Ok, my brother and I are working on a gameabout lemmings who you guide around by playing tiles of different kinds, and the object is to "kill off" your opponent
Turn Trouble
Tue, 04/01/2003 - 16:02
Mon, 03/31/2003 - 16:30
#1
Turn Trouble
I think what you
Mon, 03/31/2003 - 17:17
#2
Turn Trouble
You could use an advancing turn marker so that the disadvantage is spread out evenly. Consider it to be the penalty for being a high-initiative "heroic" lemming. :)
Basically, put a special marker in front of the first player. Everyone takes their turn. Then move the marker to the next player, who is now first, and the player who was first last time is now last. Always advance the turn marker after all the players have played. This is a clever technique used in a variety of games to eliminate first-player advantage or disadvantage. Using this system, with players A, B, C, and D, the turns look like:
1 2 3 4
A B C D
B C D A
C D A B
D A B C
And then it repeats.
Optionally you can move the turn marker backwards:
1 2 3 4
A B C D
D A B C
C D A B
B C D A
Either way, it evenly spreads the pain out and is very, very easy for players to keep track of.
(edited to fix the fact that I accidentally repeated the first diagram rather than clarifying what the second version really does)[ This message was edited by: FastLearner on 31-03-2003 16:07 ]
Mon, 03/31/2003 - 20:31
#3
Turn Trouble
BTW, the reason you would want to decide whether to move the marker forwards (normal direction) or backwards is to avoid a wave effect. For example, in a 4-player game if it sucks to be first and the turn marker is moved to the next guy, there are 6 turns between the first player
Tue, 04/01/2003 - 05:37
#4
Turn Trouble
Everything FastLearner said. I use that rotating startplayer mechanism also a lot in my games. It not only solves problems, it is also a fun and thought provoking mechanic.
Another trick you might use, is to give the player who lost the most lemmings in a turn or the player with the least lemmings left (whatever suits the game best) some sort of advantage. It should not be such a big advantage that you actually want to lose lemmings, but just enough to be able to catch-up. Maybe let the player draw/play an extra tile in his next turn or something similar.
Tue, 04/01/2003 - 11:42
#5
Turn Trouble
Quote:
01-04-2003 at 01:37, zaiga wrote:
Another trick you might use, is to give the player who lost the most lemmings in a turn or the player with the least lemmings left (whatever suits the game best) some sort of advantage. It should not be such a big advantage that you actually want to lose lemmings, but just enough to be able to catch-up. Maybe let the player draw/play an extra tile in his next turn or something similar.
This seems a more interesting approach - if the disadvantage of going first is that great, then the player with the most lemmings should always go first. A sort of self-righting mechanism.
Tue, 04/01/2003 - 16:02
#6
Turn Trouble
Quote:01-04-2003 at 01:37, zaiga wrote:
Another trick you might use, is to give the player who lost the most lemmings in a turn or the player with the least lemmings left (whatever suits the game best) some sort of advantage. It should not be such a big advantage that you actually want to lose lemmings, but just enough to be able to catch-up. Maybe let the player draw/play an extra tile in his next turn or something similar.
I like this idea, too. As long as the accounting isn
