Pride, Prejudice & Pirates

For our first prototype deliverable, using the provided theme of Jane Austen and Pirates we decided on her book Pride and Prejudice.

Trying to turn a work her book into a game was not an easy task, because her books written in such a way that saying true to the fiction is easy, adding pirates makes the task even harder. We solved this issue by abstracting the general theme from Pride and Prejudice which is about finding a man to get married too. We did put it back into the story once we had nailed down the theme.

For the format we stuck with a simple race to the end model, where the person who reaches the end first gets married.

Story:

Pride and Prejudice is about a aging father who has 5 daughters and no sons of which to inherit his property, so a distance cousin will inherit everything, leaving his wife and daughters with nothing unless they can marry off to a man, the wealthier the better so the daughters can help support each other after their father dies. The rest of the story is several love stories mixed with the lengths that the girls go too and will not go too in order to get married.

We tie this in with the board game by having each player play as one of the 5 daughters in a race to get married first, in order to do so they will have to deal with their pride prejudice and a few pirates thrown into the mix.

We wrote a piece of flavor text to help linking together the book and the game:

Live a classic Jane Austen love story!  Ms. Bennet wants her daughters married off to rich, attractive men.  Take control of Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia Bennet from Jane Austen’s fantastic novel, Pride and Prejudice, and race your sisters to the altar!  But you’d better watch out, pirates are after your precious booty!  Avoid the pirates, wear your best dress, and put on your best smile, because the first player to get to the end gets married and wins!

Equipment:  1 six-sided die, 5 player tokens, PP&P cards

Rules:

• Players sit around the board.  Player who last read a Jane Austen novel or watched a Jane Austen movie goes first
• If no one has read a Jane Austen novel or seen a Jane Austen movie (shame!), oldest player goes first
• Roll the die, and advance the amount of spaces shown on the die
• Play passes to the left
• If you land on a Jolly Roger tile, you must go back to the last Jolly Roger you passed, or if it is the first one, go back to start
• If you land on a PP&P tile, take a PP&P card from the deck.  You must read the card out loud
• NOTE: If by the events of a card you land on a PP&P tile, do not draw a card.  Similarly, if you land on a Jolly Roger by the effect of a card, you are not affected by the tile
• NOTE: Some cards may be saved and used at a later point, the others must happen immediately
• Multiple players may stand on the same tile, a lady does not bicker over such nonsense
• First player to the end wins

Have fun!

Pictures: 

The Board

Our Pride Cards

Our Prejudice Cards

Territory acquisition: Corporation Exploitation

Lets talk about territory acquisition games. The core mechanic revolves around taking over some form of territory and then holding onto it until the end of the game when a variety of winning conditions determine the winner.

Our games theme is that you are a corporation moving into a resource rich but economically poor region of earth and your goal is to control as much territory as possible and control it. It is a tile based game which enhances the replay value because the pseudo board you play on each game will be different.

With our territory acquisition game we keep the essence of controlling territory but a add few helping mechanics in order to spice up the game.

We make certain territories worth more than others, creating a conflict over the higher value territories.
We also impress upon players that owning the territory alone will not be enough, taking care of your territories through various mechanics is important, much like in the real world. Due to the game relying on more than just owning territories we had to develop a point system to create a definite winner which reflects how many territories you have and how well you look after them.

Inspiration:

The inspiration for this game comes from a series of articles in the Global & Mail about corporations in Africa that deals with how they are coming in and buying up land and dealing with the locals in both good and bad ways.

Goal:

In this game you play a corporation moving into a new land, and your goal is to control as much territory as possible, but the catch is that owning territory isn't enough to win you the game alone. You need to take care of territories as well.

Rules:

Corporation Exploitation

Game Setup:

The tiles will shuffled be laid out in an 8x8 grid face down for randomness and then flipped over revealing the tiles.

The last player to purchase a consumer goods item worth over a $100 will go first.

Each player starts with $1000, and can purchase territory, the first territory they purchase must be on the edge of the board, and all future territories must be connected.

Game Pieces:
64 * 3 Tokens of one color for industrial buildings.
64 * 3 Tokens of another color civil buildings.
64 Tokens of another color for the happiness meter.
64 tokens each of 4 colors, one for each player.
2 D8 dice and 2 D10 dice.

Turn Steps:

1. Collect Income
2. Roll Disease Dice
3. Purchase Improvements
4. Trigger events
5. Purchase territory 
6. Economically Conquer Territory

Income:

Each tile generates a different amount of money each turn; happiness will increase or decrease this value by 33% times the happiness value of the tile eg.-3 happiness results in 100% less income and +3 happiness results in %100 more income. Income is rounded to the nearest $50 increment.

Disease Dice:

Every turn the player rolls the 2 d8 dice, first die rolled is the rows and the second die rolled is the columns on the tile board. This tile becomes affected by disease reducing the happiness by 2.

Purchase Improvements:

Players may purchase improvements from the improvement table for their listed cost and place them on their territory that they choose. They then apply any effects to the territory. You must purchase industry improvements in order from top to bottom of the tile, civil improvements can be purchased in any order.

Trigger Events:

Players may purchase events from the event table and then pick a territory to affect.

Purchase Territory:

Players may purchase territory that is currently un-owned as long as it is connected to their territories.

Economically Conquer Territory:

Players may attempt to economically conquer a territory from another player; you may only attempt one of these per turn. The territory must be connected to their territories.

In order to take over other players tiles the two players involved roll a d10, a negative happiness will affect the conquest players roll by reducing it by that amount and a positive one will affect the conquers roll by reducing it. In addition players can throw money at the territory, for each $100 dollars a player spends they increase their roll by 1. Highest roll gets the territory.

Game Length:

The game will last for 24 turns, at the end of the game the player with the most points which are used as a scoring system rather than a territory direct count because in this case it isn’t size that matter but how you take care of what you control.

Trading:

Players can trade territories in several ways, either in a direct swap or buy offering a cash value, or a combination of the two. You cannot trade for territories that do not touch your territories or would not touch your territories after the trade.

Strategic Alliances:

Players can form these in order to strengthen their position on the board; there is no in game benefit other than not having to worry about being attacked by that player. There is no formal policy for these set in place, which therefore means there is no penalty for breaking them or when such a break can occur.

Winning the Game:

After the 24 turns are over, players tally up all the points for their controlled territories and buildings on the territories. You also tally up your happiness values and then add them to the territories and buildings score. The player with the most points wins.

Happiness:

The happiness meter on a territory unaffected by anything starts at the higher of the two yellow markers. For each civil improvement on a territory it generates 1 happiness per turn.

Tiles:

Icon	Name	Cost	Points	Income
	Grain	$200	3	$+100
	Metal	$400	5	$+200
	Rubber	$600	7	$+300
	Oil	$800	10	$+400
	Gems	$1000	15	$+500

Events:

Name	Cost	Happiness
Propaganda	$250	+/- 1
Industrial Sabotage	$450	-2
Entertainment Event	$500	+2
Tax Rebate	$750	+3
Hire Rebels	$650	-3
Disease	N/A	-3

Improvements:

Icon	Name	Cost	Points	Happiness	Income
	School	$250	1	+1/turn	$-50
	Sanitation System	$500	2	+1/turn	$-100
	Hospital	$750	3	+1/turn	$-150
	Ore/Gem Mine	$200	1	-1	$+100
	Oil Well	$200	1	-1	$+100
	Grain/Rubber Farm	$200	1	-1	$+100
	Refinery	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Smelter	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Irrigation System	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Jewelers Workshop	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Factory	$600	3	-3	$+300

Lets look at tiles that comprise the game.

The Gem tile is the most valuable, and there are the fewest of them in the game.

 The Grain tile is the cheapest and is the most plentiful in the game.

The Metal tile is a medium-low priced tile and is not as plentiful as the Grain tile but there are still a fair number of them.

The Oil tile is a medium-high priced tile and is not as rare as the Gem tile. 

The Rubber tile is a medium priced tile and is not as plentiful as the Metal tile but there are still a fair number of them. 

Core Game Mechanics and Minecraft/Sandbox games

This post is a result of the in-class discussion regarding core game mechanics, I will be focusing on Minecraft, but what I will be discussing is not limited to that.

As we discussed in class, there are a variety of core game mechanics, the problem however is that in today's world there are many games that "lack" a single core mechanic, at least according to the traditional definition.

So the question I am posing is: "How do we define what a games core game mechanic is and is it time to change?"

As I mentioned many modern games "lack" a core mechanic in the traditional sense. Games like Minecraft are sandbox games, and while I heard a solid argument that Minecraft at its core is a collection game, thanks Peter. I am not  convinced that a game such as Minecraft is a collection game at its core.

Lets look into this a little deeper, yes Minecraft has a collection aspect, but it has a building, exploring and destruction aspect built in as well. Part of the argument today was that these three additional mechanics derived from the collection aspect of the game. This is where the argument loses me because it doesn't take long to find people who play Minecraft that just want to build or explore or destroy things without collecting items first. One just needs to take a look at the  Minecraft subreddit or YouTube to see plenty of videos that are either builds, exploring or my personal favorite blowing stuff up with TNT. This is because Minecraft is a sandbox game at its core, it is what you want to make of it. It is because of this that I pose this question. Minecraft cannot have a single core mechanic as we discussed in class, it certainly has aspects of many core mechanics but no single mechanic that everything else is built on.

This leads me to one or two possible conclusions. The first being that is the absence of a single core mechanic the core mechanic; the other being do we need to define another class of core mechanic that is a hybrid or a sandbox core mechanic.

I am going to switch topics here a bit and move to something else that was discussed in class. Which is that you do not really take anything away from an open ended sandbox style game compared to one that has a single core mechanic. An example was brought forward that after quitting World of Warcraft there was nothing that was taken away from that because there was no end goal. This may be partial true, but most people who have played an MMO will know that they have certainly reached one or more milestone goals.
Whether it was reaching the max level, completing all the Raids and Dungeons or being a very strong PvP player. In addition, when you look at many other game, computer or otherwise there are a plethora of examples where you do not take anything away.

Now lets tied this in with the top section. These games I have discussed draw tens of millions of players combined yet they have no single core mechanic but rather they have many. So what does this mean, well the  straight forward choice is that a game does not require a single core mechanic but what does this really mean? Well in my opinion it means as I stated before we either need to define a class of core mechanic that is the absence of a core mechanic or widen the definition of what a core mechanic is with concepts like sandbox games.

That wraps up my thoughts core mechanics as it related to today's discussion.

Race to the End: The Wizard Race

This post will cover the development of my board game 'The Wizard Race'. This game is a simple race to the end game. Each player takes control of a wizard from one of the 5 wizarding schools and their goal is to complete the race and claim 'The Golden Wizard Hat'.

Rules:

How to Play:

Each player selects a token to represent them. Decide who goes first by following the rules laid out below. Each player follows the steps for his turn.

Players:

 This game is for 2 - 5 players. Each player will randomly pick one of the 5 wizards. The player who last read Harry Potter goes first and play moves to the left. Unless someone at the table has read Twilight, in that case that player goes last and the player to his or her left goes first.

Game Length:
The game should take between 30-60 minutes based on my play testing and depending on the number of duels that take place.

Turn Steps:

Roll the die, and advance your token

Resolve any event tiles

Resolve two players on the same tile

Board:

The board will consist of 70 tiles in a winding path.

Scattered around the board are event tiles.

Game Length:

The Game normally ends when the first player reaches the end, but you may add additional loops if desired.

Events Tiles:

When a player lands on a event tile, resolve using the following table.

Troll under the Bridge: Roll a die, on a 1, 3, or 5 you get knocked back by his club three spaces, on a 2, 4, or 6 you dodge his club and may advance 3 spaces.

Magical Forest Path: A Magical Path opens in the trees creating a shortcut.

Get Lost in the Swamp: You take a wrong turn in the mists and wander back 3 spaces.

Living Vines: Vines entangle you causing you to miss a turn while untangling yourself.

The Trees are Alive: The trees close in around you blocking your path; you must go the long way around causing you to miss your next turn.

Forest Sprits:  Friendly spirits appear and guide you along your way, advance 3 spaces.

Your old Rival: your old rival appears, you must fight him to pass. See Fight Table except follow these rules for win/loss: If you lose you miss your next turn and go back 5 spaces, if you win advance 5 spaces.

An Ill Wind: An Ill Wind picks you up and carries you backwards.

Water Spirit: A water spirit helps you across the lake.

Resolve Tiles with two wizards:

If two wizards end their turn on the same tile then they must duel resolve using the fight table.

Fight Table:

When a duel occurs, it is resolved using the fight table below.

The player who was on the tile first gets to decide if he wants to go first or second. Unless the player is fighting his rival then the rival always goes first.

Each player has 3 hit points; each spell that hits a player will reduce that by the spells strength minus the Block strength. The first player to have 0 hit points loses and must go back three spaces, the winner moves forward 3 spaces.

Roll	Offensive Spell	Defensive Spell Response
1	Spell Fail (strength 0)	Spell Fail (strength 0)
2	Geyser (strength 2)	Counter (strength2)
3	Wand Burst (strength 1)	Counter (strength 1)
4	Wind Storm (strength 1)	Counter (strength 1)
5	Fireball (strength 2)	Counter (strength 2)
6	Conjure Boulder (strength 3)	Counter (strength 3)

Development:

The initial idea for the board came fairly quickly, by the time class was over I had already written the game treatment in my head. Upon arriving home I quickly recorded my thoughts and began organizing them into a better structure. The weekend did not go as planned thanks to an unwelcome common cold. This meant the weekend was mostly a wash and led to the the first few features being cut do to production time. Thankfully the cold had mostly abated and I was able to get down to actually creating my board. This leads onto the next section below.

Board Creation:

I started out drawing a rough line that represents the middle of the path, then I divided it up into rough tiles as seen below.

After that I moved onto smoothing out the path and drawing the edges.

Once the path was complete I added some themed sketches that synced with the events on the board.

Finally, I colored all the tiles in a repeating pattern as well as colored in the sketches.

Afterword:

When I was originally planning this I had a much grander plan in mind for the features I wanted to include. These included having random event cards that would be drawn as well as spell cards which players could use to help or hurt each other or themselves.

As the deadline approached I had to cut down on the features due to the production time on them being so high.