Just in time for Xmas....

Great topic! And, tough challenge! Here's all I came up with...

Players are "assistants" for the 3 ghosts of Christmas (past, present, future), trying to compile material from Scrooge's life that the ghosts can use to provoke Scrooge to change his tune. There are 3 phases to the game, during each of which one of the ghosts is operative. Presumably, there are cards that are playable only in one phase, or maybe that are most effective in one phase. Cards come in two types: "negative" and "positive". Negative cards try to guilt Scrooge into behaving better -- e.g., a negative "Future" card would be "Tiny Tim dies". Positive cards try to encourage Scrooge in a good way; e.g., a positive "Present" card would be "The party at Scrooge's brother's house".

There's some way in which you attempt to play cards in some sequence or combination, achieving a proper balance between the two kinds of cards: e.g., too many bad memories will push Scrooge into depression, and too many good memories will leave him in denial that he even has a problem in the first place. Maybe there's a track that gives the status of Scrooge's mental state.

But of course, you have to make sure you've played your "Past" cards before the ghost of Christmas present appears, and similar for the ghost of Christmas present. Perhaps there is a clock mechanic whereby each time a player takes an action, the clock increments 5 minutes (or 10 minutes, or whatever), and each ghost is only active for one hour each.

There's obviously a lot I haven't fleshed out, but then, I only spent about 5 minutes coming up with this in the first place!

Great design challenge, it was fun to think it over. Maybe some great games will come out of this...

-Jeff

Less fleshed out than that, but a whole different angle: Each player is one of the Scrooge Bros. (turns out there was a set of Ntuplets, where N=# of players), trying to make the most profit at their business, just like they do the rest of the year (and the winner is the player who makes the most money after so many turns, maybe each turn is an hour and you have 24 hours of Christmas Eve). The catch is, your profitability is hindered by the 3 ghosts, who are inflicting you with vile goodwill and cheer, so you're less able to work your slaves to the bone, or worse yet, they sometimes make you give some money straight to charity! The players play ghost cards on each other to cause these horrible states. Each ghost may specialize in a different type of goodwill, and you may also play things to protect yourself from specific ones, or maybe counters like "Just a bit of undercooked steak!".

Of course, the Humbug card is the all-powerful ghost blocker, reflecting any ghost played on you back on the guy who played it! But there's only one Humbug card, and the guy you used it on gets it as compensation for the pain (but obviously he gets hit by the ghost first).

Great post -- and great responses.
I swear I thought up my version before reading the others, but it sounds like a hybrid of the first two. :? It's hard to be original around so many creative people...

The design:
2 players act as Christmas Spirits, trying to redeem Scrooge by showing him Visions of tragic and/or joyous events from his past and potential future. Depending on the degree to which they move him, he will share a certain amount of his wealth with the poor.

The board is just a number line with n "negative" and n "positive" squares. Groups of coins are placed symmetrically about the '0' space, at increasing distances, with more coins on more distance squares (e.g., 1 coin on each of +2 and -2, 2 on each of +/-4, 4 on each of +/-6).

A single pawn represents Scrooge' mental state. This starts at '0'.

Above the number line on the left side of the board are three card-sized spaces for characters from Scrooge's past: Fezzywig, Fan (Scrooge's sister), and Belle. Each of these is associated with a "suit" (friendship, relation, and love, respectively).

Below the number line on the right side of the board are three card-sized spaces for characters from Scrooge's present: Bob Crachit, Scrooge's nephew Fred, and Tiny Tim (again bearing the friendship, relation, and love symbols).

Players shuffle a "Visions" deck containing three types of cards: Time, Type, and Potency. Time cards declare simply "Past" or "Present". Type cards bear one of the three suits (friendship, relation, and love). Potency cards bear numbers ranging from -3 to +3, excluding 0 (representing the strength of the Vision). There are twice as many +/-2 cards as +/-1 cards, and twice as many +/-1 cards as +/-3 cards (at a guess, anyway -- this should make it slightly hard when trying to move very far at one go or to move exactly one space).

Both player receive 5 starting cards, and someone starts. Players attempt to create Visions, which, when played, move Scrooge toward a pile of coins. To create a Vision, a Ghost must combine one Time card and one Type card with one or more Potency cards and play this combination onto a Character with matching Time and Type values. Players cannot combine Potency cards with the same numerical value (e.g., you can't combine two '2' cards). When playing a Vision, the Ghost lays the associated cards on the appropriate Character space. Scrooge moves the given number of squares in the appropriate direction. If he ends his move on a pile of coins, he gives them to the poor (i.e., the Ghost "collects" them to record the event).

Once play starts on a Character, Ghosts must continue to play on that Character *or* play on a previously unused Character. Once play stops on a Character, it cannot be re-used until all other Characters have been used at least once. If the Ghosts have played on all Characters, the active player can continue to use the current Character or choose to clear the Character spaces (moving the cards to the bottom of the discard pile) and start fresh.

The turn sequence is as follows:
1) The player may draw any number of cards from the discard pile until he reaches his hand limit of 5.
2) The player may discard any number of cards.
3) The active player may then pull cards from his opponent's hand, Go-Fish style ("do you have a 'Past' card?" If so, the opponent must hand it over). This can continue as long as the active Ghost continues to request cards the other player holds and his own hand contains fewer than 5 cards. If the player makes a failed request, his turn ends immediately.
4) The player may form and play a Vision.
5) The player replenishes his hand from the "Draw" pile.

Play continues until one player controls more than half the coins.

Variant: play continues until all coins are gone, but if Scrooge ends the game on the negative side of the board, both Ghosts lose.

There are probably some nasty problems hiding in those rules, but that's what you get with a rush job.

Happy Holidays!

K.

Matthew,

Somewhere (maybe in the admin forum?) I suggested this very thing -- a version of the Game Design Showdown that wasn't connected to a chat, so that people who can't attend the chat could participate and so that there's a little more time to think things over. I think it would be really fun if you revived the GDS in that kind of format; particularly if the trophy avatar is the prize!

-J

Week long design challenges? Great idea!

There's an interesting thread on co-op play going on right now, with several people wondering if it can be done well.

Maybe one of the first challenges could involve co-op play in the theme?

K.