Avalanche! Search and Rescue

Hi folks,

I'm new to the forums, but I've been an avid gamer for a very long time. I recently decided to try and design my first game with the hopes of having it published. I've been slowly working on the concepts for a few months now and would love some feed back.

Avalanche! Search and Rescue is a co-op/team game where the players are part of an avalanche response team. The object is to identify and rescue victims before the time runs out. I'm bouncing between a standard square pattern game board (Flash Point) or hexagon based board, but either way it would be a 6x8 design. The game would also include a D6 and D8 dice for random victim placement. I'm also toying with the idea of during game setup to have a certain amount of debris/obstacle tokens that would be randomly placed by dice rolls as well. These would be unmovable objects that players would then have to go around. I would increase the number of these objects for each player playing.

I've done a lot research into avalanche rescue as I was part of a search and rescue organization a few years ago and I have spent a lot of time in the mountains. Generally you have 45 minutes to locate and extract victims. After this point survival rates plummet so I've created a 45 card deck with the game logo on one side and a timer icon on the other. After each player performs their action they would flip a card to indicate time movement.

Movement/recuse mechanics would be as follows. Each player is allowed one action per turn of the following:

a. Movement = 4 spaces in any direction.

b. Rescue Movement/Moving Victim = 2 spaces in any direction.

c. Rescue = If you're last turn ended on a victim token you may choose flip the victim token as your action for this turn.

d. Assist a rescue = If you're on the same space as another player who is rescuing a victim you may forfeit your turn. This will allow the other player to move 4 spaces while rescuing a victim. This also only counts as a single turn and only one time card is flipped.

The board would either have a rescue location on the bottom left, bottom right or both left and right. The player would need to travel to a victim token, perform a rescue and then move the victim to the extraction point where medical personnel would be waiting.

The victim tokens are broken into two categories. The first three tokens to be put on the board face down during setup have an avalanche beacon on one side. These three tokens have either male icon, female icon or a backpack icon. The backpack is used to create confusion and make things more difficult.

The other tokens then have a flag on one side and either a male icon, female icon or backpack. These all start victim face down and would be randomly placed. Once one of the first 3 victims is moved to the extraction point that player would then roll the dice and place a new victim token on the board and play continues. If at anytime the time cards run out the game ends and the team loses.

The reason I broke the tokens into two categories goes back to avalanche rescue procedures. Once the initial response team has reached the avalanche site they determine whether the area is table and safe. They then setup a safe location for extraction and equipment storage. They then do a visual search and beacon search. Once those have been completed they then begin an organized probe search for victims buried. The second set of tokens are meant to represent probe strikes. I've included this part into the rules and when a player rolls the dice and places a flag token on the board they have to call out "strike!" Please note that my explanation here is an overview and is nowhere near complete.

I'm sure I've missed information here, but this is the basics of the game. My inspiration for this game was Flash Point: Fire Rescue; however, the issue I'm having is I don't want it to seem like I'm copying the game and re-theming it. This is one of the reasons I'm flip flopping on the board design. If I use a square grid board then it would be a copy of Flash Point with different art. If I use a hexagon grid it would be more unique, but I'm not sure how people would like it. Also, to note it would be a standard game board, but with a 6x8 grid pattern of either squares or hexagons.

One last thing is I'm working on creating actual named characters, with some basic information and small storyline for each. I plan to illustrate them as well and provide player cards so people playing the game can choose their favorite character. I was thinking it would be neat to create an actual player board that had the actions listed with details for easy reference and then have a punch out on this board where the player could insert their chosen character card. These player boards would also be color coordinated with the game pieces.

Ok, I think that's it for now. I would love to hear everyone's feedback and critiques!