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Some Different "Effects"

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Fri, 02/04/2005 - 23:01
DSfan
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Joined: 12/31/1969

My game "Complete Hazard" is going good, but it needs a little something different to spice it up.

My first thought was Weather effects. Storms will appear randomly, and they affect different things (Speed, or Movement) they also move around the already laid tile spaces, if they move off the board, that storm is "done".

One storm called "Complete Hazard" will be conjured when a regular storm hits 2 "toxic waste" tiles. This storm is deadly and will kill anything in it's path for 2 rounds.

But if this doesn't work out (Weather Effects) do you guys got any other ideas I could use?

Thanks in advance,
-Justin

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 13:01
#1
Anonymous
Some Different "Effects"

I am currently trying to imagine the simulation of a storm on a boardgame. and to me it seems difficult to do it well. I actually have no ideas on how to implement such a thing, although I must admit I have very little ideas mechanically anyways.

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 13:18
#2
sedjtroll
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Some Different "Effects"

My first thought on a storm moving 'randomly' throughout the board is to have a storm pawn, put it into play wherever the storm should start, and since you have Hexes, roll 1d6 to determine where the storm will move to next. The current GDW game- The Hunting Of The Snark, uses this exact mechanic for Snark movement.

If you want the storm to move primarily in one direction, then you can still use 1d6, where 1&2 mean 'ahead left', 3&4 mean 'straight ahead' and 5&6 mean 'ahead right'. As it turns out, Mississippi Queen uses that exact mechanic for placement of river tiles.

Finally, a different, more deterministic mechanic for storm movement would be to have the storm move 1 space toward a particular target. This could mean a straight or almost straight line if the target is stationary, but if the target moves then the storm could be a little more erratic.

Note also that 'storm' in that last example coul be aything, hunters moving after a deer (the target), Bounty Hunters moving after their Mark, metal objects being attracted to a large magnet, heat seeking missiles moving toward a heat source... etc.

- Seth

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 13:33
#3
DSfan
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Some Different "Effects"

sedjtroll wrote:
If you want the storm to move primarily in one direction, then you can still use 1d6, where 1&2 mean 'ahead left', 3&4 mean 'straight ahead' and 5&6 mean 'ahead right'. As it turns out, Mississippi Queen uses that exact mechanic for placement of river tiles.

Thanks Sedjtroll, this sounds like it could work.

Quote:
Finally, a different, more deterministic mechanic for storm movement would be to have the storm move 1 space toward a particular target. This could mean a straight or almost straight line if the target is stationary, but if the target moves then the storm could be a little more erratic.

What kind of target, like maybe a certain troop or something?

-Justin

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 13:44
#4
sedjtroll
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Some Different "Effects"

DSfan wrote:
What kind of target, like maybe a certain troop or something?

...Could be anything. Maybe the unit that triggered the storm, maybe a specific tile (marked with a storm icon), really anything you want. Depends on how you want the storm to behave.

- Seth

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 13:51
#5
DSfan
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Some Different "Effects"

sedjtroll wrote:
Depends on how you want the storm to behave.

Well I want the storm to move around a bit, so it can be "life-like".

So I think the best way to go would be the storm following the unit that conjured it, as it would add dialog like this:

"I could make a storm, which could hinder the opponents sight, but it would also follow my guy..."

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 14:58
#6
DSfan
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Some Different "Effects"

To show that I dont just this forum to be limited to weather...

What about something like Magic/Power Cards. These Powers would be a separate deck of cards. When you want to draw a magic card for use now or later, you would give up a Attack card, and send it to the discard pile, now draw the top Power card.

Some type of unit similar to a Sorcerer would be added to the array of troops. You can use a Power card during battle if the tile your attacking with has a "Sorcerer"

Just an Idea,
-Justin

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 15:29
#7
Brykovian
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Some Different "Effects"

If you didn't want to add a new unit, you could make it something the "Ziggurats" could do, instead of adding extra battle cards to a battle.

-Bryk

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Sat, 02/05/2005 - 15:32
#8
DSfan
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Some Different "Effects"

Quote:
If you didn't want to add a new unit, you could make it something the "Ziggurats" could do, instead of adding extra battle cards to a battle.

Thanks Bryk, thats a good idea.

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Mon, 02/07/2005 - 10:12
#9
boardgamegeezer
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Storm movement

Hello
Regading the storm
perhaps you have a hex that sits on top of the main board if you have a board and use custom dice to move the storm hex tile over the board so the dice would be like left -right -left/right -right/left left right left-right left right.
BGG

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Mon, 02/07/2005 - 10:13
#10
boardgamegeezer
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Storm movement

Hello
Regading the storm
perhaps you have a hex that sits on top of the main board if you have a board and use custom dice to move the storm hex tile over the board so the dice would be like left -right -left/right -right/left left right left-right left right.
BGG

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Mon, 02/07/2005 - 12:20
#11
zobmie
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Some Different "Effects"

im new to the boards, and not familiar with the layout of this site, therefore i don't really know much about your game, but i have an idea nonetheless. You could integrate the storm more into your game and have the players control the storm each time it was their turn.

Every storm has a card, and on the card it tells you 6 different coordinates that it could start at on the board (roll a d6 to find out where), a path the storm will take each turn, and the effect of the storm.

the storms will show up and ruin things, but in a very predictable manner.

now comes the fun part. The Spell/Magic/ability cards you were talking about can have a small icon in the bottom corner of the card. The icon shows very specific alternate directions for the storm (south, south, southwest, south for example) . You can use an action for your turn to play a card you would normally play in battle face down on the storm card. Then, when its time for the storm to move, you move it the according to its new directions. If both players want to move the storm, the player who sacrificed the higher powered card gets to move the storm according to their specifications.

i think this keeps the storms movement erratic like real weather, but adds more strategy to an otherwise random event.

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Mon, 02/07/2005 - 16:42
#12
DSfan
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Some Different "Effects"

zobmie wrote:
Every storm has a card, and on the card it tells you 6 different coordinates that it could start at on the board (roll a d6 to find out where), a path the storm will take each turn, and the effect of the storm.

the storms will show up and ruin things, but in a very predictable manner.

now comes the fun part. The Spell/Magic/ability cards you were talking about can have a small icon in the bottom corner of the card. The icon shows very specific alternate directions for the storm (south, south, southwest, south for example) . You can use an action for your turn to play a card you would normally play in battle face down on the storm card. Then, when its time for the storm to move, you move it the according to its new directions. If both players want to move the storm, the player who sacrificed the higher powered card gets to move the storm according to their specifications.

i think this keeps the storms movement erratic like real weather, but adds more strategy to an otherwise random event.

Thank you zobmie (is this a spelling mistake?) and welcome to the boards.

I like the idea, and how players can have more control, so storms will now play a bigger part in the game. The only bad part is that I have decided on doing just upgrade cards, but I think I have came up with an alternate way, but still very close to your idea.

What I do have is "card battling" and you can play a card during your "storm phase" (like with the magic cards). There will be no icon, but instead a small bit of movement info on the "player mats" (for upgrades). There will be a set of numbers, and then a direction in which it will move. Like this:

  • 2 - 4 = move north
  • 5 - 7 = move east
  • 8 - Jack = move south
  • Queen - Ace = move east
When the storm moves off the board it is finished, and the next storm phase they battle for a chance to place a storm. The only problem with this code is that the storm won't move south-west, north-east etc...

You like it?
-Justin

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Tue, 02/08/2005 - 01:12
#13
zobmie
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Some Different "Effects"

that sounds like fun.
you should try and include some kind of mechanic for keeping the storm moving though. In some instances it might just sit there going back and forth between two spaces over and over again while the players fight over control of the thing.

Are you still doing the flight path thing where the storm follows a certain route until you make it go some other way?

you should definitly make the player sacrifice a movement to move the storm too, just so it doesn't end up as a back and forth battle. You only mess with the weather when it is going to mess you up, or you can get it to really screw with your opponent.

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Tue, 02/08/2005 - 16:08
#14
DSfan
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Some Different "Effects"

zobmie wrote:
you should definitly make the player sacrifice a movement to move the storm too, just so it doesn't end up as a back and forth battle.

This is what I was going to do. Another way to do this would be to add "action points" or something, and you gain them some way. Storms would cost about 2 or 3 to "sacrifice" a card to make the storm move during the "storm phase".

I just have to remember to try and keep it as simple as possible. So if anybody's got some ideas, you can either p.m me or just post them here.

Thanks,
-Justin

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Wed, 02/09/2005 - 12:36
#15
boardgamegeezer
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wind?

Hello
Wind affects the direction of a storm does it?

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Wed, 02/09/2005 - 16:18
#16
DSfan
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Some Different "Effects"

boardgamegeezer wrote:
Wind affects the direction of a storm does it?

Wind was going to affect the direction of the storm, but it is now more "player" controlled (check out a few post before this)

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