Proposal: Darkehorse

Given yesterday's chat I realize some of these things in this proposal have already been outdated. But I wanted to post it anyway.

Features:
Some tiles may contain features (geological formations, cave paintings, underground rivers, lakes, bones, etc). In game terms these are things that either cannot be moved (too large or too heavy) or things that should not be moved b/c doing so would disrupt the scientific significance of the feature. These features have two point values: One for the first person who discovers them and another lesser value for subsequent documenters of the feature. If a tile contains an obstacle, that obstacle must be overcome in order for the feature to be documented and scored. Players place their discovery marker on a tile if they are the first to document the feature there. Everyone else who successfully
documents the feature places his or her documentation marker on the tile.

Obstacles:
Some tiles may contain obstacles that prevent passage and/or documenting of a feature. Most obstacles are permanent (I.E. they must be overcome every time the tile is traversed by each player), but some only need to be overcome once (best example: Cave-In). Obstacles will have a listing of how many Action Points are necessary to spend to overcome them. Equipment can reduce the # of AP’s necessary to spend (A shovel might lessen the # of AP’s required to dig out the previously mentioned Cave-In).

Searching:
A player may search a tile if he/she chooses. On each tile a value is listed for how many Action points must be spent to search a tile. There may be a value for fast, regular, and thorough searches. I player may spend the necessary action points to draw a card from the appropriate stack. If no number is listed for a particular search type, then that search type may not be carried out on the tile.

Starting position:

The initial layout of the cave system is pictured out per below. Each one of the colored squares indicates the starting square for each of the players. The grey squares indicated solid rock. This starting formation is intended to discourage players from immediately entering into the cave system of another player, yet it also allows for a free form cave system (as opposed to the rigidness of a predefined grid).

Movement:
A player may spend one action point to move from one tile orthogonally to an adjacent tile. This movement must be a legal movement (I.E. the exit from the current tile must match up to the entrance of the new tile). Additionally, a player must pay the required APs for any obstacle that may also be in the square. Note: A player need only pay the AP cost for an obstacle one time for every visit to that particular tile. I.E. if the player previously paid the obstacle cost last turn, but did not move off of the tile, he does not have to pay the AP cost again to move off the tile.

Placement:
A player may spend one AP to (legally, to be determined by how tiles are drawn) place a new tile orthoogonally adjacent to a tile his explorer is currenty on.

End Game / Cave Exits:
End game to be determined... Perhaps a certain # of turns. Cave exits also to be determined. Perhaps a player will always find an exit when his explorer places the 11th tile in any direction from any players start tile. I believe this too be too fiddly and difficult to implement though.

Ok that's all I had from last night. Again some of it is moot already but I wanted to post what I had so far before the chat.

-Darke