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A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

13 replies [Last post]
Tue, 07/20/2004 - 18:04
Anonymous

I got the idea while playing Seafarers. What About a pirate game that takes place in a big ocean with small islands. I want resource trading similar to Settlers, but I also want the feel of a pirate game. So here are a few ideas I have written down so far.

- Resources
Rum
Doubloons
Plank
Sail

-Small islands on the corners of Hex's that have a nationality, a defense rating and a value if you plunder it.

-Be able to control 2 or 3 ships and upgrade them using the resources

-Weather needs to play a factor

- As does nationality or being of no nationality and be a pirate.

What do yall think.

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Tue, 07/20/2004 - 18:52
#1
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

Crew? Cannons? Ammo?

Are you going to have ship battles with broadsides, etc? Boarding parties and fencing?

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Tue, 07/20/2004 - 20:28
#2
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

ekted wrote:
Crew? Cannons? Ammo?

Are you going to have ship battles with broadsides, etc? Boarding parties and fencing?

I want to keep the gam simple for now, maybe later I can "expand" it. Of course the game will be modular.

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Tue, 07/20/2004 - 21:42
#3
dr_Edge69
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Joined: 12/31/1969
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

i think it's hard to let your imagination side free when you base your creation on an already made game

you can use some of the mechanism but i think you need an original idea first and then if you feel the need to incorporate some already known mechanism you can.

If you use the hexagon and the ressources, maybe you'll ask yourself why i'm i giving me the trouble to create a game that already exist but with a different theme

I think you must use your theme if you like to but try to get away from the settlers mechanics, you'll be proud of yourself :)

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 01:57
#4
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

Good point. I may have said something I meant to say differently in my first post. What I meant to say is I got the idea for the game while playing Settlers.

I like the player interaction when you trade resources in settlers. And I want to incorporate that aspect into a pirate game.

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 02:19
#5
sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

galeninjapan wrote:
I like the player interaction when you trade resources in settlers. And I want to incorporate that aspect into a pirate game.

I love the idea of a pirate game, and I've put a little thought ito it in the past, but the one problem I see with your suggestion is this- Pirates don't trade. They plunder, maybe whore and drink a bit, say silly things like "Aye! Avast!" (or so thought Will Turner in Pirates of the Carribean), but there aren't a lot of steroetypes about pirates trading.

Now, if the players are merchants of some kind, and they trade with each other, and then there are pirates... that might work out. But then you are either playing Settlers or Hansa (and adding a pirate which frankly ought to be in there anyway).

Good luck with your idea, and if anything strikes me I'll post here abou tit so maybe it'll help you out.

For what it's worth, my pirate idea was a lot like Puerto Rico with Role Selection. There were diferent ships, each with a list of available actions, and players placed their crewmen on the ships with the actions they wanted to take. The ships (as one of the actions) attacked trade ships and collected goods or treasure, but there was to be other actions as well.

Another idea off the top of my head is that players could represent military forces from various countries, all being menaced by pirates, they could 'cooperate' (trade and whatnot) in order to go after the pirates.

- Seth

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 07:15
#6
IngredientX
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Joined: 07/26/2008
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

dr_Edge69 wrote:
i think it's hard to let your imagination side free when you base your creation on an already made game

you can use some of the mechanism but i think you need an original idea first and then if you feel the need to incorporate some already known mechanism you can.

I'll respectfully disagree. I don't think there's a problem starting with an existing idea, especially if it's based on Settlers. That's because it's not where you start, but where you finish.

Personally, I'm a "hobbyist designer," so my eventual goal is just to make a good game, not a sellable one. So I wouldn't mind if my finished design still incorporated many of the Settlers rules and equipment; I'd just say it was a Settlers variant. There are tons of wild and imaginative variants for the game out right now, featuring crazy rules like balloons, trains, race cars, and yes, pirate ships (though the pirates are never player-controlled, so you have plenty of room for your ideas).

On the other hand, if you do want to eventually sell this, there's no reason you can't start out with the Settlers system, with the goal of adapting it to a pirate game. Chances are, the system will not do what you need it to do, and you'll have to alter it significantly. By the time you finish, it may not resemble Settlers at all!

So I'd suggest starting with stapling pirate rules on Settlers equipment. If you wind up changing the basic Settlers rules, then you have your own game. If not, you'll probably have a kick-ass variant.

Good luck!

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 12:06
#7
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

What would be a good quick, but fun battle system for the ships?

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 12:17
#8
Scurra
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Joined: 09/11/2008
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

galeninjapan wrote:
What would be a good quick, but fun battle system for the ships?

Let resource cards double up as "cannon balls" and "sails" as well (some are one type, some the other.) Players would have to discard resource cards from their hand in order to fire and dodge. Simple comparisons would do. If a ship has upgrades, then damage would destroy them. Once it's run out of things to be destroyed, the ship sinks.

Player A has a ship with 2 cannon. Player B has a ship with one cannon.

Player A chooses 2 cannon balls and 1 sail card from hand to play.
Player B chooses 1 cannon ball and no sail.

Player A's Sail cancels out Player B's 1 cannon ball, so they escape unscathed. But both of Player A's cannon balls hit Player B. The first destroys the installed cannon, the second sinks the ship since it has no more defences...

It's a bit arbitrary, but it makes a decent extra choice mechanic since you can't just pass off your resources for building but you need to keep some back for combat. If you impose hand-size limits, this should lead to some tense moments. (For extra fun, maybe a ship can't fire more cannon balls than it's actually got cannon!)

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 12:40
#9
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

sedjtroll wrote:
I love the idea of a pirate game, and I've put a little thought ito it in the past, but the one problem I see with your suggestion is this- Pirates don't trade. They plunder, maybe whore and drink a bit, say silly things like "Aye! Avast!" (or so thought Will Turner in Pirates of the Carribean), but there aren't a lot of steroetypes about pirates trading.

Now, if the players are merchants of some kind, and they trade with each other, and then there are pirates... that might work out.

I think that's dead on the money, pirates could plunder from eachother, but I can't see trade as anything but pasted on.

You could mix the two (if you really wanted trading). Allow players to choose what role they want to play (merchant, pirate, navy, islander, etc.) and then let everyone go at each other. Perhaps as each grows, they could build more ships and there could be more interaction on the high seas. (Sorry, this may be getting beyond the quick and simple game you envisioned).

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 12:59
#10
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

How about this, You pick rols Ala Purto Rico. The roles could be.

Pirate
-Everyone can attack merchant ships or each other

Trader
-People can trade with each other or ports that are not hostile to them

Builder
-You can repair your ships or upgrade or buy new ships if you are in port.

movement
-Everyone can move their Ship(s)

Event
-Draw and even card and that card play out

Do you think it would be better to have one nation under all the islands or multiple nations? I want to keep the game some what simple.

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 13:00
#11
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

SiskNY wrote:
sedjtroll wrote:
I love the idea of a pirate game, and I've put a little thought ito it in the past, but the one problem I see with your suggestion is this- Pirates don't trade. They plunder, maybe whore and drink a bit, say silly things like "Aye! Avast!" (or so thought Will Turner in Pirates of the Carribean), but there aren't a lot of steroetypes about pirates trading.

Now, if the players are merchants of some kind, and they trade with each other, and then there are pirates... that might work out.

I think that's dead on the money, pirates could plunder from eachother, but I can't see trade as anything but pasted on.

You could mix the two (if you really wanted trading). Allow players to choose what role they want to play (merchant, pirate, navy, islander, etc.) and then let everyone go at each other. Perhaps as each grows, they could build more ships and there could be more interaction on the high seas. (Sorry, this may be getting beyond the quick and simple game you envisioned).

The thing is that most pirates were traders, they just went bad.

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 13:23
#12
Anonymous
A Pirate Board game using the Hexes and similar to Settlers.

:lol:

Very true!!

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Wed, 07/21/2004 - 16:59
#13
sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
Retraction(?)

sedjtroll wrote:
For what it's worth, my pirate idea was a lot like Puerto Rico with Role Selection. There were diferent ships, each with a list of available actions, and players placed their crewmen on the ships with the actions they wanted to take. The ships (as one of the actions) attacked trade ships and collected goods or treasure, but there was to be other actions as well.

For what it's worth, this idea which I mentioned as mine was in fact based on some discussion I had with jwarrend about a pirate game he was working on. I offered suggestions (along the lines above) which I thought might be helpful, some of which may have been and some of which may not have been. I do not know the status of Jeff's game at the moment, but I certainly didn't mean to steal any of his thunder by claiming any of his ideas as my own.

- Seth

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