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Frame-up mechanic ideas

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 07:47
ptnatividad
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Hi guys, this is a game that I've been trying to design for quite some time. It's tentatively called "Farmhouse Frame-up". The concept of the game is that players play different farm animals framing each other by playing practical jokes against the farmer to prevent themselves from becoming the farmer's Christmas dinner. Basically, each player takes on a role of any of the four: Pig, Cow, Chicken and Sheep. The game is comprised of a board illustrating a farmhouse with various rooms. In these rooms, a token representing the farmer wanders around doing his daily chores. Each player also has a token representing his chosen animal that moves from one room to the next. The problem I have is how to translate the mechanic of framing up a character. I've thought of some solutions but they just add some complications in the game that hamper what would be a smoother gameplay. I plan to only use tokens and cards for this game.

Any idea would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 07:52
#1
kevnburg
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Maybe the animal closest to

Maybe the animal closest to the farmer when the farmer discovers something wrong gets blamed?

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 08:50
#2
let-off studios
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kevnburg wrote:Maybe the

kevnburg wrote:
Maybe the animal closest to the farmer when the farmer discovers something wrong gets blamed?
Yeah, there's a game called Get Bit which features players trying to outrun a shark. They swim in a line, and when all cards are resolved the player at the end of the line is bitten by the shark, losing a limb (!). The last player with at least one limb intact is the winner.

If you try to emulate this mechanic (for example), cards played by the players push other animals to the front of the line, and at the end of a round - or some other trigger, which is where I think a key moment for your game would be - the farmer snatches up the first player in line and makes them into a meal.

Here's Get Bit on BGG:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30539/get-bit

Good luck to you on this project! :D

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 11:44
#3
Zag24
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ptnatividad wrote:players

ptnatividad wrote:
players play different farm animals framing each other by playing practical jokes against the farmer to prevent themselves from becoming the farmer's Christmas dinner.

Just take my money now! I LOVE this theme! I'm reminded of the Far Side cartoon with signs that say "Cat Fud" leading into the drier, and the dog who is hiding behind the washing machine thinking "oh please, oh please" as the cat considers.

I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of good ideas. But here's what I thought of -- a couple of ways that cards might combine to achieve goals. Players would be drawing to make profitable combinations and playing them.

Inspired by the Chick-fil-A "Eat Mor Chikin" ads, there are cards for "Red Meat" and "White Meat" and Chicken, Beef, Pork, and Mutton, and they get paired with cards that say "is delicious" or "is bad for you." When paired, they create signs that the farmer, when he sees them, modifies his current desire for one or two of the types of meat.

There are cards with a device for making the different types of hoof/foot prints, along with different infractions for different points. So the chicken player could combine the "Bovine hoof print" card with the "start a fire" card to get the farmer to move his desire for beef up by 4 points. (Some color text about Mrs. O'Leary's cow might be applicable, there.)

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 12:01
#4
let-off studios
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Zag24 wrote:Players would be

Zag24 wrote:
Players would be drawing to make profitable combinations and playing them.
I like the idea of being able to push and pull the desirability of a particular target one way or another. There's some dog-pile issues I can foresee (where several players gang up against another to ensure their safety), so you'll need to address that as playtesting ensues, but I'm sure it can be solved creatively.

I also must add that - upon further reflection - as a person who doesn't eat other animals I find this idea a bit mean-spirited and insensitive to the plight of factory-farmed animals throughout the world, and I doubt I'm the only one. I feel the same way about the "Eat Mor Chikin" advert campaign, and I think reading about it here was what sparked my thinking that way.

Be prepared for that kind of criticism should you choose to go this route. Vegetarians are obviously not your target demographic, and by far we're a minority, so it may not be a major concern of yours. Totally your prerogative.

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 13:11
#5
Zag24
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Vegetarian expansion

let-off, you've identified the OP's first expansion to the game, the vegetarian option!

My first thought was that if the whole approach was silly enough, it wouldn't really offend most vegetarians, but if you say that the Chick-fil-A ads offend you, then I guess I misjudged.

In any case, OP could add a fifth player, the farmer's vegetarian daughter, Fern. Her goal is to keep all the farmer's meat desires below critical for some fixed number of turns, in which case she wins. Note that this somewhat ameliorates the ganging up issue, too. Fern will naturally be on the side of whoever is being ganged up upon.

This does point out one potential flaw in the original game: There isn't a winner, only a loser. Possibly an issue.

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 13:32
#6
kevnburg
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One way to potentially fix

Some games with no winner and only one loser are fine (e.g. cockroach poker) but one way to potentially change the no winner aspect is to give animals random friends/rivals (that could be kept secret).

If your rival is eaten: x2 points
If enemy: x1 points
For friend: x-1 points
If yourself: You lose

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 14:03
#7
let-off studios
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Fern & Playing It Out

With the inclusion of Fern, the game becomes cooperative, with the game-end condition of Fern preventing the demand of a particular animal reaching a certain level the only one worth attaining. Without playtesting, I foresee everyone working towards Fern's goal as soon as the possibility of no one being eaten is available.

To maintain the flavor (if you'll pardon the pun) of the original game, the type of mechanic kevnburg describes would be an essential addition to the game. This would make the possibility of one animal being eaten instead of the others worthwhile again.

One of my favourite games includes this as a chief mechanic, ensuring a less-cooperative end game: Lifeboat by Jeff Siadek. Each player has a dearest Love and a sworn Enemy, and they work throughout the game to save the one they love and eliminate the one they hate - while keeping their allegiance secret. Check it out:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4174/lifeboat

And yeah, there are plenty of games that have a "no winners, one loser" aspect to them. They're usually shorter "pub games" that determine who buys the next round for the drinking group or whatever. A viable market, I suppose.

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 14:57
#8
Zag24
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With kevnburg's idea of

With kevnburg's idea of rivals, it lessens the animal-players' tendency to let Fern win. (By the way, did everybody get the reference, there? E.B. White FTW!)

Also, if you make it clear that if Fern wins, then the others don't. But with the rivals, you can say that the rival of whatever animal is eaten wins, which will provide the incentive to go on the attack. However, making it secret produces a "Secret Santa Problem" -- it is tricky to assign the rivals such that no one knows who has whom for rivals, nobody gets himself, and you don't have potentially endless redraws.

I could see a game where you get points for successfully targeting the other players, double points for targeting your rival, and all rivalry is known to everyone. But we might be leaving the fun, silly theme, to have a complicated rivalry and points system.

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 15:24
#9
let-off studios
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Zag24 wrote:However, making

Zag24 wrote:
However, making it secret produces a "Secret Santa Problem" -- it is tricky to assign the rivals such that no one knows who has whom for rivals, nobody gets himself, and you don't have potentially endless redraws.
If it's okay for an animal to NOT have a rival, then redraws aren't necessary.

Lifeboat addresses this neatly, with rules for players who Love themselves (narcissists) and players who Hate themselves (psychopaths), allowing them to earn points in any situation. The need for redraws is eliminated.

(...Yes, the game is awesome. :D )

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Fri, 01/29/2016 - 17:42
#10
killerkilroy
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Zag24 wrote:This does point

Zag24 wrote:
This does point out one potential flaw in the original game: There isn't a winner, only a loser. Possibly an issue.

Depending on the length/complexity of the game, it could be a last-animal-standing game played over a couple rounds. Maybe the farmer is celebrating 12 days of Christmas and needs a meal every 4 days (3 meals total). Whoever doesn't get eaten by the farmer is the winner.

To keep eliminated players engaged, maybe their ghosts continue to haunt the farmer - they can continue to influence the farmer in a lesser manner somehow, but are not longer able to be targets themselves. Would require some balancing and anti-kingmaking mechanics...unless it didn't. Maybe it's that kind of game.

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Sat, 01/30/2016 - 06:01
#11
ptnatividad
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Frame-up Mechanic ideas

Wow. thanks for the numerous replies.

I'll definitely check out the Get Bit and Lifeboat mechanics.
I'm thinking of making the "eating" of an animal as the end trigger for the game. The player with the least suspicion on him wins. That way, a ganging up of the weakest player will be prevented.

Here are some of the ideas concerning the frame-up mechanic that I previously thought of:

a. each player holds several frame-up cards showing an animal and a location. during a phase in each turn, players place face down frame-up cards on each room. after the farmer moves to a location (i'm thinking of a farmer movement deck) and an animal is also located in the same location as he is, all placed down frame-up cards in that room will be revealed. If any of the placed down frame up card features the same animal and the current room, a prank has been made against the farmer and the animal gets framed.

b. same frame up cards but this time, each player may place "good deed" tokens on each room. these tokens are used to improve the suspicion condition of an animal (I'm thinking of a suspicion meter where the more an animal is suspected the nearer he gets to being eaten). If an animal goes to a room where a good deed token is placed and was not framed, his suspicion meter improves by one level. the other purpose of these tokens is to make players lure other players into going into a room for a frame-up.

What do you guys think?

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