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Keeping track of a few stats in a very simple way

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cignox1
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Joined: 11/22/2016

Hello all, just asking for some brainstorming.
I'm thinking about a game taking place in the artic (kind of Terror (book and tv show). Ships are stuck in the ice and sailors must survive.

I was thinking about the following stats: cold, hunger, fatigue. Illness and morale could also enter the game, but I think that 3 of them might be enough (I aim a very streamline game).

I had the idea to use dice as pawns for the men: every face has a different "freezing level" and each turn you points if temperature is colder than what you can handle. After a while out there, you must rest close to the fire or inside the ship etc.
I think that this is an interesting idea, but only handles 1 stat. How can I keep track of the other 2?

There are 2 ships and each ship will have 12 sailors. So there are up to 24 units.
I've also considered that the other stats are kept "global" and apply to the whole crew: if one of the stats drops too low, you loose the less valuable unit still in game.

I might also consider 3 markers per ship (captain, officers, others).

Do you have any suggestion?

X3M
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I don't know how much of each

I don't know how much of each stats you had in mind. Nor how fast it changes. But a 3x3 peg holder per sailor could be an option.

Each row of pegs could represent, 1, 2 and 3 (or 4) as number.

Maybe something with chits.

Jay103
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Joined: 01/23/2018
With one stat, your die idea

With one stat, your die idea is a really good one, but yeah, breaks down quickly with more stats.

If a "global stat" works, that simplifies the whole game in addition to letting you have just one special die for that stat for the whole side or game.

Do you want the game to involve checking the status of 3 dice for each of 24 units, each turn? That seems onerous.

Therefore, if you can globalize any of those values, I'd suggest doing it. Depending on what the game mechanics are, I'd think either Hunger or Fatigue would be the thing represented on the individual dice, as everyone is probably equally cold... But again, depends.

Fri
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Joined: 09/06/2017
Global stat tracks/2 layer sailors

IMO, the global stats would be the way to go because it will reduce fiddleness and streamline the game. You also don't have to limit yourself to dice for the globals, you could have a track like Terraforming Mars or pandemic.

Terraforming Mars Oxygen and temperature tracks:

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3884958/terraforming-mars

Pandemic Outbreak track (page2 by big red and white 2)

https://images-cdn.zmangames.com/us-east-1/filer_public/25/12/251252dd-1338-4f78-b90d-afe073c72363/zm7101_pandemic_rules.pdf

To answer the question you asked, you could have sailors that are composed of two layer of card board with squares cut out for the dice to fit in. It would be like a small version of player mats from Scythe. Below is a rough diagram with the yellow being the bottom layer and the top being blue.

Sailor
die 1
die 2
die 3

To simplify things you could also try to reduce the number of sailors.

cignox1
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Joined: 11/22/2016
Thank you all, The idea of

Thank you all, The idea of the slots for the dice for each sailor is really a nice one: I don't think it suits my current design (sailor don't have much space, they should be able to share the small space allocated for the ship), but I'll take it into account :D

Global stats are most probably the way to go. I'd like the sailors out in the ice to be more in danger than those in the ships so I must find a way to tell them apart.

Here an idea about how to merge the two suggestions:

Sailors cannot simply "wander around": they are either on a ship, in a camp, or on an expedition.
I could use the "dice slots" whenever there is a group of sailors: one in each of the ships, one when the players create a camp, one when some men go on an expedition.

So each "block" has its own stats (3/5 at most) that can be updated each round.

Even thought there are up to 24 men in the beginning, not all of them move at each turn: captains and officers can "give orders" to up to n men: if I decide to use the "give orders" ability of the captain, I can "move" up to 3 men. The "give orders" of an officer can "move" up to 2 men.
But captain and officers also have their own special abilities (one is a doctor, one is a good fighter etc) so if I need the officer to use his own ability, I cannot use it to move other sailors.
In addition, there can be a limit to the total men that can "do something" (for example because the "fatigue" level only allows for as much).

I expect every player to move 7 sailors on average each turn (think of it as a worker placement kind of game).
As the time goes, the crew members die and there are less pawns to move.

cignox1
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Joined: 11/22/2016
Mmm, having a fixed number of

Mmm, having a fixed number of stats dice shared by a variable number of men can be problematic.
I'll need to think a bit more about it. Perhaps by averaging the values over all the men (in a group)?

Jay103
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Joined: 01/23/2018
cignox1 wrote:Mmm, having a

cignox1 wrote:
Mmm, having a fixed number of stats dice shared by a variable number of men can be problematic.
I'll need to think a bit more about it. Perhaps by averaging the values over all the men (in a group)?

Comes down to whether you can devise a simplification that improves the game. It might not be the same exact game you had when you started, but it might be a lot more playable. :)

oh, and even if you're only moving a few sailors each turn, if they all have separate stats, you have to at least CONSULT all those stats to figure out who you want to move.. I suspect it's too much without the globalization step..

Fri
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Joined: 09/06/2017
Combine cold and hunger and fatigue?

Could you combine cold, hunger and fatigue into one stat? The idea here is that cold and hunger cause just additional cause of fatigue. I am going to use the term health because it is easier for me to conceptualize. A problem is that you may no longer be able to use a d6 to track this though a d10/d12 seems possible.

Action how it affects health
move -1
double move -1
being in cold -1
heroic feats*1 -2
eating*2 +1
resting +1

*1 not really sure would be. Maybe fighting a polar bear or something. Maybe you can combine this with player abilities somehow.

*2 Eating is a "free" but optional action each round. You can manipulate the quantity of food available to give players some interesting choices.

Feel free to use disregard or improve upon.

cignox1
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Joined: 11/22/2016
Perhaps the dice values are

Perhaps the dice values are note "points" but multiplier: the global "fatigue" level is [die value] x number of sailors that die applies to.
So its something related to the "location" (ship, camp, etc) rather than the unit itself.
Need to think a bit about it...

wob
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Joined: 06/09/2017
this may not work for your

this may not work for your game but a tile or card could have up to 8, stat points if it is on a table 9 if you include death as a state. 1 point per edge. the edge pointing " north" is current stat.

if a stat is binary any chit can keep the stat. ie hungry or full, if you fall below hungry you are dead and removed. this may limit the amount of stat variability but it would also give you a "character" to move about, that i think is a little more imersive than a die

Tim Edwards
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Joined: 07/30/2015
You could use dials with a

You could use dials with a number of pointers. You could then make them unique - the Captain has a different range of numbers to that of the Cabin Boy, for example.

wob
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Joined: 06/09/2017
this sounds like it would fit

this sounds like it would fit well with the game. forget mine this is better

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