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Solitaire PNP: lite-dungeon crawl

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crashdmj
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Joined: 05/22/2013

I am kicking around an idea for a solitaire PnP containing elements of Rock-Paper-Scissor and dice-building. I suppose it could somehow be extrapolated to >1 person but for now it was meant to be something I could play when bored, solo. I figure I could release it via PnP, if it ever gets to a playable state. Ideas, comments, questions and concerns welcomed.

Players pick a party of three hero cards to traverse a dungeon/labyrinth. Each hero card has two numbers: 1) a number for the amount of dice they start with 2) a number for the maximum amount of dice they can have. Also on the card is a dice conversion table for those who don’t want to create their own dice (use d6) and a list of skills and abilities unique to that hero. Lastly, the Rock-Paper-Scissor element (x2), the card contains a pictograph which shows the characters elemental alignment (Water beats Fire beats Earth etc) and attack type (Physical Attack beats Magic beats Ranged/Projectile etc). I figure the game could have 9 Hero characters, one for each element and attack type, which would vary the gameplay enough that someone (me) would want to continue to play the game repeatedly.

The game will also have dungeon tiles which you will shuffle and draw one by one and lay down creating the dungeon as you go. The dungeon tiles also have a pictograph for traps (if any), number of monsters you have to beat to continue onward (if any), number of loot cards you can draw (again, if any), possibly a stair icon which allows you to go deeper into the dungeon and maybe a boss card or two thrown in. Again this is WIP.

Loot cards I won’t go into because, quite frankly I am unsure how they will specifically work: maybe they have bonuses or useable items (not sure yet). Dungeon tile-dependent cards (keys for locked doors etc)?

Monster cards will be numbered and laid out, face up, on the table before you in a line. When you have to fight a monster you roll a die (D20 or D# of monsters) to see which monster you fight and you slide the card out slightly (so it sticks out a bit from the line of monsters) that way you know to fight it. Doing it this way cuts down on shuffling a deck of monster cards and on paper to print cards (you only need one card per monster). Monsters also have skills/abilities, elemental alignments and attack types like the heroes do.

Combat: I wanted a streamlined combat system that didn’t involve tons of calculations. I also wanted a system with some dice-building/rolling elements and RPS. I came up with a kind-of two stage combat system, this is what it tentatively looks like: You flip a dungeon card over and find you are fighting three monsters. You roll a D20 (or whatever) and see which monsters you are fighting. Next you decide which hero fights which monster (I have no idea what I will do if the heroes outnumber the monsters yet-I suppose I could make it so that never happens).

Phase 1 combat (RPS-element): you check the hero’s elemental alignment and attack-type against the monsters. For instance my warrior (Fire-Physical attack) attacks a blob (Earth-Physical attack). Fire beats earth (hero advantage) and we both do Physical attacks (no advantage to either) so the hero wins and the fighting ends. If it is a tie (draw), phase 2 of combat begins with that monster against that hero.

Phase 2 combat (Dice): As previously mentioned each hero has a number of starting dice listed on their card (not to exceed the second number-the dice limit). Each hero has their own set of dice with various amounts on each face (for instance the warrior could have the die faces be: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3). The monsters will have their own dice faces too. You roll the hero’s dice, add them all up and then roll against the monsters dice (add them up) and the one with the highest number wins. If the hero wins you beat the monster. If the hero loses, they lose a die. I did this because I didn’t want to track yet another stat for each hero (HP) and figured this was a pretty elegant way to cut down on it (Dice faces=attack, number of die=health, one item having two properties-yah!). A hero dies when they have no more dice to roll. Maybe the loot cards can someone replenish dice (I shall have to look into this more). During Phase 2 combat, abilities can be used to augment rolls etc.

By having these two phases I figured it gave the game more strategic options (where if it didn’t have the RPS element the game would sort of play itself-which means boredom-which means I never will play it again). So you have at least 9 hero cards with different skills and abilities, different die faces, and different RPS alignments. Do you choose a character from each elemental alignment and different attack types to maximize the Phase 1 combat options? Do you choose characters with skills and abilities that play well off each other but may not have different RPS alignments meaning more Phase 2 combat? Maybe you have a ‘meat shield’ character that can attack a monster and take damage for another etc? Options usually mean more strategy (…usually).

Materials: Hero cards x9 (you pick three), monster cards x? (you lay them out in a row, face up), dungeon tiles (shuffle and draw one at a time), dice (hero dice, monster dice), loot cards (shuffle and face down).

Random musings/ideas:
-It would be neat if you could upgrade individual hero dice for better die (higher #’s on the die faces but more risk, i.e. the warrior has a 1,1,1,2,2,3 die that you can ‘upgrade’ for a 0,0,3,3,3,5 die). Maybe it costs gold, maybe it costs 2 dice?
-I am sure there is some way to eliminate the dungeon tiles to cut down on materials but I like ‘building’ a dungeon aspect. It gives a sense of accomplishment by laying tiles (shrug). I could always create a variant for those who do not wish to use dungeon tiles.
-I have no idea how a magic-wielding hero will work (do they use special dice, maybe there is an additional layer of strategy this way: do you ‘buy’ a health die or a magic die?)
-to make the dungeon increase in difficulty the further you go down I thought of this idea: Each monster has a dice conversion table like the hero cards but it changes depending on dungeon depth. So for a ‘slime’ it would have rows 1-5 (representing dungeon depth). For level 1, the slime’s die faces would be: 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1. For level 2 it increases to 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1 etc. If you don’t want a monster to show up on early level they simply won’t have a row for that level. So a grand dragon would only have rows 4 and 5 for dungeon level 4 and 5 respectively. If you were to roll the grand dragon on an early dungeon level-you simply reroll for a different creature.
-Again to cut down on materials, you could have each hero use an ability on once per level-but then again how do you keep track of which hero used which ability-this necessitates more materials (ability chips w/ a cooldown icon on one side?). I shall have to think on this.
-to make a boss fight more ‘epic’ and last longer, you follow the same Phase 2 (dice rolling) combat rules but with the added caveat that you keep fighting until all your characters are dead (no more dice to roll) or the boss is dead (meaning everytime you win against the boss, they lose dice as well). So it’s not one Phase 2 dice roll and you’re done-you keep going until someone has no dice left. Will have to think this one through some more.

Shoe
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Joined: 12/21/2012
Seems like some fun

Seems like some fun ideas...I'm not 100% sure I'd have fun with the Rock-paper-scizzors portion of combat trumping the dice portion. Why not just have it give you a large bonus instead, like an extra dice against that monster for each set of advantage they have.

Just a thought.
-Shoe

crashdmj
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Joined: 05/22/2013
[Shoe] Yeah, I am a little

[Shoe] Yeah, I am a little apprehensive that the two phases of combat (RPS and dice) do not mesh well. I will have to prototype them to see but first I wanted to hear what others have to say. I initially decided upon them to add a layer of strategy to the game and to avoid the monotony of simply rolling against a monster all the time. Strategy-wise I think there is some potential (e.g. do I use my water-warrior to knock a fire-dragon out of play during Phase 1, or do I save the warrior so that it can attack a pesty slime which I will have to fight anyway because I do not have the opposing element etc).

If I find the two phases are too disconnected from each other than perhaps I will do something similar to what you suggested. Thanks!

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