Hi Folks I have a couple of game mechanics here for people to look at and get their thoughts on.
Firstly the henchmen attempting a job action.
Send henchmen to a location to attempt a job. The location will have a set of icons that say what is required to be successful. Each location also has a rating from 1 – 5. This rating is the security value of the location + the length of time it takes to complete the job. This determines how many ‘police cards’ are drawn. Each turn a card is turned over and will have a number on it. This number is then compared with the ability number of the henchman/men involved. If the police number is higher. The henchmen have been arrested. If the henchmen number is higher the job continues. Cards added together as the job progresses. As you can see a tougher job means more risk. Lowering the risk - Henchmen with a crowd control icon reduces the risk, meaning there is one less card drawn for each henchman with crowd control. A ‘job’ with a risk of 3, would still take 3 turns to complete, but only incur a 2 card draw rather than 3. Once the job is complete, the location has a reward table. The player looks for the loot they require and take the rewards from that line. (example: rocket engines, 5 $$, 2 infamy). Once the ‘loot’ has been decided, take the token/card relating to the ‘loot’ obtained from that area. ‘Loot’ is most often used to finish master Plans. Henchmen can only take ‘loot’ for Master Plans that they know about.
The main part i'm interesting in gettng feedback on is the security/turn rating and drawing of cards to simulate arrival of police/agency officers. I was also thinking of a Secret Agency Card (namely: Under Observation) which is only played if henchmen have infamy tokens (gained by completeing jobs). If a certain number of tokens, say 2, then the Under Observation Secret Agent card mya be played to the police/agency aspect and add to the value of the job - thematically, this is the Agent helping the police/agency try to foil the job. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
The next mechanic may link into the above action, but is more looking at when a trap card is turned face up during a Secret Agent raid on the evil lair. In my brief, Secret Agent cards have a trap that doesn't affect them, one that will kill them (remove from the game), and one that returns them to teh deck (foiled). I was thinking that the player who played the Secret Agent card, may discard a number of cards from their hand to imnprove the odds. Say the death aspect where the card is removed from the game. Perhaps a player could discard 3 cards to simply return the Secret Agent to the discard pile - he has been foiled rather than killed. Similarily, the Player may discard cards to change the foiled to the escape result. The choice then comes is it worth discarding x cards to succeed, or do I let them fail.
Thoughts anyone?
Thanks for your input.
I've been thinking about cards to benefit henchmen as there many be no incentive to go for the higher 'rated' jobs when failure/death/capture of your henchmen is a much higher risk. Knowing you have a 'tool' of some description to give you that edge is a good idea. I thoughts have been thinking about whether to have these items as part of the communal deck, or to research the items. I'd be leaning to the communal deck and the chance to draw an item to help you is evenly spread among all players. Not to mention the when to do I play this card process rather than being able to play an item every turn.
Absolutely. If you have enough henchmen with the right attributes you could have multiple jobs on the go. I'm thinking about player interaction when at the same location as well.
* Do secret agents they belong to a certain player, or are they "generic" and the player who draws the SA controls him?
* Are the traps laid out by other players, or is the evil lair something constructed from cards that all the players can attempt to fight?
1) At the moment I'm not sure - I'm thinking somewhere around maybe 10-12, but that will I guess be ultimately decided through playtesting and seeing what the balance is.
2) Secret agents are controlled by the player who drew them, thematically, This is the player bribing the 'Agency' to go an annoy this Evil Genius rather than them. Gamewise it is a way for player interaction. I didn't really envision the agents as 'generic' rather each has their own name and uses, whether it was for black ops or other similar actions.
3) Traps are laid out face down beside your evil lair. and when an agent is played in to your lair the trap card is turned face up and the result applied - death, failure success. I guess a better way might be for the player being raided to gather up his lair, henchmen not on jobs, and trap card/s and shuffle them together and place face down, the player controlling the secret agent then turns cards face up, symbolising the agent senaking through the lair. If a trap is encountered the result occurs. If the agent lives he continues looking for the room/target his looking for.