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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.