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Metallic boards and magnetic tokens/pieces

9 replies [Last post]
Fri, 01/09/2009 - 18:00
Sybaronde
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Hi guys (first post),

I had an idea the other day from watching a couple of friends play "2nd Fleet" (Victory Games). The playing surface of that 'board game' is so vast that they basically just stuck it to a large wall and used a sort of 'adhesive putty'. While that putty-like substance works well for hanging up stuff a couple of times, it eventually thins out or ruins the paper.

So I figured, would it be interesting with a couple of those metallic plates you can get from IKEA (used as IRL bulletin boards) and some magnets? I got some strips of thin 20x2cm magnetic material that can be cut with a scissor or knife without problems. They could be cut to 2x1cm or 2x2cm bits and glued to paper/plasticard tokens and re-used as necesseary.

I tried it out when playtesting a wargame, and it worked relatively well. It's probably a bust when it comes to production costs, but it's a neat little reusable platform for prototyping and, well, you can leave it as is on the wall and not end the game if you have to leave or whatever.

-Syb

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Fri, 01/09/2009 - 19:32
#1
InvisibleJon
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Magna-Cube!

Imagine a one foot cube made of ferrous material. Now mark it with hexes (or squares - whatever floats your boat). Now imagine magnetic pieces that move on the cube-shaped board.

What could you do with that? I'm thinking of things like towers you build out of the surface and such. What if some pieces are not magnetic, but very powerful, and can be pushed off the top?

Hmmmnnn...

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Fri, 01/09/2009 - 20:19
#2
dnddmdb
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Magna-Cube Mechanics?

Hmmm... interesting idea. I am just thinking about what the advantages of such a board would be, I mean, other than being cool looking, what mechanics would make this advantageous (spelling?)?

Towers could be cool, but it doesn't quite fit the Cube potential.

This seems like a very good idea, but it needs some filling like mechanics. If the cube were to be tilted every once in a while to mess with gameplay.... It would need a few other abstract parts, but it could work.

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Sat, 01/10/2009 - 21:39
#3
InvisibleJon
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Turn The World

dnddmdb wrote:
Hmmm... interesting idea. I am just thinking about what the advantages of such a board would be, I mean, other than being cool looking, what mechanics would make this advantageous (spelling?)?

Towers could be cool, but it doesn't quite fit the Cube potential.

This seems like a very good idea, but it needs some filling like mechanics. If the cube were to be tilted every once in a while to mess with gameplay.... It would need a few other abstract parts, but it could work.

Consider this: As you play, you gain Cabbages. During play, you spend Cabbages to bring pieces into play, fuel actions, maintain powers, and do all sorts of stuff. If you have enough Cabbages, you can spend them to Move The World (MTW). If you MTW, you get to take one of the side faces of the cube and flip the cube so that face is the top face. Any pieces that were on the top face that aren't magnetic slip and fall off the world (unless they're caught by a wall, net, or other piece). Any pieces that are on the new bottom face are squashed flat and destroyed. (*grin!*)

This brings up interesting potentials: Imagine that each cube face has different resources or effects on it. If faces do different things depending on whether they're the top face or a side face, that makes a difference too. If certain units or resource-gathering structures (Cabbage wells) can not be magnetic (meaning that they can only be built on (and stay on) the top face), it makes the top face very important.

I think this could be very fun. I especially like the idea of unexpectedly turning the world after carefully positioning my pieces to not get squashed... "...and I Move The World so the side with your 5-unit army is on the bottom. Squeesh!" ("Oh, man!")

(Idea: There's a Central Control Room in the center of the world. You can send an expedition to the center of the world to gain control of the Control Room. Units under the surface of the world are on a separate game board on the side and are not affected by Moving The World. If you control the Central Control Room, you can override any attempt to MTW and you can MTW for a reduced cost.)

PS: You spelled "advantageous" correctly.

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Sat, 01/10/2009 - 22:05
#4
dnddmdb
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OMG!

THAT IS AWESOME!

That my friend, is a brilliant idea.

One thing, when building walls, what would happen to them when pieces fall off and land in the safety of the wall? Should they be put back on the top face?

Walls would need to be crushed as well.

Oh, what if each row and column on each side of the cube had 2 peg holes at the end. A single built wall could only protect pieces in that row, so the placement of wells would need to be very strategic (place them in one row, you are protected if the world moves in that direction, but not in any other. You would need to be careful not to destroy your own Cabbage Wells when M(ing)TW as well.

I could imagine a definitely clever takeover, person places tons of armies and walls on the seemingly innocent left side of the cube. Then, when the time is right, he MTW, and sends the Cabbage Wells flying off the face of the earth, then, with all of his armies and walls on top, he seizes control of the Top of the board, then takes the Central Control Room. Excellent.

The Central Control Room seems like a good idea as well.

Oh, and why cabbages, lol?

Only problem I see is the actual cost of a solid metallic cube large enough to function as a board...

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Sat, 01/10/2009 - 22:27
#5
Ekobor
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.

Would it really need to be solid? A hollow metal cube would serve the same, as long as the sides are far enough apart, and the magnets weak enough that they wouldn't interupt each other through the cube (is that possible?)

It would definately make the 'Center of the World' thing feel more possible if the cube felt hollow.

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Sun, 01/11/2009 - 10:56
#6
InvisibleJon
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Responses, thoughts, and new ideas.

dnddmdb wrote:
THAT IS AWESOME!
Uh... Wow. Thank you! =)
dnddmdb wrote:
One thing, when building walls, what would happen to them when pieces fall off and land in the safety of the wall? Should they be put back on the top face?
I was thinking that you could send a rescue crew to that side to drop a rope over for the piece to climb up to safety.
dnddmdb wrote:
Walls would need to be crushed as well.
Yep.
dnddmdb wrote:
Oh, what if each row and column on each side of the cube had 2 peg holes at the end.
This roughly matches what I was imagining. I figured that walls were pretty short, so you'd have to string a bunch together to make a long wall.
dnddmdb wrote:
I could imagine a definitely clever takeover, person places tons of armies and walls on the seemingly innocent left side of the cube. Then, when the time is right, he MTW, and sends the Cabbage Wells flying off the face of the earth, then, with all of his armies and walls on top, he seizes control of the Top of the board, then takes the Central Control Room. Excellent.
This is exactly the kind of thing I'd hope for in a game like this. Players want to build up forces on the top of the cube for power, but they also want to build forces on the side(s) for a surprise coup, but they also want to send forces to other sides to prevent nasty surprises from other players, but they also want to keep enough cabbages in reserve to avoid having their surprise side army squished if someone MTWs.
dnddmdb wrote:
The Central Control Room seems like a good idea as well.
I'm middling on it, but it does create a game-ending goal of sorts. When someone else starts tunneling to the center of the planet, you know it's time to get serious.
dnddmdb wrote:
Oh, and why cabbages, lol?
An omni-resource like this is often used as fuel, currency, and food. I don't like using more abstract words like "power," "mana," "tass," or, "energy." I've used Cabbages before in a game and players accepted it pretty easily. It's light-hearted and unusual. They're greenish, like American dollars.
dnddmdb wrote:
Only problem I see is the actual cost of a solid metallic cube large enough to function as a board...
Ekobor is correct that a hollow cube would be sufficient. I've been imagining a cube made of sheet metal that also serves as the container/box for the game (so the game comes in a "tin" that doubles as the board for the game. The cube could also be constructed of 6 connected squares of a ferromagnetic metal sheathed in printed cardboard or somesuch. (I played a mummy game at BGGcon that used something like that.)

Oh. A one-foot cube is too big. I think a six-inch cube would be more appropriate.

Another idea: Imagine that each player starts with his or her own four-inch cube. Imagine a 5x5 board with spaces that are large enough for one cube to stand in. Each cube starts in the middle square of a side of the board. You can build units, send them down the side of your cube and onto the board, move them to other cubes, and trade/negotiate/poach resources/fight with other players' units. You can MTW on your cube and "roll" it into a vacant adjacent square on the board. If two cubes are adjacent, pieces can move from one cube to the other. Pieces trapped between two cubes are squashed.

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Sun, 01/11/2009 - 11:56
#7
Sybaronde
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There's more to the subject.

Once you go metallic, you can have a bunch of potential board designs. Like walled fortresses, with troops 'scaling' the walls, or other complex shapes for movement. Imagine 3D ludo over a over a shape like this:

http://www.jovotoys.com/figs/FJ07-TruncOctahedronEdges-BlueAndWhite-4x4.jpg

The problem is, however, that prototyping with metallic surfaces and magnets is considerably expensive. :(

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Sun, 01/11/2009 - 13:20
#8
InvisibleJon
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Felt sticks to felt.

Sybaronde wrote:
The problem is, however, that prototyping with metallic surfaces and magnets is considerably expensive. :(
However, prototyping with felt on felt is a lot cheaper.

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Mon, 01/12/2009 - 00:47
#9
Ekobor
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.

Or paper on a net of a six inch cube, or on a computer program.

I was thinking about this all through my chores today, what if the cube was actually a six inch 6x6 rubik's cube (one inch squares)? Then, with two resource colours (stone and cabbages) to be mined/grown, you could potentially have a different 'board' every game, perhaps even 'MTW' on only sections, until the center command is reached?

Would squash the hollow holding box idea though.

If the little cubes that make up the big cube were partially metal, it would still work, or if there were metal plates inside.

Just my $0.02 CAN.

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