Just started on a haunted treasure/mystery board game

I really like the sound of your game outline. It reminds me of ‘Tales of the Arabian Knights’ or ‘Agents of SMERSH’, but instead of situations leading to entries in a book they lead to the playing of sounds.

That would require organizing the sound files and providing the players with a way to play the right files at the right time. A disc containing the soundfile and a front end menu autorun program could handle that fine. It would be just like making a dvd playlist, but with stacks of entries and a nice looking options screen.

You will probably start to run into problems when you need to play a sound to more than one player but not everyone – unless you earplug the players as well as blindfold them. Players working on a task together would need to do this.

You could split the sound output. If one player is on a task, headphones 1, if two players are working together on a task the second headphones are also used.You can get double headphones connectors quite easily, but more than 2 I dont know. Limiting the shared output to two players might be something to think about.

Another problem might be the expanding sound file library. If you have different sounds to be played in different situations and locations the audio requirements can mount up.

Could card plays replace the need for some of the sound plays?

I remember those guess the object card pictures, with objects that where either magnified hugely or distorted in some way. Usually, when you guessed wrongly, the answer was given and you could see it immediately.

Could something similar be used to represent the players’ inability to see clearly?

You could obscure card information or picture clues with some image editing software. Which might even allow the game to double down on its artwork requirements, clear picture, fuzzy picture, very fuzzy picture = same artwork. The obscuring layer could be some form of creepy mould, spreading fear, spilling blood, oozing puss, or any other form of gruesome horror styling.

You could even split other artwork into parts and distribute them as major clues - to guide the game play through plot links. An image split over 4 cards would need more thinking to solve it. The split could also encourage player co-operation as the players work together, sharing the clues with each other (and maybe even hiding a couple that are central to their character storylines) in order to move the group forward to the next encounter area.

You could have all the cards for each area in a deck the players draw from. These could contain the clue cards and a number of red herrings to spice things up a bit. A third grouping (one that simply illustrated changes to the direction of the game play or action events) could complete each sub deck.

Actionable events would be the swap change, collect, look at, remember, pass on, oh you nasty player, go me, events of a card play mechanic. Or they could introduce thematic events (to boost or move on the plot) or other game play revelations – access to clear clue cards. Clear clue cards could be explained as prior research findings or something (instant rewards).

I hope some part of this ramble is of use and it will be interesting to see the game develop, it’s a very interesting idea. Everybody loves a creepy theme and its different from Zombies – Happy Halloween :)

For the software these might work, or at least allow you to protype some scary test sessions.

http://download.cnet.com/DVDStyler/3000-7970_4-10836967.html

although looking through the reviews it installs some gunky adware (an older version or a portable version may not). It also taxes the system heavily and continues to tax it until its all finished and completely closed down.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Authoring-tools/Authoring-Related/DeVeDe.shtml

Doesnt have the menu range of the other, but neither does it have the go slow and adware.

If you're still looking for some top down game boards you could look through the ones available at rpg map share - some can be used for commercial usage and others are for personal only usage (all of them are identified)

http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=40

The plug-in game board, cd, headphones, etc... all sound quite expensive to produce, unless you got some big-time backers or a nice size wallet.
I like BubbleChucks idea of incorporating the sounds onto cards, and maybe reconsider the whole electronic aspect. I would not scrap the idea, as it certainly has merit and potential, but perhaps down the road once you get the basic structure and mechanics in place simply using cards, tokens and a board, ala Clue. Then prototype the electronic version just to see everything that it would entail to manufacture.
It does sound different from any other idea I have seen, so consider all constructive input available here. These folks are the experts when it comes to game design and I gained a lot of good advice here.
Cheers!

What an adorable and fitting analogy. I’m def no expert, but I like the idea of being an elf in Santas game design workshop.

Thinking back to the example I gave, with the fireplace/candlestick passage, you could use something similar to define a simple card mechanic.

This is a very simple outline

In each area the players hear a sound – which is drawn from a pool of sounds (to support multiple scenarios that can arise with different instances of playing the game).

Considering the example, the playback output would be sound-bite FCP1 (fireplace/candlestick/passage). There could also be FCP2, which resulted in the sound of someone pulling a candlestick repeatedly and nothing happening.

Each area would have a number of sounds, for the sole purpose of this outline, I'm using 6. Each sound would have a positive affect (meaning it does something) and a nominal effect (meaning it doesn’t do anything).

Each game scenario/plot line would have a selection of positive sounds drawn from the audio pool and the remaining 5 placements would be drawn from the nominal (no real affect) audio pool.

As detailed previously, each sound could have a positive and nominal version. So if the game has 3 areas/locations you would need 18 sounds with 2 variations – giving 36 sounds in total. The inclusion of two state variances would allow for a large number of different permutations to be constructed from the resulting audio files.

Example sounds for 1 room/location/area

Pull the candlestick and access the passage FCP1 and FCPX, pull the candlestick and nothing happens (positive and nominal)

The dumb waiter rises of its own accord DW1 and DWX
Wind (draught) sounds and fabric rustles WF1 and WFX
A click sounds and a box lid flips open CL1 and CLX
A chandelier tinkles and light illuminates an area TL1 and TLX
The air goes cold beneath a picture and heckles rise AH1 and AH2

So the different scenarios this room could encompass would be

FCP1 – DWX, WFX, CLX, TLX, AHX
DW1 – WFX, CLX, TLX, AHX, FCPX
WF1 – CLX, TLX, AHX, FCPX, DWX
CL1 – TLX, AHX, FCPX, DWX, WFX
TL1 – AHX, FCPX, DWX, WFX, CLX
AH1 – FCPX, DWX, WFX, CLX, AHX

And these (in the room) variances would then be multiplied by the 3 location combination variants in this example, because each scenario could have different gatherings of positive/nominal room outputs.

Scenario 1 could have room A with the positive and rooms B and C with the nominals. Scenario 2 could have rooms A and B with positives and C as a nominal. Scenario 3 could have A as the nominal with B and C as the positives and so on.

The players would have to determine which sounds are TRUE indications of spooky activity and which sounds are just nominal noise FALSE.

This would be represented by a card play mechanic where the players had to collect the right cards from a defined scenario pool by exchanging them amongst each other, walking around the areas to gain access to other decks, exchanging information from successful matches, and so on.

Each sound would have an accompanying card. If the player has the correct card they can play it against the sound for a score making, reward earning or plot furthering outcome. They could simply give victory points, win the players a helpful object or information, or grant access to new areas.

Playing an incorrect card would gain the player false information, a useless object (in respect to the current scenario), provide no information to move the plot along, or provide clues to the right card to employ – or they simply do nothing.

So the game play would entail the players listening to sounds, associating these sounds with cards and trying to find a match. And, as detailed previously, the sound cards would be disguised to make the pair matching more difficult.

So the fireplace candle card could simply show a highly magnified view of a candlestick section – further obscured by a growing mold graphic on the card. Nominal outcomes could give clues to the right answer as well as providing red herrings or misleading information.

The pattern of TRUE events – the overall story told by the positive sounds – would provide the scenario the players have to solve. And they would also outline the thematic storyline for each scenario.

In respect to the overall theme the players could be paranormal investigators attempting to determine whether a haunting is real or a hoax.

To support this theme the investigators could have access to another area of game play that is centered upon background research. This aspect of the game play could allow them to explore the background information to each scenario, which would increase the detective element (and provide the game with cross referencing check points).

By employing background research the players could gain clues that could help them filter out the nominal sounds from the positive sounds or allow them to make the correct deductions from the positive sound relating information they hear and confirm.

Incorporating this element would also provide a means to really boost the theme of the game. You could add journal entries, newspaper clippings, prior visit accounts, backgrounds for characters in the buildings past and so on.

So the overall objective of the game is to spend the night in a creepy house in order to determine if the house is really haunted or subject to a carefully planned hoax. Think Scooby Doo :)

The players would have to match cards to sounds, in order to acquire information or helpful objects which are then used (in combination with background scenario information, which has to be collected via a separate game mechanic) to solve a given scenario and reveal the truth.

Each location would have its own soundtrack, featuring the positive sound (masked by other immaterial sounds). Somewhat like a piece of information hidden in a paragraph. The players would have to isolate the positive sound-bite and then match it to the correct card in order to progress. A successful match could lead to a different sound clue being played to other players entering the room after the match, or not.

The location soundtracks could also be linked to a time variable or an object variable. If the player enters the room at X time then play soundtrack 1, if the player enters at not X time then play soundtrack 2. If the player has object A and enters the room play soundtrack 3, if the player enters the room without object A then play soundtrack 4.

This would allow different outcomes to be associated with objects and prior research. However, it would increase the number of sound bites required by the game.

Even in this small outline of 3 rooms, with 6 variant sound bites, the number of required sounds is rapidly increasing. It could be that only a simplified soundtrack and options can be supported without a huge amount of recording work. Alternatively, some elements could be detailed in an accompanying book (which could be used to give visual clues and thematic embelishments). Or their could be card links that result in graphic displays from the output source.

If the output source was a mobile phone then this could easily display little pictures. Having the information relayed through a phone app could also boost the theme a bit more. It could be made to feel like the players are phoning their base of investigations to talk to their researcher or contacting another information source like a newspaper, library or witness.

The players ability to phone out could also be limited to infer tactical decision options. No signal rooms could prevent phoning out. The players could only phone certain locations/people at certain times. These restrictions could be known by the players or only revealed after an attempt - and each attempt, regardless of outcome would have an action cost.

Displaying information via a phone app would also remove the printing costs for a booklet or additional cards - it would simply be a case of including a single disc, usb stick or download link. A further benefit to this would be future content provision. New cases could be sold as direct downloads instead of printed products. However, some form of printed game addition would be required to act as a barrier to non purchase copying.

An example scenario could be

Uncle Tom has recently passed away without leaving a will. According to relatives a Will was made, but it was hidden or lost. The old manor house of Uncle Tom has recently showed signs of being haunted. Those responsible for maintaining the manors upkeep believe the spirit of Uncle Tom is trying to communicate the whereabouts of the Will and he can’t rest until it’s done.

Does a Will really exist, is the manor house really haunted, is the explanation for the missing Will really an oversight or is its absence more to do with some person centered skullduggery, did Uncle Tom really die of natural causes, and so on.