Skip to Content
 

Fishing Mechanic

4 replies [Last post]
Fri, 06/20/2014 - 16:01
bout0046
Offline
Joined: 12/05/2012

I'm working on a game where people are trying to collect fish. A card is drawn to show how much each fish will be worth. The question is which mechanic should I use?

Option A: Dice, the players are ranked and the first 2 roll head to head. There are different fish on the die and are worth different amounts. A player can keep rolling the die until he gets the fish he wants. However, there is a stop rolling image on the die so if that comes up its not worth anything. The players do the roll off with 1 die at a time, only 1 person can get a certain result. When both have locked in or gotten stop rolling the rolling stops.

Option B: Fish(colored cubes) are in a bag. A card is flipped showing what each fish is worth. A player not participating will open the bag and spill the cubes on table. Each player then tries to grab the fish they want as fast as they can. Depending on what happened previously, some players grab 3 some 2 and some 1. There are also junk fish that people don't want.

I wanted to get some thoughts on what people think would be the better mechanic. They both have that speed but one involves rolling dice by yourself where the other is everyone reaching to the middle to grab something.

Top
Sat, 06/21/2014 - 02:15
#1
Canyoncl
Canyoncl's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/05/2014
I think (This is a thought

I think (This is a thought exercise mostly for myself as I am still a noob at board game design) you should use a dice mechanic because this allows for more variation (Remember this is not your original proposal it simply shows you the variance allowed by dice, and the possible depth you can add to your game.

Red fish: worth $3

Blue fish: worth $5

Golden fish: worth $10

Rainbow fish: worth $23

Then you would assign each fish a #

Red fish: 5

Blue fish: 10

Golden fish: 17

Rainbow Fish: under 6

Then you have to roll higher than the # in order to catch the fish, Simple? Right but then you can change/buy poles which can increase or decrease your die roll depending on what fish you are attempting to catch, or lures which can also add or give extra dice, but everything would cost money, use your $4 lure on a blue fish to gain a dollar, Or go for the golden fish? Should you buy the better lures or pole, or stick with attempting to use luck? I love strategy in games, so I like this more

Top
Tue, 06/24/2014 - 10:33
#2
bout0046
Offline
Joined: 12/05/2012
Fish Game

Thanks for the response Canyon. I like your idea of the risk/reward mechanic. I think it could be something for a professional fisher game. Where each player is in a boat and they try to find a honey hole and go fishing there. They can risk not spending and go for the hard fish or spend more for safer results. If you make this game, you have to call it Honey Hole.

The reason I wouldn't necessarily do this for my game is that I wanted to allow players to feel the scarcity and pressure. They need to make sure to get a good fish, but a bad fish is better than no fish. I felt that the rolling the dice at the same time or reaching to grab for a limited number of fish best represented that. I just wanted to see what people thought was more suitable. I think the grabbing might be better for kids and the dice for adults. However, people of all ages can enjoy Spot it. Now I'm just rambling and talking to myself. Thanks again for the response.

Top
Tue, 06/24/2014 - 11:57
#3
NewbieDesigner
Offline
Joined: 01/20/2011
some thoughts

I'm wondering if the mechanic from Thebes may work where you draw cubes from a bag and try to catch fish. You can drive around the lake/pond/ocean to better spots and draw more cubes from a bag hoping one is a fish. Or you can push your luck in certain spots and only draw one cube if it's not in a great location. If you draw a cube/fish from the bag, you can roll dice to see if it gets away or not, e.g., if you roll 1-4 you catch it, 5-6 the line breaks or the fish gets off the hook. You can modify the odds based on how big the fish is or the tackle you are carrying. Maybe different bait changes up certain odds?

Top
Wed, 07/02/2014 - 15:47
#4
bout0046
Offline
Joined: 12/05/2012
Well I tried the everyone

Well I tried the everyone grab a fish method and it was pretty messy. I think it was fun just chaotic. I think what might help is spilling the fish and then saying Fish! before all the players grab instead of grabbing right away.

I am leaning towards moving to dice. Having players pull cubes from a bag, like Yellow Red Red Blue Brown. The brown is 0. Yellow 3 Red 2 Blue 4. Players now have dice that have Red Yellow Blue Green Orange Purple. They want to roll the fish that are out there. If they roll a purple they reroll as fast as they can. Or if they roll Red but want a blue they can reroll. When a player likes what he has he shouts the color and grabs for that cube. It still has the speed and scarcity mechanic just hopefully less hectic.

Top
Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut