iTook:

The game of Spying and Thievery

iTook is a game of espionage. Each player will control a team of elite spies, who are competing to break into a secret location, and steal the target within, without being discovered.

Goal

Steal the target treasure, and have one of your spies move it off the board. Alternatively, be the only player who’s spies have not all been captured/killed.

Setup

Play begins by loading a scenario onto the iPad. Each player logs in with their team. A map/board will appear on the iPad. The mission briefing will begin. The scenario will be explained, and players will be shown possible starting locations, the target, and possible dangers.

Guards will randomly appear on the board, and each player will have 3 spies placed on a random starting location. Spies will not appear on the map, but rather their location can be seen on a player’s iPhone. Also, according to the scenario, in some games the players will begin with one or more random item. Each player also has 2 spies in reserve. Then, game begins.

The Turn

Each turn, a player may act with up to 3 spies. A spy may move a certain number of spaces, and perform 1 action. Actions include pick lock, disable/enable security device, pick up item, use item, or attack guard. Actions are programmed into your iPhone using the touch screen. Once each player has put in their orders, one player is randomly selected to move all of the “idle” guards (see below). After that, all orders take place, and the consequences are seen on each player’s iPhone. The main board reacts as needed.

After turn 3, a player may at any time skip their turn to call an “in reserve” spy. The spy arrives during the next turn at any starting locations.

The information that only your spies know will appear on your phone. This includes the location of any spy who has not been spotted, and which of your spies has taken the target. On the main board (iPad), all players can see a map of the board, all guards, active alarm systems, spies who have been spotted buy guards or alarms, and the last known whereabouts of the target.

If two spies run into each other, they will fight, and one will be victorious. The randomness of this fight will be taken care of by the computer. Also, certain rooms and locations will have hidden traps. Some of these will cause spies to be spotted by cameras or alert sirens, others will kill the spy.

Guards

Guards have two states: idle and alerted. When idle, guards will move at the whim of the players. They have a limited field of view, but if they spot a spy, they will become alerted. Guards can also be alerted by nearby explosions, alerts, or spotted spies.

When a guard is alerted, they will be controlled by an AI, and most of their movement will be chasing after spies. If a guard attacks a spy, the spy will almost always be killed. If a guard attacks a spy without alerting him, the guard will usually be killed.

Starting Scenarios

When you buy iTook, the game comes with two pre-made scenarios.

Scenario 1: Pirates of Silicon Valley

You are an elite team of computer entrepreneurs in the 1980s, charged with breaking into Xerox’s GUI Center (see "pun") and steal their new computer technology.

Scenario 2: Cretaceous Park

You are a team of computer hackers, charged with breaking into the main center of a dinosaur game park, and steal the coveted dinosaur RNA. Guards in this mission are raptors who have escaped their pens, and can move faster than guards in other scenarios.

Scenario 3: Billy Bonka’s Chocolate Factory

You are a team of rival chocolateers, and must break into Billy Bonka’s candy factory and steal his Foreverlasting Jawbreakers. Guards in this mission appear small and bright orange.

Expansion

In addition to the three starting scenarios, iTook will come with software allowing players to design their own missions and themes. Additionally, players will be allowed to change the actual images of their spies, allowing them to scan pictures of themselves, or even draw new images.

Market Share

• In the early days of personal computers, there were many players. But who could grab (and keep) the most market share and be number 1? Market Share is a turn based strategy game for 2-8 players.

Goal

Control all segments of the market to be number 1. Yes, that means put everyone else out of business. Are you up to the challenge?

Equipment

• 1 iPad with Market Share Server software.
• 2-8 players with iPhone or iPod Touch with Market Share app.

Setup

• Place the iPad on a table. Run Market Share Server. If this is the first time you run the program, it will ask you to give the server a name.
• Each player should start the Market Share app on their iPhone/iPod Touch. The app will present a list of available Market Share Servers. Choose one.
• The iPad will display the number of connected Market Share apps as well as two buttons, one for 4 player and one for team play. After everyone has connected, select one of the two choices.
• During the game, the iPad will display the game board and manage the game. The apps will handle all player input.
• When the game is started, if 4 player was selected, each player must choose their company (Apple, Atari, Commodore, Microsoft). Each player must choose a different company. For team play, players will be randomly assigned either Apple or Microsoft.
• The gameboard is an 8x8 square grid with all cells colored white. In the 4 player game, the players start on the 4 corners. In team play the players are assigned a random starting cells. The starting cell for each player will be set to their unique color. In team play there are only 2 colors.
• For team play, team members can move through teammate's cells with no conflict (multiple divisions running multiple campaigns). However, the limit is still 8 campaigns per team per cell. To help plan, team play includes the ability to IM teammates through an intra-company network.
• Since teams can be uneven (odd number of players), $100 per controlled cell could quickly eliminate the underdog. To help even things up, each cell will be paid using the following formula: ((# players on opposing team) / (total players)) * $100. For example, if there are 5 players the two player team will earn $60 per cell while the three player team will only receive $40.

Play

At the beginning of each turn, players will receive $100 for each cell they control. They will choose how to allocate this money to marketing campaigns. - Each campaign must be at least $10. There is no maximum limit. - There can be at most 8 campaigns (per player) in any cell. - All campaigns start in the player's home cell. After allocating funds, the players send their campaigns to the markets. This is done by giving each fund a direction. Funds travel up to 1 cell per turn. The direction can be set on every campaign, not just the new ones. Movement is along cardinal paths (N, S, E, W or none). After a player has allocated their campaign funds and set market directions, they lock in their decisions. Once all players lock in, the Market Share server handles movement resolution.

Movement Resolution

The Market Share server gets all players decisions and moves the campaigns. When more than one player is in a cell, the largest dollar total wins. For example: - Commodore has $23 in a cell while Atari has $31 in the same cell. The Commodore campaigns are destroyed while Atari still has $8 left in the cell. - Apple has $20, Microsoft has $18 and Commodore has $10 in a cell. Commodore and Microsoft are destroyed and Apple is left with $2. After conflicts have been resolved, market share is determined. - Any cell with no campaigns is set to white (no company controls it). - Any company whose home cell has been taken over (or has no campaign) has lost. All cells in their control are set to white and their campaigns are destroyed. - All cells controlled by a company are set to their unique color.

Special rule - When one company takes over the home cell of another company, they now treat this cell as a "satellite office". From this point on, campaigns can start in either their home cell or the satellite office.

Results

The player (or team) who controls the entire board wins.

Coming Soon

Version 2 of Market Share, due in the third quarter, features a hex grid and more than two teams possible. Version 3, while not due until next year, will replace turns with real time movement and clock based funding determination.

Torrent Pirates

You and the other players have started a new network of sharing pirated files. But an argument has arisen about what type of files this network will host. Some in the group believe the network should be restricted to just one file type, while others in the group believe the more file types the better. You must decide how you will proceed, and work to become the most influential server on the network.

Description of Board / Player Boards

The main board, an iPad, will graphically display the file-sharing network's information. Throughout the game as seed-files are offered, they will become visible to all players on the board. The player boards, iPhones/Touches, will graphically display an individual player's server information including their files and bandwidth available.

Overview and Gameplay

Torrent Pirates is a game for 3 to 6 players, played through three phases. In phase one, players secretly determine their file type preferences. During the second phase, players draft seed files to their server. During the third phase, players simultaneously offer one of their seed files to be shared across the network. Players will then select one or more of these files to be co-hosted by their own servers, keeping an eye on their server's bandwidth. Depending on how many players choose a file to host, the server's bandwidth will go up and down. Players will score points by having their seed files co-hosted by other players, by hosting files that fit within their preselected file type preference(s), and by having bandwidth available at the end of the game.

Phase 1: Determine File Preferences

During this phase, players decide which file types they prefer to host in the network. They must select one and may take up to all four of the following preferences: audio files, video files, software, and documents. Players who select one file type will score 6x the influence points of that type. Players who select two types will score 3x the points of both types. Players who select three types will score 2x the points of those three types. And players who select all four types will score 1x the points, however, they will receive a 5x point bonus if the combined bandwidth of all four types across the network is above 20 percent each.

Phase 2: Drafting Seeds

Drafting takes place over a number of rounds equal to two times the number of players (in a three person game, there will be six rounds). A number of files equal to one more than the number of players will appear on the main board (in a three player game, four files would appear). Files are represented by graphic boxes that contain information such as file type, percentage of bandwidth consumed (a number between 3 and 18), and influence points (a number between 1 and 6, correlated to the bandwidth factor. The higher the bandwidth the higher the points). A random player is selected to draft first. Going clockwise, players draft one file or pass. The last player will have the option to draft one or all of the remaining files. Any undrafted files are “discarded.” When selected, the file disappears from the main board and appears on the player board. The player's server bandwidth will be “consumed” by the percentage listed on the file. During consecutive rounds, the starting player will shift one person to the left.

Phase 3: Offers and co-hosts

One by one, players offer one of their original seed files to the main board. Players have the option to co-host one or more of these files or pass. Once everyone has made their selections, bandwidths are divided based upon the number of players who chose to co-host the files. (eg, if a 6-factor bandwidth file is selected by two other players, the bandwidth goes down to 2 for each player). Any server without bandwidth to host a certain file will kick out the largest of the selected files from that round. If no other player chooses to co-host a file, the bandwidth of the seed file remains the same on that player's server. Play continues with players offering one file simultaneously until all of the original seeds have been offered.

Scoring

• every seed file shared on another server receives an additional point for each additional server (if two others co-host a file, the original player receives two extra points)
• factor any of the multipliers based upon file preferences chosen at the beginning of the game (if a player chooses only one type, he would receive 6x the points for that one type)
• add points from the other file types
• add one point for every unused percentage of bandwidth
• the player with the most points wins