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.

3 comments:

  1. Karl,

    You've got a very interesting game here, with some great color to it. The design of a map on the inside and outside of the box is also well thought out. Remember to include your notes for how you designed this!

    Did you note how long your game took to play? Do you think this had to do more with the number of spaces on the map and the speed at which players moved or with the number of players and the actions that needed to be performed each turn? And more importantly, did they have fun? Most of the players in your group were old playmates. It can be useful to test your game out with new audiences.

    Some rules seem like they could be made more purposeful, such as the Chicken rule. Here, the loser only takes one damage, and that is only if he is the one moving. Perhaps if it had a greater penalty and if it stopped the player from moving on that square. I have visions of Mad Max...

    You may also be able to shorten some of your rules. For instance, Water spaces: try saying something like 'unless you are the Pondpwner, it takes two movement points to move through a water space.' More direct language can be helpful with communicating your rules.

    Great job!

    Devin Monnens

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the players might have had more enojyment from tossing the cube at each other with the tacks sticking out in all directions. I know that was a joke that we had a lot at the table when we were playing.

    You also commented on the speed of the game, that pieces needed to move faster, but that your squares were to small too. If you enlarge the movement spaces some, that will make the game go faster with fewer spaces to move to.

    The Russian made bomb was just plain epic by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think this game was actually quite fun. Maybe having to watch it you felt it moved too slowly, but really it didn't feel dragging at all. I agree with the idea of making the spaces a bit bigger though, and maybe a bigger box.

    Utilizing the box to it's fullest by having the board continue inside and out was a very successful element to this game. ^_^

    I also enjoyed the armor attachments and weapons.

    ReplyDelete