Hey all, Im new here, but I love me some board games and have been designing rpgs for years. Ive grown a bit tired of complete openness and complexity in game design and so Ive decided to again start playing with some board game ideas I have had over the past months.
Here it is up to this point...
The game board consists of seven large hexes, one in the center surrounded by six on the outside. Each hex has different kinds of terrain as well as roads which are basically the spaces a player's marker can move about on. The hexes connect allowing the players to situate and arrange the board in multiple ways.
The goal of the game is for players to raise in ranks of nobility, going about the board, killing monsters, collecting gold and gaining fame. Later they can buy land and homes and eventually a castle. Players can also buy land that produces resources which they can harvest and sell or use to build things such as walls, weapons, etc.
The goal of the game is to become a king by gaining wealth and fame. Once a player becomes a king, they can raise an army and begin to wage war on other players. So, essentially, the first part of the game to gain power and prestige in order to build your kingdom. This is done on the small scale as the single player unit moves about the board. The second half of the game is to build an army and destroy your opponents so that you occupy all of the lands.
Another idea is to make tiered levels of victory so players can decide on just how long they wish to play. Perhaps they decide they will only play up to the level of Duke, so the first to become a Duke wins. Perhaps they wish to play a longer game so they play Conquer in which only one King is left standing.
Of course, within all of this are elements of fantasy and role playing such as gaining weapons and items and slaying monsters and hiring mercenaries and thieves and purchasing property and adventuring and dying and getting resurrected and coming back as a ghost and alignment and making allies and breaking pacts and etc....
I guess the overall idea is to create an immersive game world that doesn't require a huge book of rules and hours to learn. I guess one of my design goals is to create a game that the players learn as they play, so that the rules as they are needed unfold fluidly in the game world.
I don't have commercial thoughts for this game, it is something I want to create and play with my family for the most part...
Any thoughts on this? Reference ideas? Games that do similar things?
I guess, inadvertently it is a bit like Fable III.
I like your idea of making units available as the player rises in nobility. Maybe they start off with Henchmen, hired hands or something of that nature. At upper levels they have access to knights. Not only does this add some extra dimension to the game but it also pulls it together as you said. Thanks for the suggestion...