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Shifting Dungeon-obstacle ideas and a prototype

Shifting Dungeon Prototype 1

So after coming up with the initial movement mechanic involving shifting tiles I've come up with a few ideas for obstacle mechanics and I started putting together a prototype.

One of the obstacles will be *fire* spout tiles and if your pawn is next to a spout when it fires the player will most likely have to go back to the start space in the middle. To determine if a spout fires is determined by a die roll. This die roll will actually determine if spouts are fired or if the tiles are rotated. Rotating will cause the board to be even more dynamic and a players pawn can actually be hit if it's not their turn. There is a way to protect yourself from a fire spout and that is if you get a shield which is represented by the disks in the pic. I'm thinking there will be four types of fire (red, green, blue, yellow for now) and a shield will only protect a player from one type depending on its color and players can only carry one shield at a time.

The monster tiles operate a bit differently than trap tiles. If the previously mentioned die roll comes up 'rotate' then the monster tiles are rotated and can expose the monster to the pawn. If this happens then an encounter will take place. I'm currently thinking the players will *equipment* bags which will be represented by a die where each face will show a different object (or potion) to fend off the attacking monster. Players get three rolls to get the needed object and if they don't then they go back to the beginning location. Again players can be attacked even if it isn't their turn so they don't necessarily have to wait until it's their turn again to do some thing.

One other thing I'm thinking is that each trap/monster tile will have one of four symbols. When the fire/rotate die is rolled the symbol die will also be rolled to determine which tiles are fired/rotated. One small issue is that with my current layout there eight fire spout tiles and eight monster tiles so using six sided die won't work very well. I may have to use eight sided die.

Also, I haven't quite figured out the goal of the game. I'm thinking there will be objects to retrive in the four corners.

One last note. In the attached pic I need to glue down edging around the tiles to fence them in so they can be shifted around without pushing apart the entire layout.

Comments

Cool!

Prototype is taking shape nicely!

Based on this latest description, it's starting to sound like Labyrinth (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/437/master-labyrinth).

What elements are you including beyond the shifting board and nozzles?

M.

I can see why you would make

I can see why you would make a comparison to Labyrinth but I think this design is quite a bit different. In my design the pawns don't actually move on the tiles, just on the open spaces between tiles which are opened up when tiles are shifted around. The one exception right now where pawns would move onto a tile are the fixed tiles with the shield disks but that could change to make things more consistent.

The fire spouts and monsters give a bit of a risk vs reward element because if you move next to a monster tile you may be shielded by a wall but a die roll mean could mean that the monster tile rotates and you get attacked by said monster or if you move next to a fire spouts line of fire there's a chance it'll fire during that same die roll.

For now I think the puzzle aspect of the board being shifted around in order for a pawn to move, avoiding fire spouts, and dealing with monsters is quite a bit to fit on this board. Although I do have to figure out the actual goal of the game which could either mean a quest (cooperative) or just a treasure hunt (competitive) and might mean having to change some of the games current elements. I will say that I do find the quest theme more intriguing than just a cash grab.

Sounds good

Big thumbs up for this.

Anxious to see how the design evolves.

Thanks for taking the time to explain the mechanics more fully.

Good luck,

Mark

Thanks. My previous journal

Thanks. My previous journal for this design actually explains the movement mechanic and inspiration for the game in more detail.

http://www.bgdf.com/node/7679

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