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I really want to design a zombie survival style game where everyone is in a town trying to survive while scavenging and negotiating with each other, except it's more about making sure your specific group of survivors stays alive the longest. Stealing stuff from the communal stash, building town improvements that benefit everyone but your own group most of all, scavenging in the wilderness. Sort of like the browser game Die 2Nite in boardgame form. However, zombies have been done to death (ha!) so there's probably a better way to theme it and play it out. Maybe with an exploration element ala Eclipse for the outer town area.
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Aug 7, 2012 05:27
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What about small town in post-nuclear war America ala Jericho? Different factions that have to prepare against natural threats, as well as violent scavengers and roaming paramilitary/revolutionary groups.
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Aug 7, 2012 06:14
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Trip Report: 227 - 81. This new scoring system is still kind of blowing my mind. Highlights: My SO held off activating the Infinite Prevention System just long enough to attempt to incinerate the Dummy in a large explosion from point blank range (while she was protected by an aura of flames crackling about her). A miscalculation led to my being showered in money and tokens from the aftermath. I tried to Seismic Hammer a bomb from across the screen in an attempt to clear a walkable pathway. The bomb was a dud, but I still ended up splitting the earth open, closing a bottomless pit that was blocking my path. Explorer is still probably the most broken power in the game by far. I had to reduce the IPS threshold, but the current limit is just enough that unique combos are more profitable than loops. Yay balance! Quadruple Money is probably broken. I'm at the point where I'm either to start my stale kickstarter from 2010 that never got finished or I'm to figure out a way to start flying across the country to cons to show this poo poo off. Anybody got a hookup for Gen*Con (I have PMs)? bobvonunheil posted:I really want to design a zombie survival style game where everyone is in a town trying to survive while scavenging and negotiating with each other, except it's more about making sure your specific group of survivors stays alive the longest. Stealing stuff from the communal stash, building town improvements that benefit everyone but your own group most of all, scavenging in the wilderness. Sort of like the browser game Die 2Nite in boardgame form. Why not try a survival scenario from a different history? Like, post-nuclear war, post-alien invasion (especially if we won, a la Independence Day), or a medieval demonic outbreak or somesuch? You can do the same cool survival stuff but with interesting technology and without doing zombies further to death. Hell, maybe you can even throw in a zombie or two in those settings without them being intrusive.
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Aug 7, 2012 08:40
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Yeah true, there's all kinds of cool "small outpost struggling to survive" settings other than the played-out Zombie Apocalypse. One I was thinking was intergalactic explorers trying to hold out while they put their broken travel device (a Stargate or somesuch) back together. Coming back with the most of your own crew intact, or whatever other secret goals (biological samples, technologies, tested equipment etc) would score victory points. Mechanics are going to be far more important at this stage than what gloss gets put over the final design, though.
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Aug 7, 2012 09:22
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This sounds like it could be an interesting theme for the next Game Design Contest.
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Aug 7, 2012 09:30
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Call me a hopeless romantic, but if your setting doesn't at least inspire a slew of mechanics, interactions, and cool scenes you would like to see played out, then you have a very tough road ahead of you. Even my worst designs had really amazing elevator pitches.
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Aug 7, 2012 09:31
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Broken Loose posted:Call me a hopeless romantic, but if your setting doesn't at least inspire a slew of mechanics, interactions, and cool scenes you would like to see played out, then you have a very tough road ahead of you. Even my worst designs had really amazing elevator pitches. Yeah true, though the theme at its core is "Small group of people who can't trust each other in a hostile and unknown environment", having to work together while working against each other, but as a worker-placement style game. There's a slew of intriguing mechanics that emerge (contributing hidden cards to the stash, deciding who goes on lookout duty, who gets elected the defacto leader and if there are mutinies etc). The 'gloss' is whether that environment is a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear wasteland. I'm leaning towards intergalactic explorers because there is something super cool to me about holding on until the last second and dicking each other over while a pack of crazed natives/mutants/animals devours everyone and everything then escaping at the last moment through a wormhole or what have you.
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Aug 7, 2012 11:09
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That's different than what I originally imagined your idea was. I thought 'City of Horror' would have well beaten you to the punch otherwise.
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Aug 7, 2012 12:02
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bobvonunheil posted:Yeah true, though the theme at its core is "Small group of people who can't trust each other in a hostile and unknown environment", having to work together while working against each other, but as a worker-placement style game. There's a slew of intriguing mechanics that emerge (contributing hidden cards to the stash, deciding who goes on lookout duty, who gets elected the defacto leader and if there are mutinies etc). The 'gloss' is whether that environment is a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear wasteland. I'm leaning towards intergalactic explorers because there is something super cool to me about holding on until the last second and dicking each other over while a pack of crazed natives/mutants/animals devours everyone and everything then escaping at the last moment through a wormhole or what have you. I didn't even think about worker placement. Honestly, the first thing that came into my head was BSG.
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Aug 7, 2012 12:04
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Welp, I'm starting to feel this is motivation enough to actually start playtesting my own game. Too bad I'm incredibly bad at creating graphics.
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Aug 7, 2012 12:07
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Yeah at first blush it sounded a lot like Mall of Horror.
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Aug 7, 2012 12:29
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Broken Loose posted:I'm at the point where I'm either to start my stale kickstarter from 2010 that never got finished or I'm to figure out a way to start flying across the country to cons to show this poo poo off. Anybody got a hookup for Gen*Con (I have PMs)? The project is pretty tailor made for Kickstarter - a board game about video games? It's nerd gold. Honestly, the only thing I'd say is you could really use another pass/cleanup on your art if you go KS. People respond way better to something that looks like a finished product, or at least closer to a finished project than what you have. On the art theme, you've got a couple of good things going - the old NES box art as powerup cards is cute. But right now it's a weird mix of pixel art/non-pixel art and the board just looks sloppy. I know art's not your first priority when making a game, but if you go KS I think you'll have to do up something better. EDIT: I don't know what your intentions on final artwork are, but my gut says going full-on, true 8-bit pixel art is probably the way to go. Embrace the theme, go full on nostalgia. Plus, if you truly keep it like old-school NES stuff, rather than the "faux 8-bit" (where it's a level you could never truly get from those old games), it'll probably be easier to make/commision. For what it's worth, Printerstudio.com does great cards for pretty drat cheap - you can get 200+ full color cards, with unique front and back art, for $20 shipped. It'd be a quick way to making professional looking components, even if it's not really the full game. Also, the tagline for Power-Up! is really bad. "A Game of a Game" needs to be replaced by something else. Crackbone fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Aug 7, 2012 |
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Aug 7, 2012 16:01
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bobvonunheil posted:Yeah true, though the theme at its core is "Small group of people who can't trust each other in a hostile and unknown environment", having to work together while working against each other, but as a worker-placement style game. There's a slew of intriguing mechanics that emerge (contributing hidden cards to the stash, deciding who goes on lookout duty, who gets elected the defacto leader and if there are mutinies etc). The 'gloss' is whether that environment is a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear wasteland. I'm leaning towards intergalactic explorers because there is something super cool to me about holding on until the last second and dicking each other over while a pack of crazed natives/mutants/animals devours everyone and everything then escaping at the last moment through a wormhole or what have you. A pile of equipment sits in a corner of the cave, lit only by refracted flashlight. Nobody was awake to attend to it, but it would most likely corrode in the "air" if left outside with the watchman. Deep in the cave, a lone crew member works in the crystal mines. He has his eye on the prize; the precious Eonite needed to restore their ship's engines. It's like co-op Eminent Domain, but not. Only one person can take the gun or the gas mask, and what's more each item has limited uses. You can stretch the usage of an item by powering it with energy crystals, but do you really want to use those on THAT? Players have hands of cards that they play to represent the tools and resources used each round, and appropriately matching tools against threats in their deck will award Glory to whoever was cleverest. (I'm at the doctor's office, typing on my phone, but I can add more details later if this doesn't spark some cool poo poo) Crackbone posted:"A Game of a Game" needs to be replaced by something else. Well, the current board art is placeholder as gently caress, but I'll probably keep it so that the poo poo on the screen is pixel-art and the rest of the room isn't, as it's thematically appropriate and also a good visual divider. I'm glad you "get" the card art (there is also a grid on the cards, will post a detailed image later). Really, the tagline is also a placeholder. The current working one is "The Game: The Game" which is a tiny bit funnier and also more historically relevant.
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Aug 7, 2012 17:04
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bobvonunheil posted:Yeah true, though the theme at its core is "Small group of people who can't trust each other in a hostile and unknown environment", having to work together while working against each other, Sounds a bit like Tunnel in the Sky, if you're looking for some more inspiration. It's basically Lord of the Flies in space.
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Aug 7, 2012 18:01
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Welp, looks like the King of Tokyo expansion is called Power Up! Richard Garfield is stealing your poo poo Broken Loose.
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Aug 7, 2012 18:04
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King Chicken posted:Welp, looks like the King of Tokyo expansion is called Power Up! Richard Garfield is stealing your poo poo Broken Loose. BL is actually from the future, and he stole it from Garfield.
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Aug 7, 2012 18:12
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Crackbone posted:The project is pretty tailor made for Kickstarter - a board game about video games? It's nerd gold. There was a kickstarter recently for a board game called "Pixel Lincoln" where each player was Lincoln, made of Pixels, and had to fight a bunch of wacky (Pixel) monsters with wacky (Pixel) meat-based weapons and you had to enter cheat codes with cards and stuff like that. It was an absurd success.
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Aug 7, 2012 18:20
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Countblanc posted:There was a kickstarter recently for a board game called "Pixel Lincoln" where each player was Lincoln, made of Pixels, and had to fight a bunch of wacky (Pixel) monsters with wacky (Pixel) meat-based weapons and you had to enter cheat codes with cards and stuff like that. Yeah, that's pretty much why I think KS would be a great venue for BL's game. Of course, more and more it seems like all these Kickstarter games already have a publisher. Gamesalute and Indie Board and Games seem to be financing all their poo poo with it now.
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Aug 7, 2012 18:55
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Hey Tekopo, (and anyone else who plays 18XX) have you played 18NEB or 1841? I just put in an order on Deepthoughtgames.com (although he's still not processing anything) and wanted to get your thoughts. I don't have to pay for the games until he actually makes them so if you really disliked either of them I can cancel.
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Aug 7, 2012 19:47
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Lorini posted:Hey Tekopo, (and anyone else who plays 18XX) have you played 18NEB or 1841? I just put in an order on Deepthoughtgames.com (although he's still not processing anything) and wanted to get your thoughts. I don't have to pay for the games until he actually makes them so if you really disliked either of them I can cancel. I have played 18Neb once so far. I thought it was a decent game, but I would have to play it a couple more times to know for sure. In my group, it seems to be one of the games that they will play with 3 players. It does have in interesting mechanic of having a pair of minor railroads start up late in the game that can generate a fair amount of money if they can get a good station token spot.
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Aug 7, 2012 20:24
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Got together with a group of 6 last night and played Power Grid. I took second place... by two dollars.
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Aug 7, 2012 20:30
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Tekopo posted:Even though I love CDGs, I have to agree with you there because the combat system has always been awful in those lines of games. Anything that uses 'count number of troops and roll that many dice, 5+ to hit' is lazy in terms of how the combat system is designed. It's almost forgivable in HIS or VQ because the focus is diplomacy, but things like Napoleonic Wars and Wellington are unforgivable in that respect. Most other CDGs have a better combat resolution system than that. I don't even mind it in the combat. What I mind is that literally everything in the game is governed by dice, so there basically is no "safe" strategy to choose. Like, I was playing England and the game went like this: 1) First turn, I have Fire Ships so my plan is to build a pile of boats and go attack the French fleets in harbor. He makes his 9+ to intercept, then rolls more hits than me despite having half as many dice. So much for that. 2) I give up on maritime warfare in the English Channel for the time being and go found a Colony instead. And a second one on Turn 2. These never produce a single treasure for me and one explodes of its own accord before the end of the game. Meanwhile, the guys with only one Colony roll their 9+ every single turn and get treasures. 3) Near the end of Turn 2, I'm left with three 1 CP cards (gently caress cards, too, yo) and a 4. Two of the 1s are at least combat cards I could usefully use the next turn so I want to keep those, so I've basically got a 1 and a 4 action left. My explorer dude, having founded a colony in Rio de la Plata, is in position to circumnavigate the globe with 5 CP if I can roll safely three times. So my plan is plan the 1 CP, move him once, if he makes the first roll safely, then play the 4 CP next turn and probably make it through the remaining two rolls. If he gets damaged, then use the 4 CP to patronize a scientist. So of course I roll a 3 on two dice and he straight up sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Sigh. Okay, court the scientist with all 4 CP. He's a base of 3 + 2 because I spent 4 CP, so I'm all but guaranteed some kind of positive result. Instead I roll snake-eyes and get nothing at all from that. 4) So whatever, I'm screwed at this point if I don't make something happen, but the Holy Romans have given me mercenaries, so I take another stab at building up a giant fleet and kicking some Frenchie butt since he's frantically trying to suppress heresy instead of building defenses. I manage to demolish his fleet and take political control of Brest so I can spring deploy there the next turn. I spring deploy with 5 guys and a +1 leader, move them into Nantes and control that too. He assassinates the leader, but I move 4 of the guys to siege La Rochelle, which is defended by a single dude. Then I play Foreign Volunteers in Nantes, and the next impulse, move the 4 guys there (3 from FV + 1 left behind from before) to make 8 in La Rochelle. But of course I can't attack with them all at once cause he assassinated my guy, so I only get 2 dice at a time. Still, I've got enough cards left to take two cracks at it, and more than enough guys to eat any hits he gets. First roll, he gets 2 hits, I get 0. Second roll, he gets 1 hit, I get 0. So I'm out three guys for no gain, and now it's winter and I have to go home, and meanwhile he's taken back Brest so I can't even spring deploy. Yay. 5) Even more balls out next turn, I land straight in a better-defended Rouen, with a fresh leader. But of course he's pulled Untimely Demise and whacks that guy too. I take one crack at Rouen anyway, and of course lose some guys and roll 0 hits. I say gently caress it, and march my remaining 4 guys down across the country to La Rochelle, knowing that if I fail to take it by winter, they're dead. Fortunately, I actually roll my hit and take it over! More amazingly, the Portugal card comes up and despite other people having better bonuses than me I roll a miracle 6 and Portugal flips to my control, suddenly putting me one key away from an auto win at the end of Turn 5. I'm in striking distance of lightly defended keys for both France and Spain (via my new friends in Portugal), plus ahead in influence in Scotland, so with a little luck I can grab one more key early the next turn and win... ...except France had courted an artist and made his roll (needing 11+ on two dice, rolled an 11) to get his last VP that way and win before Turn 6 could even start.  DICE!
xopods fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Aug 8, 2012 |
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Aug 7, 2012 21:53
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Lorini posted:Hey Tekopo, (and anyone else who plays 18XX) have you played 18NEB or 1841? I just put in an order on Deepthoughtgames.com (although he's still not processing anything) and wanted to get your thoughts. I don't have to pay for the games until he actually makes them so if you really disliked either of them I can cancel. 1841 is a game I would love to try, since my group has played it but I haven't. It does go rather on the complex side: it has a system by which the earlier companies merge together to form other companies and then those merge with even more companies etc etc. so it's rather more complex in terms of rules. If you have experienced players, go for it, I haven't heard anything bad about it from my group, but if most of the guys you play are beginners I would suggest something else.
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Aug 7, 2012 22:09
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I'm trying to turn my group from beginners to experienced players  so maybe by the time 1841 gets here we'll be ready for it.Thanks guys for the comments.
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Aug 7, 2012 22:22
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Tekopo posted:I've ordered 18FL and 18MEX on deepthoughtgames.com as well, and he takes 7-11 months to process the order  Please tell me those games are hand-drawn and hand-copied by monastic scribes.
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Aug 7, 2012 23:43
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Small time operation, each game is hand made with laminated, hand-cut tiles, certificates and wooden tokens, along with a custom-made box and even custom money for each game if need be. There are about 600 odd games in front of me. The quality is good though, especially for the tiles. All the games I've played so far have been top notch. Welcome to the world of niche-into-a-niche hobbies.
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Aug 7, 2012 23:48
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Just went to a game store in a town I passed through. Might as well have been called MTG: The Store 
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Aug 8, 2012 00:24
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I need a replacement player for my PBP T&E game, post in the thread if you are interested.
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Aug 8, 2012 00:29
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djfooboo posted:Just went to a game store in a town I passed through. Might as well have been called MTG: The Store This is how it is in the town I went to school in. I had to either use Amazon, or wait till I went home for a weekend or something to go to my normal store. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there's a game store in Sacramento that I could drive to; I never actually checked for one... e: vvvv Oh. I didn't even think about there. I've only heard Magic players talk about that place, so I kinda put it in the "Do Not Care" area of my memory. I'll have to check it out when I get back to the states. mikeycp fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Aug 8, 2012 |
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Aug 8, 2012 00:30
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mikeycp posted:This is how it is in the town I went to school in. I had to either use Amazon, or wait till I went home for a weekend or something to go to my normal store. Great Escape Games on Howe Avenue, maybe? Seems to be mostly Magic and Games Workshop, but they do have a big rack of games.
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Aug 8, 2012 01:02
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After the success of that anime titty deckbuilder's Kickstarter, Cool Mini Or Not, that company whose main selling point in their games is the minis, has decided to get in on that lucrative anime action with their new Kickstarter. Vaguely  . The non-objectionable sculpts actually do look pretty good, though.
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Aug 8, 2012 05:18
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djfooboo posted:Just went to a game store in a town I passed through. Might as well have been called MTG: The Store Pretty much how that is with the closest place to me, but add in Yugioh and WH40k. One shelf worth of boardgames included; Catan, Last Night on Eath (with expansions), and a ton of Quarriors. I've been intrigued to pick up Quarriors though so who knows maybe it's not all bad.
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Aug 8, 2012 06:04
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If you guys have Barnes & Nobles in your towns, they usually have a decent small selection of common boardgames. The one near me has stuff like Agricola, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Survive, BSG, Dominion, etc. All stuff you can get cheaper on Amazon but still better than nothing in a pinch.
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Aug 8, 2012 08:46
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xopods posted:
Sorry, I missed what game this was. It sounds freaking awesome though--what is it and how many does it play?
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Aug 8, 2012 13:23
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mikeycp posted:This sounds like it could be an interesting theme for the next Game Design Contest. I'd love to see a board game contest just to follow it. I know fuckall about board game design (TALISMAN RULES) but I'd watch.
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Aug 8, 2012 13:25
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Rudy Riot posted:If you guys have Barnes & Nobles in your towns, they usually have a decent small selection of common boardgames. The one near me has stuff like Agricola, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Survive, BSG, Dominion, etc. All stuff you can get cheaper on Amazon but still better than nothing in a pinch. They also go through clearance cycles that are pretty beneficial as well (50% off -> 75% off -> back to manufacturer). Right now they're on the 75% off part of the cycle, so you might be able to find something good over in the clearance bin right now.
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Aug 8, 2012 13:25
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GrandpaPants posted:After the success of that anime titty deckbuilder's Kickstarter, Cool Mini Or Not, that company whose main selling point in their games is the minis, has decided to get in on that lucrative anime action with their new Kickstarter. Vaguely CoolMini or Not seems to have hit upon a gold mine; produce a truckload of minis, throw some rules (quality questionable) behind it; don't make said rules available until after the kickstarter; rake in the cash. They've basically stole GW's whole gag, updated for the crowdsourcing era.
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Aug 8, 2012 13:30
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Finally! A board game version of Words of Friends: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/726658/zynga-based-board-games-coming/
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Aug 8, 2012 13:31
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bobvonunheil posted:Yeah true, though the theme at its core is "Small group of people who can't trust each other in a hostile and unknown environment", having to work together while working against each other, but as a worker-placement style game. I hope you come up with something great, because you're really close. The theme is more than just gloss - it should match the tone of the gameplay, and it will create the mood and the atmosphere of the game. And there is so much you could do with the framework you have. Space scavengers search abandoned spaceships for anything valuable. Biologists search a vast and dangerous cave for undiscovered species. Young I-bankers mingle at a company party, trying to impress their bosses and make the others look bad. Bigfoot hunters hunt Bigfoot. A group of girls at a club look for hot guys and dodge drunken jerks. Werewolves raid a town, looking for children to eat whole dodging adults with axes and torches.
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Aug 8, 2012 14:20
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Winson_Paine posted:I'd love to see a board game contest just to follow it. I know fuckall about board game design (TALISMAN RULES) but I'd watch.
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Aug 8, 2012 14:27
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