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Score tracking - A convoluted affair.

5 replies [Last post]
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 00:05
Moapy
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Joined: 01/27/2011

Hi again everyone, I'm back with another issue that I could use some advice on.

As a start I'll say I'm familiar with most common score tracking methods such as around the board and seperate cards etc. These methods are OK if you're tracking a single or perhaps even two objectives. However I'd like to track up to six at a time!

  • My game has objectives that must be met before a team can progress, there are two teams.
  • To achieve these objectives a team must gain 20 (number is not set in stone) points. There are always 3
  • objectives that a team can attempt at any one time.

So far the best methods I can consider:
A score card for each objective but six cards seems excessive.
Have players keep track by pencil and paper, a method that I am kind of loathe to use due to my experience with other games.
Lastly I could try to have six seperate score trackers around the board edge, two on each of the width sides and one of each of the length sides. The main issue I have with this is having too many token etc around the boards edge that could be knocked etc.

Thoughts and advice would be much appreciated.

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Mon, 01/31/2011 - 01:03
#1
ilta
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Joined: 12/05/2008
Generic "victory point" cards

Generic "victory point" cards in a common pile, and six "headers" off the edge of opposite sides of the board, one for each possible objective, as in Battlestar Galactica's skill cards -- see the bottom side of this picture:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/450936/battlestar-galactica?size=large

As you advance, take a victory point card and add it to a solitaire-style stack -- ie http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zy8n7B9SGnU/TNqo3BY04mI/AAAAAAAAATk/ILWTqQoH1D... -- on the appropriate objective, so that all can see the total number of cards. When you reach whatever the target number is, you're set.

To avoid excess counting if the number stays as high as 20, you could have different colored VP cards, each representing 1, 5, or 10 points, and require trading in. So you always know at a glance how close everyone is to each objective.

This is basically a way to do a card-based "score track" without actual wooden bits and attendant risk of table knocking -- added bonus, it doesn't require a larger or more cluttered physical board. You could also consider dials (see again the Battlestar photo, but this time at the top), but those are (maybe?) more expensive / difficult to manufacture, although pretty cool to use. Might depend on the theme.

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Mon, 01/31/2011 - 05:47
#2
Moapy
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Joined: 01/27/2011
Cheers

Thanks ilta,

That's a pretty interesting idea, I hadn't really thought about using cards due to the excess amount I'd need. But if I have higher value cards the 20 points could be aquired with few cards.

Another idea I'm now toying with would be a single tracker card for each team that has a score token for each objective. The tokens could easily stack and if I wanted to get really thrifty I could even have both teams use the one card with different tokens.

Decisions, decisions. I'll need to play test these different options and see how it feels.

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Mon, 01/31/2011 - 10:11
#3
drktron
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Joined: 07/18/2010
I like ilta's idea. Another

I like ilta's idea. Another option is to use different colored d20's to track the points for.each objective. When the objective is met the player gains a matching token or objective card and reset the d20. You still have to worry about knocking over the dice though.

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Wed, 02/02/2011 - 12:13
#4
gabrielcohn
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Joined: 11/25/2010
One card with multiple columns

Moapy wrote:

Another idea I'm now toying with would be a single tracker card for each team that has a score token for each objective. The tokens could easily stack and if I wanted to get really thrifty I could even have both teams use the one card with different tokens.

That was the suggestion I was going to make. This is not that far off from some games that track changes in various abilities of players. (I was also thinking about Steam which has three separate tracks on the board, one for points, one for income, and one for engine capacity and that doesn't feel overly burdensome...)

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Thu, 02/03/2011 - 02:18
#5
ilta
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Joined: 12/05/2008
> But if I have higher value

> But if I have higher value cards the 20 points could be aquired with few cards.

Right. Specifically, if you have 1, 5, and 10 points, going up to a maximum of 20, and only allow pursuing 3 objectives at a time, you'll need:

for each card, total = (cards to get to the next level) x (possible concurrent objectives) x (# of teams)

1 point cards: 4 x 3 x 2 = 24
5 point cards: 1 x 3 x 2 = 6
10 point cards: 1 x 3 x 2 = 6

Total cards: 36

Or, to put it another way, each objective will need a 10, a 5, and 4 1s. Once it's completed you might consider having a 20-point card to indicate that, or some other "trophy" to collect.

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