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Push Your Luck/Worker Placement Dungeon Game

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Mon, 03/13/2017 - 14:44
The Odd Fox
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I came up with an idea over the weekend for a dungeon delving game that uses both Push Your Luck and Worker Placement elements in it. I've already gone through three prototypes over the weekend as I scrap parts of this game that don't work and add to it where it needs some love. Basically the dungeon is made up of cards and each card has areas where workers can be placed to harvest certain elements. Noise is a factor in the game and the more workers in one area the more noise they make. The Dragon is in the center of the board and is always face up and has a wakefulness meter. Once the Dragon awakes all the dungeon cards are collected, reshuffled and each player loses a certain amount of their hard earned resources. Players then attempt to delve more quietly. Additional cards have random monster attacks that add noise as well. Each player has a set number of contracts they are meant to fulfill (different combinations of elements being harvested). The winner is the player who fulfills four contracts first.

My question is whether any of you know of any other games that use Push Your Luck and Worker Placement mechanics together? I'd love to look over how this is done (if it is) as I blend these two unlikely mechanical mates.

Thanks!

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Mon, 03/13/2017 - 15:49
#1
let-off studios
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Red November

The game that comes to mind when I think of worker placement and managing the odds/push-your-luck is Red November. Players are crew members on a gnomish submarine that refuses to stay in good repair. They must manage all the things that go wrong on the ship, but also manage how much time they spend on each task. The more time they spend, the better chance they have to fix things, but the number of things that needs to be repaired increases.

Then the Kraken comes along and you either need to kill it, or escape in the ONE diving suit to let everyone else sink. :)

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36946/red-november

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Mon, 03/13/2017 - 18:46
#2
Rick L
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As it turns out...

I think this would pretty much define my main game design project - I think lol!

The worker placement/resource management part of my game and the push your luck dice chucking Alchemy experiments have always felt like two different phases of gameplay, which from the start has been something I've tried to get merged into a single whole. It wasn't until recent play-tests that I've realized I'm still not there yet!

The two parts still seem like two separate games - building a supply of ingredients and equipment so that you can be prepared to mitigate the randomness of a handful of dice sounds like it should be able to flow, but it's still tricky.

I think I'm getting there - and I believe I can find the right merging of the two parts of the gameplay, but sometimes it feels like navigating a maze - you go down one path, thinking it's leading somewhere, only to hit a dead end. So you retrace your steps and try a different idea.

So I don't know if it's just my choice of mechanics that are difficult to merge, or if it's often going to be tricky to do it.

The game that seems most like what I'm trying to do is Manhattan Project, although when it comes to the bomb building part, I don't think there's really a push your luck part - but if you were to add one, then you'd see where it gets tricky!

Your idea sounds cool tho - if you push forward with it, we can compare notes!

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Mon, 03/13/2017 - 19:10
#3
The Odd Fox
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Your game design

Rick,

Is this the game design you and BHFuturist have been talking about? If so I'll go back through the notes and look at it. I'd love to hear more!

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Mon, 03/13/2017 - 22:57
#4
Rick L
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Yes, that's the one :) It

Yes, that's the one :)

It sounds like your idea might have a pretty good link between the worker/resourcing side and the push your luck, where it's the resource production that is essentially increasing your risk all at the same time, instead of using some/all of your resources in a "next phase" type of push your luck mechanic. I guess what I'm saying is that the resourcing work itself is pushing your luck (making noise that might wake the dragon), instead of players making a decision about whether they feel ready to try their luck in another mechanic/mini-game/phase, like in mine.

So in that case, you probably wouldn't have as many issues - go for it!

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Thu, 03/16/2017 - 02:59
#5
BHFuturist
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Sounds like a cool idea!

I messed around with worker placement some for a game idea called "Frogs & Logs". One thing I did notice from a push your luck sense, the worker placement can become a "take that mechanic" if you are not careful. On the other had that might also be a good thing in the game if done the right way.

In your case, I want to place more workers where you did to make more noise so we both lose out in that section (but is it worth losing the worker that turn?).

In the case of Frogs & Logs, it was not working as intended... I had it to where only a set number of frogs could be on a lily pad without dumping everyone off. So in the end players wanted to "de-throne" other players off the lily pads... with some tweaking, I might be able to counter it some, but at the start, I did not intend for it to be quite that harsh of a "take that".

I think it will be hard to balance several players all pooling the risk in a push your luck sense. If one player pushes more than the others they all might lose out, and some players might get frustrated with not controlling their own level of luck pushing in the game. You might counter some of this with hidden placement or player bluffing. Just a thought...

I look forward to hearing more about this design as you move forward!

@BHFuturist

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