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.

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

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

BLOG

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