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Timer Mechanic

6 replies [Last post]
Thu, 10/27/2005 - 11:18
Gamebot
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Joined: 07/30/2008

Whenever I have an idea for a mechanic I like to look at other games to see how they handled it. Usually, I search the geeklists on BGG or do a search on these forums. They have helped tremendously. Of course, a lot of the lists aren't complete, or I can't find exactly what I'm looking for.

Right now I am looking for games that use a timer mecahnic that involve an autonomous pawn moving around a board. When it reaches the end, the game is over. I found this Timer Geeklist among others, but it doesn't really capture what I'm going for. On the list, I saw Evo that uses a meteor that moves along the board and eventually ends the game. This is similar to what I am going for except I plan on having around 40 spaces for the pawn to move.

Right now I'm just planning on having the pawn move each turn (the number of spaces depending on the players). I haven't decided if players can manipulate the pawn in any way. If they can manipluate it, then they could slow down or speed up the game. If they can do that, then that might defeat the purpose of my timer. I want the game to end not too early and not too late. I want to prevent a stalemate but I also want each player to have enough time to score victory points.

What games do you know of that use a similar mechanic?

Thanks!

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Thu, 10/27/2005 - 11:37
#1
Anonymous
Timer Mechanic

I have a game called maharadja I think its from germany and the system very much like to what you want if I understood you well. It goes like this:

There are 8 cities and all the 8 cieties have a token wich is laid a side the board in any order you want. Every round a new city is visite by the maharadja and the token who belong to the city moves to above. So you have a path nummericed from 1 to 10 under the path are 8 token. The lowest token is the city where you start when the round ends the token moves up to number one on the path and the maharadja visits the city on the lowest token. You can do this until you have 10 tokens on the path then the game end. If you want you can choose to place any token 2 places lower. But in your case you could also think of other ways to influence the following order.

I hope you understand

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Thu, 10/27/2005 - 11:38
#2
mawibse
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Timer Mechanic

Princes of Florence
El Grande

Both games have aditional "functions" for the timer.
Florence shows how much you need to complete a work and Grande has some scoring mechanics.

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Thu, 10/27/2005 - 11:45
#3
mawibse
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Timer Mechanic

Just to add to what Trasa said, in Maharadja you dont alter the game length but you can alter how you score a comming turn.

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Sat, 10/29/2005 - 02:13
#4
Hedge-o-Matic
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Timer Mechanic

Well, Lord of the Rings has the Corruption track that everyone moves down. The players can struggle back toward the light, but all advances by Sauron are permanant, forcing an end.

The Arkham Horror also uses a track, showing how close reality is to unravelling. You can knock it back, but there's a point where you've got monster conga-lines in the streets, and your shotgun barrels hardly have time to cool down between bouts of mayhem. This diversion allows reality to tear apart without hinderance. If you can keep in front of this process, you'll seed toward a victory. If you can't you'll speed toward distruction (or worse). A very well done balancing act.

I like the idea of timer tracks, personally. But I think there has to be a strong element of the inevitable toward their march, else they lose their function.

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Sat, 10/29/2005 - 10:16
#5
jwarrend
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Joined: 08/03/2008
Timer Mechanic

My GDW game, Disciples, has not one, but two timer tracks! Advancement on the tracks is triggered by player actions. One of the tracks is pretty much just a game clock, but the other gives a payout that one player will receive if he chooses to end the game.

FastLearner's game, Everest also had a nice timing track mechanic.

Other games to look at include Traders of Genoa which has a track that gives the game length, but certain events can accelerate advancement on the track, and Clans, in which there's a game clock which also has some additional functionality (it tells which regions can and can't be scored during the current 'era', roughly).

Good luck!

-Jeff

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Sat, 10/29/2005 - 15:53
#6
BagpipeDan
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Joined: 12/31/1969
This may sound silly

But the kid's game "Parolous Parlor: The Series of Unfortunate Events Game" has a wonderful timer mechanism. The kids must survive until Mr Poe (the timer piece) makes it to the bank and back. Every other space triggers the movement of the "guardian" (who Olaf, the evil player, is trying to damage, one of the requirements for which requires him to be in the room as the guardian). However, the players can also play cards which moves Poe an extra space (good guys) or make him move one less space (evil player stops him, unless the kids move him using a card). This can add some nice strategy, like allowing the good players to force Mr Poe to "jump" a "move the guardian" square (if the guardian is far away from the evil player), or to move the guardian very quickly (if the evil player is in the same room as then guardian).

It is the perfect example of a timer which is a victory condition, triggers a very important game function, and can be manipulated by the players in a strategic way!

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