So I've been punting around an idea inspired by Source of the Nile for a while now, and I think it would fit the "sandbox" style game such as Merchants and Marauders did for the pirate theme.
The game would consist of an outer ring of board which was discovered and have the people enter into the centre of africa to explore. Certain actions would get you reknown points and the player to 10 points would be the winner.
The ways I envisage you gaining points are multitudinous (if that is indeed a word) basically you get them for:
Diplomacy with tribes
Trading ivory/gold/diamonds with tribes
Exploring and finding different things (highest mountain, big lakes, impossible creatures)
Completing missions
Hunting game (a subset of trading as you get to sell pelts and ivory back at base).
Where I am having the most difficulty is in two key areas: Firstly setup. I figure an "Expedition" can specialise in an area so you will choose a basic expedition at the start, with a range of men, hongo (trade goods, the currency of the game) and weapons. I want a non clunky way of working this out, so I'm figuring you buy a set expedition, explorer will have few people, lots of weapons and a little trade goods (so maneuverable), hunter, lots of people, lots of weapons (can lose fights and keep going), trader lots of people with lots of trade goods (so they can haul goods back to town)
I would love progression in the game, but am struggling to see a way to upgrade these outfits. I am intending of having specialists you buy as well but these are separate from the main expedition board.
Secondly, and I think this is my biggest problem, is the issue of having little to do on a player turn, especially for the trader.
On a given turn you will move distance, determined by the number of porters (the more in your expedition, the slower you are) and then can perform an action (trade or diplomacy at a tribe, explore a special space, hunt at a watering hole or complete a mission) My fear is you travel deep into darkest africa, find a remote tribe which trades you massive diamonds for hongo (your beads and cloth) now you have to move back to civilisation to sell your diamonds and get loads of profit, but its going to take ages to get there, and you have boring turns where you do very little moving back to base...
Any ideas? One way would be to allow 3 actions or something, which means you'd potentially have 3 moves in a go, and if the others are exploring new tiles or climbing new mountain ranges etc then you can get back to gain your profit quickly, but i'd love other thoughts.
Chris
