Chrysopoeia - a Steampunk-themed game of Alchemy, battles, and resourcing is up on Tabletopia

Thanks! Just a quick note on the prototype artwork - this is by no means the final artwork for the game, it mostly consists of photoshopped textures and items from around my house and neighborhood, with some copyright free clipart and a few sketches of mine thrown in! While most of the cards are done, the deck of Strategy cards doesn't have any detailed artwork yet, other than the borders, backgrounds, and labeling. The game is completely playable, but I'll update those graphics here and there as I go.

Trying to settle on the best idea for displaying the various upgrades in this game, their costs, and the different bonuses. Some bonuses are just numeric, such as "+3 to Defense", etc. Others are more descriptive, such as "Draw 1 bonus Rare-Earth card each turn".

I was trying to use reference cards with some images, but they were too big, so I tried labeling them on each player's Domain board (Domain boards consist of resources at the top, control panel in the center, and upgrades at the 4 corners of the control panel).

I feel like, while it works, it's a bit cluttered, and still doesn't leave me room to put all the details in.

So I think my latest solution is to just make double-sided reference cards for each of the 4 categories of upgrades, and place those cards on the boards. That way, they don't take up any more room on the table. Any time you need to check the details of one of the upgrades, you can turn over the card to read more. I've been using gear tokens placed next to the upgrades to indicate which ones you have built. (The Tabletopia version currently has a slightly different setup - no gears, just individual "ingot" tokens for each upgrade, which can be flipped over to read the back).

Any better ideas out there?? I'm hoping some of you might have some different perspectives to help me see outside of my own "box" of ideas!

I was going to add a picture of one of the upgrade categories, but doesn't look like the forum page allows me to attach an image to a reply...???

I want to thank Elkobold for his post on another thread, regarding mechanics you don't like - he mentioned collecting things or actions that don't have a clear trigger or queue. This has been the main thing about my game that I felt was clunky - too many things to remember to gather at the beginning of each turn, especially as upgrades get built that give begin-turn bonuses.

Player cards with a list was one solution, but I still wasn't happy with it. After thinking about it all day yesterday, I settled on 4 tokens that represent the collection/reset actions at the beginning of each turn. Players pass each token to the next player as they take the associated action. If you don't have all the upgrades for all 4 actions, either ignore those tokens or keep passing them to the next player who does.

I did consider some alternative ways to acquire the growing variety of begin-turn items, but not sure they work as well thematically. Still, I have those ideas written down in case they end up developing into something later, even if it's in another game.

Anyway, if you read this Elkobold, thanks for the incentive to attack this problem that's been plaguing my game! I tried it out in a short play test last night, and it's going to work! For now anyway - might still come up with something better, but at least no one has to consult a list each turn...

After listening to Gabe's interview with Jerry Hawthorne about the importance of Story in games, I got to thinking that it was time I worked some more story elements into my game. While I had a "concept" of a backstory, I had never fleshed it out in writing!

So I added some to what could be the intro of my game. Here it is:

"Chrysopoeia: Lords of Alchemy

The Domains of Chrysopoeia abound with ores and the mystical elements of the Cosmos, a prime location for the wise Alchemy Lords to thrive as they delve into the mysteries of their science.

But the formless tides of Chaos have begun to manifest throughout the lands of Chrysopoeia. The Alchemy Lords, with their insatiable desire for the deepest of mysteries, have broken too many laws of the Cosmos, and now strange werebeasts and vampiric horrors roam free. Chaotic vortices sweep the Domains with their twisting, malevolent winds, and have left many structures of men in ruins.

Bitter rivalries have arisen between the Alchemy Lords, as each blames the others for the unleashing of this unpredictable Chaos. And so, these Lords isolated themselves, each creating their own small legion of loyal apprentices and worker golems to sustain their foundries and factories, thus buying themselves time to restore Order to the world.

Chrysopoeia (Greek term for "transmutation into gold") is a game for 2-4 players, where each person controls a domain of resource-generating facilities and is seeking the elusive, mystical substance known as the Philosopher's Stone - the key to purifying the Four Elements of the Cosmos. With the Philosopher's Stone, the portals of Chaos could be sealed again, and Order would be restored to Chrysopoeia once more.

In a world of steam-powered contraptions and anachronistic Aether technology, players must manage their resource production by animating worker golems and placing them in their resource facilities. Players spend resources to build Transport and Aether Science upgrades, laboratory equipment, or to tame the power of Chaos and harness it for battle. Use gauges and needles to track your Steam power, harnessed Chaos, and even the Essence of the Aether itself. Build up a supply of Rare Earth chemicals, which are the essential ingredients for your Alchemy experiments. These experiments will lead players to claim the title of Prime Alchemist when the long-sought Philosopher’s Stone is at last created!

It may be too much for the back of a game box, but if so, I could just stick with the last 2 paragraphs, and have the rest in the manual intro. What do you folks think?

Since I'll have a reference card for each player stating the few different ways game resources are used, I think I'm going to do a Character for the other side of the reference cards. Just an image, a brief bio, and probable a small special ability unique to each character - it's a 1-4 player game, but I'll probably have 6 characters to choose from. Gonna work on those next!

Here's a basic description of how the golems work:

Your 3 workers are golems, so they must be animated each round using the same 5 Alchemy dice as are used in the other experiments.

There are several symbols on the dice, so you select 3 results to place on the 3 workers. The various symbols will determine how much of a resource they can bring back, how much is left behind in the wastelands between players, or if something other than the intended resource is brought back (strategic cards or points that will help you compete for the growing supply of resources left in the wastelands).

So you will always get something from your workers, it just might not be what you had hoped, or not as much as you'd hoped, but you still have choices of how to apply your dice results to the 3 workers.

Cool, I'll send a PM soon and we'll see what we can do to coordinate a time to try it. Thanks!

Thanks Adam and BHFuturist for all the great ideas the other day! Been dealing with a major internet outage in our area but I'm working on a couple of changes to try on my player boards, & got a few ideas for making better use of steam & apprentices for getting the strategy and apparatus cards.

Hopefully I'll have the revised strategy cards ready to upload too. I've been looking at other examples of dual/multi purpose cards, like Adam's spectrum force and mage Knight. Got some better ideas for the issues with combat too!

I'm happy to hear whatever else might've occurred to you guys since as possible ideas to try - thanks again!

Well following my wife's suggestion that I was trying to fit too much info on a single card, I took her advice and just put the character and quote on the front of the card, and the special Alchemy "spells" on the back that give common and unique bonuses for each Alchemy Lord.

I'll have to do 4 smaller cards for game reference info. I thought it would be nice to have everything on a single jumbo card, but it seemed too cluttered to me too.

Thanks for checking it out! I'll be sure to post when the manual updates are done, and I've tried to use examples with graphics to help with explanations. That being said, I've done a lot of novel and short story writing, and that might show through a bit in the manual!

Well I got a few replacement pieces and cards from the Game Crafter recently, so I wanted to set up the game in it's full 4 player glory! I doubt we'll actually play it tonight.

I realize the wood engravings under the glass of the table are kind of "busy", and doesn't make the best contrast but was the only place to do it!

Thanks guys! I'm much happier with this version over my original prototype.

Even though a lot of progress has been made in getting the rules and mechanics all ironed out, it's still a work in progress, so for anyone interested in the Tabletopia version, I try to keep the manual as current as I can, so that it at least matches up with all the in-game graphics and components.

I've got a couple friends who are pretty good craftsmen, and I was thinking of eventually having them help me to make a personalized copy of the game made with real wood for the Domain boards (control panels). I think it would be awesome to use real gauge components too, and maybe even rig up some battery powered Edison bulbs, so you turn it on when it's your turn.

Like I said, that would just be for a personal edition, not for production, but I think it would be pretty cool! Now if I could also figure out how to work in moving metal gears and have steam leaking out from around the gauges... Lol!

Of course, the rules need to be 100% set in stone before I try to get those made - re-prints would be a nightmare!

I'm hoping by mid summer I can be close enough to done with rule testing & get my personal "custom deluxe" Steampunk boards built - I agree it would add a cool new dimension to the experience!

Here's a pic I found to portray the idea:

Those aren't Edison bulbs but that's what I'd use instead - you get the idea right?

Something weird is going on with my image links - the pics are hosted on BGG, but seem to be on and off broken links today...