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Help with mechanics please :)

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Zaralyth
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Joined: 06/17/2014

Hi, i'm new to this forum and to board games but I decided to make my own board game and I need help with something.

My game so far is roll a 6 sided die to move anywhere around the board you want. When you land on a space you have the chance of fighting different types of monsters based on the location. Let's just say you land on a space and end up fighting a golem, let's say you are level 3 and the golem is level 10. You roll a 6 sided die and add your level to try to beat the monsters level. You would only roll a 9 so you wouldn't beat him, but you can get equipment, so lets say you had a sword level 3, so you would then be able to roll a maximum of 12 and kill the monster.

A lot of the details I already have fleshed out and lots of different equipment and effects they have. I want my combat system to be very basic and not have to keep track of anything or at least not have to keep track of much and since combat will happen a lot I don't want the player to have to put much thought into the combat. The fun and variation of the game comes from picking your fights and by pure chance getting very helpful items that can help you fight strong monsters and beat dungeons.

What I need help with is simple, I have a way for the player to kill a monster which I already explained. I would like help with how you could die from a monster and also what would be a very easy way to keep track of experience. Maybe when you don't kill the monster then you die? then you are sent back to the last town you visited and maybe miss a turn or lose an item. I haven't played many board games and I'm very new to it, is this a good system and/or has it already been done? Any help would ultimately be appreciated.

devaloki
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Joined: 01/15/2014
Check out the boardgames

Check out the boardgames Talisman and Relic, I think if you read the rulebooks for those you'll get some food for thought with them.
Talisman handles it so that when you lose a combat you lose a life point and if you ever lost all your life points you die completely.

Zaralyth
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Joined: 06/17/2014
Thanks!

Oh cool thank you I will definitely take your advice! I just don't know if I want the player to have to keep track of too much. I was thinking that if you pick a risky fight you die if you fail to kill the monster you attacked and when you die you just miss a turn so you give the other player/s an advantage to get ahead, and then if you die to a boss maybe you have to wait a turn and on top of that you spawn at the last town you visited. Thank you for your reply though I will check those games out asap!

RyanRay
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Joined: 03/27/2014
Play More Games!

Before you attempt creating any new mechanics, designs, or anything else at all, I'd strongly suggest you play more games of this type. There are LOADS of games that use the rpg-style system for battling and leveling, some better than others of course.

I don't play a ton of concrete rpg's myself, but I don't know of many that fall into the "light" category super well, depending on your definition of light.

Here are some suggestions; not all of them fall into the precise same category that you're designing, but I think they'll all give you good ideas:

-Mice and Mystics
-Super Fantasy
-Descent 2.0
-Thunderstone Advance
-Pathfinder ACG
-Magic: The Gathering

devaloki
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Joined: 01/15/2014
Zaralyth wrote:Oh cool thank

Zaralyth wrote:
Oh cool thank you I will definitely take your advice! I just don't know if I want the player to have to keep track of too much. I was thinking that if you pick a risky fight you die if you fail to kill the monster you attacked and when you die you just miss a turn so you give the other player/s an advantage to get ahead, and then if you die to a boss maybe you have to wait a turn and on top of that you spawn at the last town you visited. Thank you for your reply though I will check those games out asap!

No problem!
I forgot to mention another game too called "Darkest Night."
In that game each player has "Grace Points", usually around 6 for each player. When you take a hit from an enemy that you fail to beat in combat or defend against you die in just one hit! But if you spend a grace point you can survive. So if you are at 0 grace points you're still alive but the next hit will kill you. If you completely die you come back to life but you become weakened by losing your power cards and your max grace points are decreased.

ruy343
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Joined: 07/03/2013
Munchkin

The moment I began reading your post, I thought of Munchkin. There's a version called Munchkin quest too, where there are different rooms, and monsters all move around randomly with a color dice that is rolled and correlated with arrows on the room tiles. I suggest you pick up a copy of Munchkin and see how it works. It definitely has room for improvement.

RyanRay
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Joined: 03/27/2014
^ Munchkin is a great

^ Munchkin is a great recommendation for this style.

Leberus
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Joined: 06/20/2014
you could also add Quantum to

you could also add Quantum to your list. I think they do the d6 combat very elegantly (just that they have lower score wins). Its very similar to what you have, but just have the monster also roll a die and add it to their level, so then its more of a combat, and not a passive monster number.

So your level is 1-6, and then you add your actual items and roll a random d6

Monster then has a level of 1-6 (or more) and then rolls a d6 and adds it to their score. You could then have little tokens that represent the monsters, and you then keep those to show XP.

You could then have debuffs to decrease the monsters level (but it also decreases its XP value), you could have forced rerolls.

You could also have different dice in the game, so that a weapon means instead of getting a bonus of +2 or something, you get to roll the d8 instead of the standard d6. That would probably still make it a bit more fair.

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