Skip to Content
 

GDS July 2005 entries thread

10 replies [Last post]
Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008

Game Design Showdown
July 2005 Challenge - "Bits and Pieces"

This challenge is now closed for new entries

My design table is covered with pieces scavenged from old (and new!) games, ready to be used in some upcoming prototype or other. I picked up a random sample the other day and wondered what sort of game I could make using these bits.
So the challenge this month is a little different. Instead of a theme and genre, I’m giving you a set of components, all of which should be incorporated in some fashion into the final design. This does not mean you cannot include additional components not listed here!

Notes:
1. Not every listed piece needs to be used in every play of the game. For instance, if 5 different colored pawns were listed, you could use them as scoring markers in a game that could handle up to 5 players. But all the different components must be used.
2. Assume that when five different colors are stated, they are the same five colors each time!

Component List
155 Wooden cubes (31 each of five different colors)
50 tiny Wooden disks (in one single color, Brown)
36 plain double-sided square cardboard Tiles (blue on one side, red on the other)
30 cardboard Shield tokens (in one single color, Blue, with 10 each of three types, labeled 1, 2 and 3)
16 Wooden disks (in one single color, Yellow, numbered 1 to 16)
15 plastic Pawns (3 each of five colors)
10 six-sided Dice (2 each of five colours)
10 Wooden Elephants (in one single color, Brown)
5 Wooden markers (in the shape of a chair, an onion dome, a head, a plain square and a dragon)
Cash (in 1,5,10 and 50 denominations)

Mechanics Limitation:
Auction: There should be an auction that occurs more than once during the game

Voting: 22-July-2005 through 28-July-2005 - Vote by pm to Scurra here

You should vote for your top three entries. I shall award points on the patented Brykovian Scoring Scale(tm); 5 for a 1; 3 for a 2 and 1 for a 3.

Be sure to check out the Games Critique and the Questions and Comments threads for more information.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #1 – Raja, by Kreitler

The king has died and left no heir! Ascend the throne by protecting your family, capturing rival nobles, and fortifying your lands.

Object: Earn 10 vp (8 for 2 players).
Players: 2-5

Components:
50 "grain units" (small disks)
36 "territory tiles" (1 side red, 1 side blue)
30 shields (10x1,10x2, 10x3)
16 "market disks” (1-16)
10 elephants
money (25x$1, 20x$5, 15x$10, 10x$50)
5 player markers (chair, minaret, head, square, dragon)

In 5 colors:
31 "wall stones"
3 "nobles" (pawns)
2 dice
1 privacy blinder

Setup
Create markets
Place grain units in a pile.
Place market disks 1-5 face-down next to it.
Flip disk '3' face-up.

Repeat for shields, using disks 6-10. Flip disk ‘8’ face-up.

Repeat for elephants, using disks 11-16. Flip disk ‘14’ face-up.

Each player:
Collects starting pieces
Choose color.
Take associated wall stones, nobles, blinder, dice.
Take $75, 7 territory tiles, 1 "1" shield, 1 "2" shield, 1 random player marker.

Constructs Lands
Arrange 4 territory tiles in a 2x2 square.
Add remaining tiles.
All tiles must border at least one other.
All tiles must form a single group.
Use any desired red/blue configuration.

Places pieces
Place nobles on separate tiles (your Lands only).
These represent cities.
Each uncaptured noble is worth 1 vp.

Take 9 wall stones and build city walls (see "Building").

Place your shields on your Lands (see "Building").

Gameplay
Give an unused territory tile to the oldest player. This is the "season indicator". It identifies the turn’s starting player and season (dry/rainy). Start blue-side up. After each turn, pass it clockwise and flip it over.

The game consists of turns broken into phases:

Production
Cities on tiles matching the season indicator’s color produce grain.
Production (per city) = 1 grain + 1 per stone at wall's widest point (e.g., wall of width 2 produces 1+2 grain).

Starting player harvests grain (from market pile) for 1 city and passes production clockwise. Continue until all producing cities are harvested or grain runs out.

Stack a city’s accumulated grain in a column. If it falls, return fallen tokens to the market pile.

Auction
Bid for “first move rights”.
Starting player bids first.
Next player may raise or pass.
Process continues around until raising stops.
Highest bid loses his money and wins “first move rights”.

Remaining phases: “active player” status begins with the high bidder and proceeds clockwise once around the table.

Commerce
Buy, trade.
Active player initiates trades, other players counter-offer.
Exchange any combination of money, elephants, grain, shields.

Purchase from markets.
Face-up market disks represent market prices for 1 item of each type ('2' shields count as 2 items, etc).
State your desire to trade with a market and declare the type and number of items.
Other players can offer to complete your trade at market price. If so, you must accept. Otherwise, trade with the market.
Buying from market: pay market price, then flip disks to raise the price by 1.
Selling to market: sell at market price, then flip disks to lower the price by 1.
You may trade only once with each market each turn.

Building
Build walls.
Cities have 1 wall, any height and width.
Build 2 stones per grain you discard.
A wall’s stones must touch.
Before placing, declare how many stones you’re adding to a wall.
If the wall collapses during construction, discard fallen stones and those awaiting placement on that wall.
Walls must remain within their tiles.
Curved walls are legal.
Walls with 15+ stones are worth 1 vp.

Deploy shields.
Tiles can hold multiple shields.
Shields cannot occupy tiles containing nobles.

Siege
Active player:

Places player marker on opponent’s Lands.
Cannot place on:
tiles holding other player markers or nobles.
his own Lands.

Can place on:
tiles containing shields.
cities without nobles.

Identifies elephants targeting each city.
He may:
attack only cities orthogonally adjacent to his marker.
use no more elephants than the wall width at its widest point.

Defender declares defenses:
Identifies shields defending each city.
Each shield can defend 1 city, orthogonally adjacent to its tile.
Shields must defend at full strength.
After use, discard shields.

For each city:
Attacker rolls 2d6 per elephant.
Defender rolls 1d6 per shield point ('3' shield earns 3d6, etc).
x = defender's total - attacker's total – stones in wall.
’x’ positive:
Defender removes ‘x’ stones. If wall collapses during removal, defender discards fallen blocks without counting them toward combat losses.
Discard 1 elephant per ‘6’ rolled by defender.

’x’ 0 or negative:
Discard 1 elephant.

If attacker destroys the wall, he may:
Demand ransom payment, or
Take city's noble.
Captured nobles are worth 2 vp.

Cleanup
Remove all elephants and player markers from opponents’ Lands.

Game stops at end of any turn when any player has enough vp.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #2 - Under the Cupboard… - by doho123

…There’s a small mousehole that leads to a wonderful world. A world of delicious nectars and talking elephants, where every object is sprinkled with magic; if only you could convince Nimskill, the Guardian Mouse to let you visit. It has been rumored he likes honey…

Each player gets:
Equal amounts of CASH.
Three PLAYER PAWNS in their color.
Two DICE in their color.

All SHIELD TOKENS are placed facedown, center of table.

The game has four rounds. Each round has three phases:
--AUCTION
--UNDER THE CUPBOARD
--ENTER THE MOUSEHOLE

--AUCTION:
The last player to enter the mousehole, divides up all discarded Honey (YELLOW DISCS) into an amount of stacks equal to the amount of players, any way he wishes. At game start, a random player does this with all the Honey.

Players openly bid using their cash for each stack. Each player can only win one stack per round. All cash paid is removed from the game.

UNDER THE CUPBOARD:
Place Nimskill’s Will Power (50 TINY DISCS) in the center of the table.
During a Cupboard Set, players secretly selects one of their Honey discs and reveal their Honey value simultaneously. Players take turns removing Will Power equal to an amount of Honey followed by flipping over Shield Tokens to remove Will Power. The turn order is based on the Honey value, lowest (goes first) to highest. If any Will Power remains, the next lowest player goes.

The first player may select to flip 0 to 4 Shield Tokens. After that, a player can only select to flip up to one less than the previous player.

(Player one flips 3 Shields, the next player can flip over up to 2. If the second player chooses to flip over 1 or none, no others players can flip shield tokens this set).

If all players have played their Honey, and NimSkill still has Will Power left, the set starts over again, with players secretly selecting new Honey. The lowest Honey Player again can choose up to four shields.
If Nimskill’s Will Power is reduced to zero, the Cupboard Phase ends, and the player who removed the final Will Power gets to ENTER THE MOUSEHOLE. This player is called the GUEST. Other players are called HOPEFUL.

ENTER THE MOUSEHOLE:
--Build a 6X6 grid using the BLUE/RED TILES, all tiles start RED.
--Starting with the Guest, players take turns flipping any tile to BLUE until 18 are BLUE.
--The Guest randomly places one Nectar (COLORED CUBES) on each tile.
--The Guest place his Pawns on the tiles. Followed by the Hopefuls doing the same. One Pawn per tile.
--The Hopefuls place the ELEPHANTS on tiles without Pawns. (3 elephants on the first three rounds, all un-owned elephants on the last).
--The Guest removes two of his pawns from the tiles. He will be moving the remaining Pawn.

The Guest moves by:
Rolling his dice, and selecting one of them.

The Guest MUST move the amount of tiles, in any NSEW direction as indicated by the selected die. The Guest may “wrap around” the board.

The Guest can ONLY move to a tile that has a Nectar on it and is the opposite color of the tile the Guest is currently on. Unless the Guest rolls 2 sixes; then he may jump to any tile.

When a Guest lands on a tile with a Hopeful Pawn, the pawn is returned to it’s owner. The Hopeful Owner also gets ownership of the Magic Item (WOODEN MARKERS) related to the color of the Nectar on that tile. (ex:red-dragon, yellow-onion, brown-head, blue-square, green-chair). Magic Items can move from player to player this way.

When a Guest lands on a tile with a Nectar, he keeps it in his temporary Stash.

When a Guest lands on a tile with an Elephant, he keeps it in his temporary Stash, and may leave the Mousehole. Leaving the Mousehole let’s the player keep all items in his temporary Stash. If the Guest does not wish to leave, he rolls the dice again.

If the Guest cannot move to a opposite color tile with Nectar on it, the Guest is expelled from the Mousehole! Everything that was collected in his temporary Stash is returned “to the bank.” Collected “stuff” from previous Mousehole visits and Magic Items are not returned.

If a player leaves or is expelled from the Mousehole, a new round of the game begins with the Auction setup. The game ends after the fourth visit to the Mousehole.

GAME OVER:
Points are awarded for:
Nectars collected, double points for Nectar that matches the player’s color.
Elephants collected.
Value of leftover Honey.
Ownership of Magic Items. Bonuses for Magic Item combos (chair + dragon = the Dragon King)

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #3 - The Game Designers Game - by grayscale
For 2 or more players

SUMMARY
You're a game designer trying to create the next great gaming sensation. First, combine Elements from the zeitgeist into Ideas. Then beg, borrow, or steal Ideas from competitors, but try to be diplomatic about it, because the final showdown is Peer Review.

EQUIPMENT
A large assortment of game pieces.
Cash.
Paper and pencil.
1-minute timer.

ELEMENTS AND IDEAS
Since you're not actually designing games in this game, the process is represented abstractly by an assortment of pieces called Elements. You create an Idea from Elements by physically stacking them so that different but related Elements are touching. For instance, start with a wooden elephant as a base, then add a wooden 3 disk because they're both wood, then add a blue 3 shield because they're both 3, then add a blue wooden cube because they're both blue, then add a red die because they're both cubes, and so forth.

Ideas with 1 or 2 Elements are Marketing Ideas. Ideas with 3 or more Elements are Game Ideas. The collection of all your Ideas is your Game.

If there's any dispute about whether an Idea is valid, the final arbiter of what's acceptable is a vote by the other players.

There's no particular interpretation attached to the Elements. Your Ideas do not have to mean anything, but having a good explanation may help you during Peer Review.

PLAY
1. Brainstorming: Place all Elements in the center of the table. Start the timer. Players simultaneously take Elements from the center using one hand, one at a time, until the timer runs out. Remove any unclaimed Elements.

2. Financing: Stack the cash so that low denominations are on top. Every player counts how many Elements they have. Then starting with the player with the most Elements, pass out the stack of cash so that the total number of bills plus number of Elements is the same for every player, and every player gets at least one bill. So if the players have 11, 10, and 3 Elements, the first player gets 1 bill, then the second gets 2, then the third gets 9. Note, this is number of bills, not value of bills. The cash advantage is supposed to become skewed when the low denominations get used up.

3. Development: Start the timer. Players arrange their Elements into Ideas until the timer runs out.

4. Redevelopment: Take turns starting from the person with the most cash and continuing clockwise. You put up an amount of your cash for auction, and the other players bid for that cash by offering Ideas. The value of a bid is number of Elements minus number of Ideas, so 4 Ideas each with 3 Elements would be worth 8 points. On ties, you get to decide which bid is better. The Ideas you get from an auction can be combined with Ideas you already have, but you can't split any Idea or remove Elements from any Idea. Auctions continue until nobody sells any cash, either from choice or from lack of bidders. If an Idea collapses in this phase, you can choose to reassemble it identically, or remove it from the game.

5. Exhibition: Take turns starting from the person with the most Ideas and continuing clockwise. You have 1 minute to explain to the other players what your Game is about and why it's great. After all the presentations, each player ranks the Games from best to worst. Include your own Game in your ranking. For each ranking, give 10 points to the best, 9 points to second best, etc. Add up all the points, and award each player cash equal to their score.

6. Publication: Change your cash to the smallest number of bills possible. Set aside your Marketing Ideas (the ones with 1 or 2 Elements). Arrange your bills on top of your Game Ideas any way you like, then place your Marketing Ideas on top of your bills. If any Idea collapses in this phase, it's removed from the game.

7. Peer Review: Take turns starting from the player with the lowest vote total and continuing up to the highest. Pound the table with your fist. Any part of the table is fine, but you immediately lose if you touch any Elements or cash. If an Idea collapses, the Idea is removed from the game, and any bills that were supported by the Idea are also removed from the game. If any remaining bill is touching the table, you win that bill and any bills above it, but half of that amount (rounded down) goes to the Game's designer. Repeat the cycle of players until all the bills are gone.

8. Scoring: Count the cash you received in Peer Review. Highest total wins.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #4 - Found Objects - by Hamumu

Overview
Having no artistic talent, yet longing to succeed in the art world, you and your fellow players work at an art supply store, purveying exotic art supplies to the avant garde. Your goal is to attain fame as the supplier for the greatest artists in (modern art) history! Knowing of this, your boss actually auctions off working hours to you each week. Of course, he also generously offers the services of his team of cat burglars, so it’s not all bad.

Players: 3-5
Time: whatever

Ridiculous Components
31 “Marble Block” cubes in 5 colors
50 tiny Poop disks
36 Masterpiece Tiles, red on one side, blue on the other
30 Burglar Mask tokens: 10 each numbered 1, 2, and 3
16 Work Hour disks numbered 1 to 16
3 Paint Bucket pawns in each of 5 colors
2 Dice each of 5 colors
10 Elephants
5 Inspiration markers (Chair, Onion Dome, Head, Square and Dragon)
Lots of Cash (1’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 50’s)
A deck of 50 Art Cards, example:

Setup
Lay out the Masterpiece Tiles in the middle of the table in a 6x6 grid (colors at random). This is the Masterpiece Board.
Each player selects one of the Inspirations and one of the 5 colors. Settle disagreements with only as much violence as necessary. Each receives:
- Their Inspiration
- 10 Marble Blocks, 1 Paint Bucket, and 1 Die of their color
- $200 Cash
- 3 Art Cards, to be kept face up in front of them

Gameplay
Each Week begins with 8 auctions. For each auction, draw two Work Hours and one Burglar Mask at random. Players will bid on this package. Starting with the player who holds the Dragon Inspiration, players bid or pass, going clockwise. Once everyone has placed a bid or passed, the package is awarded to the player who bid highest, and that player pays their bid into the bank.
Continue until all 8 auctions are complete.

The player with Work Hour 1 then takes their turn, and so on until all 16 Work Hours have been played. On a player’s turn, they may take one of the following actions:
Get Inspired: Rotate all Inspirations one player to either the left or right.
Steal: Spend any number of Burglar Masks (the number on the token indicates how many Burglar Masks that token is worth) to take that many items from a single other player. You may never take Inspiration, Art Cards, Work Hours, Burglar Masks, or Cash. You may steal items from the bank (the art supply store) at a rate of 2 items per Burglar Mask, as long as items remain to be stolen. Note: Elephants are heavy, they take twice as many Burglars.
Trade: You may offer a trade of any combination of items with any other player. The other player may accept or reject. You may never trade Inspiration or Art Cards.
Supply An Artist: If you have the proper Inspiration and supplies, you may discard the supplies to complete one of your Art Cards. You may only complete an Art Card if the pattern shown on the card occurs on the Masterpiece Board, in any orientation. You receive the cash value on the Art Card, and turn it face down in front of you. It may not be turned face up until the game is over. Draw a new Art Card to replace it.
Critique: You may place a Poop (from your supply) onto any Art Card that has been completed by any player. Each Poop on an Art Card decreases its Fame value by 1 (minimum 0).
Shovel Poop: You may collect one Poop for every Elephant you have. You may also remove one Poop from any one Art Card.
Redefine The Boundaries Of Art: Flip two tiles of the Masterpiece Board over, changing their color.
Advertise: Draw a new Art Card and discard it or one of your existing Art Cards.

Scoring
Once someone has completed 5 Art Cards, the current Week is played to the end, and the game ends. Add up the Fame value on all completed Art Cards (subtracting any … critique they have received), separating them not by player, but by the Artist on them. The Artist with the highest Fame is the greatest artist in modern art history. The winner is the player who holds the Art Cards that contributed the most to that artist’s Fame. In the event of a tie, the person who holds the most Fame overall is the winner.

(If you’re wondering, the Dice are just one of the art supplies, used in such works as "Dogs Playing Poker")

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #5 - The Fall of the Raj - by Sebastian

Trouble is fermenting for the British, as the revolution in India takes shape. In this two player game, you take the side of the British, attempting to keep India's riches for themselves, or as the people of India, struggling to win independence.

In addition to the components listed in the challenge, you will also need a board, depicting India split into 16 provinces. Place this in the middle of the table. The double sided tiles are economic markers, indicating to whom the profit for that region is going to - blue for the British, red for the Indians. Place two tiles on each province, so that one red and one blue side is face up.

The player taking the side of the Indians takes the following pieces:

155 coloured cubes representing 5 castes of Indians.
5 wooden markers (shaped like dragons, etc), each coloured to match one cube colours, representing the Indian leaders.
15 plastic pawns representing commanders
10 dice
50 cash

The player taking the side of the British takes the following pieces:

50 wooden disks representing the British forces
10 elephants representing the British leaders
30 cardboard shields
100 cash

The Indian player places three cubes of each caste on each province, and leaders on the marked start provinces. The British player places four disks on each provinces, and four leaders on the marked start provinces.

The game takes five years, each year consisting of four seasons. At the start of each year, the action markers (yellow 1-16) are turned face down, shuffled, and divided into four groups of four. At the start of each season, one group is turned up, and there is an auction (standard either raise or drop out). The winning player pays the price they bid, and takes two action markers of their choice. The losing player takes the remaining two.

The player with the highest valued maker places it in a province of their choice which does not already have a marker in it. They may take up to three actions:

o Recruit units - take up to the number on the action marker and place them in the province. Indian units cost one, British units cost three and British leaders and Indian commanders cost five. When an Indian or British leader has been captured, they may not be rerecruited.
o Get cash. Take an amount of money equal to the number on the action marker, for each of your economic markers.
o Move people from adjacent provinces to this one, or from this region to adjacent provinces. You may make at most as many moves as shown on the action marker
o Invest in the region - increase the number of economic markers by one. You must pay 20, but get a refund of the number on the action marker.
o Wrest control of the region (see later)
o [British player only] - Retrieve a number of played shields equal to the number on the action marker.

The key action is wresting control of regions. The player who initiated the battle plays first. The players fight in the following way:

The British player may play up to one shield face down for each man that they have. For each caste, the Indian player may roll one dice of that colour if they have more members of that caste than there are British forces, and may roll a dice for each leader or commander present (to a maximum of two dice). Once both sides have done this, the British may cancel one dice for each leader that they have present. The British player reveals his shields, and both sides add up the numbers. The player with the higher total wins, and flips one of the economic markers from their opponents side to their side.

Regardless of the outcome of the fight, one cube from each caste and one disk from the English are removed from the board. If there are no such pieces, then the commanders may be removed, and if there are none of them, then the leaders are removed.

At the end of each year each player gains 10 cash for every economic marker they have.

The game is won by the British if at any point they have 500 cash, or if they have captured all five of the Indian leaders. The game is won by the Indians if at any point the British only have economic control markers in four provinces or have removed all British leaders. At the end of the five years, if neither side has won by, total the number of economic markers, and the player with the most wins. In case of a tie, the Indians win.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #6 - David and Goliath - by Challengers

David and Goliath is a Role-playing game for two players. You will need a large playing area with enough room for the map of Philistia (the land of the Philistines, Israel's mortal nemeses), a market-place, a battle board and each individual's inventory. Once these areas are prepared, David will pursue Goliath and attempt to destroy him. Goliath will wreak havoc throughout the land and send wave after wave of NPCs to battle David. David wins by defeating Goliath. Goliath wins by demoralizing David, thereby causing him to question his faith.

Map:
Dynamically create Philistia by tossing all 155 wooden cubes into the Map area. Terrain has the following effect on movement:
• red – Battlefield. David must stop and fight any NPCs that have been spawned.
• yellow – Valley (+2 speed)
• green – Rolling hills (none)
• blue – Water (-1 speed)
• brown – Market square (-2 speed) see Auctions and Stampeding.
Adjacent cubes are considered to be one move apart, regardless of the gap between them, except that in no case shall two cubes be considered adjacent if the gap is larger than one elephant's length. Isolated cubes must be tossed closer to the others.

Marketplace money and pieces are kept here until needed:
There are two Philistine religious icons: the chair represents the Throne of Dagon, the dome represents the Temple of Baal-Zebub.
The pawns represent giants (Health = 1, Strength = 1). The war-elephants (Health =2, Strength = 1) are used only by Goliath and giants.

Battle board holds the war-party:
The plain square is the battle board. See Spawning.

Pieces are divided equally between players, unless noted otherwise:
• brown disks – character attribute point markers
• shield tokens – defense modifiers (shuffle face-down)
• yellow disks – auction tokens (shuffle face-down)
• blue/red tiles – morale modifiers (12 blue side up, 6 red side up)
• dice (one of each color) – battle resolution
• money (David gets 200, Goliath gets 800)
• avatars: David uses dragon, Goliath uses head J
• giants: Goliath gets 5

Preparation:
Each die governs an attribute:
• Health (blue) – Determines how hard it is to be killed
• Strength (red) – Determines attacking capabilities
• Speed (yellow) – Determines rate of movement through terrain, but does not affect battles
• Charm (green) – Affects relationships with NPC merchants in the market-place
• Divine Intervention (David) (brown) – ability to self-heal or temporarily enhance strength.
• Berserking (Goliath) (brown) – ability to temporarily enhance strength during the boss battle with David.
Roll all five dice at once. Ones may be rerolled once. Sixes must be rerolled.
Restrictions: David's maximum strength is 2 and minimum charm is 3. Goliath's maximum charm is 1 and minimum strength is 3.
Place the brown disks on the character sheets (left side).
Goliath must spawn a war party (see Spawning)
Goliath places his avatar on any green rolling hill cube.
David places his avatar on any yellow valley cube, then moves first.

Movement:
Speed determines how many squares can be crossed, subject to terrain modifications. Goliath can never attack David directly. Actions depend on the landing square:
• Battlefield – David fights war-party (see Encounters); Goliath spawns a new war-party.
• Market square – David or Goliath on foot bid for items (see Auctions); Goliath on elephant will stampede (see Stampeding)
• Water –healing. Move a marker from "Damaged" to the restored attribute.
• Valley and rolling hills end player's turn
• David lands on Goliath's square

Spawning:
If battle board is empty, and Goliath has units available, roll 1d6 for size of party, including up to two elephants. A war party with at least three giants can guard an icon (see Battle Modifiers).

Encounters:
David vs. NPC – If a war party exists, David must fight each giant individually. Roll 1d6 for each point of strength. Modify the total according to Battle Modifiers.

High total scores a hit (David moves health point to "Damaged", Goliath simply removes dead units from battle board.) When David's health reaches one, he will lose a strength point with each additional hit taken, but can still fight until strength reaches 0. David should retreat if he can't win (if he used any shields, return them to market-place). His morale goes down one (flip a morale card from blue to red) and Goliath's goes up one. If David defeats the war-party, His morale goes up two, while Goliath's goes down two. (See Treasure) Dead units and their shields – if any – go back to market-place.

David vs. Goliath – Boss battle! rules are same as above, except that it's a fight to the finish.

Battle Modifiers:
• Shields reduce hit damage.
Throne of Dagon: +2 to morale if David retreats
Temple of Baal-Zebub: +1 to each giant's attack
• Player with higher morale: +2 to attack
• Any player with morale < 7: -2 to attack
• David can convert Divine Intervention points to strength (up to two per round) if an icon is present.
• Goliath can convert Berserking points to strength (up to two per round) during the boss battle against David.

Auctions:
Entering a market square on foot triggers an auction. Player selects any usable item. The idle player is a proxy for competitive bidders. Players choose an auction token and simultaneously display it. Add Charm to bid. If the player in the market has a higher total, he gets the item. Otherwise, he must pay 2d6 x 10 if he still wants it. Discard used tokens. After eight auctions, the merchants go home.
When Goliath buys an elephant, he can ride it himself or use it for war-parties.

Stampeding:
Because of Goliath's lack of charm, he does much better at terrorizing the merchants:he takes any one item. Stampeding not allowed after eight auctions – it's pointless.

Treasures:
If David defeats a war party, he raids each dead giant by rolling 1d6 and taking ten times the amount from Goliath.

Stat Sheet:

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #7 - The Silk Road Encroaches - by Torrent

3-5 players
Components:
Small wooden disks (population markers)
a 6 sided dice
10 Elephants (silk road markers)
16 numbered disks
Colored blocks in each of 5 colors (influence markers)
3 pawns in each of 5 colors (locations)
Red/Blue Cardboard squares (warehouse markers)
Shield Markers
3 wooden shapes. (Onion, Dragon, Head)
Money

Extra components not in original list:
Wonder Cards - lists of goods that can be turned into VP's (ex, Build a temple for 2 stone 2 wood).
Product Chits (4 produce, 4 consumer goods)
Production Chits (rectangles with either a product, a pure consumer, or a production from a produce to a consumer good)

Large Board of Asia with 16 cities marked, with roads between them. Farms are scattered on the roads as well.

Setup:
Shuffle the number markers, place 9 face down in a row.
Place one elephant on the Capital Space.
Place 2 population markers on each city and 6 on the Capital
Shuffle the production chits, and place 1 production and 1 consumption face up on each city. 2 each on the capital and 2 each on the silk road. Place one produce chit on each farm and monestary.
Each player places both pawns on the capital, receives a set amount of money, and 3 warehouse spaces.
Sort out the produce and consumer chits.
Pawn per player becomes score marker.

GamePlay:
Production (before players begin)
Each farm that has space for a product, gains the one it has a production chit for.

Turn:
Going around the table, players each take a turn.
Players have 2 moves. May move each pawn once or one pawn twice.
At the cities that the pawns are at, players may buy and sell goods from or to their warehouse slots. Each pawn may only access one slot per turn (selling or buying). Each slot may contain 4 goods.
Prices are based on amount of goods at the city, more goods stacked are cheaper to buy but also cheaper to sell. A grid at each city fills up players paying the price still showing on the grid.
Cities with Elephant markers allow players with pawns there to trade with the silk road spot.

Players that sell to a city this turn: choose, either an influence marker or a wonder card. In addition, draw one shield token per product sold.
Influence markers may be saved or played in any city where the player has a pawn.

If a player has influence in a city (as opposed to just being there), they buy produce at one cheaper spot.
The Player with the most influence sells produce to the city at one higher spot.

End of Turn:
Cities that bought a good this turn: Roll the die. If the die is greater than the number of population, then add a population marker. Each player with an influence in the city gets a VP per influence.
Production is run, produce is turned into consumer as allowed by production chit.

Wonders:
Players may lay goods on their face down wonder cards. These are only counted for VP at the end of the game.

Silk Road encroaches:
Roll a dice, on 4,5,6 the silk road adds a city.
Flip the next numbered marker, and place and elephant on that numbered city. Influence markers get an VP each.

Auction:
3 auctions each turn.
Each player going around puts forth a number of shield tokens face up. Going around the table a second round, each player may add a number face down. All are flipped and counted. The winner gains control of the current auctioned marker.
Onion, may choose one produce for free from stack into warehouse.
Dragon, may move an extra space this turn.
Face, 1 VP.

Discard all bid shields into supply.

End of Game:
After the last elephant is placed, there is one more complete turn.

Scoring:
Each city gives one VP per (population+ 1 for elephant) per influence to that player if contested, if one player has most influence, then only he gets VP.
Wonder cards are flipped, if the goods required are on it, then VPs are scored for it.
Most Money scores 10 points.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #8 - Gladiatorial Elephant Cricket Racing - by buthrukaur

Components:
Cubes (31 each)
Red: Damage
Yellow: Stun
Brown: Slip Hazard
Blue: Slide Hazard
Green: Stop Hazard
50 Wooden disks: Poop
36 1” cardboard Tiles: Movement
30 Shield tokens: Attack Counters
16 Yellow Wooden disks: Score markers
15 plastic Pawns (five colors)
10 d6 (five colors)
10 Elephants
5 Team pickets
Cash

Setup:
Each player selects a team marker and pawn color, matching dice and 50 cash. Divide the hazard markers into 5 random piles. Set one movement tile in the center of the table. Players then place 5 tiles edge to edge away from the central tile and place their picket on edge of the 5th tile. Once all pickets are placed remove the tiles, this forms the raceway.

2 player and 5 player setup:


Players then perform an open auction for the hazard pools. Winning player takes the pool he wants and drops it from 12 inches or higher. Repeat until all players have dropped hazard pools. Players place their pawns in a line next to their pickets. Each player places 2 wooden Elephants about halfway between his picket and the next picket. Place the score markers shuffled in a pile in the center of the raceway. Give each player 2 of each attack shield and shuffle the rest off to the side.

Gameplay:
Players closed fist auction for the right to choose to go first or last each turn. Other players take their turns in clockwise order. Each player then rolls both dice or places one die with the six side up. Each player that rolls a 1 on one of his dice will place a poop counter behind one of the elephants not ridden by another players pawn.

The number on the dice is a player’s Action Points. As you spend APs decrement your dice. Players spend APs on one action at a time passing to next left player. Your pawns are moved when you spend your last AP, all tiles you played are removed from the table. You may spend APs for the following:
- Move one of your pawns: 1 AP
You move pawns by placing one edge of a square tile on the edge of one of your pawns. You may move a pawn as many times as you want to as long as you have action points. Pawn’s movement tiles cannot touch another’s. If your movement tile touched or covers a hazard you must resolve the hazard immediately. Hazards are removed from the table as they are resolved. In case of multiple hazards you choose which one to resolve.
o Slip – Riding elephant: left opponent places your pawn next to the elephant. Foot: no more movement tiles for this pawn.
o Slide – Foot: left opponent places a tile for movement for this pawn. This does not require an AP.
o Stop – Riding elephant: no more movement tiles for this pawn. Foot: lose an AP.
o Poop – foot: no more movement tiles for this pawn.
- Move an elephant you are riding: 2 APs
- Mount an unridden elephant: 1 AP
Place red tile on top of elephant. Place a pawn next to elephant on top of elephant when resolved.
- Fight for ridden elephant: 2 AP
If your movement tiles would end your pawn next to a ridden elephant you may place a shield counter on the last tile. You may add additional shield counters for 1 AP each. Opponent may place shield counters beneath his pawn for 1 AP each. When resolving actions both reveal shields at same time. Attacker wins: opponent knocked off elephant and takes stun counter, attacker mounts elephant. Tie defender knocked off elephant. Defender wins: attacker receives wound counter.
- Push pawn: 1 AP
If your movement tiles end your pawn next to opponent’s pawn you may place a red tile next to opponent’s pawn for 1 AP, resolve this tile when resolving your movement.

Pawns ending the round inside the area enclosed by the pickets are returned to their starting picket. Pawns may not be moved counterclockwise across picket lines. Any time something prevents resolving pawn movement completely resolve as much as possible.

End of the turn: attempt to remove wound and stun counters by rolling 2d6. You remove a wound for every 2 above 7 and a stun for every 1 above 7. Each wound counter reduces your AP total by 1. Wounded or stunned pawns may not use APs. All players draw 1 random shield if have less then 6.

When you cross you own picket you take a random score marker from the middle and gain cash equal to the number. Player with most markers is the winner. Ties are broken by most remaining cash.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #9 - Quintessentia - by Paralepsis

for 3 to 5 players
You are a merchant in 16th century Florence. The well-heeled enjoy a considerable luxury during the sweltering summer months – ice, harvested from the mountains and stored in ice-houses to keep chilled fruits and iced wines on the table during important transactions. But melting, theft, corruption and assassination are not uncommon.

Game Object
Host the Duke and genius inventor Bernardo Buontalenti after building at least 3 Estates with Ice-Houses and filling them with ice.

Components
Money
16 yellow Estates
50 brown Ice-Houses
5 Florentines
10 Trader elephant tokens
36 red and blue Ice tokens
155 Trade Goods cubes
15 Sons pawns
10 Confidants dice
30 Guard shield tokens

Setup
Stack the ice, guards and estates in the center of the table.
Each player takes an Estate, a Guard, an Ice-House, both Confidants, one Son and $100.
Each player commits both Confidants as brokers and moves their Son to the ice.
Place the Duke above the lowest-numbered estate, then the rest of the Florentines in order.
Place Buontalenti on the estate of the first player to bring ice back.

Turn Phases
Start with the player to the left of the Duke and continue clockwise for each phase.

1. The Morning – Ice Melts, Ice Auctions, Guests Move.
2. Intrigue – Commit Confidants, Move Sons.
3. The Evening – Entertain guests, sell Trade Goods.
4. Estate – Buy new things.

Movement
Florentines, Traders and ice shipments move through Florence consecutively through the numbers on Estates.

Ice
If you have a son by the ice, you may bid for it. In turn, each player who doesn't pass adds 1 to either the number of blocks or the price per block.
If you pass you are out until another auction. If you buy ice you are out.

Ice melts each turn it is not in an ice-house. Flip one blue to red and move any red to center. Melted ice is worth half.

When all the ice is sold, flip all red ice in the center to blue.

Your sons move the ice to your ice-houses 1 Estate per turn unless you pay traveling costs - $1 for the first estate, doubling the cost each time.

During your Estate phase you may buy Ice-Houses. Each Ice-House at an Estate holds 3 ice and costs $5 more than the previous.

Entertaining

To sell Goods you must entertain Traders. The Florentines have several effects.

Hat = Cardinal – roll your Confidants before committing them
Chair = Architect – purchase new estates at half price, purchase “empty” opponent estates at double price
Head = Duke – go last, buy estates
Block = Captain – buy twice as many guards, receive +1 for intrigue
Dragon = Buontalenti – use half as much ice to entertain, pay half price for new ice-houses, your ice doesn't melt

To entertain a guest you must use ice. You must use 1 ice for each Trader at an estate. You must double the ice you use each turn for each Florentine. Entertained guests will not move automatically.

Traders move from the high numbers down, Florentines from the low up.

You cannot move the Duke. If you have any ice at all, you must entertain him.

Estates can be purchased for $20, $30, $40, etc. An estate with no sons, brokers or revealed guards is “empty.”

To entertain a Trader you must have a Confidant committed as a broker. Florentines require a Son present.

If you don't have enough ice during the Evening you lose it and your guests leave.

Trading

One trader will come to Florence each turn that someone has goods and a broker.

Next to your Estates is your warehouse.

To get Goods, commit one or both of your Confidants as managers - roll and place over your warehouse. Put in as many shown, paying traveling costs for extras, up to six each.

To sell trade goods you must commit one or more of your confidants as brokers over an estate. The value shown will be the price a trader will pay.

Starting with 2 per turn, each Trader at an Estate will double the amount of goods you can sell. Traders will move if you do not have a broker present.

Intrigue

Confidants can sabotage, steal or assassinate. Sabotage destroys trade goods in a warehouse. Stealing takes ice from an ice-house or shipment. Assassination kills a Son or Confidant.

Commit and roll. Resolve any conflict. Guards or confidants can be used as protection. Compare the numbers of the dice and guards. Highest total wins, all guards die except for the last played. The difference is the ice stolen or goods destroyed.

Guards can be purchased for traveling costs and are played face down on an Estate, Warehouse or Son until revealed in a conflict.

Scurra
Scurra's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/11/2008
GDS July 2005 entries thread

Firstly, once again I'd like to say thankyou to the brave souls who faced my challenge in such a variety of creative ways. And to note that it's good to know that none of them will ever be produced in quite the forms outlined here!

Of the nine entries, all of them received at least one first or second place vote, but the top two were well clear of the field for most of the voting, although our third place finisher was never far off the pace. It's worth noting, for those of you who check the statistics, that one rogue voter could only bring themselves to vote for one entry, which made all the difference!

Anyway, without further ado:

1st. #5 The Fall of the Raj (Sebastian) : 27pts (4x1, 2x2, 1x3)

2nd. #4 Found Objects (Hamumu) : 23pts (2x1, 4x2, 1x3)

3rd. #2 Under the Cupboard... (doho123) : 18pts (2x1, 2x2, 2x3)
4th. #1 Raja (Kreitler) : 10pts (1x1, 1x2 2x3)

Of the other entries, the following three all scored one first place and one third place vote!

#6 David & Goliath (Challengers) : 6pts (1x1, 1x3)
#7 The Silk Road Encroaches (Torrent) : 6pts (1x1, 1x3)
#8 Gladiatorial Elephant Cricket Racing (buthrukaur) : 6pts (1x1, 1x3)

leaving our tail-enders, who shouldn't be disheartened, as at least somebody liked their idea...

#9 Quintessetia (Paralepsis) : 5pts (1x2, 2x3)
#3 The Game Designers' Game (grayscale) : 3pts (1x2)

Once again, thanks to everyone who entered, and see you next month. Well, I won't see you next month, as I'm not daft enough to run this sort of thing every time but I'm sure some fool will be talked into it....

Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut