Hi guys, first time poster here. I introduced myself in the Welcome forum and without further ado, dive straight in with an idea that's been on my mind lately. I hope you'll be gentle with my amateur approach, but welcome all criticism!!
So I've had this idea floating around for some time and have come to a point where I'm not sure how to advance. Let me first give you the general gist of the idea.
The game board would be the poor patient that fell into your hands during your night shift. The board would be a body, with different locations available, where you would put down small stacks of cards that represent layers (ex: you have to perform an action to "open up" the skin before you can get to the internal organs -> you have a card which represents the outer skin, you remove it by performing the "cut" action, which allows you to see the next layer, as it were).
The setup would consist of choosing a "mission" or in this case: an operation that you'll be performing. I was thinking of finding a way to randomize these decks of cards, so that each layer requires certain actions to be performed (how? I'm not sure yet), and that there are negative events that you encounter on the way, such as an internal bleeding, which would require someone to clean up or stitch something before you can "dig deeper" and find what you're looking for to complete the operation.
As for operations, I was thinking that perhaps you shuffle cards according to A-B-C backs. A cards are skin, B cards internals, C cards are mission objectives, such as something nasty that needs removing (I want to keep it a bit abstract, perhaps with cartoony art to make it accessible and not cause offense or bad memories for anyone playing). Perhaps you need to find and remove 3 nasties as a mission. You'll have to resolve layer after layer to find the location, or perhaps you spend action points to perform a röntgen on a stack of cards? I'm not sure where this is heading.
The gameplay
I think it lends itself to an action point system, though perhaps I might not call it that. I think pawns on the board could represent the hands of the surgeons, which would represent their "reach" as it where to move around. Perhaps certain restrictions are needed, so that certain players only can perform certain actions (depending if you're equipped for the job or not?), so that everyone doesn't just pick as stack and start resolving. But I need a mechanical restriction that causes players to have to move around, cooperate, help each other.
And that's the story so far. I've got some idea's as to where I'm heading, I'm just not sure how to get there. Here's hoping a bit of insight in how to procede from your part ;)
What needs to be done?
- define the setup: this is crucial and will define other aspects of the process. The setup needs to be random, but you I need certain control so that you won't find mission objectives in the first card you reveal. I also need to think how I'll randomly distribute cards that require actions throughout these decks.
- once setup has been defined, I think this will result in how to define the goals of the game. Do you know where the tumor is, but is other stuff going wrong? Can your incision in the abdomen cause heart failure resulting in having to uncover the chest area to take care of the ol' ticker?
OR
Are you unsure where to find the problem and do you need to search or spend action points to look through a stack first? Are there perhaps several objectives hidden and do you win if you succeed in resolving three of them?
- the actions: HOW do you resolve specific cards? WHAT will they consist of? Does each team member have a role that relates to a certain action? Do you need to equip yourself (pick up and deliver?) to perform tasks from off-body locations? This could consist of drawing random cards or tiles, or specific tiles or cubes? I think that every player should be able to perform different tasks, otherwise the game becomes too similar to be exciting. Players could have a specialization though, which would fit well with the theme. What I considered as well, is that certain actions might require a player to hold something in place, though this would be rotten for game play. But perhaps it could result in a player having only two hands, and whilst he holds open the chest area, he can only perform actions on the chest area or in a radius of x.
- a timer: if players have all the time in the world, then they'll win every time. There needs to be pressure to get things done before y occurs. This could be a timed track (x turns), or a track that advances as players draw certain cards (you can only survive so many heart attacks). Other off-body actions such as a regular jump start (I don't know what it's called, but they zap the patient in the movies) when his heart rate drops, adrenaline injections, sedation,...
A final note on theme:
As stated along the lines above, I want to keep it cartoony. Nobody wants a game board looking like his insides (right?). It'll be gamers or families playing the game, not doctors, so it doesn't need to be 100% accurate. Yes someone can have an embolism and a heart attack and need a kidney transplant all in the same operation! The theme should be wild as to allow as much mechanic freedom as possible, and really put pressure on the players that they have epic things to do, and not enough time.
A little help?
So, as you see, I'm stuck on several "choices" that I'm not sure how to work out. I'm looking for feedback, help, assistance, criticism, some cpr over here! How to continue from here on? Any ideas? Any input? Any ideas I've mentioned that you can say "that won't work I think"? Any recommendations of mechanics in other games that might come to mind?
If you actually made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read all of this! I'm very keen to read what comments you have on this idea!
