Board Game Designers Forum

Years ago, I started designing a simple cards-n-dice golf game for my brother and sister-in-law. At the time, both golfed avidly, and they have always enjoyed light board games, so I thought, "wouldn't this be a great gift!"

My initial design didn't play very well, though. It had some interesting elements, but overall, it didn't capture the feel I wanted, and the systems didn't provide much course management strategy, which was my main goal.

Today, while putting away the dishes, I had a thunderstrike idea that solved many of the problems, and I wanted to capture it here before I lost it.

So, without further ado:

Golf Pro
Golf Pro is a cards-n-dice tabletop game that captures the feel of player strengths and course management. Players select a character with unique strengths and weaknesses and play on build-your-own courses with both fairways and greens.

Mechanics
1) Character decks -- each player selects a starting character, represented by 15 cards: 1 'caricature' card depicting the golfer and describing his/her special abilities and 14 'club' cards showing tables cross referencing die-rolls to shot results.

2) Character cards -- these represent the player's golfer. Each character card show a picture of the golfer and describes special abilities, like "may modify tee shot rolls by +/- 1" or "best of two rolls when shooting onto the green."

3) Club cards -- each club card displays a table of shot results indexed by die roll. Players "shoot" by declaring a target, selecting a club card, rolling two six-sided dice and finding the result on the table. Results vary depending on the character, roll, and club type.

4) Shot types -- there are several different "shot types" in the game. Each applies different modifiers to a player's roll. Shot type are: tee shots, fairway shots, approach shots, and trouble shots. The first shot on each hole is the "tee shot," and players generally get positive bonuses to their rolls. When a player lands in a hazard, he must make a "trouble shot," usually at a heavy penalty to his roll. Any time a player declares the green as his target, hit must make an "approach shot," the result of which determines his distance to the hole during putting. All other shots are "approach shots," which are the "default" shots in the game, usually using unmodified rolls.

5) Build-your-own courses -- players build holes out of "course cards" that depict geographical features. There are fairway cards and green cards. Fairway cards show long stretches of terrain. Greens show a zoomed-in view of the area near the hole. Every hole requires 1 green card, and the "par" for each course defines the total number of cards. For example, a par three hole consists of 2 fairway cards plus 1 green card; par 4 would be three fairway cards and 1 green card, etc. Non-uniform grids overlay each card, defining simple topography (e.g., narrowly-spaced grid lines indicate increasing elevation, widely spaced ones decreasing elevation).

6) "Long game" mechanics -- from the tee shot up until reaching the green, players use "long game" mechanics. During the long game, players select a club card and declare a target square on one of the fairway cards, then roll dice to determine the outcome of their shot. Example shot results are:

a) "on target" -- place your ball in the target square.
b) "short" -- place your ball 1 square from the target along the shot line.
c) "wide, left" -- place your ball 1 square to the left of the target, maintaining the original distance to target.
d) "nearest bunker within 2" -- if there is a bunker within two squares of the target but not beyond the target, place your ball there and include a "hazard" chip.

7) "Short game" mechanics -- once players reach the green, they use "short game" mechanics. When putting, players declare a putting speed, then roll their dice to determine how far the ball goes as well as how many "accuracy points" the shot has. Arrows on the green card show the slope of the surface, and each time the ball crosses an arrow, the player must either move the ball in that direction or use an accuracy point to move the ball along the shot line (moving in the direction of the last move costs 1 point, moving left or right of the last direction costs 2, and players may not move the ball opposite the last direction unless a course arrow forces the motion). If the ball reaches the hole, the player rolls a single die, and if the number comes up less than or equal to the remaining accuracy points, the ball goes in.