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Pantheon: Played a quick, two round play-test with the boys Friday morning using the new special cards. I've already identified some strengths and weaknesses with the new cards, and I'm ready to shake things up again. I've decided to drop each suit to 12 cards and add 6 identical cards called Tribute to the Gods. Tribute cards will allow you to end the round using the special "End Round" cards. I also figured out how to simplify the detrimental cards so I don't have 2 paragraphs of text on a card. Next iteration should be ready today or tomorrow, and we'll have time to play a few games during my off days.
Monster Fighter: Off days will also involve transferring my grid of cards into a spreadsheet and making sure they pair up well. Then assign the Icons to the monsters and we are off to the races. My goal is for the first Monster Fighter alpha play-test to begin 12/11.
Nothing to Fear: Nothing new for this one, although the next section spawned from mulling over ideas for this game.
Delirium and Storycraft Decks: I've been watching Wil Wheaton's web series, Table Top, and saw the Fiasco episode while sitting out on the interstate on a side job. I got to thinking about structured storytelling as a game and how much I enjoy those sorts of games. Then I mentally wondered over to Nothing to Fear and considered changing it to a board game where the players each take part in telling a suspenseful, horror-ish, waking dream kind of story. And then, while brainstorming about the mechanics, I remembered my story-card games I've been making notes about for the past couple years. Boom, Storycraft decks are conceptualized, with Delirium being the first Storycraft deck imagined.
The basic idea of a Storycraft deck is for a group of players to cooperatively tell a story. They have to use cards and card interactions to generate story points to continue the narrative. However, each player is given a different "ending" card at the start of the round, and everyone is trying to steer the story into their ending. Each ending will have conditions, elements of the story that must be present during the game before the ending can be played (e.g. 3 Horror elements, 5 suspense elements, 2 hospital locations, 1 major death).
The start of the game the players are given a randomized group of the cards and they draft them. Then they are given their ending, then another round of drafting, then the first storytelling phase starts. Between storytelling phases there will be another round or two of drafting for more story cards. Cards will be played like a puzzle, with Anchor cards having sections marked on the corners so that other cards can be played off of them. Considering a bidding mechanic for narrative rights...not sure yet. Might be too much. I will need to make a very small Storycraft deck and test the very core mechanic first to see if it is interesting or not. If it's any fun, Storycraft decks could be created for any or all genres, so plenty of design space to explore.
I decided to limit myself to 3 games in prototyping at a time. Pantheon and Monster Fighter are currently the focus, but I'm not sure if I want to prototype Nothing to Fear or a Storycraft deck next. Either way, it will probably wait until mid to late January.
Monster Fighter: Off days will also involve transferring my grid of cards into a spreadsheet and making sure they pair up well. Then assign the Icons to the monsters and we are off to the races. My goal is for the first Monster Fighter alpha play-test to begin 12/11.
Nothing to Fear: Nothing new for this one, although the next section spawned from mulling over ideas for this game.
Delirium and Storycraft Decks: I've been watching Wil Wheaton's web series, Table Top, and saw the Fiasco episode while sitting out on the interstate on a side job. I got to thinking about structured storytelling as a game and how much I enjoy those sorts of games. Then I mentally wondered over to Nothing to Fear and considered changing it to a board game where the players each take part in telling a suspenseful, horror-ish, waking dream kind of story. And then, while brainstorming about the mechanics, I remembered my story-card games I've been making notes about for the past couple years. Boom, Storycraft decks are conceptualized, with Delirium being the first Storycraft deck imagined.
The basic idea of a Storycraft deck is for a group of players to cooperatively tell a story. They have to use cards and card interactions to generate story points to continue the narrative. However, each player is given a different "ending" card at the start of the round, and everyone is trying to steer the story into their ending. Each ending will have conditions, elements of the story that must be present during the game before the ending can be played (e.g. 3 Horror elements, 5 suspense elements, 2 hospital locations, 1 major death).
The start of the game the players are given a randomized group of the cards and they draft them. Then they are given their ending, then another round of drafting, then the first storytelling phase starts. Between storytelling phases there will be another round or two of drafting for more story cards. Cards will be played like a puzzle, with Anchor cards having sections marked on the corners so that other cards can be played off of them. Considering a bidding mechanic for narrative rights...not sure yet. Might be too much. I will need to make a very small Storycraft deck and test the very core mechanic first to see if it is interesting or not. If it's any fun, Storycraft decks could be created for any or all genres, so plenty of design space to explore.
I decided to limit myself to 3 games in prototyping at a time. Pantheon and Monster Fighter are currently the focus, but I'm not sure if I want to prototype Nothing to Fear or a Storycraft deck next. Either way, it will probably wait until mid to late January.
