I've got the workings of a ship combat game coming together, and I'm pretty happy with the battle mechanics so far.
(Players each control one ship, and it is broken down into individual sections with guns, engines, bridge, etc. And over the course of the battle their crew will take actions to man the guns, put out fires, etc.)
Anyway, while that's all well and good, I feel like something more is needed to give the game a bit more character and uniqueness.
What I'm thinking of at the moment is a trading phase where the players try to get the parts for their ship. Theme-wise, you can think of everything having a custom-built, jerry-rigged, steampunk-y, frontier feel to it. So players must barter and slap parts together to get a working and effective ship before the combat phase of the game begins.
I'm thinking that about 1/3 of the game time is gathering parts, then putting the final touches on until the 1/2 way mark. And the final battle being the other 1/2 of the game time.
It could be interesting if the exact number of trading rounds before battle is unknown, with perhaps even a time limit for putting on the finishing touches - this could give a sense of urgency.
Story-wise, each player represents a faction or guild of some kind, and there exists a tense peace at the moment. When suddenly, something scandalous happens and everyone is swept up into battle.
Further wrinkles to consider:
• The exact tactical scenario is not known ahead of time.
• Teams (if any) are not know ahead of time.
• Perhaps certain actions (insult points?) tend to cause the battle to take place sooner or later.
I don't want a player to ever end up with a completely useless ship, so some basic equipment will likely have to be always available. But getting that perfect min-maxed ship should be pretty difficult. In most cases, you'll have to make due with the crew and parts that are available.
Is money a part of the mechanic? Can some equipment be bought?
Can players steal or sabotage parts?
Maybe multiple decks of cards to represent different types of parts or crew?
Any brainstorm ideas for trading/gathering/building mechanics?
I like the collecting parts idea, especially in conjunction with a deck of items.
As far as breaking parts, this is also interesting, but I'm not sure how to shoehorn it into the combat system. I had considered having special event cards players could collect to be used in battle for boons and such. A player would probably only have 1 or 2 to use in this way. A breakdown could be one of those events.
So here's how I see construction working:
There are essentially 3 decks available during a players turn (crew, items, parts), and they must choose which deck to draw. In addition, they may trade cards with other players - but I'm not sure of the best place to time this - probably during the off-turns. And also build items from collected parts.
Crew - Draw 3 crew from the deck and discard 1, or draw 1 from the discard pile.
- A typical ship will have 3-6 crew. (Pilot, Gunner, Medic, Mechanic. Maybe a 5th type: Soldier/Firefighter combo)
- All crew can do any job, but not as well as one they are skilled at.
Items - Draw 1 from the deck. (possibly use a similar discard mechanic like the crew deck)
- Mainly basic and good items and special ammo.
Parts - Draw 4 from the deck, or 1 from the discard pile.
- Can be used to build any items from a recipe list.
- Includes some rare and high-quality items.
Players have no limit on crew and item cards, but some kind of limit on parts (probably 8). So they will have to convert those parts to items or discard unused parts. Again, not sure of the timing here. If they have to discard during their turn, this might slow they gameplay down as they decide - perhaps they must discard by the time their turn comes around again?
Each ship will need 7 main modules (guns, engines, etc) + 7 aux items (minor items that add an effect to the 7 ship spaces (extra armor, fire dousers, rudders, etc.) Then there are optional mods that some items can accept (special ammo, fancy gun mounts, special fuel, etc.)
Built items might take 3-5 particular parts to make, while aux items and mounts might take 1-2 parts.
So this might mean the game needs 15? turns or so to gain the parts for your ship. This sounds a bit high, but then again, they might go fast.
I don't want the build phase taking more than an hour, so this means 4 min per round. So 1 min per player in a 4 player game. The actual player turns will be quick, but I see negotiation and trading taking up the bulk of the time.
(In my game group, they'll likely negotiate for 10 min every single turn, and then spend another 5 min waiting for someone to come back from a smoke break, during which one person will go to the bathroom, and another will get some food and drinks for another 5 min. And then wonder why it's 3am already. Sorry, I got on a rant there.)
Anyway, there is another potential mechanic related to breaking parts: And that is to include broken items in the parts and/or items deck. When a player wants to trade, they may give them the broken part instead of the requested item. Then either it is revealed immediately and might even advance the plot more towards the war phase, or is not revealed until the end of the build phase and it means something there.
But this would have to be balanced - as gaining a part AND denying a player a part AND advancing the game is a strong combo. Possibly broken parts get turned into event cards for the battle phase - this way they are a penalty at the time, but become a boon later.
Although one does have to be careful how bad they screw over the other players as they might end up teammates in the battle phase.
What do you all think?