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New Game Attempt - KNOX

Wed, 11/25/2009 - 18:44 — Baron Bill

So, I'm attempting a new game project tentatively called "Knox". It's an empire building/resourse gathering type game in the vein of Settlers of Catan with some shipping elements and variable game phases a la Puerto Rico. So far, I believe I have steered clear of the elements that make these two games unique and I think I am well on my way to establishing some unique characteristics of my own.

Basically, each player starts with a city on any hex of their choice. There are 8 terrain types (ie: water, mountains, grassland, forest, etc...) and each type can produce one primary resource and one secondary resource. There are 5 resources: Cotton, Timber, Stone, Metal, and Food. To collect these resources, the players must produce and place "workers" on these hexes. Next, they must find a way to ship these resources back (either by Boat, or by truck). resources can be turned in to build improvements (along with Gold) or exchanged in "sets" for Victory points.

Of the 7 phases, only 4 get played per round. The "Spokesman" selects a phase that cannot be eliminated and the rest of the players (in turn) each select a phase to eliminate for the round. This should result in 4 phases being left to select from. Once these 4 phases are decided upon, the Spokesman picks the first phase followed in turn by the other players. Once the order of phases has been determined, each phase is played out.

Resources are only produced if a "resource production" phase gets played in a round. When the resource production phase occurs, players roll a six sided die to determine whether their goods get produced or not (more workers means higher probability of successful production). Once a good is produced, ANY player may load it on their ship or truck and ship it back to their city. this could lead to "hijacking" of other players' goods and should lead to some strategic thinking in regards to when to select this phase.

I have a good portion of the mechanics figured out at this point, but I'm having some trouble with end-game scenarios... I'm not sure what event should/could lead to the game being over and VPs added up.

Comments

Mon, 11/30/2009 - 12:31 — notMe

Mechanics

Sounds like a cross between Stone Age (workers for harvest), Race for the Galaxy (players choose phase), and Settlers of Catan (resource tiles). I'm sure there are other games that have some of these mechanics, but I mention these just in case you haven't played them. They may help you decide on a mechanic or variation thereof.

BoardGameGeek (http://boardgamegeek.com) is a good resource for games that already exist.

Regardless, what you described so far sounds pretty interesting.

Thu, 11/26/2009 - 15:45 — domd

Variable phase mechanic

We've been working on a similar elimination-style variable phase mechanic, but this one seems to be very time-consuming. Wouldn't it be simpler to have the Spokesman eliminate one or two phases and then select from there? This may prove out to be less fun in play test than it seems now. In general, though, I like the concept of eliminating phases before selecting them.

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 11:10 — Baron Bill

In reviewing

It does seem like it may be a bit more time-consuming than I had in mind. I think some initial playtesting will have a couple different mechanics for the variable phase concept and kind of see which one plays out better.

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 13:39 — Traz

good stuff

This sounds like a VERY interesting mechanic, whichever way you go. To find out which one works better, take it to a local Con or gaming group and them play it both ways - then watch the reactions. You'll find out real quick which way works better.

Sat, 11/28/2009 - 11:41 — scifiantihero

Catan . . .

Suffers pretty hard from the random die roll and the robber mechanic.

If your resource production and good hijacking are anything like that, I would cry a little.

O.O

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 12:58 — Baron Bill

Funny you'd mention that...

Because I've been thinking about the random production aspect and I'm having some second thoughts. I'm thinking of moving toward an automatic production model or some kind of random element where a good is always produced, but it could be random as to which resource is produced (primary or secondary). That way, its a little random, but not to the extent that Catan is (which I agree is the worst part of the game).

What do you think guys? How much should I be limiting luck here?

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 21:37 — scifiantihero

I was . . .

going to suggest that exact same thing-- the primary or secondary idea you mentioned. That way you still need to strategically place and diversify, and you can build in plenty of competition.

:)

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