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GDS April 2010 Challenge - "The REAL Risk Game

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Game Design Showdown

April 2010 Challenge - "The REAL Risk Game"


THIS CHALLENGE HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
Congratulations to the winner of this month's tight fight for the Game Design Showdown victory:
- Entry #2: "Drunken Strippers Ahead" by Dave Dobson (dobnarr). 22 votes (5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3)

Followed by:
- Entry #3: "The Facility" by Nick Hayes (Black Canyon). 20 votes (5, 5, 4, 2, 2, 2)
- Entry #5: "Pantomime-onium" by simons. 14 votes (4, 3, 3, 2, 2)
- Entry #1: "Safety First!" by Tim Ponisciak. 11 votes (4, 3, 2, 1, 1)
- Entry #6: "Bad Guys Businesses" by Pastor_Mora. 11 votes (3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1)
- Entry #4: "Conquest of Sector 74" by Scott Akkermans (scott). 3 votes (2, 1)

CRITIQUES: Post constructive critiques and commentary about the entries to this Challenge in the Critiques Thread.


Design a board game on which the icons on this image play a central role.

You can use the entire image as a board, or sets of icons as tiles, or individual icons on cards or anything you want, as long as the game is somehow focused on the icons and hazards depicted by them.


Theme: Danger, accidents, pain or any similar concept suggested by the icons. Other than that, feel free to elaborate any way you like. Humor, educational, realistic, whatever works.

Main Design Requirement:
The icons on the reference image must play an important role in the game.

Formatting Request:
Please use the GDS formatting template as a reference to format your entries before submitting. No entry will be dismissed for lack of proper formatting, but entries based on the template will be greatly appreciated. You can find a quick explanation of Markdown here.

Special Prize for the Winner:
Unless the winning game requires absurd amounts of artwork and graphic design, I'll be happy to reward the winner with my services as a professional graphic designer for free to produce a nice Print and Play version of the game.


  • Start Date: Friday, 9-April-2010
  • End Date: Friday, 16-April-2010, Noon US Eastern time (approximately)
  • Voting: Friday, 16-April-2010 through Friday, 23-April-2010.

  • Comments or Questions: Comments and questions about this Challenge can be posted on the Comments Thread.

  • GDS Details: For more details on how these Game Design Showdown Challenges work, visit the GDS Wiki Page.


Please note, you must PM or e-mail me, seo, your GDS entry for this month. If you want to use e-mail, please PM me for my e-mail address.

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Entry #1

Safety First!

by Tim Ponisciak

Summary: The local car assembly factory has been having problems getting its cars completed and off the assembly line and the managers have hired a crack team of safety inspectors to go through the factory to find and fix any safety concerns. You are a member of this team of safety inspectors. It is your job to inspect the factory and find the hazards and dangers assigned to you to get this factory in tip top shape! Be the first to get all of your safety concerns fixed and you win!
Game Mechanics: Memory
Pieces: One six-sided die, 6 Game Pieces, 30 Hazard cards, 18 Danger cards, 9 Accident cards, 1 Halt Work card, 4 Safety Zone cards, game board.
pieces 01
pieces 02
game board

Instructions

  1. Pick your game piece from the six choices, and place it on top of one of the "door" spaces on the game board. Only one playing piece can be on each door to start the game.
  2. Each piece has 5 Hazard cards associated with it, and 3 Danger cards associated with it. It is your job to collect these cards as you travel along the board. (see attached visual)
  3. Take the Hazard, Danger, Accident, Halt Work and Safety cards, mix them up, and then place each one, face down, on one of the white spaces that make up the assembly areas.
  4. Each player rolls the die to determine who goes first. Highest roll wins. Play then proceeds clockwise.
  5. Your goal is to find 3 of your Hazard cards and 2 of your Danger cards before anyone else and exit the factory. Do this before all of your fellow game players and you've won!
  6. On your turn, roll the die and move in any direction you choose on the game board yellow spaces. You can not make a diagonal move, or move over the same space twice in one roll.
  7. If you finish your movement adjacent (diagonal does not count) to one of the yellow assembly areas and there is a playing piece on top of it, pick up the piece to see which hazard or danger is hidden there. If it is your hazard or danger piece, pick it up and cross it off the list of cards you are trying to find. If it is not your card, show it to the other players and then turn it back over and put it back so the image is hidden again on the same space.
  8. When it is your turn next, you must pick your next card from a different assembly line, before picking again from the last assembly line you picked from.
  9. Each turn ends after the player has rolled, and if possible, has looked at a Hazard or Danger card.
  10. There are also Accident cards. If you pick up one of these cards, you lose a turn. (see attached visual for Accident, Halt Work and Safety Zone cards)
  11. If you pick up the Halt Work card, this freezes all other players, while you can turn over two Hazard or Danger cards to see if they are yours. You can select any two cards, you do not have to be adjacent to them for this turn. If both cards picked up are yours, you can keep both.
  12. If you pick up a Safety Zone card, you can count this card as one of your hazard or danger cards. The Safety Zone cards are wild cards that can be used by anyone.
  13. Once a player has collected 3 hazard pieces and 2 danger pieces, he or she needs to make it to the nearest exit. The player must roll the exact number it takes to land on one of the "door" spaces in order to end the game.
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Entry #2

Drunken Strippers Ahead

by Dave Dobson (dobnarr)

The wacky party game where you ignore all the warnings and come up with improbably dangerous situations!

Introduction

Drunken Strippers Ahead is a game for three to eight players which turns our icon-heavy over-litigated world on its head. You've all seen those crazy warnings for obvious dangers, right? And you've often puzzled over the meaning of obscure little icons with unclear intentions - our modern hieroglyphics. In this game, you'll get a chance to fight back against both of these inane trends.

Components

The game requries the following items: - The Game Deck - a set of cards showing a variety of real-world icons meant to warn or advise the unwary (i.e. all the images from the contest image printed on separate cards). - Writing Paper - A pencil for each player - A voting token for each player - Choice cards numbered 1-7

Set up

Give each player a pencil and a voting token. Shuffle the Game Deck and deal three cards face down to each player. If there are more than four players, deal only two cards to each player. The youngest player goes first and is declared the first Chooser.

Game play

On a game turn, the Chooser selects one of his or her cards and plays them face up on the table. All other players must quickly come up with a short word or phrase that describes the warning in the picture. The only rule is that the word or phrase must not actually mean what the icon on the game card is intended to mean. The players write their descriptions in secret on a sheet of paper and turn it in to the Chooser without showing the other players. The Chooser does not create a response.

The Chooser shuffles the responses and then reads them aloud. As the Chooser reads a response, he or she plays a Choice card, going in order from number one up to the number of responses. Players should try to remember which response goes with which Choice card. The Chooser must re-read any response if a player requests it.

Once the players have heard all the responses, each player chooses one response as the best response. Players may not choose their own responses - they must vote for others. Ideally, players will vote for the most creative or funniest response to the icon shown. The Chooser reveals his or her vote first by placing his or her voting token on the Choice card matching the response. Each player then votes in turn, clockwise, until all have voted.

Players score one point for each vote their response gets. The Chooser then gets to assign a one-point bonus award to any player's response. The Chooser must justify the bonus award based on the response, but the Chooser's award is at his or her own discretion and cannot be challenged. Once one round is finished, the next player clockwise from the Chooser becomes the new Chooser for the next round.

Winning the Game

When all players have been Chooser twice each (or once each for games of five or more players), tally up the scores. The highest scorer wins. Note that each player will have one Game Card left at the end - the player chooses which to play as Chooser, and will not use all of them.

Variant Rules for Advanced Play

Deal double the cards to each player (six cards each for 1-4 players, four cards each for 5-8). Instead of playing just one card per turn, the Chooser plays two cards together, and the players must come up with a response that addresses both cards at once.

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Entry #3

The Facility

by Nick Hayes (Black Canyon)

Overview

The Facility is a two-player game. One player represents a group of human explorers entering a long-forgotten robotic weapons factory. The other player controls the cybernetic AI in charge of protecting the facility’s two secret items.

Goal of the game

The human player wins if he can find and escape with the Precious Metal and the Top Secret Documents. The robot player wins if he can destroy all of the humans before they can escape with both secret items.

Setup

The robot player selects any two room tiles as the location of the secret item tokens. He records that information on a slip of paper and keeps it hidden.

The human player constructs the game board using all of the room and corridor tiles following a few specific rules. He then places any two human pawns inside the entry corridor, sets aside two civilian pawns as spares, and places the rest of the pawns near the Exit Marker.

Playing the game

Each round the human player can:

  • Move any pawn that hasn’t already moved this round.

  • Search any room that contains a pawn that hasn’t moved this round.

  • Enter the facility by placing up to two pawns into the entry corridor.

The human player can perform the following actions at any time, even in response to a card played by the robot player:

  • Play any number of cards.

  • Pick up an item.

Movement

Move a pawn from one tile (room or corridor) to an adjacent tile that is connected either by a door or a corridor. No more than four pawns may occupy any one tile at a time.

Searching

When a human pawn searches a room, the robot player immediately draws one card. The human player rolls the die and checks the result on the Search Table below. The robot player may then play a trap card in any unlocked room or corridor in the facility (see Playing traps below).

If the pawn searches a room containing a secret item, the robot player places the appropriate secret item token in the room before playing any trap cards. Pawns cannot search corridors or locked rooms.

Search Table

1= Robot player may unlock any one room or corridor.

2= Nothing.

3-5= Draw a card.

6= New human arrives.

New humans

When the human player rolls a six during a search roll, he may place a new human pawn next to the Exit Marker. This pawn may be any previously killed pawn or one of the two spare civilian pawns. If no pawns are available, do not add a new human.

Human types

  • Soldier – Immune to robot drone traps.

  • Biohazard – Immune to biological/chemical traps.

  • Construction – Immune to falling object traps.

  • Civilian – Vulnerable to all traps.

Playing traps

The robot player can only play one trap per round and only in response to a search roll. He may play the trap in any unlocked room or corridor in the facility. Traps instantly kill one or more human pawns unless the pawn has immunity to the trap’s type. Once the trap is resolved, flip that room or corridor tile over to display the “locked” icon.

Responding to traps

The human player may respond to traps by playing items or disarm cards. Even if a trap is canceled, the room or corridor in which it was played becomes locked.

Trap types

There are four main types of traps.

  • Robot drone traps.

  • Biological/chemical traps.

  • Falling object traps.

  • Violent traps (ignore all immunities).

    • Subtype: Extermination (kill all pawns on the tile).

The Facility cards

Maximum hand sizes

The robot player’s maximum hand size is two cards.

The human player has no maximum hand size.

Items

Pawns can hold only one item and one secret item at a time. Items grant immunities to specific trap types or provide special abilities such as increased movement. When a pawn dies, it drops any items it was carrying.

Escape

Once both secret items have been revealed and are in the humans’ hands, the game enters Escape Mode. During Escape Mode, the following rule changes take effect:

  • The robot player draws a trap card each time a pawn moves.

  • The robot player may play a trap card in response to any pawn movement (still only one trap per round and only in unlocked rooms and corridors).

  • The robot player must discard his entire hand at the end of each round.

Exiting the facility/Winning the game

Once a pawn leaves the building, it is removed from the game, including any items it was carrying. The human player wins if he can get both secret item tokens out of the facility. The robot player wins if he kills all of the human pawns.

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Entry #4

Conquest of Sector 74

by Scott Akkermans (scott)
A game of success and backstabbing for 2-4 players.

Sector 74 was an industrial sector that was booming ever since the discovery of Zanthyde, one of the most sought after resources remaining on the tiny planet of Abukumado. A select few local entrepreneurs have decided to cash in on the sudden influx of population to the region. With sabotage and misfortune happening on a daily basis, will you rise above the setbacks or fizzle off into the sunset, while trying to become Sector 74’s best brewmaster.

Game Contents

This game contains the following: - 1x Rulebook - 4x Game board/Player Mat - 180x Playing cards, by type as follows: - 40x Ingredient cards - 40x Machinery cards - 32x Hazard cards - 20x Finished Product cards - 28x Mishap cards

Component Breakdown

Cards

Each card contains five essential elements. - Card name - Phase symbol - Zanthyde score - Location - Rule/Flavor text (flavor is in italics)

Card Types: - Ingredients - Machinery - Hazard Cards - Finished Product Cards - Mishap Cards

Game Board

The game board six labeled areas are as follows: - mash turn - boilers - hopback - fermenter - bottling line - shipping floor

Numbers on locations limit how many cards may be played there.

Set-Up

  1. Each player gathers the components that match his chosen color.
  2. Each player shuffles his deck of cards then deals five cards into a pile.
  3. The piles of five cards combine to make a randomizer deck, the remaining 35 cards combine to make the common deck.
  4. Five special event cards are added at random to the common deck for each player.
  5. Each player places his board in front of himself and is dealt 5 cards from the common deck.
  6. Players may decide who is the first player, if there is a dispute Rock, Paper, Scissors is played.

Turn Sequence

Each turn consists of four phases.

Phase 1- Draw Phase

At the beginning of the turn players draw a hand of five tiles.

If a mystery card is drawn it’s effects are applied to a random player, determined by drawing the top card of the randomizer pile and matching the cards color to the players board.

Phase 2- Day Phase

.The first player begins by playing a card with the day phase icon (a sun in the top left corner) in it's appropriate playing area, (location listed on the card).

Play continues clockwise until all players have played their day cards. If a player can not play a card, excess cards are discarded to the bottom of the randomizer deck.

Phase 3- Night Phase

The first player begins playing cards with a moon icon on their opponents boards. Play continues until all night phase cards have been used or discarded to the randomizer deck.

Phase 4- End Phase

The end phase plays out in two ways depending if the common deck has been depleted or not.

If there are still cards remaining in the common deck, the first player privilege is passed clockwise around the table, and a new turn begins with the draw phase.

If there are no cards remaining in the common deck, scoring begins (see Scoring below).

Scoring and Game End

After the final turn has come to a completion it's time to find out who is the best brew master on Abukumado.

Players simply total all the numbers located in the lower right hand corner of the cards they have accumulated on their board. Positive values are indicated with a + sign, and are green in color, while negative values are indicated with a - sign, and are red in color.

If a player does not have an ingredient card played in certain locations, they lose 2 points per location. Locations include: mash turn, boilers, hopback, and fermenter.

A mystery card may be beneficial to a player and have a multiplier located in the lower right hand corner of the card. This will be designated by a x sign followed by a number. That takes all points for that location of the board and multiplies them by the number on the mystery card.

The player with the highest total is declaired the best brewmaster on Abukumado and is paid the corresponding numerical value worth of Zanthyde nuggets which he may use to spend on any vices he has become accustom to while living in Sector 74.

In the case of a tie, the player with the least amount of negative machinery cards in play on his board is the winner, if this is still a tie, the player with the fewest negative Zanthyde nugget values in play on his board wins.

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Entry #5

Pantomime-onium

A party game for 4-12 players by simons

You, and 3 to 11 others, are trapped in a terrible wing-ding factory, and must escape. Unfortunately, none of you speak a common language, and can only communicate about the dangers through pantomiming.

Goal

Be the first player to escape the wing-ding factory.

Components

A board with 40 (?) spaces 12 meeples 12 tokens A deck of card with the Danger icons A dice (2 sides- “Sound”, 2 sides- “Action”, 1 side- “Action+Sound”, and 1 side- “Special”) 12 mats, each with all of the Danger icons 12 mat screen 1 stopwatch or 30 second timer

Setup

Each player gets 1 mat, 1 cover, and 1 token. Each player then places their meeple at the start of the board. Randomly choose who goes first.

The Turn

On your turn, roll a dice. This will tell you what actions you are allowed to make. If you roll special, see below. When you are ready, draw 1 card, and start the timer. That player has 30 second to pantomime the image on the card. If the player rolled sound, they may only make unintelligible sounds, “MrrrrrRRRRRRR... ttsssss... EEEEEEE!!!” If the player rolled action, they may only make gestures. If a player rolled both, they may do both. If a player accidentally makes an illegal sound or action, her turn ends, and she is moved back 2 spaces.

Each player attempts to guess which danger icon she is pantomiming, and places her token on the mat corresponding to that area. Once the 30 seconds are up, each player reveals their mat, and the player reveals her card. If the player correctly guessed which danger icon is on the card, she moves her meeple forward one space. If it was your turn, then for each player who guessed your card, you move up one space.

Play proceeds to the left.

Special

If you roll special, then choose another player, and roll the dice again. The turn plays as normal, except that only that player attempts to guess. If she guesses correct, then both players’ meeples move 5 spaces forward. If the player is wrong, both are moved back 5 spaces.

Endgame

The player who reaches the last space in the Wing-Ding factory first wins. In the event of a tie, there is a sudden death round, in which both players make one last turn, and whoever would have moved the farthest wins.

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Entry #6

Bad Guys Businesses

by Pastor_Mora

The BGB game is a management simulation that represents a competition between branch managers of a corporation. The player that generates the greater earnings will be proclaimed the new corporate CEO. The actual objective of the game is to generate awareness of the thought choices presented to managers running real businesses. The balance between risk taken and earnings required, spiced by a share of luck, will define your career. Will you gain market share from good practice and prestige, or loose it by foul practices and scandal? Will you behave or will you squeeze profits to the limits? Do you have what it takes to succeed in this competitive market?

Playability

The game can be played by 2 people and up to large groups, but is recommended for 5 players. Playing time is 10 minutes per player. All games last 25 rounds.

Setup

Print a player board and a set of cards for each player. Shuffle all cards together in a single deck. Give each player 20 Earnings tokens (common bingo chips). Arrange round by player's age.

Board

Gameplay

The game has a simultaneous action mechanic, as each time a player updates his cashflow, any player may place in his Board a single token from his Earnings to cover one liability, pay a bribe, or support an organization (these are his costs). Players may either choose to cancel a single cost and return the placed token to his Earnings. Note that you can only support an organization if you have at least 3 liabilities already covered in that column.

Scoring

Then the player updating his cashflow draws a card from the deck and calculates its effect (pays fines, adds earnings, changes market share, etc.). Finally, he adds (or subtracts) the result of his operations in his column in the cashflow sheet. The round continues clockwise, with each player updating his cashflow one at a time, until the cards deck is exhausted.

Extras

Cards Deck

The cards in the deck (one set per player) contain these actions:

  • PG Inspection (5 cards): unless you have covered the particular liability depicted in the card (there is one card for each liability), subtract a 2 Earnings fine for each liability you didn't cover in the Protective Gear column and give an Earning token to each player supporting the Labor Union. Only pay the minimum fine (2 Earnings) if you are paying bribes.
  • EWD Inspection (5 cards): unless you have covered the particular liability depicted in the card (there is one card for each liability), subtract a 2 Earnings fine for each liability you didn't cover in the Efficiency / Waste Disposal column and give an Earning token to each player supporting the Ecology NGO. Only pay the minimum fine (2 Earnings) if you are paying bribes.
  • SP Inspection (5 cards): unless you have covered the particular liability depicted in the card (there is one card for each liability), subtract a 2 Earnings fine for each liability you didn't cover in the Safety Procedures column and give an Earning token to each player supporting the Standardization organization. Only pay the minimum fine (2 Earnings) if you are paying bribes.
  • Justice Department (4 cards): subtract a 6 Earnings fine for each bribe you are paying. Remove from the game all the tokens you used as bribes.
  • Organizations (6 cards): if you support the depicted organization (there are two cards for each) gain 1 token from each non-supporting player.

Cards

Optional Rule

Keep written track of each card played to improve your predictions!

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Voting

Voting is open.

As always, you are not allowed to vote for your own entry. Entrants are expected to vote and provide the other entrants with at least a couple lines of comments, once the voting period is over.

For this month I'm returning to the old voting method:
You have up to 10 votes to distribute as you wish among the entries, with a limit of 5 votes maximum for any single entry. Just send me a PM here on the site with your votes.

Important Note:

I just added a sixth entry. It is not a late submission (it was actually the second to arrive), I just mislaid it.

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