Board Game Designers Forum

Thanks for the idea. I will keep it in mind. Funny you should mention Scott's Meeplespeak Blog, because I have been reading it for a while now. It is one of two game design blogs that I really enjoy reading (Sedjtroll's Cumbersome is the other). I noticed awhile back that he had a game called "Dark Sky Salvage", but I think it was more of a science fiction type game. I did read the recent post on "Dark Water Salvage", but I kind of glossed over it and didn't even think about it when I came up with my idea (I guess great minds think alike :-))

His mechanic for searching for the ships is really neat and also looked like a lot of work. I am going for a more simplistic approach. The rest of my mechanics are so different from his, it will be a completely different game with a very similar theme... (and my game will have gun battles!)

Anyways, I thought more about how players would earn money throughout the game. Instead of 4 countries vying for shipwrecks, it will be 4 companies (like Tampa, FL based Odyssey Marine Exploration). Each player can buy stock in one of the four companies throughout the game. Stock prices will fluctuate based on shipwreck discoveries, excavations, and deliveries. Each round a company's stock will get cheaper until they make a discovery, excavation, or delivery (returning safely to a port) in which it will go up. Stock will also fluctuate with players buying/selling shares. This will give players another thing to think about when deciding which company they want to hire crew for and send out to sea. Also, players can hedge their bets and buy up stock for a company that they don't even have crew for if they think it will cash in soon. Players can then sell their stock to earn money to hire more crew/purchase space on the ships. I can also tailor the four companies to have slightly different ship capabilities and hire prices to give the game a more realistic flavor.