Game Design Showdown February 2006 - Result

Entry #2 - Me Pull Meeple - sebastian

The slimy long-lived alien race Quixocre are desperate for a little love. Fortunately, they have discovered that decorating themselves with Meeples makes them irresistable to the opposite sex. As there are a limited supply of Meeples in the galaxy, they have devised a game to share them out.

This game is for any number of players greater than or equal to 2.

Components:
Meeples to be divided. Ideally, there would be about 10 per player, but galactic stores are limited.
1 Binary sun star system (otherwise empty)
8 Planetary bodies for each player (0.05 solar mass units, 0.01 solar mass units, 2 x 0.005 solar mass units, 4 x 0.0001 solar mass units)
Sufficient disintegrator rays to destroy any planetary bodies that threaten to destroy any of the meeples through a direct hit.

Gameplay:
Place 1/10th of the meeples into various orbits around the binary star system. Each player positions their spacecraft around the system and simultaniously shoots their planetary bodies into the system on slingshot orbits. They should try to arrange things so that their planetary bodies pull the meeples into orbit around them, and hence back to their spacecraft. After a predetermined time has passed, the round ends. Any planetary bodies that have not returned to their owners ship (through collision or otherwise) are disintegrated, extra meeples are spread out, and the next round starts.

The Quixocre with the most meeples at the end of 9 rounds (the last round has double the number of meeples in it) is the winner and gets the love and slimy adulation of millions of other Quixocre.

[I was thinking of setting Sirius up as a prototype. Sadly, I did not have sufficient Meeples to do so.]

Entry #4 - Love Me Blender - doho123
(manufactured by Presley Kitchenware Inc.)

Two players create love potions to move Pat on the Infatuation Line.

Components:
-The Love Me Blender[1] and Blender Base[2].
-Marbles, in four "Ingredient" colors, and additionally, black and clear.
-Marble bag.
-8 small bowls.
-Board showing the Infatuation Line[3] and many potion recipes[4].
-Pat, a pawn.
-Markers to cover up used recipes.

Setup:
-Place Pat on the Zero space on the Infatuation Line.
-Black and colored marbles go in the bag, clear marbles in a bowl off to the side.
-Each player gets a bowl for their stock of Ingredients. Four "Storehouse" bowls are placed in the center of the table. The last bowl is used for black marbles.
-Decide who goes first.

Gameplay:
A player performs one of the following two choices:

-Collect Ingredients:
The player takes all the marbles from one Storehouse and places them into his personal stock.

-or-

-Attempt A Potion:
The player takes any amount of marbles from his stock and places them into the Blender along with an equal amount of clear marbles[5]. The Blender is then shaken by the player; the opposing player may also shake it if he feels that it is not mixed enough. Place Blender on the Blender Base and Press "MIX", which releases all marbles into the reservoirs.
All clear marbles are returned to their bowl.
Remaining marbles in the BAD reservoir are returned to the bag.
Remaining marbles in the RETURN FROM BLENDER reservoir are divided up and placed into the four Storehouse bowls in any way the acting player decides.
The player selects ONE unmarked potion from the board by matching the ingredient list of the potion to the marbles in the GOOD reservoir[6]. The player puts a marker on this potion[7] and moves Pat the number of spaces indicated on the potion, or to the next colored space that is indicated by the potion[8] towards himself.
If there are no potions available that match the GOOD marbles, the player fails to make a potion and cannot move Pat.
All GOOD marbles are returned to the bag.

After doing either A or B above, the player then pulls 5 random marbles from the bag. Black marbles go in the 5th bowl. The player then distributes the colored marbles anyway he wishes in the 4 Storehouses.

The other player takes his turn.

A round ends immediately when A)Pat hits a 10 point space for one player, or B) 6 black marbles are in the 5th bowl.
Pat scores points for the player based on which side he is on. The points awarded are listed on the space Pat is on. Return Pat to the zero space. Return all black marbles and marbles from players personal stocks to the bag. A new round starts[9].

Points are doubled for the 2nd round, tripled for the third. The game is over after 3 rounds, or if all potions have been covered. Best total score wins.

[1] The Blender is a plastic toy that looks like a typical Blender which holds many marbles, except that the pitcher is opaque. There is a "MIX" button on the front. Inside, there are three holes which marbles can escape from down into the Blender Base when it is placed on the Base. These holes are normally blocked (marbles cannot escape) by a spring-locked sliding trap door mechanism. Pressing the "MIX" button slides the trap open, releasing all of the marbles through the three holes.

[2] The Blender sits on the Blender Base, which has three reservoirs for catching marbles (these are labeled "GOOD", "BAD", "RETURN FROM BLENDER"). Inside the Blender, funnel shapes lead into the holes which roughly distributes the marbles so that 1/2 go to the "GOOD" reservoir, 1/4 go to "BAD", and 1/4 go to "RETURN FROM BLENDER".

[3] The Infatuation Line looks like this:

[4] There are two types of Potions: "move X Spaces" and "Move to Color."
Examples:
"Empathy Elixier. 2 red/1 yellow. move 1 space."
"Howl at the Moon. 1 red/1 yellow/1 green/2 blue. move 2 spaces."
"Sweet Clementyne. 4 blue/3 red/1 yellow. move to Purple."
"Chocolate High. 4 green/2 yellow/2 blue. move to Yellow."

[5] Clear marbles are added to prevent suspicious shaking in the hopes of getting more marbles to fall into the "GOOD" reservoir.

[6] Odds are, many GOOD marbles will be unused when matching to a potion.

[7] Any potion is only used once during the entire game. Pat becomes immune quickly.

[8] There is no 10 space colored potion; a potion that "moves X spaces" would be required to move there.

[9] Markers from potions are not removed when a new round starts. More complex potions will be used during later rounds. Likewise, storehouses are not "reset."

Entry #6 - In the Woods for Love - seo
(3-4 players)
What better place for teenager romance than a camp? It only takes a couple dreamy rendez-vous at the lake or the woods, a tranquil boat ride by the river, holding hands on the bridge or a visit to the romantic waterfall, and a summer love will spring. Add a soda, a donut or a chocolate bar, and things will evolve even faster. Your only obstacles are the other kids looking for romance as eagerly as you, and the camp leaders, who will do everything they can to prevent romantic encounters between their kids.

Components

20 tiles: 7 plain terrain, 9 special terrain with romantic places (2 woods, bridge, river, lake, waterfall) and sweets (chocolate, donut, soda), 4 camps (in four colors). Each has four spaces; special terrain and camps have one special space and three plain terrain. Camp tiles backs are different from the rest.
12 campers pieces: one boy, one girl and one camp leader in each of the four player colors.
6 Sweet counters: two of each chocolate, donut and soda, one for boys, one for girls.
72 Seduction counters to keep track of seduction in each round of the game: 9 of each of the four player colors for the girls, 9 for the boys.
10 Love counters: 10 counters in the shape of a heart (to keep track of Victory Points earned in each round).
6 six-sided dice.

Set-up
Tiles are shuffled and placed face down (see image). Camp tiles are turned up. Girl, boy and camp leader of each color are placed around their respective camps, using the three plain spaces on the tile.

Game overview
A game consists of several rounds.
In each round the players move their girl and boy pieces around the board trying to meet other players boys or girls in any of the romantic places before the camp leaders arrive. When they meet, both pieces are returned to their respective camps, and the players receive seduction counters corresponding to who they just met (e.g.: blue boy and red girl meet: blue player receives a red girl counter, and red player receives a blue boy counter). If any of them was carrying a sweet to give as a present, the player can return the sweet counter and receive two seduction counters instead of just one.
When one or two players collect three seduction counters of the same camper (e.g.: the red girl), the round is ended and the player(s) receive one Love counter (each).
For the next round the tiles are reshuffled and laid face down again, and all sweet and seduction counters are returned, except for the previous round winner(s), who keep one of the counters that earned him (them) the recent victory (so it’s easier to seduce the same camper round after round).

Winner
The winner of the game is the first player(s) to earn three Love counters.
Note: giving sweets to other campers so they fall in love with his camper is the only way for a player to unbalance the score in his favour; otherwise the victory will always be shared (which seems reasonable for a romance game).

Game-play
During each round, players take turns to:
1) Roll the 6d6.
2) If there’s any empty face-down tile still on the board, turn it face up and rotate it at will. Once face up the tiles can’t be rotated anymore.
3) Discard at least two of the dice.
4) Use the dice to move at least two pieces (see below).

Movement rules
Players can control the movement of their girl and boy pieces, and any of the camp leaders. All pieces move according to the same rules:
- Advance in a straight line as many spaces as indicated by the chosen die. When using several dice on the same piece, 90º turns are allowed from one die to the next.
- If the piece arrives to any of the sweet spaces, the player receives the corresponding counter (i.e.: if a boy reaches the chocolate space, the player receives the boy-chocolate counter).
- Kids can share the same space only when they meet at the romantic places or at camps.
- When a camp leader moves into a space with one kid, the kid is immediately sent to his/her camp and looses all the sweet counters.

Top: blue boy can get the donut counter with a 1.
Right: yellow boy is waiting in the woods, green girl can meet him with a 1, blue girl needs a 4.
Bellow: Yellow girl was captured and sent back to camp. Green leader is blocking the bridge, and can capture red girl with a 1.

note: This entry comes in at almost twice the regular word-count. However, I didn't discover this until compiling the entries, which made it too late to contact the author. I chose to be lenient, but voters may choose to disqualify it.

Entry #8 - Planetary Bump: Shake, Shake Your Rump - neoclown

Welcome to Planetary Bump: Shake, Shake Your Rump. I'll be your host for this evening. You can call me "the Instructions" and I'll call you "Playa", fair enough? Thought so, lets continue. Planetary Bump: Shake, Shake Your Rump is (for the most part) a game of complete and total chance, where one team, made up of 2 people desperately in love, plays against another team, made up of a different 2 people also desperately in love in a competition of heavenly bodies and witty wittiness. So pour a glass of fine sparkling cider and get ready to shake, yes shake your rump.

Object:
Work with your partner (whom you are desperately in love with and can't live without, not even for a single second, though realistically you do everyday while he/she's at work and you're at work, or if you're lazy and are at home veggin' out while they are at work) to be the team that throws the best inter-planetary dance party, which in turn will be a medium for "hook ups" which will in turn produce babies. Whichever team makes the most baby planets by the end of the party wins.

Tools:
- A solar system of your choosing (the more planets the better).
- A Quadric-Transfibulator (or any pair of six-sided dice over 300 stories tall).
- Scratch paper & pencils.
- An eight-track player.
- Earth, Wind, and Fire's Greatest Hits (on eight-track).

Starting a Game:
- Both teams should agree upon a solar system and venture there accordingly.
- Flip a coin in order to decide which team goes first.
- Hand out sufficient scratch paper & pencils to each team.
- Plug in the eight-track player to the nearest outlet, but do not start the music yet.

A Round:
The team who won the coin toss goes first (unless it was a tie, then both teams should go at the same time, See "Tie Rules" on page 3). There are 20 total rounds in a game of Planetary Bump: Shake, Shake Your Rump, each one representing what it takes to get two planets (or more) in the mood. A round consists of two primary actions, or steps, and two possible actions, or steps, depending on the outcome of the primary actions, or steps. These actions, or steps, are done in the following order...

1. Pick your planet couple (only one couple each round).
2. "In the mood" roll.
3. Play Music.
4. Roll to make babies.

The above actions/steps are more fully explained below...

1. Pick your planet couple: You're throwing an intergalactic shin-dig, now go play match-maker and get some of these planets to hook up. Talk with your team mate, who you are hopelessly in love with despite the fact that they are cheating on you because they say you don't have enough ambition and just sit on the couch all day and don't have a job, and together decide which planets you want to get dancing together. In Planetary Bump: Shake, Shake Your Rump size does matter, so choose accordingly.

2. "In the mood" roll: You and your partner should each roll one of the Quadric-Transfibulator cubes (or dice) being careful not to destroy any civilizations by running over a planet or two. A roll of 5 or 6 means your chosen planets are starting to dig one another and may even begin dancing a bit closer to the timeless sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire. A roll of 1 or 2 means the two simply don't care for eachother and match-making skills are lacking. A roll of 3 means you get to roll again, since 3 is universally known as a lucky number. A roll of 4 is not possible since \there is no 4 on the Quadric-Transfibulator cube (or die). One will notice, upon inspection of the Quadric-Transfibulator cube (or die), that the side where the number "4" would normally be transcribed or embossed is instead nothing. A roll of nothingness simply means that the planetary couple simply need more time to get to know one another before they make up their minds. Now back off and give them some space, they only met for heaven's sake! Planets taking more time to get to know one another are rolled for again with a different set of values (See "We Know Eachother Better Now" below).

3. Play Music: This is a possible action, or step, that is only taken if a 5 or 6 is rolled on the initial roll (or reroll in the case of a 3 being rolled on the initial roll). This action is done by simply pushing "play" on the eight-track player to start the melodious sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire's Greatest Hits.

4. Roll to make babies: This roll only takes place if action 3 takes place. And since action three only takes place if all goes well in action 2, then this action (action 4) cannot take place unless things go well in action 2 and lead to the playing of music in action 3 as well. In order to complete this action, a team must roll their Quadric-Transfibulator cubes (or dice) and treat the outcome as if they had used a Quasi-Transfibulator (or three-sided die), where the 1 and 2 are equal to 1, the 3 and 4 are 2, and the 5 and 6 are 3. Whichever number is rolled is the number of baby planets produced as a result of your hoppin' planetary party. Fo shizzle.

"Special" Situations:
My mother once told me that people who have a harder time in life via physical retardation, mental retardation, or bad fashion taste should be referred to as "special." This is of course an effort to make them feel better about being the way they are, as if they would know how it is to be any different. With the exception of the physically and mentally retarded, these "special" people have no chance of living a happy and fulfilling life, and so calling then "special" is much more polite than "loser" or "tard" (which isn't very nice at all). There exists in Planetary Bump: Shake, Shake Your Rump situations which may also be labeled as "special." They are in no way related to "special" people in various "special circumstances".

Tie Rules:
When flipping a coin to decide which team of lovers goes first, if the flip results in a tie, please adhere to the following directions immediately...
1. Take that coin and immediately deposit it in a plastic bag with a seal.
2. Find your nearest cathedral and go inside.
3. Find the Priest and reveal the coin to him, telling him that you in fact flipped a coin and it resulted in a tie.
4. Assist the Priest in the exorcism of the coin by holding it down while its demons are vanquished.
5. Then return to your game and flip again to see who goes first.

We Know Each other Better Now:
Upon a roll of nothingness, the planetary couple you were playing match-maker with have decided to take a little more time getting to know eachother. This time they share lasts for the rest of the round until the next round when they are rolled for again. During this time they may discuss politics or religion, personal preferences for inlaid chimneys, or any other common party topics. When the next round comes around, roll for the couple again to see if they are ready to get closer, or drift apart. The normal rolling rules apply, including the possibility that they may take even more time getting to know one another. Each time a couple takes said time (each time a team rolls Nothingness for a planetary couple), add 1 baby to the total number made if planetary babies are indeed produced. This number stacks if the couple decides to take forever to get it on (i.e. "get to know one another first"). ***A couple getting to know eachother better does not count against a teams allotted number of groupings a round (1).

Ending A Game:
After twenty rounds of match-making, both teams of people so in love with one another that they can barely keep from ripping eachother's clothes off right here and now are to add up all of their planetary babies. The team of love-bunnies with the most baby planets wins the game!

Alternate Modes of Play:

A Quickie:
To play a quickie game, simply shrink the number of rounds from 20 to 10. Also, raise the +1 baby bonus from Nothingness rolls to +2. This will create a more fast-paced atmosphere where your planet's inability to jump right into baby making and instead having to talk first won't complete ruin your chances at throwing the best interplanetary party ever!

All Night Long:
To play a game that might last far into the morning hours, extend the number of rounds from 20 to 50. Also, keep the Nothingness roll bonus to +1. An all night long escapade like this might include a whole lotta talkin', and a whole lotta bumpin'.

Enjoy the Game!
If you have any questions, concerns, comments, or are in dire need of an exorcist, give us a call at 1-900-PLANETARYBUMPIN. We appreciate all comments and suggestions. Thank you.

Special Bonus non-Entry - Queue-Pid - zefquaavius

This is not eligible for votes, but here's the text version of the entry.

Overview
The players, shy middle-school students, work together, distracting the teacher or their fellow students at critical moments, in order to pass a querying love note from one to the other, then back again. All the while, the sender waits anxiously to see whether the recipient circled “yes” or “no”.
[For simplicity’s sake, in these instructions, the sender will be assumed to be female, and the recipient male. This is only for convenience: Enjoy the game, whoever you two are!]

Setup
Place the teacher in one of the four central spaces, facing either toward the “top” or “bottom” of the U formed by the queue.
Set the sender beside the exit from the queue.
Set the recipient beside the queue’s entrance.
Decide which player shall play the sender; the other will be the recipient.
Put all the rest of the students in the bag. Now, draw them, one at a time, and place eleven of them in the queue, starting just before the exit, and ending at the entrance. Make sure each student is looking toward the center of the next space in the queue, as if they were standing in line.

http://users.resourceinternational.com/~nmx/Queue-pid.png

Passing the Note
Now, the the sender may run to any of the four spaces on her side of the board, lean across the rope, and hand the note to the student on the other side of the rope by placing it on that student, with the arrow pointed back toward the start of the queue, because the sender told that person where it was headed.

In general, distracting someone prevents them from passing the note, accepting the note, taking the note — basically, the person is distracted from noticing that there is a note. There is one exception to this: If you are the intended recipient of the note, and distract the person with the note, then it’s business as usual.

The Turns
Each turn, both players run to one of their four positions, and may distract either the student on the other side of the rope, in the same column, or the teacher in the same column (The teacher is taller). Note that neither player can get the attention of people in the grey spaces. To indicate a person’s distraction, turn the person’s field of vision fully toward the player.
Next, the note gets passed twice, according to the tendencies of the students who are passing it. If a pass happens where the teacher can see it, he takes the note and reads it aloud to the whole queue. How embarrassing!! (You both lose!)
Next, the queue moves one space: The student in the grey space near the exit leaves the queue, and is put into the bag. The other students are moved one space toward the exit, no longer distracted. A new student is drawn from the bag, and placed in the pre-queue, grey entry space. If the note gets carried out the exit, it is dropped, and the Sender picks it up again.
Now, if the teacher was distracted, the distraction has ended, and the teacher will now resume patrol: Roll a six-sided die. On odd numbers, the teacher faces the “bottom” of the U; on even, the “top” (the grey end of it).
Finally, the teacher moves according to the roll of a six-sided die: On 3-5, the teacher takes a step in the current direction; on 2, he looks toward his left; on 6, he looks toward his right; on 1, he turns around. If taking a step in the current direction is impossible, treat the roll as a 1 (turn around).

Passing the Note Back
Once the recipient gets the note, he sends it back toward the sender in the same fashion she sent it toward him. Once she receives the note again, the sender's heart is a-flutter, and love has bloomed! (You both win!)