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Paul’s Roleplay Design Diary! Part 2

Paul: Wow. Thank you all so much for your feedback and interest in the first installment of my RPG design diary. I’ve been tweaking and tinkering games since I was tiny, but starting something from scratch is a quite different experience. I feel very much like I’m fumbling in the dark, but your responses have been very encouraging and I think I’ve started off on the right foot.

After chewing out a few rough concepts (as well as doing an awful lot of scribbling on notepads), what I’d like to talk (write?) about in this installment is mechanics. Not beefy, sweaty people with large wrenches, but numbers and dice and systems, the engine room of the game. How big do I want that engine room to be? How complicated? Mechanics will affect the pace and feel of the game as much as, perhaps more than, any background or histories I write.

Quinns: We’ve got lots of exciting announcements to get through today, but our lead story has to be the announcement of Body Party. Say it with me now! BODY PARTY! Don’t those words drip with possibility and shame?

The design debut of none other than W. Eric Martin of the BoardGameGeek News blog (to which our own Games News owes quite the debt), Body Party challenges teams of players to hold more and more cards between various body parts.

Imagine it. It’s match point. The air is pungent with adrenaline and hormones. A card is revealed. To win, you’ll need to press it to your friend’s back using your… thigh? But your hand is already pressing another card to your friend’s chest! So you all shuffle into position, and you win the game for your team, kneeling above your friends like a sweaty colossus.

Eurogamer review: Talisman Digital Edition

Quinns: Morning, ladies and gents! Let’s start the week with a clatter of dice a scream of horror. I’ve reviewed the digital edition of Talisman: The Magical Quest Game for Eurogamer, though the article is mostly my thoughts on Talisman.

Stuff like this:

Talisman isn’t just random. It is riotously, hilariously unfair. I remember my friend crying with laughter because my pious Knight kept finding money. Nothing but bags and bags of money under every single rock, and never anything to spend it on. I was still waving around my crap Fisher Price sword while she was wielding a magic lance atop a benign unicorn. Finally, I arrived on a space where I could draw three adventure cards at once, and the first was a merchant caravan. Success!

The second card was a group of brigands who stole all of my money and dumped it on the other side of the board, for anyone to take. And as always in Talisman, you resolve nasty cards first.

…And so on. You’ll find the full article right here. I had a ton of fun writing it! This box is all magic and problems.

Splendor is a fast-paced and addictive game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops — all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card — in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don’t get it — you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem.

All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.

Welcome to the city of Machi Koro, the Japanese card game that is sweeping the world!

Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow the sleepy town of Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. You will need to collect income from developments, build public works, and steal from your neighbors coffers (just make sure they aren’t doing the same to you)!

They say you can’t build Rome in a day, but Machi Koro will be built in under 30 minutes!

So many games feature dice, but so few capture the thrill of gambling. Why is that?

The answer is, of course, to just buy Machi Koro and shout “WHO CARES!” right in your friend’s face while buying a fourth bakery. Though if you’re looking for a dazzling little economic card game for 2-4 players, we’ve also taken a look at Splendor… and a look back over our shoulder at Mundus Novus.

Wow! On reflection, we really do make your lives difficult, don’t we?

Submerge yourself into the bustling life on Catan – be the prince or princess of Catan and decide on the fate of its settlers. In addition to settlements, roads, and cities, you also construct the buildings where your subjects work, hire heroes that make your opponents’ lives as gamers difficult, and build ships to boost your trade.

Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts, is the fourth expansion for Race for the Galaxy, is incompatible with earlier expansions for that game, instead taking the game in a new direction. Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts consists of two parts:

46 new cards including 5 new start worlds to add to the base set, plus a set of action cards and start hand for a fifth player. These can be used without the orb cards.

49 cards used to represent the Alien Orb which players jointly map and explore, gaining artifact tokens of various types that provide powers and VPs. There are also five new Explore action cards used in the orb game (instead of gaining an additional card or greater card selection).

The orb game is optional and provides a new RFTG experience, as players have to balance how much effort and actions they wish to put into exploring the orb versus developing their empires.

You are no simple bystander to this tragedy; the future of London lies in your hands.

The players are men of wealth and standing who own property around London. The Lord Mayor has failed to act and it is down to these mighty men to lead trained bands of militia to fight the fire and save the city. To do so they must decide which districts to sacrifice to the fire and which to protect. Remember, these same men own much of London, thus such choices will shape their own future and greatly affect their wealth and standing.

Use the trained bands to suppress the fire and explosives to destroy blocks of housing to create fire breaks and prevent its spread. Do you choose to protect your own homes, turning a blind eye and allowing the fire to consume your rival’s property? Or will you stand as the hero of London, and choose to save as much of the city as possible?

Victory can belong to the player with the most property left after the ashes settle, but stopping the fire and saving London’s most famous landmarks may win a more altruistic land owner the hearts and minds of the people.

Save the city, or watch it burn.

Raise the sail and straight on ’til morning.

How else could the honorable Henry Morgan celebrate his 30 years of governing Jamaica than with a race around the island? Gathering every Pirate and Buccaneer around, the “Great Challenge” will be a memorable race. Not to mention – what’s better than a race where you can earn some booty and shoot at your opponents? The ”Great Challenge”, that’s what!

The goal is to sail around the island of Jamaica as fast as possible, while gathering the goods required: gold for port taxes, powder for naval battles and food to eat while out on the high seas. Each time the pirates meet, they will have to fight to try and steal the contents of each other’s holds (and maybe pawn off a chest full of cursed gold at the same time).

And so, hoist up the sails and head towards Port-Royal. May the fastest and richest win!

Paul’s Roleplay Design Diary! Part 2

Games News! 14/04/14

Eurogamer review: Talisman Digital Edition

Splendor

Machi Koro

Review(s): Machi Koro Vs. Splendor

The Rivals for Catan

Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts

The Great Fire of London 1666

Jamaica

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