New Design: 90% rules already fleshed out!

I already had a GOOD CONCEPT going with this NEW Game. Meaning I wasn't working from 0%. But at the same time, the old design was using Custom Dice and this new iteration uses NO DICE ATM.

There is ONE (1) aspect to the Cards that "Trips me up" and it's counting HEALTH of the units. I could use Tokens or I could put HP on the cards or I could maybe use a Dry-Erase Marker, etc. Not sure just yet.

The DOWN-SIDE of Tokens: They cost a LOT of money to include.

The DOWN-SIDE of Clips: Cards need to be customized and it could be tricky.

The DOWN-SIDE to Markers: They can write poorly or run out of ink.

The CLIPS is where I am leaning into... But I need to figure out HOW to use them... TBH at the present time, I'm not sure. More thinking needs to be given into that SPECIFIC "Aspect" of the game.

Best.

So I am going to use five (5) dice as COUNTERS. The counters will serve as a way of tracking "Prizms" which are crystals that generate energy. There are a total of FIVE (5) "Prizms": Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

They naturally flow from LEFT to RIGHT with the LEFT side being more of COMBATIVE role while the RIGHT side is Energy for EQUIPMENT and other ASSETS.

It promises to be INTERESTING as I "design-it". But we'll have to see once I get a chance to PLAYTEST it on replaceable paper cards.

I'm working on it slowly (taking a bit of time here-and-there) to flesh out more details as I move forwards to TRY to finish a prototype of the design.

TBD... Still a LOT of work left over!

The game is going to be called "Duel Botz" (DB). And even though I THOUGHT about a lot of the rules, usually I don't design this way. I USUALLY focus on a specific mechanic and try to "flesh things out" from there...

But with this design I guess you could say I did something similar too... @X3M inspired me with this whole "Weapon + Body" concept and I clearly had some kind of direction to explore. So the rules came very QUICK... But when I (thought) I had reached 95%... I realized the more I worked in the rulebook, the more I found that the design was INCOMPLETE.

Generally speaking it was missing DETAILS. Yeah sure the rules sort of just glanced over the concept and I used relatively easy language ... But it was NOT a PLAYABLE product.

And so I've had to go back and see if it's even 50% done. Like I said the penmanship of the rules was done rather quickly but it didn't give specifics about HOW(?) it all was supposed to work at the finest DETAIL level.

For example with @X3M's idea of "Weapon + Body", I knew I wanted to separate the cards... But TRUTH be told, I had to figure out HOW I was going to SPLIT things between "Body" and "Weapon"... What were the SHARING rules and as I found out PARTS from "The Game Crafter" (TGC) that I wanted to use were NO LONGER SOLD (Out-of-stock)... So this forced me to think about other ways of handling the SIMPLE "division" of those two entities.

I still am SEARCHING for ALTERNATIVES. And I am thinking about POLYHEDRAL dice and how I MIGHT(!?) be able to introduce these ... Maybe I could make a collaboration or just use STANDARD POLYs... IDK.

Something like D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. And use the D20 as a Health Counter so from 10 to 200 HP (Pretty Decent) and then use the other dice for the various "Prizms" that produce Energy (D4 to D12). It of course IMPACTS the design IMMENSELY... And I've just been working on THINKING on HOW(!!) to make the design better ... More attractive and TIGHTER.

POLYs might be the answer... So far this is very EMBRYONIC ideas.

But thinking about how this design should move forwards... Maybe I am CLOSER to 50% than 95% or 90% as I had thought. I will jot down some notes about these IDEAS and see what can come of the ideas!

For now... I need some more time... Will report back soon (when I have a better idea of what is good, bad and improvable)!

Well I picked-up my Black & Smoke/Gold Premium Polyhedral Dice Sets today... They look pretty decent and I have made some "conclusions" about the game itself... What kind of "conclusions" you ask?!

Well to start, I don't want to be in the Business of Selling DICE. This is a VERY important point... Why(?) Because it would affect the pricing of the game and this is something that I am trying to avoid.

Basically I'm trying to get the game sold for $40 CAD (which is about $30 USD).

Making the game MORE "affordable" in terms of price point is VERY important. Again the reasoning behind this is the MORE it costs to buy, the less people (think Gamers) will be interested. If it's $40 CAD that's not too bad. Pricey but still yet not "overboard"...

And of course with the scenario of INCLUDING Standard D6s again I'm not at all interested in charging the customer for the "extras" so-to-speak. People that are interested in Board Games usually have a bunch of Polys they have no CLUE what to do with any of them: now you can play "Duel Botz" with them! Again aside from AD&D adventures... Polys are not as frequently used as standard dice in most designs (and I've TRIED to use them BEFORE and for the first time, the POLYs a perfect for this design... They actually WORK)!

So the goal is to DRIVE DOWN the price to be as affordable as possible.

Limited production may produce limited buyers ... But I think that I have some solutions that I can explore to ENTICE more players in coordination with the people that I deal with (FLGS owners) and maybe from some "grassroot" level, there may be the option of selling more sets for some kind of "tournament" with a grand prize and everything... IDK. To be seen and we'll see how many people are interested after TRYING the game TBH.

I've done some more thinking LAST NIGHT after closing up shop for the day and it seems like the POLYs are something of a GOOD IDEA! This is the very first time that the various dice work in favor of the design... And that's something very POSITIVE. We'll have to wait and see how I continue to design the game and work out all the details.

I also received my "Stickers" for the Boxes... They look pretty good too. My Aunt who saw them said: "The 'S' looks like a '2'... and not a 'Z'!" And that too is part of my play: it's a "Z" but looks like a "2"! So the name could be interpreted as "Duel Bot 2" but is in reality "Duel Botz". I'm pleased with HOW(!) they look. I guess it's a LESS "Fancier" Logo ... But will do fine enough for me TBH. I don't want to DROP $350 CAD for a professional Logo... With some kind of DESIGN and such... I already bought a NICE FONT and added a linen texture to the gradient ... And made it look "reflective" a bit... That's enough for the LOGO. I want the game to speak for itself. Not just real cool ART.

All that's left are the BOXES ... Which I hope to get some time NEXT week. Maybe in five (5) days or so. That will be another challenge and we will see if the merchandise is GOOD "quality" (I hope!) We shall see... TBD.

My next update will be either when I solidify the POLYs in the design (which for the most part I HAVE) and the next time when I receive the BOXES... In any event we'll have to wait and see.

This is YET another design that I THOUGHT would REQUIRE "Dry-Erase Markers" but it turns out NO... I've found alternate solutions using the POLY dice as trackers much like what Magic: the Gathering (MtG) does with the Health Points (HP): they use one D20 Polyhedral Die. So my design requires four (4) of them.

Again this is all good and is very presentable so far. I am happy with the overall progress ... How the design is "maturing" and what I hope will be a very compelling game!

Keeping you all posted... Cheers all.

Well even if the alignment isn't the "best", the sample cards still look pretty decent! TBH I was a bit surprised at the overall LOOL & FEEL of them. Sure when you proof them on the computer you might think: "Hmm... They look pretty nice!" But the truth is sometimes when you print them out, you don't quite get the same feel. I also find that on-screen you see MORE "details" and when you PRINT ... there are LESS "details" as the colors sort of look darker and have less CONSTRAST.

I did the UV Coating on the both the SAMPLE Cards and the BLANKS... I'm a bit in between games and so I have not had time to invest in this NEW design. Anyhow, they look decent (even though they are SIMPLE in design).

More designing and evolution to happen soon enough.

Sincerely.

Note #1: I got six (6) of three (3) cards because IF I order less than 18 cards the price is the same for say only 3 cards. So I made six (6) of each (to maybe share and see if they are liked or not...)

Note #2: I also UV Coated 108 (2x 54 = 108) BLANK Cards to do some playtesting with. The idea is that if I shuffle them and they have some writing on them, they writing will smudge or get removed. So my solution was UV Coat the cards and write on them and THEN put them in sleeves (the cheap ones)... This will mean that the writing will not get removed and the UV Coating will allow EDITING and RE-WRITING of the content of some (if not all) of the cards.

I am thinking about the DESIGN and how to impact the it and change it so that it is BETTER. I've made a DECISION on the D4 which is that the D4 is the NUMBER (#) of Weapons that can be attached. Like if you have a "3" it means you can have "3x" Class-1 or "1x" Class-2 and "1x" Class-1... The idea is that the CLASS ADD up to the D4 Value (which is 1 to 4).

That all works and sounds logical TBH.

But I'm still not convinced about the D6, D8 and D10.

The D12 is the coolant and how rapidly the Heat Level may be reduced per turn. Sure if it's "12" well that means you can use some REAL POWERFUL weapon or do multiple ATTACKS be TURN.

Which LEADS me NOW to believe that the D4 should be "Rate of Attack", 1 = Once, 2 = Twice, etc. And the D6 Should be for the CLASSES and configuration of the weapons...

IDK ... I need to think some more about this... Like I said, "6" Classes feels like a LOT. But maybe you are ALLOWED at MAX only "3" Weapons with the corresponding Classes matching the D6. Leave a lot of room for more weaponry, I like that... So we'll have to wait and see.

More though required!

Note #1: What I am thinking is something like this:

D4 = "2" which means a weapon MAY attack TWICE per TURN.

D6 = "3" which means that the classification means that you have either "3x Class-1" or "1x Class-1 + 1x Class-2" or "1x Class-3"

And combining D4 + D6 = ???

Still needs more thought because I don't want 6x Class-1 or for that matter 12x Class-1... Needs more reflexion...

I think the main idea was to RESET the STATs for both players' "Duel Bot" and either offer a one-free stat upgrade or just have them both START from zero (0).

The problem that I am having is JUSTIFYING the process.

Yes, I understand that a RESET may be required to make the game playable. But how(?) in terms of LOGIC makes any sense for this to be "required". I'm still struggling with it even though I understand.

I am still thinking about this one... TBH I've been working on "Prospector" to have a DESIGN which is quick and completed which offers gamers an exciting add-on to the core "Splendor" experience. All I have left if the ruleset and I need to do both English and French if I want to SELL this expansion in Quebec.

No worries "Prospector" will be bilingual, even if the name will be more "English" than "French" (The name will remain "Prospector")...

I'll let you all know what happens with the RESET. I will think this over some more during the next month and see what comes up (in terms of ideas or reasoning ...)

Best!