I'm looking for an inventive way to move tokens on a standard grid playing board. Roll then move, or draw then move just isn't cutting it for me. What is a good way to manage the movement of multiple tokens?
Villager Movement Mechanic
Wed, 09/23/2009 - 18:25
Wed, 09/23/2009 - 18:51
#1
Movement
Hey Nix!
Players could be given a certain amount of movement, and must choose how they devide up that movement among their tokens.
Also, players could be awarded movements based on other factors involved in the game, perhaps how many points they had aquired during a previous round?
Hope these spur your creativity!
Cheers, -Sasachaz
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 11:00
#2
draw/move with a twist
You could use a draw-then-move with a twist:
Each card lists several amounts of movement, and each separate amount you can give to a different pawn. However, you can't split up a single move amount or use multiple move amounts on one pawn.
Example cards, the numbers would have to change depending on how far you want guys to move at maximum speed, and how many pawns there are:
Move 6
Move 3, 3
Move 1, 2, 3
Move 1,1,1,1,1,1
Move 4, 2
Move 5,1
... and so on.
You could make it so you can move a pawn up to that many spaces, or that you are required to move that many, no matter what. They don't have to all add up to the same number, either - it depends on how valuable moving many guys vs. one guy ends up being in your game.
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 16:09
#3
A twist . . .
. . . on the draw/move with a twist:
There are several different values on the cards, for whatever reason, and each one also corresponds to a resource/ terrain/ w.e. type on the board. Each number can only be moved to that terrain type, and each number can only be used once.
Also the twisted draw/move let's you limit the effects of just stockpiling tons of guys or something (since I don't know anything about the game!)
:)
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 20:08
#5
Wind movement
The moves could actually be areas of effect, where you pick one of your pieces as the center, all pieces in the area move in the same direction. They could move a different number of spaces depending on how far they are away from the center piece, or the card itself could show the area of effect and how far each spot ends up moving.
Straight Wind Card
1[3]1
1 2 1
1 2 1
Here, the center piece (which has to be one of yours) moves 3 squares forward (in whichever direction you choose) and the pieces directly behind it move 2 squares in that direction. Pieces along the side also move, but only one square.
Broad Wind
1 1 1
2[3]2
1 1 1
This card might make a piece bump into another piece - it could just stop moving, or push the bumped piece forward a square, or push it out of the way.
Instead of putting just distances on the cards, you could put a distance and a direction, though they would be oriented with the direction you choose to move the "center piece" in.
This might be a bit complicated for your game, but it's another idea. You could have special tiles on the windrose that change the direction of a piece that is moving forward (like a 45 degree mirror, kind of) or some other special mechanic that interacts with the movement cards.
( Do you mean this type of windrose? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wind_rose_plot.jpg )
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 22:20
#6
what if . . .
. . . there were multiple . . . orbital (let's call them) paths around the center. So like, several concentric circles. The wind blows harder if pawns are on the outside, but it also takes longer to change the direction since there are more spaces to move around the path. It would require some kind of effort or time or energy or something to move to a higher or lower path, so it would matter what kind of maneuvering you were looking to do with your ship over the next few turns.
A few questions: Does each player have their own rose or are they on the same one? Does the wind affect everyone at the same time (like, is there a "wind phase," then a "movement phase?") Are the players on the same ship or on individual ships (have multiple ships, even?)
You might want to look at something like the "rondel" ( I think it's called, but firefox is telling me that's not a word) mechanic in the game "Imperial." I haven't played it, but I have read about it.
Maybe some kind of mechanic like that, or like the circles thing I suggested, or whatever you chose, could be made interesting, by having the directions people are allowed to move the pawns affected by the season that the game is in, or something like that. So maybe during winter, the wind blows more strongly to the north, so the pawns can be moved mroe north, and less south for a couple turns. I'm just spewing off the top of my head here.
"Winds of Plunder," is a game that has a wind mechanic that affects moving little ships, too. You might wanna check it out, if you haven't seen it already. Again haven't played it, just read about it.
Wow, I forgot to post this, and then came back home 5 hours later! oops. Hope it's still helpful!
:)
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 03:04
#7
combining
is there anything else going on in the game that happens at a regular time? like players playing cards, or event cards beign turned up, or certain resources being spent.
You could tie the changes in wind to any of these actions, for example it could be printed in a box on an action card. Or whenever a player harvest a wheat, the wind turns to the east or something. by tieing the action to another action you eliminate step, but add some rules.
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 08:31
#8
Quick suggestion with
Quick suggestion with randomness.
You roll X dice and you can use 1 or more dice to move each pawn. So either you choose to move many pawns a few spaces or few pawns a lot of spaces.
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 18:18
#9
The game is still being
The game is still being conceptualized, but this is what I've thought up so far. I don't know how to link pictures so I will have to try to explain my game in words. The game has 2 different boards, one for ship movement, and one for wind token movement. The wind token board consists of 4 seperate windrose shapes each linked to the others at three of their points. The small windroses are split up by a grid into 40 spaces, with 2 spaces being at each of the joining points. These four linked windroses create a much larger windrose.
The game consists of 2 phases. In the first phase the wind tokens are moved. In the second phase the ships move. Each turn the ships will move 2 spaces. First all the ships move in the overall direction of the wind; determined by counting the number of tokens in each region of the large windrose (N,NE,E,SE,S,SW,W,NW), the region containing the most tokens is the direction the ships will move.
Second , your ship moves according to your skill as a sailor. This is determined by your the tokens in your individual windrose, and is resolved the same way as the large windrose.
Wind tokens can move into other windroses to affect the overall movement, it is undecided if it will also affect that players second movement. Number of tokens or how to get more tokens is another mystery.
Objectives for each players ship is still under consideration. Cannons on the side of your ship to attack other ships, and obstacles in the water are things under consideration. A win condition is also needed, but collection of treasure from around the board, or simple destruction of other ships are the things I've thought of so far.
I like the suggestion of using one wind token as a pulling point, and the idea of pushing other wind tokens around (it would mess their movement up).
This game still has a ways to go even before I make a prototype. Any suggestions to fill in the gaps would be helpful.
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 20:08
#10
would allocating a player
would allocating a player number work? each player can then decide to divide the number between the tokens they want to move. ie six tokens moved once or one token moved six times. no cards, no dice, easy to remember.
Sat, 09/26/2009 - 15:27
#11
shazzaz wrote:would
would allocating a player number work? each player can then decide to divide the number between the tokens they want to move. ie six tokens moved once or one token moved six times. no cards, no dice, easy to remember.
That would be a simple solution, and it might be the best because of its simplicity. I guess it depends on how complicated I want the game to become. With this option I could easily award more movement to a player.
Awesome! These are some great ideas for moving multiple pawns. My game more specifically involves moving wind tokens on a windrose shaped board. The position of the tokens controlls the direction the wind will blow your ship for the turn. Are their any movement mechanics that have a windy feel to them?
One idea I had was to allow movement of pawns anywhere in a straight line.
How about ideas for displacement of other players wind pawns?