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PACKRATS -- a COMPULSIVE HOARDING card game for 2-4 -- my first BGDF thread

5 replies [Last post]
Tue, 11/08/2011 - 08:05
sounde
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Hey all!

I want to do a humorous, colorful card game themed on compulsive hoarders/hoarding (folks who hold on to crazy amounts of lord knows what/cram their homes to bursting).

Primary gameplay would revolve around management of acquired stuff. There'd be a constant flow/influx of good (and not so good) stuff. So, some queue management (Guillotine. Pecunia Non Olet. A hand of beans in Bohnanza.) and a lot of stacking and fitting (pile/stuff/junk management -- any non-dexterity stacking games I should look at?).

Each item/card would have size and weight information relevant to stacking and color-coding/other attributes relevant to end scoring. Possibly different player characters corresponding to the different colors/suits (codifying an unhealthy affinity for certain types of junk) -- such that they would compulsively HAVE TO take in a certain amount of awkward and/or worthless junk. ("It's a horribly awkward and fragile crossed lightsabers floor lamp and I DO NOT have space for it, but look... LIGHTSABERS!!")

Play to a certain point (don't attract social services!) and score for cramming in the most junk -- but there are many ways to vary/tweak this:
Set collection. Diverse collection (X of each color). Secret goal cards. Cramming small objects into drawers and cupboards. Filling up the space below chairs and tables. (a bag of 1632 twist-ties!) Overstacking and collapse of piles. Some possibilities for trading.

I want don't want the gameplay to be Action Card driven (a la Guillotine) but am thinking it should be more of an action point allowance/Stamina system. Moving X amount of weight from pile to pile costs X stamina/points ... pushing something back in the queue costs X. etc. (a 10lb bag of orange gummy bears! who eats the orange ones? orange things go in the leftmost cupboard.)

Right now the game glorifies the unhealthy hoarding... and I think I am okay with that.
I have some BAD packratting tendencies myself and well... at least it's not about brutal violence.

HOW CAN YOU HELP!
Any and all comments are very welcome, but I think the place I am most stuck is... the math of deck size. I have no idea how many cards to start with. I want play time to be something like 30 minutes, I think player mats seem necessary and would have maybe 3 base spots. Items should be stackable at least 5 high. So we're talking at least 15 cards per person plus it needs to be padded up to make it all less predictable. Should I just start with 60?

Clearly I have been kicking this idea around for a while. Long enough that it has too many different possible forms/variables in my head and is becoming a total muddle. What sounds good!? What sounds overly complicated? What makes it sound most like it is about unhealthy hoarding habits!?

Thanks!
Seth

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Fri, 11/18/2011 - 11:26
#1
sounde
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Joined: 02/07/2011
I hate to sound desperate

I hate to sound desperate here, but I am.
:D

Unclear/confusing/hard to conceive?
Too weird? Too boring? Too insulting?

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Fri, 11/18/2011 - 17:15
#2
Dralius
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Subjects for humor games are

Subjects for humor games are difficult. You can easily offend people or turn them away.

I appreciate a little humor in games but it never a main driving point in my decision to purchase a game.

I find the hording compulsion to be a sad self destructive behavior. From my point of view it would be like making a humorous game about crack addiction.

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Fri, 11/18/2011 - 18:56
#3
AndyGB
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Joined: 10/05/2011
I agree but...

Hi,

I agree with what Dralius says, to do the theme exactly as you've laid it out would probably be a very fine line slash be over the line in terms of being potentially insulting. I don't think though that that means you have to give up the entire idea or even the main elements of the theme. What if you are the harried manager of a U-store it place. The walls have all collapsed between the units and you have to square everything away before the renters come back. Or you're competing junkmen balancing comically oversized loads in your open trucks.

You have the potential for some great humorous art, all types of creative 'junk' and some interesting mechanics with size, weight, and value considerations, set collecting etc. Even your "compulsion" criterion could be incorporated if your characters (or renters, or whoever) were fanatical about types of collections. Having to have all the Star Wars toys doesn't qualify in itself as unhealthy (I hope...).

I think as long as it is not at all on the mental disability side this could be fun, interesting, funny AND remain inoffensive.

Just my two cents,
AndyGB

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Fri, 11/18/2011 - 19:00
#4
kos
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Joined: 01/17/2011
Same title

There is a game already published called Packrat:
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/packrat

When I saw your thread title I thought it was about that game, but the mechanics are entirely different so it is definitely a different game.

Regards,
kos

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Fri, 11/18/2011 - 22:23
#5
jclair
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Joined: 10/13/2011
I actually like the idea. I

I actually like the idea. I enjoy humor in games, as long as the games isn't entirely about cracking witty jokes (for example, Munchkin is not my favorite game). However, I'm also not the type to get insulted easily.

regarding deck size, it really depends on 1. how many cards people start with, 2. how many cards you run through per turn (in a draw one card per turn game, 60 cards is plenty), and 3. What percentage of cards you want to be used each game. Lots of unused cards per game created room for variability and replay-ability, however, they also make publishing cost more expensive (if that's the end goal here). I'd say to shoot low to start, since you've got to make and think up all the cards, and if your initial play-testing results in you having to redo all the cards, it's gonna suck a lot more if you have 300 cards rather than 60. After you've play tested a little, you'll get a better feel for the appropriate number.

Suggestion: If the object is to be the "best hoarder" Players could have "Family and Friends" cards that they can play on opponents which cause them to de-hoard stuff (family throws out your stuff, or gets you psychological help). Could be funny. Need to make it really ridiculous though, and clearly a joke, or people could get insulted. Good cartoon art will do that.

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