Time and time again, I tried to develop a card game with intense player combat. Each attempt failed. Combat is hard to craft. Seedlings is a huge departure from my previous designs and I couldn't be more pleased.
Seedlings is a 2 - 4 player game where you try to grow a flower on each of your garden's spaces in order to win.
Each player's garden consists of seven spaces. It's constructed with hexagons- one in the middle and six others surrounding it. The middle space space starts with a flower and you start the game with six seedlings.
You'll place these seedlings on different spaces. Seedlings have two states: planted and unplanted. Planted seedlings gain droplets, used to sprout flower. Unplanted seedlings add one 'chanting' to the space, for each unplanted seedling in that space.
So let's say you have 2 planted seedlings and 3 unplanted seedlings in a space. Your turn starts with a dice roll (1D6). The numbers 1 - 5 correlate to the number of UNPLANTED seedlings in ALL of your spaces. If you roll a 2, each planted seedling gains a droplet if they share a space with 1 unplanted seedling (spaces automatically have 1 chanting). So your two planted seedlings would each gain one droplet. If you rolled a 4, those planted seedlings would each gain one droplet (3 unplanted seedlings + the space's automatic +1 chanting). If you rolled a 5, nothing would happen. Flowers add +1 chanting and gain droplets just like planted seedlings (more on that later).
If you roll a 1, ALL player's planted seedlings and flowers gain one droplet each.
This is designed to let you test you luck. Plant more seedlings, and you are less likely to gain droplets but when you do, you'll get more. Plant fewer and the chances are higher, but you'll get fewer droplets.
Each space has a unique threshold. In order to plant a flower, some spaces require more droplets (your seedling's droplets are totaled). So if the flower threshold is 6 and you planted 2 seedlings, both seedlings would need 3 droplets to create a flower. When a flower is created, those planted seedlings are removed, as are their droplets. If the flower threshold is 6 and your have 3 planted seedlings, one with 3 droplets and the others both have 2 droplets, all three seedlings and their droplets would be discarded (effectively wasting 1 droplet). If at any time your space has enough droplets to create a flower, it does (even on an opponents turn).
When a flower is created, you gain two seedlings in your reserve (more on that later). Flowers gain droplets, and when they gain enough of them, they can be converted into 2 new seedlings that go into your reserve. Spaces dictate conversion rate.
When a 6 is rolled, the top card of a randomized Weather deck is flipped. These cards may positively or negatively affect you, everyone, or someone of your choosing.
There are 4 different types of spaces: (1) Blue space, (2) Red spaces, (2) Yellow spaces, (2) Green spaces. Planted seedlings and flowers gain droplets of the color on which they're located. A flower on a red space gains red droplets. Planted seedlings on a green space gain green droplets. These droplets can be spent to activate Tactic cards in the middle of the play area. They cost different combinations of colors. Colors have playstyles:
Red: Aggressive cards. Red cards mess up your opponents' gardens.
Green: Growth cards. Green cards help improve your garden.
Yellow: Movement cards. Yellow cards reposition your seedlings.
The middle space is blue. Blue has no attribute, but two blue droplets can be spent to act as any single color.
There are 4 Tactics cards face-up at all times. When someone pays droplets to use one, it is discarded and a new one is flipped.
Lastly, there are Flower cards. Three of these are randomly dealt to each player. When you have the required number of flowers a Flower card asks you to have, you may play it. These cards give you bonus effects throughout the whole game and help promote strategies (like being immune to negative weather effects or gaining more droplets).
On your turn, you can make a total of two actions. Here are all possible actions:
- Play a Tactics card (remove required droplets from planted seedlings and flowers)
- Create new seedlings (remove required number of droplets from flowers that the space dictates, then add 2 seedlings to your reserve)
- Deploy up to 2 seedlings from your reserve (place the seedlings in any spaces, either planted or unplanted)
Turn structure:
1. Roll
2. Action #1
3. Action #2
- Can be the same action as #1
4. End turn
Seedlings has had tremendous progress over its week-old conception. Balance is still a worry, as is variance, but I'm focusing on making a fun, tight experience first. Any comments, questions, recommendations, and suggestions would be neato.
Thanks for reading! I'll update this soon.
Comments
Update #1
My playtest last night illuminated issues that I changed on the fly:
• 2 actions per turn was too much, so I reduced it to 1.
• 4 Tactic cards weren't enough, so I upped it to 6.
• Dice rolls affected both (it was a 2-player game) players, which increased game speed nicely in the beginning but quickened the pace too much towards the end.
Things I'm mulling over:
• 2 of the 6 Tactic cards might rotate out when a 6 is rolled, to help change the pool of options.
• Flower cards aren't synergistic, so rather than helping you strategize, they more so inform you decisions.
• Maybe instead of a mutually beneficial dice roll, each player chooses one space that they want to benefit from. This way it gives players an option on most turns, but it slows the end game down. Maybe a second dice should be included that has the colors Red, Yellow, and Green on it (two sides dedicated to each color) that reduces the choice element a smidge. You roll a Red 3, so you'd choose which of your red spaces it'd effect.
• I didn't play with threshold rates last game. I thought I was already testing so much out that it would clutter the effects of my new additions. I'm also unsure how strategic these rates would actually be.
As of right now, the game is surprisingly balanced. In fact, it's too balanced! Emily (my playtester and fiancé) would've won if I hadn't the turn before. That's a pleasant surprise. However, I don't think there are enough tactical decisions to be made to inform specific strategies. Rather than Flower cards, I've been thinking about incorporating Characters to choose from, each with their own synergistic abilities. If anything, that concept feels like a crutch, a way to add fake strategy to a game that doesn't have any.
As of right now, playing Seedlings works but it's not engrossing enough to become invested while playing it. Perhaps players need to compete over a mutually shared 'thing'. Right now Seedlings feels perhaps too insular. Since the boards are separate, interaction is limited to Red cards and unlucky weather. It needs a tug-of-war like feel, a battle towards something, that it lacks. Perhaps I can do more with the boards?
I don't know if any of you guys have read this or care, but I'd love some input.
Wow..love the seedlings idea!
Hi there,
Being a nature lover and urban gardening enthusiast, I am highly excited by your game concept. I would love to hear more about the game's progress and if at all, you need any help reg. graphic design, artwork or prototype making or production, please get in touch. I head a graphic design/publishing studio based in Mumbai, India, where we are undertaking few board game projects too.. Would love to work on something like this, if you ever wish to go in for our services !
Parvez
www.eternitimedia.com
www.wordsmithindia.co.in
email : eternitimedia@gmail.com