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Geoengineering 101 development thread

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firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
Geoengineering 101 card drafts
Geoengineering 101 board

Geoengineering 101, first developed as part of the November Game Design Showdown, is now being developed into a playable game!

The main idea here is, as anthiasgames described in the GDS comment thread, "you are setting things in motion you may not be able to control." Based on the idea of manipulating the weather to hold back the worst effects of climate change, there's a two-round lag between when you secretly slide a card under the bottom of the Action Deck and when it is actually played and makes its effect and side effect.

Here's some concept art and cards. The basics are:

1. Temperature is increasing every turn.

2. Each region has a Habitable Zone and will collapse if temperatures or rainfall goes outside of that zone. At the ends of the habitable zone may be Red Zones, where certain cards may trigger premature collapse.

3. Three main type of action cards:
Blue: Temperature down, rainfall up
Brown: Temperature down, rainfall down
Black: Does something devious and also shuffles Action Deck.
If two cards of the same color come up in a row, side effects start happening.

4. Two victory conditions:
- Have the last remaining region
- Have the most remaining regions after all Oil Importing regions have collapsed.

Praxis
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Joined: 11/21/2014
Cool

This sounds awesome! Super original idea plus I'm a geologist and very interested in this kind of stuff. Will be keeping an eye on it for sure.

Hans18
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Joined: 01/14/2015
Interesting project

Your project sounds very interesting. Please keep us updated.

When the game is ready, please drop me a line at info((at))climate-engineering.eu.

Best
Nils

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
Will do. Got a first set of

Will do. Got a first set of cards and mechanics worked out and will be testing later this week.

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
Did some more playtesting

Did some more playtesting this week. The game is fun in an evil way (even in solitaire mode where I played 3 players) and has the right feel, where the first couple turns are nice and casual, but in the last few everything is falling apart and you just hope that things haven't completely gone downhill before your card comes up. Plays in about 20-25 minutes.

Found a few place to simplify and will post some rules soon. Anyone interested in testing?

Telc
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Joined: 09/21/2012
yeah!

I would definitely like to test!
I have a regular playing Group of 4-5 people and this would be easy and simple to do! :)

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
latest Geoengineering101 rules

March 27, 2015 draft rules are below.
Print and Play PDF is at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fdn82uvxlfqgfn0/AAD_mwCYMnUR3hydKZtR5inda?dl=0

Geoengineering 101:
A 30-minute pre-apocalyptic card game for 2-4 Players

In the rush to turn back the clock on global warming, make clouds, spray dust, sink tankers, maybe even set off a few volcanos. But beware – once set in motion, geoengineering is hard to stop, and can have side effects!

Objective
The objective of the game is to experience why geoengineering is a terrible idea, even if it's the best one there is. Have fun and try not to destroy your part of the world!

Game Contents
1 Game Board
8 Temperature and Rainfall markers (includes 2 extras)
12 Region Cards
18 Carbon Tokens (includes 2 extras)
24 Program Cards

Regions
If temperatures or rainfall ever go outside a region's Habitable Zone, it is removed from the game.

Carbon Tokens
Some regions start with Carbon Tokens. These are good and bad. Bad, in that the game can only be “won” if there are no Carbon Tokens left in any region. Good, in that the energy each Token represents allows a region to adapt to conditions one space (cumulative) outside their Habitable Zone... up to a point. If Temperature or Rainfall goes off the charts (below 0 or above 8), all regions in that Hemisphere are removed from the game, regardless of number of carbon tokens they have.

Action Cards
There are 4 types of action cards.

Blue cards decrease temperature and increase rain by creating more clouds. If they come up after another blue card, they also cause global rain patterns to shift.

Brown cards decrease temperature and decrease rain by adding sulfur particles to the air. If they come up after another brown card, their drought-inducing effects can multiply.

Light Green cards help regions reduce their carbon footprint in an economically painless way.

Deep Green cards reduce carbon footprints rapidly, but the chaos they cause can cause regions to collapse even if the climate is still habitable.

Game Setup
1. Divide up the region cards. Randomly? Select them one at a time? Decide among yourselves.
2. Players put Regions face up in front of them. Place Carbon Tokens on Regions as labeled.
3. Place Temperature and Rainfall markers on the board on the rows labeled “Start”.
4. The player with the most feelings of ecological guilt goes first.
5. Shuffle the Action Cards and place face down. First player draws five cards, and places one face down next to Upcoming Plans, place the rest in Discard Pile.
6. Second player draws five cards and inserts one face down underneath the first player's card. Subsequent players do the same, inserting their cards at the bottom of Upcoming Plans. There should now be as many cards in Upcoming Plans as there are players.
7. In a two player game, repeat steps 4 and 5 so that there are 4 cards in Upcoming Plans.

On Each Player's Subsequent Turns
1. Raise the Temperature by 1 in All Hemispheres. Remove regions if applicable.
2. Draw top card on Upcoming Plans. This is the Current Card. Carry out the Effects on it. Remove regions if applicable.
3. Once Effects are done, Current Card becomes Previous Card and Previous Card is discarded.
4. Player draws 5 new Action Cards and inserts one at the bottom of Upcoming Plans. Discard the rest. If draw pile is empty, shuffle discard pile.

Notes:
- If a card says “Rotate rainfall”, swap the rainfall levels of all three hemispheres as shown. For example, if Rainfall is rotating clockwise, whatever rainfall level the Eastern Hemisphere had is now the rainfall level that the Southern Hemisphere has, and so on.
- Players continue to take turns even if they have no regions left.

Game Ends when
No Carbon Tokens are left in any region, or only one player has any regions left. Look at what regions have survived and which ones haven't and reflect on it for a moment.

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
new rules update

Changed the rules a bit so that players can't just "write off" weaker regions. Almost ready for public beta testing.

--------------

Geoengineering 101:
A 30-minute pre-apocalyptic card game for 2-4 Players

Carbon emissions are finally being reduced, but it's already too late. In the rush to turn back the clock on global warming, make clouds, spray dust, sink tankers, maybe even set off a few volcanos. But beware – once set in motion, geoengineering is hard to stop, and can have side effects!

Objective
Remove all the carbon in the world, while having the least amount of hardship in your regions.

Game Contents
1 Game Board
8 Temperature and Rainfall markers (includes 2 extras)
18 Carbon Tokens (includes 2 extras)
12 Region Cards (4 per Hemisphere)
24 Program Cards
36 Hardship Cards (20x 1's and 16x 5's, 100 points total)

Regions
Each region represents roughly 1/12 of the world's population.

Habitability: If temperatures or rainfall go outside a region's Habitability Zone, it becomes Uninhabitable. People will still be stuck there but they'll suffer. You take one hardship point every turn a region is Uninhabitable.

Going off the charts: If Temperature or Rainfall in a Hemisphere goes off the charts (below 0 or above 8), even for a moment, all regions in that Hemisphere become Permanently Destroyed as the ecosystem irreversibly collapses. You take two hardship points every turn for those regions the rest of the game. When this happens, rotate the cards so they are upside down and remove all carbon tokens.

Carbon Tokens
Some regions start with Carbon Tokens. These are good and bad. Bad, in that the game can only be “won” if there are no Carbon Tokens left in any region. Good, in that the energy the Tokens represent allows a region to adapt to conditions outside their Habitability Zone and avoid hardship.

Action Cards

Blue cards decrease temperature and increase rain by creating more clouds. If they come up after another blue card, they also cause global rain patterns to shift.

Brown cards decrease temperature and decrease rain by adding sulfur particles to the air. If they come up after another brown card, their drought-inducing effects can multiply.

Light Green cards help regions reduce their carbon footprint in an economically painless way.

Deep Green cards reduce carbon footprints rapidly, but the chaos they cause can cause hardship in carbon-addicted regions.
Game Setup
1. Divide up the region cards. Randomly? Select them one at a time? Decide among yourselves.
2. Players put Regions face up in front of them. Place Carbon Tokens on Regions as labeled.
3. Place Temperature and Rainfall markers on the board on the rows labeled “Start”.
4. The player with the most feelings of ecological guilt goes first.
5. Shuffle the Action Cards and place face down. First player draws five cards, and places one face down next to Upcoming Plans, place the rest in Discard Pile.
6. Second player draws five cards and inserts one face down underneath the first player's card. Subsequent players do the same, inserting their cards at the bottom of Upcoming Plans. There should now be as many cards in Upcoming Plans as there are players.
7. In a two player game, repeat steps 4 and 5 so that there are 4 cards in Upcoming Plans.

On Each Player's Subsequent Turns
1. Temperatures Rise: Raise the Temperature by 1 in All Hemispheres.
2. Execute Plan: Draw top card on Upcoming Plans. This is the Current Card. Carry out the Effects on it.
At his point, all players gain one Hardship point for every region without Carbon that is Uninhabitable, and two for every region that is Permanently Destroyed.
Once Effects are done, Current Card becomes Previous Card and Previous Card is discarded face down.
3. Insert Future Plan: Player draws 5 new Action Cards and inserts one at the bottom of Upcoming Plans. Discard the rest. If draw pile is empty, shuffle discard pile.

Notes:
- If a card says “Rotate rainfall”, swap the rainfall levels of all three hemispheres as shown. For example, if Rainfall is rotating clockwise, whatever rainfall level the Eastern Hemisphere had is now the rainfall level that the Southern Hemisphere has, and so on.
- Players continue to take turns even if they have no regions left.

Game Ends when either:
No Carbon Tokens are left in any region. Players with least hardship “win”.
All hardship cards have been acquired. Everyone loses.

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
Rules with graphics

Simplified the game setup and added some graphics. Is there anything that still needs clarification?

Link to image:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h263/firstcultural/Geoengineering%2010...

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
Did some more playtests at

Did some more playtests at the local game night. One game came out with a close call aided by massive floods wiping out several carbon intense regions, while the other came up one turn short when the last hardship card was taken before the last carbon token could be removed. It feels ready to go, so it's onto publishing! Working on a kickstarter page now, here's a preview link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1700980409/1995740904?token=eeff3559

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
The Geoengineering 101 kickstarter is now live!

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and critique to make this game possible! The Kickstarter campaign is now live! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1700980409/geoengineering-101

firstcultural
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Joined: 09/11/2014
6 more days to back the game!

6 more days to back the game!

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