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Nothing seems to fit

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LoveInPaintCreations
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I'm trying to come up with a game based off of the H. G. Wells book 'The Time Machine' and just can't seem to come up with any mechanics that seem fun to try. I've got some ideas I've been playing around with, like having it be a search for the machine game, or even a battle game between the Eloi and Morlocks but neither ideas excite me.

Any thoughts?

wob
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hi. you are the peaceful eloi

hi.
you are the peaceful eloi tribe- you must achieve x.
x could be somthing innocent such as collect 25 bannanas (its been a while so i cant remember much about them exept there cattle)
you start with lots of eloi but after each round some get eaten by the morlocks.
can you achieve x before all the eloi are eaten?

or

you are the morlocks. you must keep your eloi happy and healthy long enough to eat.
you must balance various things like food and water and keeping the population high enough to breeding.
like a dark farming game.

LoveInPaintCreations
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I hadn't even thought of

I hadn't even thought of those options. I'll percolate and see if something pops up with those ideas :)

wob
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the eloi suggestion would

the eloi suggestion would probably be easier to do, a basic set collection game, or a simple worker placement.
the morlock one would be harder, i was thinking an engine builder like agricola. i like to play an engine builder but they are a pain to design.

let-off studios
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Go Morlock

I think the Morlock theme would be edgier and more dynamic. For example, you could integrate the Time Traveler into the latter part of the game as an interference, diverting your Morlock resources to "defending against the interloper." It wouldn't be just about resource collection, but protection of your engine and production cycle.

Players build up their empire, and then once it's up and running here comes this stranger, throwing a monkeywrench in the works... That sound much more interesting to me as a player. You end up testing everyone's engines against one another in terms of resilience, perhaps even forging temporary alliances to quell eloi rebellions or other disturbances to the status quo.

Personally I'm not a fan of time travel mechanics (and especially how I've seen them implemented in board games up until now) so I'd recommend you'd stay away from that as a hook. That's just personal preference, though.

Jay103
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wob wrote:hi. you are the

wob wrote:
hi.
you are the peaceful eloi tribe- you must achieve x.
x could be somthing innocent such as collect 25 bannanas (its been a while so i cant remember much about them exept there cattle)
you start with lots of eloi but after each round some get eaten by the morlocks.

The morlocks do attack them, but the eloi aren't cattle, are they? More like the people in Wall-E.

FrankM
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Cattle-ish

The Eloi are docile and, unbeknownst to them, raised as food. Just how docile depends on which version of the story you watch.

Assuming this is a multiplayer game, each Morlok chief is building an engine, but the pool of Eloi in the middle could be building their own based on a script/program. Without the time traveler, they only have access to stuff that helps them heal or multiply. The time traveler unlocks moves that can lead to Eloi rebelling (unlocks tied to the time traveler accomplishing goals inside Morlok territories?)

So Morloks need to leave enough Eloi to keep up their numbers, and early Eloi achievements allow for harvesting even more... but in the late game they become a potential threat so the Morloks can’t focus entirely on the time traveler.

This would be complicated to set up, but the players may be able to manipulate the time traveler somewhat (e.g., will stop current task to rescue the Romantic Interest Eloi).

Bonus points for several distinct time travelers with differing abilities (pick one from a deck) so the Morloks don’t know exactly what to prepare for.

LoveInPaintCreations
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Wow, you guys have some

Wow, you guys have some amazing ideas! I was planning on it being a lighter game, but I am going to see if I can't do something really fun with these ideas!

I have been trying to figure out a way to bring a sense of unease into the game, as it seems like the entire book is the Time Traveler being uneasy and uncomfortable.

Here were some of my ideas: (all based off of book)

1: An old man in an insane asylum telling a tale
2: an adventure game with a pirate-type map to find the time machine
3: An interesting spin off of 'Clue', but without a murder, but what? This would include the characters with whom he tells the story to
4: Maybe pick up at the ending, where the Time Traveler had not returned, turning it into a search and rescue through the ages

Ideas from Reddit:
1: Light war game where the PCs are the Time Traveler that have to fight for either the Morlock's side or the Eloi.
2: Wave survival where you are trying to survive with the Eloi each night
3: Similar the Fluxx where Fluxx cards are time, end up with enemies strong in one time period but weak in another
4: Wave survival where you're the Time Traveler and the Eloi are passive, so you have extremely limited active to try to keep them away from the Morlocks.

Do any of these sound interesting, along with ya'll's ideas?

john smith
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IN the 80's there was a Role

IN the 80's there was a Role Playing game about This book. Did not last long. IN 2005 , remake of it was released by deep7 Games.

HG Wells was a wargamer and wrote two books about it. "Little Wars" and Floor Games".

There is also miniatures game for War of the Worlds in the UK. This was a custom design using old Toy Soldiers and 3D Printed Alien walkers from the Story.

LoveInPaintCreations
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john smith wrote:IN the 80's

john smith wrote:
IN the 80's there was a Role Playing game about This book. Did not last long. IN 2005 , remake of it was released by deep7 Games.

HG Wells was a wargamer and wrote two books about it. "Little Wars" and Floor Games".

There is also miniatures game for War of the Worlds in the UK. This was a custom design using old Toy Soldiers and 3D Printed Alien walkers from the Story.

How interesting that I came to land on a bit of a light war game based off of this book!

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