Hi everyone, I'm designing a board game in my free time, and hope to have a working prototype within the year.
I've been working on a game that, while there are similar games on the market, seems to fill a niche I and others enjoy in tabletop/board gaming that is mostly vacant. I'm not sure if this is by virtue of lack of interest, difficulty to implement, or some other factor.
Summary: The game is a turn-based tabletop miniatures skirmish/strategy game based on the concepts in turn-based strategy tactics video games and turn-based tabletop RPGs. 2-6 players, variable playing field size (2x2 tile square or 3x3 tile square), emergent complexity (a number of basic rules, with strategy & cards modifying play from there), a more fluid initiative order based on an Endurance/Fatigue/Exhaustion mechanic (similar to Star Wars Saga Edition RPG's "condition track), and possibly a diagram-based combat tree* instead of a linear power progression. Victory conditions would vary based on the type of game played (capture the flag, king of the hill, mutual annihilation, gain X Victory Points, etc., etc.).
Anyway. I was inspired by Spellbound Kingdom's combat tree charts (p 14), and a couple days ago I came across this similar system of Damage Trees in Arena Rex. I am tempted to abandon my traditional, linear progression, for something more like these visual flow-charts (inspired by, but not copied outright!).
This Article (and other articles on that blog) has been a great inspiration in regard to design goals and pitfalls. I feel that what applies to turn-based video games often also applies to turn-based board games.
Descent has set precedent for an ungodly number of plastic miniatures, so that gives me hope for including a lot of 3D minis instead of just 2D tokens. Descent (and games like it) is a cooperative game, mostly, and is more evocative of D&D than what I'm striving for. I am not trying to create a dungeon-delve quest game, but more of a skirmish combat game.
Super Dungeon Explore has a fun, 8 bit RPG feel to it, and I love their boards, but it is basically just a cooperative dungeon crawl hack-n-slash.
Krosmaster: Arena, oddly, is the closest game I've found to what I'm striving to create, but it is aesthetically too cartoony and mechanically too simple.
Still with me? Cool.
So, here are the things that I would really like feedback on:
1. Do you all feel that I can have both variability via dice rolls and a lot of deterministic abilities (some things rely on luck, other things just happen, granting options), or is it "better" to do away with the dice as a random element? [There are currently a few instances where a creature rolls 2d6+X vs Target Number.]
2. On the other end, what about adding more dice, as in small dice pools (no more than 5-6 per side)? Like, 4 attack dice vs 3 defense, players count successes, and tally net effect. It serves to keep opponents engaged in play, but also increases player math and time needed to resolve conflicts.
3. Further, what do you guys think about having a fatigue/exhaustion mechanic? Either in tandem with, or in place of a Hit Point mechanic? For example: Alert, Fatigued, Exhausted, Staggered, Helpless. There would be a little meter on each stat card, and a token could be placed on it. It could be the same for every unit, or each unit could have more tick-boxes within each section (the idea I like the most), thus combining HP with Fatigue. The further down the track you are, the more penalties you take.
--> For example, Fatigued may mean you cannot retaliate or use interrupt abilities and have to spend AP to remove the condition, Exhausted means the same as Fatigued, but you have to spend your turn to remove the condition, Staggered means you cannot do anything more than Move, and you cannot remove your condition without external means, and Helpless means you cannot act until the condition is somehow removed.
Does that seem simple enough to implement?
4. Does the game seem to give both attacking and defending players reason to be engaged, give them meaningful resource management and decisions, etc.?
Finally, for those of you still with me...
Modular 8x8 geomorph tiles (similar to Dungeon Tiles and these geomorphic tiles, double-sided tiles with a 1" grid depicting various terrain. A few different varieties of terrain tokens (walls/fences, trees, higher ground, etc.). Around 80 plastic miniatures (or 2D stand up tokens with artwork, depending on costs), dice, around 200-300 cards (2-3 decks), a number of playing card-thickness 3.5x5.5 character/unit stat cards, a number of wound tokens, a number of miscellaneous tokens, 1 rules book less than 25 pages long.
Scrapping the combat tree idea in favor of an easier-to-implement linear, tiered progression.
I have always wondered, if the combat could be fastened with card based system, but I have never thought of having a board system for other than showing the position of characters. But now that I started thinking, I got seeds for some ideas.
Thanks.