is advised. 
 4.Minotaurs may not be placed within 2 squares of each other. 

-Karl

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Challenge 1: Simple Board Game

VA 306- Intro Game Design

Challenge 1: Simple Board Game

Minotaur

Introduction: My original inspiration on this game was that I wanted to create something that's easily playable during a class or other boring activity. Something that two players could play together in silence while the anyone who needs to remain oblivious to the activity doesn't notice.

Supplies needed:
Writing utensils for each player
1 D4
One sheet of paper
Tokens to dictate player position

Description:
 In this game, players will each design a simple maze on their sheet of paper to be hidden from the opponent, whose job it is to reach the end of the maze and get the “treasure” before the other player does. The map will be slowly given away to the other player as he moves through the maze according to the number of squares that he rolls. A series of obstacle challenges will be placed throughout the maze to prevent the player from having an effortless time through.
 

Rules:
1.The piece of paper or playing board must be divided into two equally sized pieces of paper where each player will created two 15 x 15 grids of dots.
2.One one of the two grids, each player will design a maze with a start and a finish.
3.Each maze can have up to 4 minotaur tokens in it that the player must roll a 1 to get by. If they roll any number other than that, the opponent will move them back that number of spaces.
4.The two players will roll a D4 to see if the player got a 1, 2, 3 or 4 space move.

5.When a player moves to a square, all the “walls” adjacent to him must be shown to him as well as all openings shown in that square as well.
6.The first player to reach the finish of the maze (The treasure) wins.

Note: Many of the tasks described above can be shown through positioning of tokens and other silent tasks to keep the activity inconspicious such as using a spinner made from a pen cap to choose the rolls.

-Karl

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

BLOG

In the beginnning, I created the heavens and the earth. And then a blog.