Idea for a Curling Board Game...no...seriously...

Hi everyone, first timer here and I've got this idea for a curling board game burning a hole in my brain. That's right, curling. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been done (at least in this form). I'm not talking about physically sliding a mini stone towards a target; in this game your movement would be decided by playing cards that indicate an amount and type of dice you would roll to determine movement. If this game already exists, please let me know so I can just buy it and save a lot of trouble. This game is definitely in the preliminary stages (at best), so this is more of a brain dump than anything else. Any comments, questions, or suggestions will be welcomed and appreciated.

You play on a board divided into hexagons; think of the other side of your DnD battle mat. The board is a long track that leads to a bull’s-eye, much like in the sport of curling.

Quick terminology for those unfamiliar with curling (I call them "normals"):
Stone: Those are the big things you slide along the ice.
End: Think of one inning in baseball. A real curling game consists of 10 or 8 ends I believe.
House: The circular target zone. Think of an archery target.
Button: The center of the house. Think of a Bull's-Eye.
Delivery: The act of sliding the stone towards the button
Deliverer: The person who is currently delivering a stone (sounds painful!)

Players divide into two teams and take turns delivering stones. A player delivers a stone by first drawing X cards from three piles of power cards. There are fast cards, medium speed cards, and slow cards. He chooses which pile(s) to pick his cards from depending on the general power he desires from his delivery. Each card has a particular amount and type of dice.

Let's talk dice. One of the systems I was thinking of would use three types of 6 sided dice, fast, medium, and slow dice. I'm thinking the fast dice have the numbers 4-6 twice, medium dice have the following sides 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, and slow dice have the numbers 1-3 twice. Another system I was thinking would use differently sided dice, closer to Formula De', if you're familiar. For now let's stick with the fast, medium, and slow 6 sided die idea. (10:00 AM update: I think smaller numbers would work better)

OK, so you draw your X power cards from the piles of your choosing. After examining all X of your power cards you choose UP TO Y of them to play, placing them face down and ordering them from fastest to slowest (Rank by die speed type, then by quantity of dice). After this is done but before revealing played power cards, you roll for the "variation" of the shot.

"Variance" is the mechanic for how straight the shot is, but unfortunately I haven't worked out all the details yet. Basically most shots will have a very slight variation to the right or left, a few will be perfectly straight, and the odd delivery will suck. For this example let's say you wind up with a variation of left 2 (not too bad). This means that after resolving the movement of your second power card (and the 4th, and the 6th, if it exists), you also move your stone one space to the left. You can see how playing fewer power cards can reduce overall variance. (Next day update: I don't like this system for determining variation (the line of the shot). The concept is necessary, but the system is flawed.)

Finally! Movement! After determining variation the player reveals his first (fastest) power card. Let's say his first card calls for three fast dice; the player would then roll three of the "fast dice" (the one's that only have 4s, 5s, and 6s), note the total, and move his stone that number of spaces towards the house. His second card is a 2 medium; he rolls two medium speed dice, and moves that many spaces. Since he rolled a "left 2" on his variance die, he now moves the stone one space to the left. The player now reveals and rolls for his third card and so on, until all the cards he played have been resolved, variance being applied accordingly. Once the power cards have all been played and subsequently the stone's final position determined, it is time for the next stone to be delivered by the other team, assuming there are stones left to deliver. Like in real curling each team gets 8 stones, although this could be altered if a different number plays better.

So that the nuts and bolts as they say. If you're still reading, you'll now get rewarded with long winded details:

Collisions: The reason why we play the game, right? So here's the scoop. In the case of two stones colliding, you first determine how fast the stone is going. To do this you first reveal your remaining power cards, if any. You take the amount of movement remaining for your current power card and add to it the value of any remaining cards (which you will have to roll for). For example, let's say you roll a 9 for your third power card (of 5) and collide with another stone after moving three spaces. Your current collision speed is 6, but you still have two cards to resolve and add to the total. You reveal a 2 medium and a 2 slow card and roll an 8 and 3 respectively. Your total collision speed is 6+8+3 = 17

We're playing on a hexagonal grid and the stones take up one space, so there are only three collision options: hitting another stone on the left, hitting another stone head on, and hitting another stone from the right. Hitting head on is easy; you just transmit your speed to the other stone. Let's use the previous example where we struck with a force of 17. On turn three you move your 3 spaces out of 9 and then run into an opponent's stone head-on near the button (nice). Your stone stops and transmits its power, 17, to the other stone, which then moves 17 spaces. Your stone is now nice and near the middle, while the stone you hit sits far away in a less desirable position.

Hitting from the left and right use the same rules as one another, except that the movement is mirrored. When you strike a stone from a side you still determine its speed, but you divide the amount between the stones. I haven't hammered down this part yet, but I'm thinking 66% of the speed will go to the struck stone, while your stone moves the remaining 33%. Additionally, (you'll have to use your imagination for this part), the collision results in the stones deflecting at different angles. If you hit from the left your stone would deflect towards the left and the other stone would deflect to the right. If you're still confused, look at a hex map and hopefully that will help.

I'm thinking a lot of the fun of the game may come from the deliveries where someone is really chucking a stone hard, and it sets off a chain reaction of sorts. I'm a bit worried that the math may become too difficult when an epic collision involving numerous stones takes place, but as long as the players can keep track of the varying powers of the stones, resolving collisions should be a step by step process. Off the top of my head you would resolve the collision with the highest speed first.

Example Time: You are looking to dislodge an opponent’s stone so you pick all fast cards. You play the fastest 5 cards, roll for variation, and start revealing. Let's say you roll crappy variation and your stone (stone1), ends up striking the other stone (stone2), from left side during your second power card. You calculate your collision power and it's a whopping 41 (you were going for power after all). You are going to launch stone2 27 (41 * 2/3) spaces towards the right and stone1 will travel 14 (41 * 1/3) spaces toward the left. Now let's say both of these stones then hit another stone; you would determine which collision has the higher collision speed and resolve that one first. So say stone1 travels 2 spaces after its initial collision before it makes its second collision; the collision speed is 14-2 = 12. stone2 moves 5 spaces before it strikes another stone; its collision speed is 27-5 = 22, so that collision would be resolved first. Say that collision is also from the left (relative to stone2's current movement); you now have stone2 moving left 7 (22 * 1/3), and stone3 moving 15 (22 * 2/3) to the right. Keep in mind that the terms "right" and "left" are relative. stone2 was knocked to the right before knocking itself back to the left, so for its remaining 7 movement it will be moving "straight back", relative to the direction of the original delivery.

To complete the example you would resolve the second collision's movement and see if any additional collisions occur. If so, the collision speeds would be compared with any pending collisions (remember stone1?), to determine which collision would be resolved next.

Collision summary:
1. It sounds complex, but most collisions will be easy.
2. Multiple collision deliveries, although rare, will require the game participants to remember what stones are colliding and at what speeds, as they are resolved sequentially; in the case of only two players a scratch sheet may be helpful. The finished product will have numbered stone pieces to make identification easier.
3. If you're not sure which direction colliding stones will deflect, check out a hex map and hopefully that will help.
4. If I stick with the "two thirds power transmitted" system, I'll probably have to include a cheat sheet for easy lookup. No one I know wants to calculate two thirds of 41. Then again, no one I know wants to play a curling board game, so maybe I just need better friends and my whole perception of math not being fun is off the mark.

Wow 2:00a already? Here's a taste of other ideas I had for the game:

Sweepers: Of course there are sweepers. I'm not sure how I want to implement them exactly.
Option 1: Sweepers each draw 2 (3?) cards and put one back. They play the card(s) (+4 movement, right 1, etc...) as they see fit.
Option 2: The sweepers can try to move a stone to the side or extend its movement by rolling dice to determine the results.
Option 3: Sweepers can move a stone one space to the side or extend the movement by up to 3.
Whichever option is used, the variance should be reduced slightly when sweeping for power, just like in real curling. I'm not sure how to implement this; perhaps you would just add one to the variance amount

I'm thinking that the fun part (if you have 4 or more total players), will be that the sweeper(s) don't know what cards the deliverer has yet to play (they are face down). It will be the deliverer's job to inform the sweepers to what actions they should be taking, without using specifics. For example, I envision the deliverer yelling "HAAAARD" if the first two rolls are low and he needs to make up a lot of speed. The fact that you can't slow down a stone, only speed it up, and the fact that sweeping for power reduces variance makes the game that much closer to real curling and makes the strategy more interesting (IMO).

There may be additional rules that restrict when a stone's path can be altered by sweeping (you can only move a stone to the side once you reach the final 5 movement of the last power card, for example). Keep in mind the opposing team can also sweep once the stone gets towards the house.

Negative cards: One option would be to use cards to negatively impact a delivery. Here are two options I've thought of:
Option 1: At the conclusion of each power card you draw a bad card. In this scenario most of the card wouldn't do much (if anything), as you're drawing a lot of them. You can see how this system would further benefit using fewer power cards.
Option 2 (I think I like this one if I end up using this concept): The opposing team draws, say three bad cards and then discards one. They can play either remaining of the remaining cards as they see fit.

Beneficial cards: The opposite of negative cards, these are cards the deliverer draws in order to help his delivery. Possible cards could include "reroll the result of a power card", or "reroll all 3's for any slow power cards". I'm unsure if I'll end up including this in the final product

Spin: I'd like to implement this as well, even if it's an optional "advanced" rule. I'm thinking spin would help to move a stone laterally during the final few spaces of movement but:
1. That may just take importance away from the sweepers.
2. It could also make the sweeper’s job more important (A stone need to get past another stone before it moves to the right, behind the other stone. The tighter the area, the more you'll need to rely on your sweepers to fine tune the power.
3. Let's say you roll a number of 6 sided dice to determine the spin, up to 4 dice (your choice). You would also specify which direction the stone is rotating. Note: you would not be required to apply spin if you do not wish to.
0 - 2 = no spin
3 - 8 = 1 spin
9 - 13=2 spin
14+ = 3 spin
4. I'm not sure how a "3 spin" would be implemented exactly at this time. Perhaps it would move the stone one space to the right at the end of the last three power cards. You know, three may be too much; I'm thinking most of the spin should resolve in the last few spaces of movement, and a three space lateral movement seems excessive (without the help of brushes; see #5).
5. Sweepers should be able to accentuate a curve (turn a 1 spin into a 2 spin), but should not be able to reduce spin (much like power).
6. I'm can't decide if the concept of spin is necessary or too cumbersome.
7. The more I think about it, the more I think this is necessary. I think I'll probably keep this and perhaps exclude the good and bad cards. That would leave the deliverer in charge of determining the following criteria of a shot (Warning, curling terms ahead):
- Weight (power)
- Turn (spin)
- line (the direction of the throw, ignoring the spin. I've been calling "the variance" up until now.)
These are actually the three things a deliverer controls in an actual game of curling.

Different deliverers: In real curling the best team members deliver the last stones in an end, as those are the most important, and often are the difference between a good and a great end. I was thinking of having players draw more negative/fewer positive cards for the first stones while the last stones get extra good cards and/or fewer bad cards. This would encourage players to attempt easier shots for the first stones while allowing them the potential to pull off amazing shots for the last stones, making the game reflect the actual sport more accurately.

Different teams: Perhaps there are 8 different teams to pick from, each with a slight benefit (and negative?). Perhaps the Canadian team can adjust any shot's power by +/- 1, but draw one fewer sweeper card.

If you have read this far, good news! It's done! Seriously though, you either must really like curling or rules to games. Thanks either way, and I hope you found the idea somewhat interesting. Let me know what you think!