Hey All,
My WIP is called "Wreckage." Players have found a crashed alien space ship and are excavating the wreckage. The idea I am excited about is that game setup is simply dropping the deck onto the table a jumbled heap, with cards every which way. I haven't seen a game begin that way (other than 52-card pickup, if you want to call that a game).
Anyone know any games i should look at that do this or something similar?
Thanks!
Gideon
You could look at Galaxy Trucker, where you scavenge parts from the facedown stuff in the middle to build your rocket.
Classic games like Dominoes and Mahjong start like that.
I suppose the question is what happens after you dump the cards in the middle. If you pull one card at a time, I don't see a functional difference between a pile and a deck.
I assume that there is aggressive enough "dropping" such that some are face up and others are face down? Are there "coverage" rules such that the cool tech card you can see is not available until the three face-down cards on top of it are removed?
I guess what I'm really asking is how is this actually different from just drawing a card from a deck? I mean, random is random (notwithstanding all those idiots at a blackjack table who get mad when someone makes the wrong play which causes them to bust and the dealer to get 21), a randomly drawn card from a messy pile is essentially the same as one drawn from a neat deck, unless the messiness is really part of the game mechanic.
It sounds like the opposite mechanic of what's in Garbage Day.
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/179259/garbage-day
I can see this idea working really well as long as all the cards are face up and there are rules that effect taking the cards.
For instance, to take a card, you have to also take every card on top of it. Then there could be penalties, a hand size limit, and worthless cards that make players think twice about grabbing cards that are buried.
This sounds like it could be interesting, and I can't think of anything like it. Though does it really matter if there is something with apparent similarities? Your game would, I'm sure, end up differently.
You say you haven't playtested this... Do you mean you haven't tested it at all? So you haven't seen how the card flipping would actually work and it is just a concept? If that is the case, I would say that you probably need to explore the physicality of taking that action with those components. My hunch would be that a bunch of cards flipped together would tend to stay together -- at least mostly staying the same way up -- so you might have to explore how to get the effect you want.
If you have already done this I would love to hear how things went.
OK, now that is kind of interesting, but I am a bit skeptical on it mechanically working out with playing cards. Also, have to test them with sleeves as many people will want their cards sleeves particular for a physical-ish game.
If cards don't fall right, Carcassonne sized tiles may work very well.
The first thing that comes to mind of your title,"Wreckage" is a 777E Super jumbo jet plane crash or a oil tanker or passenger cruise line wreckage.
This could be intetesting in itself.
Players are detectives, forensic lab techs, piluce officers or FBI agents sorting out the "WRECKAGE".
When the dealer drops the deck of cards no matter how it lands, players take turns of trying to piece the wreckage together with clues from their player notebooks or whatever?
Other tasks like missions or different locations as to why the WRECKAGE occured.
The who,when, where and why are task missions. The decks of cards could be with art or with normal set of cards that represent the WRECKAGE. Players can pick up 1 or several cards if they can match or gather the evidence from their notebooks.
Or a player from out of 5 or 6 players our even four players can choose the shuffled upside down character stack to see who is the sabatuer.
This is what I get from the title "Wreckage".
Hope this helps you out with at least a theme for your game.
Happy hunting,
Stormy.
Yeah, tiles might be the way to go. Players could shake up and empty a bag on the table and boom, you're ready to go. I have blank cards to prototype with, but I've never made a prototype with tiles. Any advice for first stage cheap and dirty tile prototyping?
Might depend on what kind of waste you have around the house. If you want only upcycle, then cereal box cardboard can be glue sticked together; two or three layers for your purpose with your printed image glued onto that (but sometimes the gloss side may resist glue a bit without a brief sanding)
However, at my local art supply, I can buy a 30 x 40 inch 2 ply chipboard for three dollars. I've calculated that yields 374 x 1.75 inch tiles.
If you think you'll need to change a lot, you could even get some repositionable spray adhesive ($10-20.) I've had one can that has lasted me for 6 or 7 years including tacking up various certificates that schools give out like candy.
Of course once you have the chipboard, you realize scissors won't work. Then you'll need a nice razor blade, I like the xacto one with a curve. And something to cut it on, and a long metal ruler for straight lines without destroying the ruler.
Thanks for the feedback! I was thinking an alien spaceship crash landing in the desert and players are collecting pieces of alien tech that can be reconstructed (by turning in resource combos) to help them move heavier objects and have other bonuses. The amount of alien artifacts (resources) collected will also serve as VPs.
Do you think Wreckage is an appropriate name for that? I generally like shorter names, rather than going with something like "Alien Wreckage," even though that is more descriptive. But maybe I am wrong there.
The first name that came to mind was U.F.Uh-Oh. or U.F.Oh.No.
Which is dumb. Don't use that. :) Other silly ideas like Rubble Bubble (if the pile makes a dome?) or something involving debris or ruins could work. Fubar is also an underutilized word.
I also like the idea of tiles instead of cards. They would flip easier without flying and I suppose they're more durable. If you're worried about players making a mess out of the setup, you could dump all of the tiles into the box lid and flip it upside down on the table. You'd get a nice mound of tiles with very few single outlier tiles (like you would get from dumping the tiles out of a bag), unless you want those lonely, easy to pick up tiles on the outskirts of the play area.
Hmmm... A game that uses a Tom Vasel component drop...
Wreckage does seem a bit vague.
This popped into my head:
"It Fell to Earth"
It really depends on what sort of tone you are going for, and who are the people tearing into the wreck.
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Thanks for the thoughts so far, all. I guess I should've been more specific about the pile.
At the beginning of the game the deck will be split up so that each player gets a pile. 1 player will chaotically flip their pile onto the table. Some cards will land face-up, some face down, covering each other to various degrees. Players will take turns flipping their piles onto the playing area, creating a semi-layered mess of cards.
The cards will have bars around their borders. A card may be taken only if at least 2 full bars are visible. The bars will be in 3 colors according to tech level. Only blue borders can be taken at first. Certain cards will allow players to take the higher colors.
Face down cards will be shards of the ship's hull. I have a few ideas on these- I think my favorite so far is that they can be taken if they are fully exposed and are worthless, but the player with most shards gets some points at the end.
I haven't play-tested this yet, I just wanted to see if something like this existed before I got deeper into it. The specifics will undoubtedly change a bunch - we all know how iterating goes! Any other thoughts on the idea or other games to look at would be appreciated, of course.
-Gideon