I'm developing a sort of traditional wargame in a scenario where you have a bunch of Usurpers fighting to unseat a Regent. And in my original vision of the game, like most wargames, players could be eliminated, and the Regent would win by eliminating his competition. But when I consider that I hate being the first player knocked out of a game and then have to watch TV while my friends finish the game, I began to rethink my approach.
The two most plausible solutions to this problems seem to be either changing the Regent's goal or making the Regent a non-player character. If I take either route, players can be kept in the game until a victory condition is met. But there are problems with either solution.
If the Regent remains a player but can't eliminate his opponents, his job becomes much harder. And having up to 5 players harassing you at the same time seems quite hard to balance. It would also seem to discourage the Usurpers from attacking one another, which is something that I am trying quite hard to make a real focus of the game.
If the Regent is no longer a player, then how do I move his troops to not only defend his stronghold, but actively hunt down the weak players? Here, I have come up with two solutions: having the players jointly control the Regent's forces and having an algorithmic approach.
Joint control of the bad guy's troops is not only theme-problematic but funny enough, the math is the killer. I've designed my game for 2-6 players, but the only number of troops that would work out evenly for all numbers of players is 60 troops -- a number well outside of my design scope. 12 (a workable number in my system) troops works for 2, 3, 4 and 6 players, but if there are 5, there would be an uneven distribution of troops, giving 2 players an advantage in controlling more units than the others. This has the added problem of the Regent's troops obviously not engaging the player who controls them.
So I'm considering an algorithmic approach, but I am having a hard time with it. Hunting the players seems impossible, and it seems that unless I fill the Regent's land with troops, players will be able to anticipate and avoid the armies by knowing how they will move ahead of time.
I'd like some thoughts on the general issue. Maybe someone can give some examples of how other games have solved these problems elegantly?
Thank you all for your insightful comments.
I have all but given up on the idea of having the Regent being automated or jointly-controlled. The best solution I have seen is to have the Regent remain a player but to change how he wins.
erael, my original mechanics are much like you describe: the Regent is both the strongest player at the start of the game and he's centrally located. The goal is for the Usurpers to unseat him by conquering his capital. I'm unsure how the "crowning" mechanic you describe will solve the elimination problem, though it would encourage the Usurpers to attack one another. But the goal is to be the undisputed king, and that means in order to be crowned, you'd have to attack the Regent.
Infernal, I like your suggestion of limiting who is allowed to attack the regent to a Top Contender, since it has the dual benefit of keeping the Regent from being overwhelmed by many players at once and simultaneously encouraging the other Usurpers to pick on the Contender. Though isn't this just a rules-enforced version of what should happen anyway? Theoretically, it is in the Usurpers' best interests to weaken another Usurper if they think he will be able to challenge the Regent.
The lingering problem is how the Regent wins without eliminating the Usurpers. A victory point solution seems the easiest to balance, and in the case of a civil war, it makes a certain amount of sense that if the Regent can regain control enough of his territory, he can quell the revolt. But that's the hard way. Speaking in terms of the way revolts usually are handled, the most efficient way is by cutting off the head of the resistance. The "reincarnation" solution may be the only viable way to make this work, and I have a few ideas as to how to make that happen, but I'd very much like to explore alternatives.