Kabuki: tile laying game with a japanese theatre theme.

Hey Danny,

I like the theme even though I'm not familiar with Kabuki, and I think there'd be an audience for something like this. Here are some stray thoughts on your concept:

• From what I gather, most of the player interaction comes from the start of each round where one player creates the piles of tiles. I like that idea (reminds me of Season's dice mechanic), but my concern with that is you could be creating a lot of potential options for one player to make that dictates how a round progresses, creating the potential for serious analysis paralysis.

• I like games that build on my previous efforts as well. Maybe each round is an "Act" with 5 in total, like in traditional Kabuki (how thematic!) and players earn Act cards based on how they performed during each act? I'm clearly spit-balling here. Keeping each round's tile board for each player and having each affect the next round could become too much, so maybe condensing each round's efforts would work better. Maybe you're vying for audience members? Critical praise? A certain narrative beat?

• As for the tiles, I'd stray away from players wanting to build strict sets (collect all 5 of the forest themed tiles, as an example) and focus more on interesting synergies and interplays between the tiles. You want players to explore your game, not just "collect all of the red ones!"

I hope my rambling here was helpful? Lolz.

I'm envisioning a round board, or even a round board pinned to a square board so it can be spun. Players are placing their tiles onto their half of the stage before it rotates. Once it has spun maybe they play the new stage a bit like a deck builder in that something from that scene must be left on stage while other items are swapped out.

You might be able to have the circle in quarters. For 2 players it would space out the tiles across 4 stages so timing may become a strategy, 3 players would have that extra stage collecting pieces, 4 players would use all of them.

If the game was a social game perhaps the players need to narrate each scene as they play it out.

Is there some sort of worker placement element using black ninja stage hands?

If it was a co-op.......

Could the players draft the tiles then have to create a story as they play them in the stage area? Or maybe they draft tiles & the first person plays 2 tiles & tells the story so far. The other player plays 2 tiles on their stage & continues the story as if it is the second act. Each player plays like this then rotate the board one space & play a piece onto the stage in front of them & continue e story. The board rotates after each circuit of players. Maybe they play 2 tiles & remove 1 each turn they have.

I think that the theme is interesting, though I don't know much about it. It's exotic and interesting enough that I would probably pick it up to see how one made a game out of such an unusual subject. Also, the artwork could be fabulous.

What about a two-, three-, or four-sided stage made of concentric rings that can rotate independently?

The outer ring defines the players' stages, and doesn't move. However, it only has a few places to put props, actors, and decor. A smaller, middle ring also has several positions, and then an even smaller circle inside that has more.

During my move I can either place an item or rotate either the middle or inner ring by one position. All items on those rings move with them, creating new combos with the non-moved ring and the outer ring. Of course, it will create new combos for the opponent, as well. The strategy would be to try to build up combo starters in your base, the non-moving outer ring, such that you have good point production no matter what inner rings are turned towards you.