I designed a fast-playing, highly interactive and relatively abstract Euro a year ago called Pride of the Serengeti. It's a tile-laying game in which you place tiles with "prey" on the board, then surround areas of like animals with your Lion figures to "hunt" them. The game works great, but publishers say it's a little too "old school."
So, I had the idea to change it to a fantasy theme and add some interesting thematic and mechanical layers, including asymmetrical player positions (different races) and card decks with special actions. I also invited my friend and resident expert in this kind of game, Bernd Eisenstein (or Peloponnes fame) to co-design with me.
Instead of prey, we now have different types of resources (building materials, treasure chests, "magic dust", and Goblin Hordes (to fight, of course).
We also have special cards that can be bought with "magic dust" and used either for a "spell" (special action, costing more magic dust) or for its "building" (special action for the rest of the game or endgame bonuses).
There is more, but I am mainly looking for ideas regarding the theme. The setting is something like Middle Earth, in which Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Wizards, and Humans all compete with each other while also fighting cooperatively against the Goblin Hordes. There really isn't any "fighting" as in an Ameritrash game, however.
Bernd likes the name "Horde" or "Dark Horde" but I don't think it represents the game as a whole, and gives the impression that it's a dudes-on-a-map battle game. Any other suggestions? Something along the lines of "embattled fantasy civ."
I would also like suggestions for some of the resources and landscape tiles you get them from.
Right now, we have:
Enchanted Tower tiles have Magic Dust (for spells)
Goblin Horde tiles have Goblins (duh) to fight (straight up VPs)
Forest Tiles have Wood (building materials)
Dungeon Tiles have Treasure (for set collecting)
I am particularly interested in something different for the Magic Dust. What other resource could be used to produce spells? Books are not found "in the landscape." Possibly magic stones/power gems?
The game plays great and is more of a thematic gamer's game, which is why I want to strengthen the them even more.
Thanks for your help!
Jeff
![Syndicate content](/misc/feed.png "Comments for \"New title and help with fantasy theme in "Horde"\""){kind=small}
Thanks everyone for the ideas.
I have never designed a fantasy-themed game, so while this may not be new to many, it's new to me and quite fun as I am a fan of Lord of the Rings.
I still like the original theme of Pride (players are the Lion huntresses and not the prey)--AND the original gameplay, as it has very simple rules, intuitive gameplay, but yet is very interactive and strategic. It is the type of elegant Eurogame that was much more common 10-15 years ago.
The changes are first mainly mechanical, but a generic fantasy theme is helpful to keep the rules intuitive. The mechanical changes are added layers that include more current elements of popular games (variable player powers, card combos, interactivity of different resources rather than the simple VP scoring of Pride).
In my experience, the theme is often changed by the publisher, and the more generic the theme, the easier it is to taylor it to a particular publisher's wishes.
That said, I would like to still have a title a little more catchy for the prototype than "Another Fantasy Game." Perhaps I'll just stick with "Horde" for now, although it just seems a little misleading for a 1-hour Eurogame.