Now that some core ideas are out, let's spend some time discussing them and pseudo-brainstorming about them.
It would be great if you'd take a moment to at least:
- Mention something you like about the idea,
- Mention something that you don't care for or are concerned about regarding the idea, and
- Put out anything else about the idea you'd like, including any basic implementation ideas.
Here's jwarrend's thought:
The idea is that players are heads of charitable organizations, charged with distributing huminitarian aid to various disaster locations. I envision each player having a pool of "volunteers" (like in Carcassonne), and each turn, some "disasters" are revealed, and you send your volunteers out to the various disasters. Then, you use them as a "conduit" for relief supplies, which you acquire through various means. The catch is, well, there are two catches. One is that all the volunteers are frozen at the disaster until the situation has fully been resolved. (So, for example, let's say the situation requires 2 points of Food and 1 point of Medicine -- if you have one Volunteer, and he distributes 1 point of Food, you need to wait until he, or someone else, has distributed an additional point of Food and one of Medicine until you get him pack into your pool). The other catch is that when the needs of the situation have been met, EVERYONE who participated in the relief effort scores equal points for it, regardless of how much or how little they helped. But, there are enough disasters that you can't send your people everywhere all at once, so you have to pick and choose which ones to participate in.
I have some other ideas in mind; maybe there's some way in which certain actions/conditions net you more volunteers, and others net you more donations, etc. I also envision a mechanic where you bid for donations from the big aid agencies (perhaps using your volunteers as lobbyists), or perhaps one person is appointed the "director" for each continent and chooses how its aid is allocated, or something...
Anyway, you can see that the idea has some focus to it already, but it's far from fleshed out, and there's plenty of room for modification/alteration. I think the core concepts that should remain (if I had my way) are "everyone who helps at a location scores the same", and "you must balance having enough volunteers and having supplies to give them to distribute". I think you could build a simple, tight, and well-themed game out of this system.
I suggest it for this project because humanitarian aid is a theme that has never, to my knowledge, been explored in game design, thus, it's original. It also has a collaborative feel, which fits well with what we're trying to do. It would be a card game, which would be simple to make (you'd probably need a set of Carcassonne pieces to symbolize your volunteers).
I do, unfortunately, have one proviso, and that is that if the game ever makes any money, all of it will be given to humanitarian aid organizations (but that also is in the spirit of this project).
(Note that there is existing discussion of it in the CGD1: Core Game Ideas thread.)
I like the idea of this game -- I especially like it when one of my passions (game design) can overlap with another (making the world a better place). The semi-resource management idea sounds good, too, because it would emulate some of the difficulties of providing relief in the real world.
In the other thread a concern about the tastefulness of this idea came up. I'm sure we can handle it well so that it's tasteful. I do have a slight concern about how "depressing" the game might be, though -- if at end game it's clear that there's just no way all of the need can be met the it could be a real downer. If that's not a problem then the other side could be an issue: it may seem like it's too easy to solve this major world problem.
I think the basic mechanics you've layed out, Jeff, make good sense and fit the theme well. Overall I'm pretty excited about this possibility and I really dig the idea of creating a game that, if published somehow, would also directly help the world.