Victory Condition and Movement

Do the heros have ranged attack working through the whole dungeon? Otherwise the slimes could hide somewhere and fuse and fuse. Maybe you could use some difficult to pass terrain, so the heroes would have hard time to get to the slimes?

I'm sure you have a good reason for not allowing 2 fields per turn, but what about this:
- The Oozelord may move every slime up to 1 field
- Additionally, he has 5 movement to be distributed under his slimes
- There may be some one-time use cards allowing more

Some trivial ideas:
- Upgrade of the killing slime by one level.
- Spawning a level 2 slime where the hero has died.
- Giving some bonus to the Oozelord, e.g., a (one-time use) card allowing additional movement.

Cards offering some bonuses like additional movement, temporary invulnerability, moving the summoning fields, extra slimes, extra armor...? Cards for destroying a part of the dungeon?

I'm glad to see that that I'm not the only one hating randomness.

I've never said, the cards need to be random. Each player (or each party) can be given a fixed set of cards.

In a game of mine, there are a lot of cards obtained via auction. The available cards are selected randomly, so there's some randomness, but (because of the auction) hardly any luck. I could allow the players see the whole deck, so only the setup would be random. I could also sort the deck, so all the randomness would be gone.

Sounds good. Some more ideas: There could be an additional penalty of one lost turn for the respawned hero. The lost items could be placed by the Oozelord instead of returned to where they started.

I missed the bringing to the entrance in your first post. This make a big difference.

No idea how such a victory condition could go, but what about this: A slime at level 2 could petrify itself, thus changing into a hardly destroyable rock. The Oozelord could use such petrified slimes to block the entrance to a room for a long time and breed and fuse his slimes there. He would finally create an unstoppable slime (level 6 or whatever), destroy the rock, and kill everything it meets. I see, it doesn't work yet, since creating such a slime would take ages, but the idea is that the Oozelord gets stronger over the time while the heroes don't. So they must actively go after all his attempts to do his evil enhancements.

Something simple instead: Each level 4 slime summons one level 1 slime each turn (in phase 1). So letting such a slime alive makes the heroes each turn face 3 new slimes instead of 2. IMHO this should work after some tuning.

Maybe some weapon of mass destruction could also motivate them to split? :D

• A slime could attack all surrounding heroes at once.
• A slime could explode and deal damage to all heroes in the same room (or in some neighborhood) according to its level.

Something else: Maybe you could introduce a sort of day/night cycle with the day being better for the heroes. During the day they'd try to get the artifacts while during the night they'd sit scared at the entrance.

This redesign removes the need for health altogether.

All slimes that can move do, under this scheme.

Level 1 - 4 Fields
Level 2 - 2 Fields
Level 3 - 1 Field
Level 4 - No Fields

Also heroes simply move through the ooze, depending on level, hacking away the whole time.

Level 1 - No Penalty
Level 2 - Slow Down
Level 3 - Stop
Level 4 - Dead if end turns next to it.

IMHO using multiple artifacts should help. The Oozelord could concentrate all his slimes around one of them while the heroes need all of them in order to win, so it doesn't work without an additional rule. Fortunately, the additional rule is simple: let the heroes gain a substantial advantage when they get any artifact (+N armor or whatever could do, but using specialized artifacts sounds much better).

Additionally, you need to force the artifacts to be spread somehow, e.g., by allowing only one of them per room, or by forcing a minimum distance for the placement of them, or whatever.

Using multiple artifacts must help here. If the Oozelord concentrates on one of them, he'll lose facing substantially improved heroes soon.

When guarding a single artifact is a losing strategy, he'll be forced to move his slimes.

I'd hope, it should work without the cards, while using them could make it more interesting.

What about some daytime cards? The daytime has 8 possible values using steps of 3 hours in a 24-hour day. The heroes are the strongest at noon and the weakest at midnight (this could be implemented using a -2 to +2 armor bonus for them, or whatever; I've got other ideas in case such a bonus is too strong). Both parties have cards allowing them to change the daytime to whatever they want. After one party used such a card, the other can't use the corresponding card for 12 hours. I don't think such cards would be enough, but it could be a start.

The cards could have two sides where you'd have to decide which side you want to use (so there are two effects to choose from).

Maybe moving any slime out of the dungeon could do? This could force one or more heroes to guard the dungeon entrance.

Aura of weakness - very cool idea (but I'm not the OP).

One more reason for splitting: There could be magic wells (or whatever) distributed over the board. Each well accumulates power over time and the player touching it gets it.

The power is needed for spells. Each party has some cards (they may be fixed in case you don't want any luck). Each card is a magic scroll allowing you to use a spell assuming you have enough power for it.

Spells for the heroes: healing, teleport, ...

Spells for the Oozelord: upgrade a single slime, unsplit (a slime being hit don't get split this turn), move an artifact (this may be a nasty surprise for the heroes finally fought their way to it)

With the demand of the original poster, here are my comments. I have taken some notes while reading and I tried to group them by subjects. But the ideas could seems a bit randomly distributed.

--- Slime ---

I fear that there could be an infinite loop between a character and a slime ( split-fusion-split-fusion... etc.) Either you need multiple heroes working in a group or either you need character with multiple attack to prevent this. Or You could add a rule that slime cannot fusion in a room where there is a hero or if there is a hero adjacent to a slime.

There seems to be a lot of management to do in he process of fusionning and splitting the slimes, I am not sure if it consume a lot of time. One idea is for the ooze lord to be able to fusion any level together in one turn. For example, if you have 4 slimes in a room, you can make a level 3 slime in one turn.

Level 3 and 4 slime could be bigger. They could take 2x2 squares on a square map, or a 3 hex triangle on a hex map.

When moving all the slimes on the board it can be hard to remember which slime has moved. It might be easier to move them in level order. Either from level 1 to 4 or from level 4 to 1. If you use bigger slime, level 1 to 4 could be better to avoid large slime getting blocked by smaller slime.

You could have slime of various colors which each has special powers to increase the strategy level of the ooze lord. When fusioning, you keep one of both colors, or you could create new colors. Creating new colors could force the ooze master to find a way to bring 2 slimes of a certain color in the same room to fusion them. Here is a few idea of slime special power including those posted in this thread.

- Move faster
- Jump above other slimes
- Stronger to destroy
- Has range attack
- Armor Piercing
- Can petrify itself to block the terrain.
- Entangle/paralyze a character
- Explode (sacrifice for damage)

All slimes could be placed in a bag, and when the ooze lord place his new slimes on the board, he draw them from a bag. Level 2+ slimes are not in the bag.

here are some example of color fusion

Level 1: Red, Yellow, Blue, White
Level 2: Orange, Green, Purple
Level 3: Brown , Gray
Level 4: Black

The "white" slime is a wild color that can be either "red, yellow or blue".
level 3 slimes color are chosen by the player, else orange purple gives brown (more valuable slime), other combinations gives gray.

--- Map ---

I did not know how your map first looks like, I'll still give all the ideas I had. I like modular board, so if you are making a 7 hex tile map only, make sure each hex have a unique combination of feature like trap, pits, thin walls, etc. to make each game unique. I would also add small overlay tiles to add stuff to the map during setup.

A square map is also an alternative, you could have a room like a chess board.

If you don't mind having a less tactical game, I like the idea of using dungeon map made of rooms and corridors. Players does not move on square or hex, they move from corridor parts and rooms to other corridors and rooms. Heroes can attack slimes in the same area, and slime can fusion themselves with other slime in the same area. If should also make the map look a bit more like a labyrinth dungeon which would look more unique in every game if you use a modular map. I really prefer this idea unless you want a very tactical game.

--- Victory Conditions ---

Victory conditions ideas: take a look at unreal tournament: capture the flag, domination, etc.

You should have a way to provoke the end of the game to make sure the game does not eternally continue. Either you have limited heroes or limited slime. I do not like limited slime because you could get in a situation where there is not enough slime on the board to create a level 4 slime, so the ooze lord simply lose. I prefer having a limited set of heroes. Maybe only X heroes can be in the dungeon at the same time, and the total number of heroes is always the same what ever the number of players to make sure you do not have to balance the game with various amount of players. For example:

Let say the limit is 8 heroes total with max of 4 on the field. If you play with 3 players, one player will have to play 2 heroes while other players play 1 character. When a hero die, it gets replaced with one of the 4 left over heroes at the entrance. With a system like that, the number of players does not influence the game. It prevent you from adjusting the game according to the players.

I think you said that the ooze lord should bring out a level 4 slime. That seems to me like a great objective. To make sure players does not camp the entrance, you need to have multiple entrances to the dungeon. I suggest 3 entrance. Else you need a very large entrance but it should still be campable. Multi entrance is better.

Team work is essential in your game if heroes only have one attack because they will not be able to kill a slime by themselves. They need to split it first and then kill it (ex: lvl 2 slime). But to prevent all characters from tanking together, you need a way to force the players to cover more ground. I strongly suggest that there should be 3 artifact and 3 entrance to create this dynamic.

There should be 2 slime spawning points which should be at different location than the artifact locations to prevent the spawn and camp effect. Slimes should not be able to move artifacts, unless a special color of slime is required to do the job.

--- Characters ---

Like explained above, heroes should be limited. That should be the penalty for losing a hero. It will makes the player more attached to their character and will increase the level of drama when they die.

I like the idea of health, forcing the player to manage their character's survival increase attachment to it. Players will only sacrifice characters when it's really meaningful.

I prefer the idea that an artifact power up a character. Another idea is that the artifact could be cursed and hinder the character.

Make sure it is possible for slimes to exceed the player's armor, else the characters will be invincible. Armor piercing slimes could be a solution.

It is important that a game has a certain element of surprise, this can be achieved with either randomness or hidden information. One idea that might add the special twist you want is to add random cards. But my suggestion does not imply a lot of randomness. I would suggest that when a character enters a dungeon, it draws 3 cards which each contains a special power gained from skills, equipment or spells. These cards are one time use and the player will never draw additional cards.

So having a limited set of cards makes them much more valuable. It also reduce the amount of randomness since each cards must be planned in advanced to be played optimally. These cards should be there to help the players get out of trouble and players will try to play them all before their character dies. You can also give cards to the ooze master, but if the slime has special colors/abilities, I think you should not do this because it would add too much stuff for the ooze master to manage. Having a contrast between completely open information(ooze master) and partially hidden information (character) should create a nice dynamic.

Bad, horrible, auctions are EVIL. How do you explain the auctions, there is a merchant at the entrance of the dungeon that is auctioning stuff? The slimes are holding up an auction for the stuff the dead heroes dropped? I strongly suggest you avoid this idea.

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So these is my comments, I hope it helps. In general, I think the game is a very interesting idea.

Eric P626

For the hero cards, skills, items and spell can do the job. For the oozelord card, you could use the suggestion I did for the colors. So it will be a temporary special ability. You might still need to make them stronger if they are one time use cards in limited quantities.