Hey guys,
I have run into a design roadblock which I need help from you guys to overcome. Please bare with me as English is not my first language.
I am designing a game where all the players get a color which is hidden from others. This color identifies the player's pawn on the board. Each player also gets a target card which will tell them who from the other players is their target. The objective of the game is to kill your target before you get killed. A player is considered "killed" when he/she gets wounded 3 times. When you and your target are at the same location, you can wound your target. There are about 7 different locations in the game. All the players have same 7 location cards but the border of the card will be of the color of the player.
A sample round:
Let us say there are 6 people playing. Matthew, Josh, Leanna, Chris, Nick and Kelly.
Matthew (secretly) gets BLUE color
Josh gets GREEN
Leanna gets RED
Chris gets BLACK
Nick gets YELLOW and
Kelly gets WHITE
Then all the players get another card which will say who their target is. This information is conveyed through colors as well.
Matthew's target is WHITE
Josh's target is BLACK
Leanna's target is BLUE
Chris's target is RED
Nick's target is GREEN
Kelly's target is YELLOW
Next, players will select a location card (I still haven't figured out why they would like to go to any specific location) that they wish to travel to and place it face down in front of them. Once everybody has selected a location, all the location cards are shuffled and opened 1 by 1 and corresponding colored pawns are moved to the location on the board. Once these location cards are used, they will be discarded and wont get them back.
For example:
Matthew decided to go to the park (I haven't decided on the location names so these locations are just placeholders.)
Josh went to the bank
Leanna went to the bank
Chris also went to bank
Nick went to the mall
Kelly also went to the park
Then players will choose between wounding (if they and their target are in the same location) or not to wound. Not to wound means that their target is not in the same location or they let their target pass to throw them off. This will be done by cards as well. Select wound or no wound card and place it face down. These cards are also color specific. Everybody has wound and no wound cards for all the colors.
Matthew selected WHITE wound card
Josh selected BLACK wound card
Leanna selected (any color) no wound card
Chris selected RED wound card
Nick selected any color no wound card
Kelly selected any color no wound card.
All these wound and no wound cards will be shuffled and opened to see who got wounded. So this means that WHITE, BLACK, and RED got wounded. Wounds will be tracked on a secondary board.
Kelly, Chris, and Leanna got wounded. Kelly (WHITE) was at the same location as BLUE. She takes a mental note of who might be targeting her.
This was the basic gameplay but I still need help/suggestions to figure some things out.
Problems I need help with:
1. How do I avoid a situation where a player gets the target color as their own color and what to do if that happens?
2. What incentive do players have to visit different locations?
3. If you know which color is targeting you then how can you prevent yourself from taking a wound.
4. What mechanics can I put in to help players figure out which color pawn belongs who (player).
Please feel free to suggest or comment on any aspect of the idea. If you see any potential problems (I am sure there are plenty) that I havent mentioned then please do not hesitate to mention them as well. I would also appreciate honest and brutal criticism.
Thank you
Maybe that might give you some ideas... Although I guess I want to point out that your "game idea" is not very novel.
Check that game out - watch a review or read up more about it on BGG.
Best of luck with your game!
Yes I am aware of the idea not being very novel. There is also another game called Assassin Con which uses very similar mechanics. I found out about Assassin Con much later and I just want to finish the idea rather than leaving it half done!