GDS July 2005 entries thread

Entry #1 – Raja, by Kreitler

The king has died and left no heir! Ascend the throne by protecting your family, capturing rival nobles, and fortifying your lands.

Object: Earn 10 vp (8 for 2 players).
Players: 2-5

Components:
50 "grain units" (small disks)
36 "territory tiles" (1 side red, 1 side blue)
30 shields (10x1,10x2, 10x3)
16 "market disks” (1-16)
10 elephants
money (25x$1, 20x$5, 15x$10, 10x$50)
5 player markers (chair, minaret, head, square, dragon)

In 5 colors:
31 "wall stones"
3 "nobles" (pawns)
2 dice
1 privacy blinder

Setup
Create markets
Place grain units in a pile.
Place market disks 1-5 face-down next to it.
Flip disk '3' face-up.

Repeat for shields, using disks 6-10. Flip disk ‘8’ face-up.

Repeat for elephants, using disks 11-16. Flip disk ‘14’ face-up.

Each player:
Collects starting pieces
Choose color.
Take associated wall stones, nobles, blinder, dice.
Take $75, 7 territory tiles, 1 "1" shield, 1 "2" shield, 1 random player marker.

Constructs Lands
Arrange 4 territory tiles in a 2x2 square.
Add remaining tiles.
All tiles must border at least one other.
All tiles must form a single group.
Use any desired red/blue configuration.

Places pieces
Place nobles on separate tiles (your Lands only).
These represent cities.
Each uncaptured noble is worth 1 vp.

Take 9 wall stones and build city walls (see "Building").

Place your shields on your Lands (see "Building").

Gameplay
Give an unused territory tile to the oldest player. This is the "season indicator". It identifies the turn’s starting player and season (dry/rainy). Start blue-side up. After each turn, pass it clockwise and flip it over.

The game consists of turns broken into phases:

Production
Cities on tiles matching the season indicator’s color produce grain.
Production (per city) = 1 grain + 1 per stone at wall's widest point (e.g., wall of width 2 produces 1+2 grain).

Starting player harvests grain (from market pile) for 1 city and passes production clockwise. Continue until all producing cities are harvested or grain runs out.

Stack a city’s accumulated grain in a column. If it falls, return fallen tokens to the market pile.

Auction
Bid for “first move rights”.
Starting player bids first.
Next player may raise or pass.
Process continues around until raising stops.
Highest bid loses his money and wins “first move rights”.

Remaining phases: “active player” status begins with the high bidder and proceeds clockwise once around the table.

Commerce
Buy, trade.
Active player initiates trades, other players counter-offer.
Exchange any combination of money, elephants, grain, shields.

Purchase from markets.
Face-up market disks represent market prices for 1 item of each type ('2' shields count as 2 items, etc).
State your desire to trade with a market and declare the type and number of items.
Other players can offer to complete your trade at market price. If so, you must accept. Otherwise, trade with the market.
Buying from market: pay market price, then flip disks to raise the price by 1.
Selling to market: sell at market price, then flip disks to lower the price by 1.
You may trade only once with each market each turn.

Building
Build walls.
Cities have 1 wall, any height and width.
Build 2 stones per grain you discard.
A wall’s stones must touch.
Before placing, declare how many stones you’re adding to a wall.
If the wall collapses during construction, discard fallen stones and those awaiting placement on that wall.
Walls must remain within their tiles.
Curved walls are legal.
Walls with 15+ stones are worth 1 vp.

Deploy shields.
Tiles can hold multiple shields.
Shields cannot occupy tiles containing nobles.

Siege
Active player:

Places player marker on opponent’s Lands.
Cannot place on:
tiles holding other player markers or nobles.
his own Lands.

Can place on:
tiles containing shields.
cities without nobles.

Identifies elephants targeting each city.
He may:
attack only cities orthogonally adjacent to his marker.
use no more elephants than the wall width at its widest point.

Defender declares defenses:
Identifies shields defending each city.
Each shield can defend 1 city, orthogonally adjacent to its tile.
Shields must defend at full strength.
After use, discard shields.

For each city:
Attacker rolls 2d6 per elephant.
Defender rolls 1d6 per shield point ('3' shield earns 3d6, etc).
x = defender's total - attacker's total – stones in wall.
’x’ positive:
Defender removes ‘x’ stones. If wall collapses during removal, defender discards fallen blocks without counting them toward combat losses.
Discard 1 elephant per ‘6’ rolled by defender.

’x’ 0 or negative:
Discard 1 elephant.

If attacker destroys the wall, he may:
Demand ransom payment, or
Take city's noble.
Captured nobles are worth 2 vp.

Cleanup
Remove all elephants and player markers from opponents’ Lands.

Game stops at end of any turn when any player has enough vp.

Entry #3 - The Game Designers Game - by grayscale
For 2 or more players

SUMMARY
You're a game designer trying to create the next great gaming sensation. First, combine Elements from the zeitgeist into Ideas. Then beg, borrow, or steal Ideas from competitors, but try to be diplomatic about it, because the final showdown is Peer Review.

EQUIPMENT
A large assortment of game pieces.
Cash.
Paper and pencil.
1-minute timer.

ELEMENTS AND IDEAS
Since you're not actually designing games in this game, the process is represented abstractly by an assortment of pieces called Elements. You create an Idea from Elements by physically stacking them so that different but related Elements are touching. For instance, start with a wooden elephant as a base, then add a wooden 3 disk because they're both wood, then add a blue 3 shield because they're both 3, then add a blue wooden cube because they're both blue, then add a red die because they're both cubes, and so forth.

Ideas with 1 or 2 Elements are Marketing Ideas. Ideas with 3 or more Elements are Game Ideas. The collection of all your Ideas is your Game.

If there's any dispute about whether an Idea is valid, the final arbiter of what's acceptable is a vote by the other players.

There's no particular interpretation attached to the Elements. Your Ideas do not have to mean anything, but having a good explanation may help you during Peer Review.

PLAY
1. Brainstorming: Place all Elements in the center of the table. Start the timer. Players simultaneously take Elements from the center using one hand, one at a time, until the timer runs out. Remove any unclaimed Elements.

2. Financing: Stack the cash so that low denominations are on top. Every player counts how many Elements they have. Then starting with the player with the most Elements, pass out the stack of cash so that the total number of bills plus number of Elements is the same for every player, and every player gets at least one bill. So if the players have 11, 10, and 3 Elements, the first player gets 1 bill, then the second gets 2, then the third gets 9. Note, this is number of bills, not value of bills. The cash advantage is supposed to become skewed when the low denominations get used up.

3. Development: Start the timer. Players arrange their Elements into Ideas until the timer runs out.

4. Redevelopment: Take turns starting from the person with the most cash and continuing clockwise. You put up an amount of your cash for auction, and the other players bid for that cash by offering Ideas. The value of a bid is number of Elements minus number of Ideas, so 4 Ideas each with 3 Elements would be worth 8 points. On ties, you get to decide which bid is better. The Ideas you get from an auction can be combined with Ideas you already have, but you can't split any Idea or remove Elements from any Idea. Auctions continue until nobody sells any cash, either from choice or from lack of bidders. If an Idea collapses in this phase, you can choose to reassemble it identically, or remove it from the game.

5. Exhibition: Take turns starting from the person with the most Ideas and continuing clockwise. You have 1 minute to explain to the other players what your Game is about and why it's great. After all the presentations, each player ranks the Games from best to worst. Include your own Game in your ranking. For each ranking, give 10 points to the best, 9 points to second best, etc. Add up all the points, and award each player cash equal to their score.

6. Publication: Change your cash to the smallest number of bills possible. Set aside your Marketing Ideas (the ones with 1 or 2 Elements). Arrange your bills on top of your Game Ideas any way you like, then place your Marketing Ideas on top of your bills. If any Idea collapses in this phase, it's removed from the game.

7. Peer Review: Take turns starting from the player with the lowest vote total and continuing up to the highest. Pound the table with your fist. Any part of the table is fine, but you immediately lose if you touch any Elements or cash. If an Idea collapses, the Idea is removed from the game, and any bills that were supported by the Idea are also removed from the game. If any remaining bill is touching the table, you win that bill and any bills above it, but half of that amount (rounded down) goes to the Game's designer. Repeat the cycle of players until all the bills are gone.

8. Scoring: Count the cash you received in Peer Review. Highest total wins.

Entry #5 - The Fall of the Raj - by Sebastian

Trouble is fermenting for the British, as the revolution in India takes shape. In this two player game, you take the side of the British, attempting to keep India's riches for themselves, or as the people of India, struggling to win independence.

In addition to the components listed in the challenge, you will also need a board, depicting India split into 16 provinces. Place this in the middle of the table. The double sided tiles are economic markers, indicating to whom the profit for that region is going to - blue for the British, red for the Indians. Place two tiles on each province, so that one red and one blue side is face up.

The player taking the side of the Indians takes the following pieces:

155 coloured cubes representing 5 castes of Indians.
5 wooden markers (shaped like dragons, etc), each coloured to match one cube colours, representing the Indian leaders.
15 plastic pawns representing commanders
10 dice
50 cash

The player taking the side of the British takes the following pieces:

50 wooden disks representing the British forces
10 elephants representing the British leaders
30 cardboard shields
100 cash

The Indian player places three cubes of each caste on each province, and leaders on the marked start provinces. The British player places four disks on each provinces, and four leaders on the marked start provinces.

The game takes five years, each year consisting of four seasons. At the start of each year, the action markers (yellow 1-16) are turned face down, shuffled, and divided into four groups of four. At the start of each season, one group is turned up, and there is an auction (standard either raise or drop out). The winning player pays the price they bid, and takes two action markers of their choice. The losing player takes the remaining two.

The player with the highest valued maker places it in a province of their choice which does not already have a marker in it. They may take up to three actions:

o Recruit units - take up to the number on the action marker and place them in the province. Indian units cost one, British units cost three and British leaders and Indian commanders cost five. When an Indian or British leader has been captured, they may not be rerecruited.
o Get cash. Take an amount of money equal to the number on the action marker, for each of your economic markers.
o Move people from adjacent provinces to this one, or from this region to adjacent provinces. You may make at most as many moves as shown on the action marker
o Invest in the region - increase the number of economic markers by one. You must pay 20, but get a refund of the number on the action marker.
o Wrest control of the region (see later)
o [British player only] - Retrieve a number of played shields equal to the number on the action marker.

The key action is wresting control of regions. The player who initiated the battle plays first. The players fight in the following way:

The British player may play up to one shield face down for each man that they have. For each caste, the Indian player may roll one dice of that colour if they have more members of that caste than there are British forces, and may roll a dice for each leader or commander present (to a maximum of two dice). Once both sides have done this, the British may cancel one dice for each leader that they have present. The British player reveals his shields, and both sides add up the numbers. The player with the higher total wins, and flips one of the economic markers from their opponents side to their side.

Regardless of the outcome of the fight, one cube from each caste and one disk from the English are removed from the board. If there are no such pieces, then the commanders may be removed, and if there are none of them, then the leaders are removed.

At the end of each year each player gains 10 cash for every economic marker they have.

The game is won by the British if at any point they have 500 cash, or if they have captured all five of the Indian leaders. The game is won by the Indians if at any point the British only have economic control markers in four provinces or have removed all British leaders. At the end of the five years, if neither side has won by, total the number of economic markers, and the player with the most wins. In case of a tie, the Indians win.

Entry #7 - The Silk Road Encroaches - by Torrent

3-5 players
Components:
Small wooden disks (population markers)
a 6 sided dice
10 Elephants (silk road markers)
16 numbered disks
Colored blocks in each of 5 colors (influence markers)
3 pawns in each of 5 colors (locations)
Red/Blue Cardboard squares (warehouse markers)
Shield Markers
3 wooden shapes. (Onion, Dragon, Head)
Money

Extra components not in original list:
Wonder Cards - lists of goods that can be turned into VP's (ex, Build a temple for 2 stone 2 wood).
Product Chits (4 produce, 4 consumer goods)
Production Chits (rectangles with either a product, a pure consumer, or a production from a produce to a consumer good)

Large Board of Asia with 16 cities marked, with roads between them. Farms are scattered on the roads as well.

Setup:
Shuffle the number markers, place 9 face down in a row.
Place one elephant on the Capital Space.
Place 2 population markers on each city and 6 on the Capital
Shuffle the production chits, and place 1 production and 1 consumption face up on each city. 2 each on the capital and 2 each on the silk road. Place one produce chit on each farm and monestary.
Each player places both pawns on the capital, receives a set amount of money, and 3 warehouse spaces.
Sort out the produce and consumer chits.
Pawn per player becomes score marker.

GamePlay:
Production (before players begin)
Each farm that has space for a product, gains the one it has a production chit for.

Turn:
Going around the table, players each take a turn.
Players have 2 moves. May move each pawn once or one pawn twice.
At the cities that the pawns are at, players may buy and sell goods from or to their warehouse slots. Each pawn may only access one slot per turn (selling or buying). Each slot may contain 4 goods.
Prices are based on amount of goods at the city, more goods stacked are cheaper to buy but also cheaper to sell. A grid at each city fills up players paying the price still showing on the grid.
Cities with Elephant markers allow players with pawns there to trade with the silk road spot.

Players that sell to a city this turn: choose, either an influence marker or a wonder card. In addition, draw one shield token per product sold.
Influence markers may be saved or played in any city where the player has a pawn.

If a player has influence in a city (as opposed to just being there), they buy produce at one cheaper spot.
The Player with the most influence sells produce to the city at one higher spot.

End of Turn:
Cities that bought a good this turn: Roll the die. If the die is greater than the number of population, then add a population marker. Each player with an influence in the city gets a VP per influence.
Production is run, produce is turned into consumer as allowed by production chit.

Wonders:
Players may lay goods on their face down wonder cards. These are only counted for VP at the end of the game.

Silk Road encroaches:
Roll a dice, on 4,5,6 the silk road adds a city.
Flip the next numbered marker, and place and elephant on that numbered city. Influence markers get an VP each.

Auction:
3 auctions each turn.
Each player going around puts forth a number of shield tokens face up. Going around the table a second round, each player may add a number face down. All are flipped and counted. The winner gains control of the current auctioned marker.
Onion, may choose one produce for free from stack into warehouse.
Dragon, may move an extra space this turn.
Face, 1 VP.

Discard all bid shields into supply.

End of Game:
After the last elephant is placed, there is one more complete turn.

Scoring:
Each city gives one VP per (population+ 1 for elephant) per influence to that player if contested, if one player has most influence, then only he gets VP.
Wonder cards are flipped, if the goods required are on it, then VPs are scored for it.
Most Money scores 10 points.

Entry #9 - Quintessentia - by Paralepsis

for 3 to 5 players
You are a merchant in 16th century Florence. The well-heeled enjoy a considerable luxury during the sweltering summer months – ice, harvested from the mountains and stored in ice-houses to keep chilled fruits and iced wines on the table during important transactions. But melting, theft, corruption and assassination are not uncommon.

Game Object
Host the Duke and genius inventor Bernardo Buontalenti after building at least 3 Estates with Ice-Houses and filling them with ice.

Components
Money
16 yellow Estates
50 brown Ice-Houses
5 Florentines
10 Trader elephant tokens
36 red and blue Ice tokens
155 Trade Goods cubes
15 Sons pawns
10 Confidants dice
30 Guard shield tokens

Setup
Stack the ice, guards and estates in the center of the table.
Each player takes an Estate, a Guard, an Ice-House, both Confidants, one Son and $100.
Each player commits both Confidants as brokers and moves their Son to the ice.
Place the Duke above the lowest-numbered estate, then the rest of the Florentines in order.
Place Buontalenti on the estate of the first player to bring ice back.

Turn Phases
Start with the player to the left of the Duke and continue clockwise for each phase.

1. The Morning – Ice Melts, Ice Auctions, Guests Move.
2. Intrigue – Commit Confidants, Move Sons.
3. The Evening – Entertain guests, sell Trade Goods.
4. Estate – Buy new things.

Movement
Florentines, Traders and ice shipments move through Florence consecutively through the numbers on Estates.

Ice
If you have a son by the ice, you may bid for it. In turn, each player who doesn't pass adds 1 to either the number of blocks or the price per block.
If you pass you are out until another auction. If you buy ice you are out.

Ice melts each turn it is not in an ice-house. Flip one blue to red and move any red to center. Melted ice is worth half.

When all the ice is sold, flip all red ice in the center to blue.

Your sons move the ice to your ice-houses 1 Estate per turn unless you pay traveling costs - $1 for the first estate, doubling the cost each time.

During your Estate phase you may buy Ice-Houses. Each Ice-House at an Estate holds 3 ice and costs $5 more than the previous.

Entertaining

To sell Goods you must entertain Traders. The Florentines have several effects.

Hat = Cardinal – roll your Confidants before committing them
Chair = Architect – purchase new estates at half price, purchase “empty” opponent estates at double price
Head = Duke – go last, buy estates
Block = Captain – buy twice as many guards, receive +1 for intrigue
Dragon = Buontalenti – use half as much ice to entertain, pay half price for new ice-houses, your ice doesn't melt

To entertain a guest you must use ice. You must use 1 ice for each Trader at an estate. You must double the ice you use each turn for each Florentine. Entertained guests will not move automatically.

Traders move from the high numbers down, Florentines from the low up.

You cannot move the Duke. If you have any ice at all, you must entertain him.

Estates can be purchased for $20, $30, $40, etc. An estate with no sons, brokers or revealed guards is “empty.”

To entertain a Trader you must have a Confidant committed as a broker. Florentines require a Son present.

If you don't have enough ice during the Evening you lose it and your guests leave.

Trading

One trader will come to Florence each turn that someone has goods and a broker.

Next to your Estates is your warehouse.

To get Goods, commit one or both of your Confidants as managers - roll and place over your warehouse. Put in as many shown, paying traveling costs for extras, up to six each.

To sell trade goods you must commit one or more of your confidants as brokers over an estate. The value shown will be the price a trader will pay.

Starting with 2 per turn, each Trader at an Estate will double the amount of goods you can sell. Traders will move if you do not have a broker present.

Intrigue

Confidants can sabotage, steal or assassinate. Sabotage destroys trade goods in a warehouse. Stealing takes ice from an ice-house or shipment. Assassination kills a Son or Confidant.

Commit and roll. Resolve any conflict. Guards or confidants can be used as protection. Compare the numbers of the dice and guards. Highest total wins, all guards die except for the last played. The difference is the ice stolen or goods destroyed.

Guards can be purchased for traveling costs and are played face down on an Estate, Warehouse or Son until revealed in a conflict.