Snow Leopard Award

When the players use their resources, what happens to them afterwards? Rather than just being discarded, they could either be left in place for someone else to use or maybe even fall down the mountain for others to collect. This might combat any runaway leader problems by helping the losing player to catch up.

If the player is really lucky, they could find the remains of a failed expedition and take their equipment.

Sounds like an interesting theme. Maybe players should have to co-operate and pool their equipment to overcome particularly difficult sections.

Ollie

Key to the Kingdom had a mechanic similar to what you are describing. You have a set of equipment and certain tasks require certain pieces of equipment. If you passe the task, you keep the equipment. If you fail the task, you lose one of the required pieces.

In your case, I would say that every time you reach a new camp or peak, the player should be rewarded by restoring one piece of equipment. 5 camps on each of the 5 mountains would be a good even number.

Surely running out of resources and failing should be a very real possibility in a mountaineering game. You'd have to leave behind any gear you have and other players could come and take it.

Maybe I'm imagining a different game to you but it's a very good theme for a game. I'll give it a bit of thought and let you know if I come up with anything. At the moment I'm thinking it could be done almost entirely with cards.

I can add a "helicopter" event. You only call the helicopter 2 times, but never over the Camp III and only one player can call it one round.

What do you think??

You've got a very strong idea. It's spurred a lot of thoughts. I'm going to describe the systems I imagine when I think of your game. I don't mean to imply you should use any of them, but maybe seeing my solutions will help you figure out what you could do for your design.

An individual game board is a map of a mountain overlaid with hexes.

There are several "base camp" hexes at different positions on the map.

Each hex has 1 terrain type: rock, ice, snow, or cliff.

There are four resources: ropes, picks, pitons, and crampons.
Each resource lets you move into 1 specific terrain hex (e.g., ropes let you move into a "cliff" hex).

Resources are represented by tokens with an icon showing their type.

Each player has a "climber" pawn, some number of "Endurance" counters, and a collection of "Hazard" chips.

The Pawn tracks the player's progress on the board.

The "Endurance" tokens control how far he can move in his turn.

The "Hazard" chips help him plot a safe course up the mountain and impede other players' progress. All hazard chips are numbered. Most bear a '1'. Some bear '0' and some others bear '2'. These numbers reflect the number of correct resources a climber must expend to enter a terrain hex. For example, if a player wants to enter a "cliff" region with a '2' Hazard token, he must discard 2 "ropes".

All players start at the lowest base camp.

Only when staying at a base camp for an entire turn, players can blindly draw 'n' resources chips from a bag during their turn. After drawing, players must show the resource type to other players. After showing resources once, players keep them face down until used.

Only when staying at a base camp for an entier turn, players can place 'm' hazard tokens, face down, on any hex not already containing a hazard token. In this way, players can plot safe and unsafe routes up the mountain.

Only when staying at a base camp for an entire turn, players at the same camp can trade resource tokens.

Only when staying at a base camp for an entire turn, players can recover 't' endurance tokens.

Only when climbing (i.e., not staying at a base camp), players can wager Endurance tokens and move their pawns. Players can wager up to 3 Endurance. Players can attempt to move 1 hex per Endurance wagered. To move, players declare the hex they want to enter, reveal the value on that hex's Hazard token, and pay the associated resource cost. If a player can't pay the cost to enter a hex, his move ends. Wagered endurance is always lost, even if the player wasn't able to take his full move.

Only at the end of a turn spent climbing, a player can swap any two adjacent Hazard tokens at or below his Elevation. In this way, players can "close" safe routes behind them and otherwise impede other players' progress.

If a player runs out of Endurance, he must return to the last camp at a speed of '1'. If a player runs out of resources and endurance, he must receive a "Helicopter Rescue" which instantly returns him to the base of the mountain (ouch -- that's harsh -- maybe there's a better way).

Theoretically, these systems have some good interactions:

1) The leader will be safe from trailing players in the sense that they can't manipulate the Hazards in front of him, BUT...all Hazards above the leader are face-down, so he has a lot of risk in planning his route.

2) The further behind a player lags, the more revealed Hazard tokens exist, so the easier it is to catch up.

3) Showing resources after drawing allows for some strategy in trading and route planning but leaves room for error.

I realize you weren't looking for people to design your game for you. It's such a strong theme (and one I've wanted to try for awhile) that I couldn't resist -- which is a good sign.

I hope something in here is of use and that you'll keep us posted on your progress.

K.

Have fun, i believe this game will be a blast to design!