Hi! I've got another crazy idea for a game -- but is it too crazy?
You know the Junkyard Wars show on TV, where two teams have a certain amount of time to take material found in a junkyard (seeded with a few appropriate non-junk things like huge batteries and stuff) and build a machine for a certain purpose? Consider this.
Sell a starter kit with a gameboard (if any) and the "seed" objects for all of the tasks (motors, wires, tools, instruction and safety manuals, Legos, ball bearings, sensors, and so forth). It comes with two big bags full of junk, the contents basically random: bottlecaps, pencils, paper clips, washers, crayons, you name it. The players take a bag at random at the beginning of the game. Additional bags of junk can be purchased as expansion packs.
The goal is simple: a task is drawn at random from a list of tasks and the two teams have 15 minutes to construct a gizmo to do the task. It can't be nearly as complicated as on TV, obviously. The score for the task depends on how well it's done: a bullseye in a target-type thing would be 10 points, a near miss 8, and so forth. First team to 50 or something like that wins.
The junk may be augmented with stuff around the house which isn't in the set if all teams agree to it.
Could this actually work?
Thanks in advance,
ACG
Hi! How about this variation?
The game consists of a junkyard-style gameboard similar to Clue, but the rooms are areas of the junkyard with screws, bolts, wires, magnets, and so forth. The various screws and so forth have various qualities (in the sense of how good they are), with the better-quality tools rarer, so you'll have to go to the magnet department several times to find a high-quality magnet, for instance). Each "store" has a deck of cards associated with it, When the player enters the store, they take the top card.
In the center of the board is the construction zone. Teams must go to each of the "stores" and return to the construction zone to drop off each item. They can only hold one card at the time: if they're stuck with a bad card, they have to drop it off before getting another. They accumulate a pile of cards in the center. They may trade tools with opponents. They move around the board using dice, as in Clue.
At the beginning of each game, each team draws a task from the final deck of cards: projects. The task will identify the machine to be built and indicate what you would need to build it: say 2 motors, 3 screws, 1 magnet, and so forth. Once the team has assembled all of the components they need for their machine, they reveal their card and test out their machine.
In theory, the machine should work. However, because it's unlikely they were able to accumulate all perfect components, there is a chance of failure which increases each time they use a shoddy component. If the machine works, they've completed their project: first completed project wins. If it fails, the components are all destroyed and they have to start from scratch.
Stores have a finite number of tools -- which means that it may be possible to filibuster your opponent by grabbing all the ball bearings (for instance) if he's got a motor which needs ball bearings. You want your ball bearing? Give me that hammer...
Variations:
1. Teams have a certain amount of money and they can spend this cash to buy components. There are no component decks in this case -- but there are price lists. To buy a more precise component, you need to pay for it. Making deals with your opponent may come in handy if you need cash!
2. Both teams go after the same goal. I'm not sure how to do that though.
What do you think?
ACG