First off, I'd like to thank The Odd Fox once again for the name suggestion. It is great and I'm running with it.
I've been working through the resource system for Blade & Barrel, an alternate history Old West themed dudes-on-a-map game.
From the beginning, players could always collect a resource from a location they controlled with an action. Resource collection wasn't automatic- there was no "allowance" each turn. You had to fight and earn everything you got. If your dudes control a forest hex, you can spend an action and collect a wood, etc.
But somehow it wasn't meshing with the "feel" of the game.
The game places heavy emphasis on spatial reasoning and area control but resource collection took away from that. If someone needed wood, they could just camp out at a forest and spam collect. Of course someone could to try and stop them if they wanted but there wasn't much incentive to do so. It also doesn't simulate any kind of resource scarcity. Hypothetically, there are an infinite amount of resources if someone can sit there and keep collecting. And if there are infinite resources, there is no scarcity to incentivize fighting over those resources, which makes it more of an engine building/racing game, and less dudes on a map. I don't want that.
Then it dawned on me. Instead of resource hexes giving resources with an action, resource hexes represent a certain level of ACCESS to that resource.
Let me explain.
In the game players are cooperatively building up a small wild west boomtown. Resources are primarily used to construct buildings in this town, which in turn give bonuses to the player who built it. So there's two boards in play- the main map which represents the lands around this town, and then the town itself. Players have to balance building up the town while also controlling key resources outside the town. Kind of like if Caylus and Kemet had a baby. Previously, players collected resources, and when they got the required amount they could use an action to build in the town. So say a blacksmith costs 2 Iron and 2 Wood, they could go to a wood hex, camp there and get 2 wood, then they could move to an iron hex, camp there and get two iron. But Now a player must CONTROL 2 Iron hexes and 2 Wood hexes. If they control, it's assumed they have ACCESS to the resources and they are able to build. This simplifies the game by removing an action type (Collect), which ENCOURAGES movement on the board (vs sitting on a resource and collecting) and creates that scarcity of resource. There are only 3 Iron hex tiles on the map, and if you want to build a building that costs 2 iron, but someone else wants to build a different building that also costs 2 iron (or the same one for that matter), well a fight is inevitable, since both players cannot control 2 Iron at the same time.
Have I explained this well enough? Does anyone know of another game that might do this or have any further thoughts?
