Hi. I'm new, and my game is "RR Time Table"

Hi, my name is Jon Hook, and I'm working on a train game.

My father worked for the Kansas City Southern railroad for 30 years, I grew up surrounded by trains. My game is not a simulation game by any stretch of the imagination, but it will include some elements that represent or mimic real elements on a railroad. I'm still working on the game in my head, so I'll do my best to describe each part of the game.

The Players - The game plays 2-5 players. Each player is represented by a color, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. Each player has about 30 small wooden discs of their color. The players use their discs to claim rail lines that connect two cities.

The Board - Picture a board similar to Ticket To Ride: USA. It will have major cities marked on the board, with dotted lines connecting the cities. The dotted lines are the rail lines connecting the cities to each other. The map is also divided into zones, so there will be a West, Central, Mid-West, South, and East zone. A score track goes around the edge of the board. Players will use one of their colored tokens as a score marker on the track. As their score advances in the game, players may earn bonus cards at the beginning of a turn.

The Time Tables - In real life, each railroad publishes a pamphlet that projects the schedule they plan to use when running their trains. In the game, each player will have their own time table to review. All of the time tables for each player are exactly the same. Inside the booklet, there are five two-page spreads. Each two-page spread lists a series of times for trains that are scheduled to run between cities. Because their are five two-page spreads, each spread is a turn in the game. More on the timing of the game later.

The Cards - This game will use a deck of cards to claim rail lines, but in this game the term used will be to "schedule" a rail line. The cards will be "reversible", (like how poker cards are, either way is "up"... I'm not sure what the correct term is). The top of each card will display a time. The times will be different on each end of the card, so each card will offer two times for the player to choose from. In the deck are three copies of each time, but each instance of each time will have an icon next to it that represents a track signal. In real life, track signals tell the engineer of a train if the track ahead of him is clear. The signal has two lights, a green one positioned above a red one. If the green light is only lit, then the signal is "Go", if both lights are one, (so green is lit above a red lit light), then the signal is "Go Slowly", and if the red light is only lit, then the signal is to "Stop". The signal lights will break the tie between players if more than one player tries to schedule the same time on a line at the same time.

Also, in the center of each card will be a freight bonus, but these are only used at the end of a turn, and only if the cards are still in the player's hand at the end of a turn. Again, more on that later.

The Clock - The game also has a large faux clock to mark the highest time on a card either played or discarded. A turn ends when the clock hits midnight. At that point the players calculate their current score, clear the board of their tokens, and then move onto the next turn, (there is five turns in the game).

How to Play -
1. Each player chooses a color. The oldest player is the first Engineer.
2. There are only five Turns in the game, but each Turn may have several Rounds.
3. Each Turn will have one designated Engineer. For Turn 1, it is the oldest player. Beginning with Turn 2, the Engineer is the next player to the left.
4. The Engineer will manage the deck of Scheduling Cards for that Turn.
5. At the beginning of each Turn, the Engineer will determine if any players have earned any bonus cards, and deals them out immediately. The Engineer always gets 1 bonus card.
6. The Engineer deals 3 Scheduling Cards to each player.
7. All players now review their cards to see what times are available to them, and compare those times to that Turn's Time Table.
8. All players secretly select one card from their hand as the time they want to schedule.
9. All players then reveal their scheduling choices at the same time. Any ties are broken by the Track Signal icon next to that time. Each player places their card in front of them as part of their line of cards.
10. All players then use their tokens to claim the rail line they scheduled.

SIDE NOTE - Stacking Rule - More than one player may claim a single rail line. The first player to claim a line places his tokens directly on the board, on the scheduled line. If another player schedules that line, then he places his tokens on top of the first players tokens, and a third player would place their tokens on top of the second player's tokens. The Time Table will list the victory points available for each line depending on if you are the first, second, or third player on that line. The first player's train is "On Time", the second player's train is "Delayed", and the third player's train is "Late".

11. After the lines have been claimed by all players at the same time, the Engineer determines what the highest time is, and then sets the Clock to display that time. If the Clock has hit midnight, the Turn has ended and scores for that Turn are calculated. At this time, the Engineer will only consult the times on the cards used for scheduling of lines in this Round.
12. All players then simultaneously choose one card in their hand to discard.
13. The Engineer again determines the highest time on the discarded cards, and sets the Clock to that time. The Engineer will consult both times on the discarded cards, looking for the highest time. If the Clock has hit midnight, that Turn has ended and the scores are calculated.

Scoring:
1. Scheduling a line may earn the player some victory points. Some times are worth zero points. Also, if a line has stacked tokens, a player's score might be different depending on if that player is "On Time", "Delayed", or "Late" on that line.
2. At the end of a Turn, each player will have a number of un-discarded cards in their hand. It is at this point that players now consult the Freight Points on the cards. Each Freight Point will be awarded if a player has connected certain cities or zones by the end of the turn. Any Freight Points not completed successfully will reduce the player's score, while completed Freight Points increase the player's score.
3. As a player's Scoring Token moves on the Score Track, they might become eligible for bonus cards at the beginning of the next turn.

Winning the Game - At the end of the fifth Turn, the player with the highest score wins. If there is a tie, the player who earned the most Freight Points in Turn 5 wins. If it is still a tie, then the players share the victory.

I am so sorry for such a long posting. My brain just had to vomit out this stuff. I plan to begin construction of my prototype game soon.