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Island Survival

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NJames
NJames's picture
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Joined: 12/26/2008

I am in the development stage for a game I'm calling Island Survival. It is a solo game about surviving after a shipwreck. The goal of the game is to signal the searchplane which arrives somewhere between day 5 and day 10 on the island.

I am particularly interested in help with identifying any vagueness in the rules and clarifying it. Please do look at the components, especially the player mat(s) when determing if the rules are clear.

If anyone is interested in playtesting it they are welcome to do so. You'll need to print about 8 pages, some on cardstock. If you decide to play the game I'd love to hear your impressions .

The website where you can find the game is http://njames.awardspace.com/island_survival.htm

Thanks for your time,
Nathan

Xane
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Joined: 03/04/2009
Sunday

Looks awesome. I'm a fanatic about any game, board or otherwise, related to survival. I don't have time at the moment, but I'll try to play it a few times before Sunday and reply then.

simons
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Joined: 12/28/2008
Clarifications...

First of all, very cool concept for a game. You don’t see many solitaire games out there (or at least I don’t).

So, this seems like a good draft. I take it that it’s not your first? It still needs a very fine editing job, but for now is descent. Very good use of pictures and examples. I think I basically understood most of the rules, however had a few questions to ask (or things that weren’t clear right away, though I’m being a bit picky, just because I figure it will help).

A few thoughts:
-Why is it that a canteen has a -1 fitness penalty, but not a water pot? Don’t they do the same thing?
-Why is there such a large penalty for matches, and no penalty for flint? Isn’t flint almost as good? Also, the cards and rulebooks say different things about what is required to stat a fire.
-I think your rulebook is out of order.
-“Highest uncovered fitness level,” was confusing until I read the example (I thought it meant if you were at 70%, and were injured, then you’d put it on the 70%).
-The setup instructions were difficult to understand, though the drawing helped a lot (what’s that old saying about 1000 words I guess?). You might consider explaining what each card means before the SETUP section.
-In the going astray example, “You roll again to determine left or right. Rolling a three, you stray left and arrive at location 5 as shown on the table.” Three should be 3. Also, a picture would be very helpful here. (additionally, it might help to have both the random table, and the pathfinding table available here; not necessary though)
-Eating berries causes you to gain stamina (if they are the bad ones). You mean lose stamina, right?
-What happens if you shoot at the wild animal and miss? Do you get injured, or does it run? (the rules make it sound like the later)
-Under chased by natives, it is pretty clear that “+1 per shot fired,” means the gun, but you might want to state that explicitly.
-Stamina and fatigue are used kind of interchangeably here. You should probably pick one and stick with it.
-Can you only search the ship once, or can you do it every time. Also, if I understand it, you get to pick any equipment?
-What causes you to lose or die? I caught: not running from the locals, or sleeping with the panther, and maybe going unconscious (though I missed that bit the first time I read it). Otherwise, how do you lose? Is it just missing both planes? What happens if you can’t start a fire on turn 10 (I’m guessing you just lose, right)?
-Is there anything that permanently reduces stamina?
-So, you can forage anywhere except the native village, right?
-Two food track questions: if I am at Day 4, do I just lose the fitness, or do I also gain fatigue? Also, is that fitness regained by eating?
-Just a thought, the medical kit almost seems a bit overpowered. Literally, every time you are injured it means you get one less injury? Even if you only gain 1 injury?
-If you start with, say, a fitness handicap, does that mean you can never go above 85%? Or is it just that you start feeling slightly unfit?
-When you say, “Recover one additional level of fitness” from eating a lot and resting, maybe I missed it, how else can one regain fitness?

As I said, overall great concept for a game.

Simon

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