Hey guys,
I'm new here and looking for some feedback on my latest game idea.
The concept is very much in the vein of an originally old game from 1978 called source of the nile, where you are exploring africa. You furnish an expedition, hiring men and buying resources. Each man can hold upto 6 resources, the man himself is represented by a dice with the resources he's holding are represented by the pips on the dice.
I've made a board from hex tiles which you spend your turns exploring. The round goes along these lines
Event: - Depending on where you are some event happens, these are normally bad but there are some good ones (for example Tsetse flies kill your horses, a lion kills a man, quicksand drowns the guy holding the most stuff)
Movement: - 2 by foot 4 by horse, flipping a new tile requires 2 movement. (this is one area i'm currently using dice to generate new tiles, if your in savannah a roll of 1 means you've found desert/jungle, 2-5 more savannah, 6 mountains) if you're in a tile with a river another dice roll determines if it continues.
Exploration: - Draw a card to potentially get something cool. Might be a ore seam, or fossils, or cave paintings or even a local tribe (which could be hostile) which normally will award VPs. Some are for certain terrains, being on a river means you have a waterfall, being on a mountain means you find a big mountain.
Upkeep: - You now feed your men, they attempt to forage (another roll to see their success) and any shortfall is payed for using rations.
I've played some early games, and they're quite enjoyable. Last game had me getting really sick as i was exploring the jungle (illness is rife there) meaning all my well men were heavily loaded, a nasty quicksand event had them all vanish without a trace, and the explorer + one man with exotic goods he'd traded for earlier crawled back to base, expiring one tile out!
My problems are threefold: Firstly there are a LOT of rolls. Dice for exploring, dice for rivers, dice for hunting. Its very random and doesnt feel very clean. Any suggestions? I thought having the terrain change on a card turn might hold on the dice. I think hunting probably has to be done through rolls though.
Secondly, how do I bring in refurnishing explorers when they get back to the city. I am thinking of giving them the same £1000 to spend again, but maybe trading vps for money might work
Thirdly, how to build player interaction, currently its reduced to nicking peoples stuff when its dropped, and finding cool stuff before others (if i report my 12,000 ft mountain no one cares about your 10,000 ft one) and sending tribes against each other. More interaction would be better.
Any thoughts?
