You can be Jack Donaghy! (game about running a TV network)

So as a less experienced game designer, I made a post here (http://www.bgdf.com/node/6427) asking people about how they go about developing games and their inspiration/design process. Lots of great advice. In particular, Cogentesque suggested taking a theme and a mechanic and sort of mashing them together (specifically, a game about making a movie, designed around an auction mechanic).

That got me thinking, and I've decided, if for nothing more than the experience. Some of the people in our weekly gaming group are huge TV nerds, so I decided to put a twist on Cogentesque's challenge and have decided to make a game about owning a TV network, based around an auction mechanic. So now, in it's most beginning stages, I present to you: Sweeps Week (working title).

Premise: 3-5 players take on the role of network executives building competing TV schedules, with the ultimate goal of building a juggernaut which turns millions upon millions of minds to mush while raking in huge piles of advertising dough.

What I have so far: Each player would have a small board in front of them as their "schedule." On it they would have three slots per day for four days (Monday - Thursday). Each slot would have a default number of people watching during that hour (with the middle slot for each day being the strongest). To start the game, players would draw from three decks of shows - "Flagship" shows (high budget, high expected viewership - the "anchors" for a given day's schedule), "Lead-in shows" (lower budget, but could gain momentum and become flagship shows later on), and "filler" shows (reality TV, court shows, etc). There would be a limited number of shows from each deck (to create scarcity), and players would bid on them one by one (creates a sense of urgency, because you don't know if the next show will fit your schedule as well as the one currently being bid on). I think each show should have a "draw" factor - the expected number of people tuning in, a "reputation factor" (racy, over the top junk TV shows will hurt the network's reputation over time), as well as a short description of the show. In the description (and probably also listed along the bottom of the show's card, for simplicity) would be several key words in bold (probably between 2 and 4).

These key words would provide the foundation for several things. First, shows which share keywords give a bonus when they lead into each other (if you like one show, you're likely to stick around to watch a similar show that airs immediately afterwards). There'd also probably be a network-wide bonus if you have a lot of shows that share a key word (fans know they can always tune in to network [x] when they're in the mood for comedy, drama or whatever the keyword would be).

Keywords would also affect advertisers. Each adverstiser would have certain requirements (i.e. three shows with the keyword "lawyers" on a network with a minimum reputation of 1, would earn a player the "Ambulance Chaser's Law Firm" as an advertiser and would get more cash each week they hold onto the Law Firm). Any player can steal an advertiser by surpassing the number of shows which feature the keyword for that advertiser (current holder of the Law Firm has 3 lawyer shows - another player gains a fourth, therefor, the first player loses the Law Firm and the second player gains it). When attempting to steal an advertiser, players would need to meet the minimum reputation for that advertiser, but additional reputation beyond that would not help. Likewise, even if no other players meet the keyword requirement, a player may lose the advertiser if their reputation sinks too low (and would return the advertiser to the pool). Even ambulance chasers won't want to be associated with a network with 0 or negative reputation.

I don't know if the advertisers will be static from game to game (everyone chases after the same ones, in which case the pool would be fairly large), or if I'll make a small deck of them and have a smaller number in the active pool, with a mechanic to refresh the pool (getting rid of un-claimed advertisers and drawing new ones) from time to time.

Reputation will hopefully act as a balancing force and an incentive to try different strategies. Some players will put all their eggs into one or two high-budget flagship shows with high reputation, hoping they won't go bankrupt if those shows tank, while others will take the short-term gain of cheap shows which will hurt their reputation, but which will also give them more money for bidding later on. That could backfire as well, because the higher-paying advertisers will have a higher minimum reputation, so a network which has a lower reputation could miss out on that money in the mid and late game phases because they decided to stuff their schedule with junk shows for the easy money at the start of the game.

Once each person has a schedule, bidding phase would end, and the players would start earning viewers and money from advertisements over several "weeks". A show would be allocated [x] number of viewers, with the potential to add or lose viewers each week. In order to strengthen the schedule, a player would be able to move shows from one time slot to the other, but doing so would carry a slight penalty in viewership for the moved show.

Then, there would be a "renewal phase." Current shows would be revalued (the more successful a show is, the more creators and cast will want for another season), and bidding would start anew (also during this phase, players can trade or sell shows to other players). So in summary, the game would go: bidding->drawing viewers and advertisers->renewing (and then back to bidding)

I think the easiest way to determine a winner would be for the game to last a specific number of turns ("seasons"), with the player who has the most viewers being the winner (also might assign "victory points" to advertisers and cash holdings, with the cash-to-victory points and the viewers-to-victory points ratios such that viewers would carry a much higher weight).

I'd also like to incorporate things like "Award Show Nominations," which would give bonus viewers to shows with high reputations, random events like writer's strikes (or leading actors pulling a "Charly Sheen"), but I'm working on nailing down the basics first (though if you think a certain new feature would be cool, definitely mention it in the comments - I'm always up for implementing new ideas).
Issues left to solve

• How to allocate viewers: I think there should be a limited pool of viewers (which would put the networks in more direct competition), but I have yet to figure out the specifics of their allocation, other than it should probably be in units of 100k (or 10k or something). It makes sense to me that there be situations where there are unclaimed viewers, which makes me thing that a good way to go about it would be for each show to have a draw factor (with a bonus for lead-in shows which share keywords), perhaps with the draw factor adding dice into a roll against a table to see how the show did. Let's say the table says 1-3 loses 200k viewers, 4-6 loses 100k, 7-9 is no change, and 10-12 adds 100k (and every 3 above 12 gets 100k more, so a 15 would add 200k, 18 adds 300k, etc). Say a show has a draw factor of 3. That means the person rolling would get 3d6 against the table (could lose 200k or add 200k). If that show gets a lead-in with a matching keyword, it could get another d6 (could lose 100k or add 400k). That could work, but it doesn't give me a solution for when all viewers for that hour have been allocated, so additional viewers would have to come from other shows.
• The viewer allocation phase feels weak. I think there should be something more exciting for people to do than just roll dice and look at the table. Maybe there could be action cards they could draw or purchase to potentially help one of their shows get the extra edge (at the risk of "jumping the shark")? ("Hire a new star," "invite big name guest stars," "kill a main character," or "feature a controversial, topical issue" could be possible examples). I like the idea of incorporating these more "zany" elements, but I don't want to over-complicate the game.
• I envision this being a quicker (30-40 minutes or less) game, and I'd like it to be light-hearted and fun, but to me, I also think players need to feel like their decisions are meaningful. In my opinion, chance should create balance and allow players of disparate skill levels to compete more like equals, not as the sole determinant of a player's fate (i.e. Candyland). Also working against the "quick, light-hearted, and fun" goal is my impulse to make everything more complicated than it needs to be, so don't hesitate to call me out on that if this game seems to be going down the road to overcomplication.
• As a successful show goes longer in its run, I think it should eventually lose viewers, even as its costs grow. At the same time, I think smaller shows should be able to build momentum into a hit, so I want a mechanism that allows for both. Maybe after a show has been on for so long, it loses 1 draw factor, which can be offset by a strong audience? (maybe it loses one draw factor after every season following the third, but gains back one die for every million viewers?)
• Just thought of this: What if players took turns pitching the shows? Would that make it more fun and interactive? Basically it would work like this: One player draws a show card (sans description; only he sees it) and, using the keywords, comes up with a one or two sentence pitch (without obviously giving away the keywords). If these players have played the game before, he could incorporate keywords that aren't on the card as well to drive up the price or throw people off, so long as he uses all the ones provided. The rest of the players bid on the show, and the player making the pitch gets maybe ten or twenty percent of the final bid (for the show's rights - the rest is considered to have gone to "production costs"). Nice social element? Making things too complicated again? Nice idea, but maybe it doesn't fit with this game? Let me know what you think (in addition to any other feedback you may have).
  . . . God, that was long. If you made it this far, thanks for making it to the end, and for leaving any feedback you have! It's much appreciated.