Hey everyone,
I have been working on this wargame on and off for forever called "Escape From Illeria." Basically, it is a skirmish-sized wargame (like Necromunda, HeroScape, or I think Chainmail), where your party of <10 characters fights another party of <10 characters. It is dark fantasy, and the theme is fighting for survival on an island with limited resources.
My problem is that I don't have a good end condition or victory condition for the game. So far it has mostly been that the the game ends when one party has been wiped out. This tends to make the endgame drag a bit, and isn't very elegant. I have tried a few other ideas (which I could post if you'd like), but nothing has worked yet.
What else could I do? What other ideas are out there? I am looking for something that adds to the strategy of the game, and stops it from dragging, but doesn't feel arbitrary. If anyone can help me brainstorm, it would be much appreciated.
If it helps, here are a few details to put things into context:
-Parties contain one leader, a small number of heros, and several soldiers.
-Each player will have the same number of strong and weak characters (though, one party could be strong and weak wizards and another strong and weak archers or warriors).
-Controlling certain zones makes your party stronger by giving you energy points that you can spend on things.
-Each character is represented by a corporeal character and a spiritual character. They share powers, and hurting one can affect the other.
-If your spirit character dies, it can come back, but if your corporeal character dies, it and its spirit are gone.
Thanks in advance!
Simon
Albin- I skipped this earlier, because I was worried about length. Basically my attempts so far have been:
1) Play until everyone dies, but make killing the leader a big deal. (however, the way I made the leader important was needlessly complicated)
2) Play until everyone dies. (see problems above)
3) Every turn, add up your morale points. If you are loosing, roll 2d4, and if this is less than the difference between you and your opponent, you lose (again, this had the problem of being needlessly complicated, or else I would have a system that didn't really capture what it meant to be winning).
4) (one I am just starting) Each turn, whomever controls the most zones gains 1 VP, and whomever reaches 5 first wins (also, use the leader's health as a tie-breaker).
My original goal for this game was for it to be possible to run multi-game campaigns, and escaping would be based on either surviving a really long time, or gathering enough resources. Good suggestion though, I'll need to think about ways to draw that theme in more...
Pelle- I like your list. I guess I have never been a big fan of time limits, since they seem a little arbitrary. Although, maybe making a sudden death rule with enough victory points might work.