Girl's Gymnastics Card Game

What I was going was something a little bit *simpler*. Basically there would be four (4) card piles, one for each event. Each pile would contain *moves/skills* that are specific to that event. Each player would draw five (5) cards into their hand. The player who will be competing in the event plays cards towards their *routine*. The opposing players ALSO play cards towards the routine and can make it HARDER or EASIER and try to balance out the routine.

Then comes the *Sand Timer*. The player competing in the event MUST complete the routine within 2:00 minutes. This will involve a series of dice rolls, which can be favourable or not, and can cause deductions from the top score for the routine. I still need to *iron* things out... But this is the general concept.

So the gymnastics portion of the game will be *dice rolling* and with all kinds of dice (standard and Polyhedral).

Note: I can picture the Kickstarter for this game as having many *Stretch Goals* that are related to more valuable/complex moves/skills... They would be like extra cards in the deck to help a player score more points! I think this could be FUN and exciting...

I have looked into these games and they seem to be Real-Time games. Although I want a Sand Timer of 2:00, I don't want to have the chaos of all players playing at the SAME time. Specifically each player will play one (1) event, one player at a time. They are only 2:00 turns. It's not like they take 30 minutes to play a round. Four (4) players should take about 10 minutes with setup time. So if you mulitply that by four (4) events, the game should take 40 minutes to play (under an hour).

I don't particularly like the "Real-Time" genre because I think it can lead to cheating (or fudging). 2:00 turns + setup is reasonable and 40 minutes may be 10 minutes over what I wanted... But it's still not too bad.

Note: I think it is also more in the *spirit* of gymnastics where the player performs and is judged (even if they run synchronous events)!

Funny, I did not expect anyone to catch that pun!

I'm *thinking* about this suggestion. There are two (2) ways to handle it:

1-A Wildcard CARD which means the athlete can do whatever they want (and obviously no penalties)
2-A Wildcard DIE which means the athlete can use it when they need to (on a particular roll)

The first option is sort of a *Bypass* or *Skip it* mechanic. The player doesn't need to worry, they're golden (if for just a moment - or a couple of seconds). The down side is that opposing players may be tempted to play harder skill cards because of the wildcard.

Another implementation could be allowing a player to *SUBSTITUTE* any card in a routine for the wildcard AFTER the routine is *defined* (each player has played his cards to the composition of the routine).

The second option is a little bit less *powerful* but it is very flexible. It can make the difference between a penalty or a pass (like you did the skill correctly). But it is only ONE (1) dice and in the grand scheme of rolling all kinds of dice - one dice doesn't seem much. The good thing is that opposing players cannot *counter* the wildcard dice, it is 100% player discretion.

There is the aspect of being able to *earn* extra wildcard dice... I am thinking something like Yahtzee, you get three (3) rolls and if you are successful, you earn a 0.0 penalty. But you could also *earn* a BONUS wildcard dice that you can use later on... When you have to ROLL AGAIN (after 3 rolls), it is a penalty of 0.1 PER ROLL. And you must complete the routine (so five skills). Good scores could be higher than 9.0. Less and you may be trailing in the scores... The penalty could vary per event (and may so can the card count for the routine).

Another possibility is instead of a wildcard dice, it could be just a wildcard token. Instead of rolling a dice, you use the token when you want it to be a wildcard dice.

So there is some more thinking to do. There may also be alternatives to these options.

I am reading up on this... I was thinking that a specific combo (like maybe three dice with a ONE) could be a "fall" (or a 1.0 deduction in the old-style 10.0 system).

This is provided you have a way of *defining* the deductions... Things like "Separated your legs" and "Out of bounds" change according to the event (and could be more difficult to implement). Maybe there will be not enough *meat* to the 10.0 system. But then again it's not a *hard-core* game for adults, it's a FUN game for girls who like Gymnastics and who want to play when they're not in the Gym! :D

Artistry (making it tougher) is sort of the "difficulty" aspect of the game. What I wanted to do is have a BASELINE (standard difficulty) and BONUSES for Artistry (or difficulty)... And this IS how it used to work in real life (old-system), my idea was to bleed the two together, to have both penalties and the option to go for a bonus... This is kinda where the Press-Your-Luck mechanic kicks in: if you have a lot of penalties early on, you can still opt to try for bonuses later in the routine... It kinda makes a player WANT to take a chance (so to speak) and earn points for the ones they had lost earlier in the routine. Obviously if your rolling a 10.0 routine, you won't want to risk the extra difficulty because you have nothing to gain. But if a player is rolling a 8.5 because of an *unlucky* "fall" (-1.0) this could be the chance needed to get back to 8.8 (+0.3 bonus)...

I need to think more about these before responding... I see two visions of the game which are very different. One is *simpler* and the other is more complex. Like I said, it's a question of *content*: I want the game to have enough appeal for its intended audience. So a simpler game can open up doors in terms of players - an older sister could play with a younger sister. I'm definitely shooting for better than "Snakes & Ladders"! ;)

BUT at the same time, I want there to be enough complexity that the game is challenging (and FUN).

Although I appreciate the ideas you are sharing, I think the *way* you propose to use both the decks and dice seem nothing like what I had in mind. I see the game as having a lot of rolling, with many dice that add tension to the game. I already have a scoring method which is *similar* to the old-scoring method (10.0 rating). Both deductions and penalties seem reasonable and even bonuses seem to work pretty well.

The other problem is that having a CUSTOM d12 with pictures ... is well ... impossible. If you have to refer to a look-up table, that does not seem like a very intuitive way of playing the game.

I have started reading the FIG's NEW way of scoring gymnastics ... and well... I started to fall asleep. I already stated that the athletes are supposed to be "Amateurs" not Olympians. As such, for now, I think the 10.0 point system is the preferred route I would follow.

Certain evernts like the *vault* take less than 2:00 to complete... But rolling 5x (3 times) takes about 1:30. The player also has to account for the *artistic* bonus dice rolls... And have time to think/react. I think the 2:00 is perfect: not too much time to think (fast decisions) and plenty of rolling...