I have an idea I've been thinking about for a sports-themed game and just wanted to run by the basic mechanics of the game.
The game is a deck-building game with dice-rolling combat elements and multiple paths to victory. I'll flesh out more below, but I think (hope?) it is more unique than a summary of the mechanics suggests.
The game is for 2-4 players and I would expect it to last about 60 minutes. Each player starts with 5 cards, representing players on a team. Every player card has a number of values written on it:
- Value
- Popularity
- Offense
- Defense
- Bonus
All players start with the same cards, with one card having a different bonus for each player. To start a round, an Event Card is drawn, which applies bonuses to certain players during the ensuing round of battle.
For four rounds, players play cards against each other. One player will play a card for it's offense stat, and the other player counters with their card's defense stat. These stats determine how many dice each player has to roll. Players roll against each other with custom dice, one for offense and one for defense, to see how many successes (or hits) the offense gets. I think the mechanic is similar to Star Wars: X-Wing in this way (or Risk). After 4 rounds (2 offense, 2 defense for each player), the player with the most successes gets a Victory Point, and one Popularity point. The loser would lose one Popularity point.
Dice also have values for Money and Popularity. If players roll either of these, they gain Popularity or Money, which are used for various bonuses in the game.
Obviously the game has more subtleties, but after this point, the gist is something like this: in battles, you earn Victory Points, Money and Popularity. A certain number of Victory Points wins you the game.
Money buys better players (which helps you win), and Victory Points, and is spent and discarded for these purposes.
Popularity gets you better players and cards which give you a bonus. Popularity is not spent: it is a dynamic value that goes up with Victories, rolls and bonuses, and goes down with losses and certain Event Card penalties. If your Popularity is high, you use that number to get certain players, and you get to choose bonus cards (which give added Money, Popularity or Offense/Defense during games). If your Popularity is low, you lose the use of those cards, and it is harder to buy certain players.
So that's essentially the game. It has gone through many iterations, so what is nice about it? What needs some work? What completely stinks about it? Thanks for taking a look at it!
