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warehouse - the game? Input wanted

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abdantas
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Joined: 11/13/2012

Hey Guys, so I got this idea while I was at work today about a board/euro style board game that takes place in a warehouse. it'd have a strong space/resource management aspect to it that I think could be interesting.

setup/theme:
you play as a warehouse employee in charge of receiving supplies and shipping out inventory

gameplay
Now, players take turns placing their actions. A player can call in a new truck, that will have new supplies to put away, call in an outbound truck, that will have supplies that you can take from the rack to send out. and clear room for new items that will be worth more points. You can put something in a rack that will take up that space for the rest of the turn. He can man a forklift, where some of them will give you extra actions in a turn but can't reach a higher level. And the cards you draw will have specific places where they want to be put away.

So let's say we're playing with 4 people.
Each player starts out with the basic two rules. Since I'm the first player I get to pick whether I want to ship out or receive this turn.
Then I can place my person on a forklift, that will let me draw one of the cards from the truck (known to only me) put away items in one of the 3 racks (2 heights per rack). If someone is already using the rack I want or there already is an item there I can take it down, but you can't do it with a machine that already has a card on it, so you can discard the card allowing for another player to grab it with their action, while you unload the space. There could also be sabotage or mishap cards of things that happen like stock breaking, or you loosing a wheel.

The possibilities here are pretty vast. I'm just trying to figure out if this is something worth refining and pursuing.

Any ideas/thoughts?
Thanks guys

abdantas
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Joined: 11/13/2012
edited

So I was thinking about this idea last night and trying to figure out how I can make a compelling game from this idea and it hit me. You could make a light fun card game out of this easy,

The people would start with a predetermined number of cards in their hands. These are the items they have to put away. The more of the same kind they put away in the same place, the more points they gather. If they mix different item types it will still be rewarding but not as big a save. The cards front will say how much the product weights, what it’s value is, and where it can fit.

The back of the cards will have rack numbers, as well as the weight allowance on it and how deep it is.

The rack will determine how many cards you can play at once, keeping in mind the total weight cannot be exceeded.
Once a rack is taken up it cannot be used for the rest of the game.

Players can take their cards from a faceup deck, where they can see what the ingredient coming up is, or take a card from another player (if a card is taken from a different player it must be played immediately, as you are drawing the rack for put away.

There will be mishap cards of things that could go wrong, as well as opportunity. At the end of ap layers turn he must place a new card in the “dock” (middle of the table) this card can be picked up by anybody in their turn as it is available.

senorbaub
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Joined: 08/20/2011
It seems like it needs a flashier setting

The basic premise of shipping and receiving is cool (plus I've been around that environment for a good chunk of my career) but it seems like it needs a more unique setting than a modern day warehouse in order to grab peoples' interest. I'd suggest making it a space warehouse but then it might start to resemble Merchants of Venus :) Maybe your ship out supplies needed by other games (e.g. magical items for one game, minion creatures for another game, laser cannons for another game, space marines for another game) which could make it a parody in a sense.

abdantas
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Joined: 11/13/2012
oOo, that's a good idea

oOo, that's a good idea Senor.

my idea has evolved a bit to be a game where you draw from the receiving deck. and you try to match as many of the same kind of items before taking putting it in a rack (which are numbers printed on the back of people's cards). But while you're trying to get your things together people will be trying to take your stuff.

Different items will give you different bonuses and different amount of points.

Does this sound appealing at all?

TwentyPercent
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Joined: 12/25/2012
senorbaub wrote:The basic

senorbaub wrote:
The basic premise of shipping and receiving is cool (plus I've been around that environment for a good chunk of my career) but it seems like it needs a more unique setting than a modern day warehouse in order to grab peoples' interest. I'd suggest making it a space warehouse but then it might start to resemble Merchants of Venus :) Maybe your ship out supplies needed by other games (e.g. magical items for one game, minion creatures for another game, laser cannons for another game, space marines for another game) which could make it a parody in a sense.

I do like Senor Baub's suggestion, that the topic of shipping and receiving could come across a little boring. If I'm understanding his suggestion of the players are shipping items from other Big-Name games, you could incorporate a comical theme to the game (similar to Munchkins). In addition to the fun tie of your game to many other games (merely in pictures and item names, I presume), the humor aspect could be an aspect that draws an audience.

SinJinQLB
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Joined: 12/02/2012
Just an idea for a possible

Just an idea for a possible addition to the gameplay, or maybe just an expansion, would be if you have mission or scenario cards that would be requesting certain items. Like, just as a bad example, one of these cards could say something like "Our biggest retail customer needs 5 crates of swords, get it to them within 2 turns or else we lose the account!". And then you would sort of have to do the reverse of what you did to stock those items, only to get them back out of the shelf (by moving the items in front of it around or whatever, or maybe even enlisting the help of another player to "hold" the front items while you retrieve the back items that the scenario is asking for). Anyways that idea just popped into my head so I thought I'd mention it, for whatever it's worth.

GrimFinger
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Joined: 08/06/2008
TwentyPercent wrote:The basic

TwentyPercent wrote:
The basic premise of shipping and receiving is cool (plus I've been around that environment for a good chunk of my career) but it seems like it needs a more unique setting than a modern day warehouse in order to grab peoples' interest. I'd suggest making it a space warehouse but then it might start to resemble Merchants of Venus :) Maybe your ship out supplies needed by other games (e.g. magical items for one game, minion creatures for another game, laser cannons for another game, space marines for another game) which could make it a parody in a sense.

The game title and game box at could be useful in helping to set the tone and the atmosphere for the game. As an example, something like Warehouse Hellhouse, which helps the prospective player to know, before they even open the box, that some hectic gaming lies before them.

abdantas wrote:
A player can call in a new truck, that will have new supplies to put away, call in an outbound truck, that will have supplies that you can take from the rack to send out. and clear room for new items that will be worth more points.

One thought that I had the other day, after reading this thread, was that, if you are looking for a mechanism for players to be able to screw the other players over with, and to add to the hectic factor at the same time, would be to incorporate one or more additional decks of Cards (yes, I sad decks), with each of these extra decks representing additional trucks to be unloaded (as in an unexpected shipment arriving out of the blue). Extra trucks to unload, and what do your fellow warehouse workers do? Pass the buck, of course. And, likewise, they will want to pass the buck back - on their turn.

I don't think that a warehouse game has to be an inherently boring proposition. What I envision, with this type of a game, would be the players having to deal with one problem right after the other.

If what you're after is a hectic warehouse game, then perhaps in your game some Boss Cards could be included, or just various personnel, each with their own set of quirks. You characterized it in the initial posting that opened this thread as having "a strong space/resource management aspect to it ." The challenge of the game doesn't have to be limited to just and only the supplies and inventory. Virtually any job isn't saddled with just the core, basic tasks that need to be accomplished. Rather, the monkey wrenches of job life, in virtually any kind of job, are tossed into the equation by the various people that make up a given work force.

For whatever it may be worth.

abdantas
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Joined: 11/13/2012
Boss Cards - Summary

Ok, so let's sum up what we have so far.

The idea of the game goes as follows
1. players are trying to match as many cards preferably of the same type(printed on the face of the cards)
2. players are trying to make sure the items they add do not exceed the weight and rack allowances (on the back fo the cards)
3. the more people can combine the more points they get.
4. there will be a draw deck that will be split into multiple smaller decks to simulate trucks coming in. On top of each draw deck will be a face-up shipment card stating "when their appointment is (which turn they need t o be finished by) and what kind of bonus you can expect if you finish it early, as well as the cost of not finishing it on time.)
5. there will be a shipment deck letting you know which cards to you can get rid of from the racks or from your hand to give you room to try and get more points on the board. Player's can ship the wrong item but they will receive no points for doing it. some shipping docks will make you suffer negative penalties for shipping the wrong thing)
6. the beginning of every turn a new boss card will be drawn, which will dictate any kind of throw a wrench in the plans kind of thing, like, this truck needs to get done this turn. and what special rules will be in play during that mechanic. (when the CEO card comes out, any kind of mishap that causes damage of goods or property could give you a negative penalty and bonuses are granted for every truck finished on time.)

board:
im envisioning the board to be rectangular with a points counter on the outside edge. 4 spaces for completed racks, 1 shipping dock and 1 receiving dock.

extra:
Do you think there should be some sort of mechanic with the forklifts in there? Like this one might be better then that one, therefore it gives you more turns in a round, but it's battery only lasts 3 rounds. And if you don't have a new one to play you're on your feet. This could also add a mechanic where for you to play a mishap card you'd have to be off the forklift giving someone else the chance to steal it. I think this would add a lot of pieces that are a bit unnecessary to the game. MAybe an expansion idea?

so turn summary
player will be able to do 2/3 of the following (not sure yet)
- a player can call in a truck of their choice (if no one does this the next one in line comes in on it's own at the end of the round)
- player can place an item on the rack (therefore gaining points, gaining bonus points for same item type as well as for not exceeding the safety regulations.)
- ship a rack (gaining points if it's the correct shipment)
- Draw from the incoming truck pile, or from the proper rack from another player's hand messing up their game.

cards:
incoming load pile:
- these cards will dictate:
- item type (space, magic, steampunk, fantasy, blah blah blah)
- worth,
- Weight
- Location (maybe this can be determined by item type, even though it'd still be helpful on a card, like, space items like to go on the space rack, having all space items on the space rack will give you a big bonus. So you would draw a space rack from another player that lets you play up to 2000lbs and 5 items. Then if you have 5 items down that weight less then that amount, you could get a huge bonus, or maybe an ability.)

abdantas
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Joined: 11/13/2012
does this still sound like

does this still sound like its worth pursuing?

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