OK, the title is not very clear but I wanted to make it as short as possible. I will work in this post with Arkham Horror as an example.
For those who does not know, Arkham Horror is a cooperative game where the players play against the game in order to prevent the great old one from awakening.
Now let say you take a game like this, but instead of having to play against the game, you play against a player. Which mean that there is a player which controls all the villains actions that normally happens randomly.
So I was wondering, how can the "Evil" player could interact with the game while the players are trying to undo what he is trying to accomplish.
The idea I recently found is that maybe the "evil" player could play like a game of magic the gathering. That player places every turn resources cards (face down) that are going to give him the "mana" required to place events into play. These resources must be placed secretly at a certain location on the board so that the players could try to neutralize these resources income. More that one card could be placed at the same location, including traps to fool the players around.
What's nice about it, is that there is some investigation elements in it. For example,
- If the bad guy play a card that require a specific resource which can only be found in 3 different areas, he is giving the information that he has setup something in one of these areas. So investigating there could be a good idea.
- If some events allow the players to reveal a location where the bad guy has stuff, the player does not know what stuff there is behind it. Is there really something important at that location or is it a trap.
Still, I am not sure if I am going to use a tapping mechanic for the resources. First because of the WOTC pattent, second because I don't want players to check their face down resources cards every time to know what resources available are left. So maybe you can play 1 event per turn and you must have the requirements to play it.
What do you think?
I was thinking that maybe each mana card contains a location of it`s own. When you place mana you place it in pile. The when you need to check at the mana you have, you just pick up your pile of card and discard face down the mana you use.
The only problem is that you have to manage 2 hands of cards, the mana and the effect cards.