Had these dinosaur cards lying around for a long time, was thinking of ways to make playing with them more interesting.
They are ones with stats which you can compare and also attack and defence values. The cards are copyrighted so obviously this game is not for sale (although I could create my own cards [perhaps mythical monsters?] which worked the same way).
My idea was that you'd start with a structure which can't move (a 'chapel' or a 'fort', etc...) you'd roll dice to determine which resources you get from your territory - becuase obviously you'd own the territory on which the strcture stood - and you'd use these to summon dinosaurs. I could use poker chips to represent different resources?
The object of the game would be to claim the territory on which your oponent's main structure stands, you claim territories by fufilling certain criteria, there would be lots of conditions and you'd need only a few if the territory was uncontested, but many more if another player could contest your claim (if they were also in a position to claim that territory.
You can build "structures" such as forests, mountains, meadows (suggest others?) on teritories you own and these provide food for your dinos (carnivores can survive a turn on another dead dino or you can sacrifice one) Then you fight a lot with dinosaurs!
The cards would be kept in your hand but there would be pieces or tokens representing the dinos on the board (would be really great if I could get lots of small dino toys!) you move them around and battle. Structures could allow for offensive and defensive bonuses if you test for a difference in stats (eg: a longer dinosaur would gain say 20 attack/defence if standing on a mountain) there is also a "special" score for each dinosaur on the card and I was thinking of making it so you could add a dino's "specail" to attacks but you'd have to pay one of the more useful types of resource(?) not food, that's the only resource I've named, I should probably include water as well.
I think apart from eating other dinos, carnivores would also perhaps work differently to herbivores, you could have carnivores more geared towards attack, perhaps only able to use their "special" on territories not claimed by the player?
-ok, that's about all I can think of now, just a vague guideline, I'd have to refine the hell out of this before I can even playtest it (assuming I can find someone who'll playtest it with me).
Any comments, suggestions, thoughts or ciriticisms would be most welcome, but I'd especially like to know if it sounds like the game I'm suggesting seems like it would be too complicated (I often get told that the games I come up with are too complicated) and how many types of resource I should make.
Thanks for the suggestions.
You got me on the storyline, I have no idea why dinosaurs from different ages in the earth's history would want to cooperate!
As for the combat, it's very simple becasue it's on the cards themselves. Dino 1 attacks dino 2, you check their attacking vs defence values respectively and the winning dino eats the losing one (if they're carnivores). I wanted to make it more interesting by adding the special attack and the stats difference.
The stats difference can only be initiated by a dinosaur stationed in a structure (eg: a mountain) this gives that dino a bonus to its attack or defence depending on the structure/terain type. If the test for stats difference goes the way of the other dinosar then it gets the bonus regardless of what it's standing in.
The special attack would require you to pay like and 'energy' resource to intitate but I haven't thought much further than that.
Multiple combat is simple becasue the outcome of a confrontation between 2 dinosaurs is always one of them getting eaten - as many dinos can attack 1 as they like, but they take turns until either they or it die - there's no 'health' to keep track of and since dinosaurs cooperating in order to capture and defend territory is pushing it, I think it's better not to give them attacking/defensive bonuses for taking on an enemy in the same turn.
I was also thinking of having only 1 type of 'food'. Forests and meadows can produce grass, cycads and ferns as well as leaves, but they can also produce mamal-like reptiles and lizards.