So I've been asking questions around the board for a few weeks now and I think I've got a solid game idea I'd everyone's opinions on. A Mecha-based board game that players work together to fight off an invasion.
Here's a summary of it:
Players each are an anime stereotype (cool guy, hopeless romantic, always screws up, etc) that pilot a mecha.
Players can upgrade their mecha and form relationships with other pilots.
Relationships grant bonuses if morale is high. Poor morale can force a player to discard relationships or leave the game if no relationships are left. Relationships also provide a method to improve morale.
Each turn consists of the players spending actions at their base (Logistics phase), players accomplishing assigned missions (Mission phase), and the Enemy phase.
In the Logistics phase, players can upgrade and/or repair their mecha, form new relationships, draw or use a story card (provide random bonuses), find new gear for the mechas, or build new building that improve the base (either defences or open up new actions). They could also scout enemy plots to see which missions are easier.
During the mission Phase, players choose a location to go to and attempt to thwart the plot at that location. All of the dice each player rolls are added together to determine how successful they are: players together have a higher chance of success, players working apart can complete more plots and more rewards. Players who fail missions lose morale and have to repair their mecha. Some failures may result in a defeated pilot who is then captured and interrogated by the enemy, resulting in a base invasion.
The enemy phase deploys enemies (depending on which invasion boss the player drew, each one has different rules to change how the game plays) and deploys more plot cards. Some plot cards that have been in play long enough become active and hinder the players until thwarted. The number of enemies on a plot card increase the difficulty of that plot card.
Players win when they thwart a certain number of plots or defeat the invasion commander. Players lose when a certain number of plot cards are active, they lose half their team, or whatever condition is set on the invasion boss's card.
My worry is that I have too much happening. Base Management, mission completion, relationships for morale, mecha gear for individual improvement. Relationships seem a bit of a unnecessary add-on, but I wanted to capture that Robotech/Macross feeling where players interacted with one another as much as they fought the enemy.
Good to know it's viable. I'll try making a playtest soon to get a working version of what I'm thinking.
In the meantime, I was originally thinking that mechas would get a generic combat die. I'm now considering breaking it up into ranged and melee dice. Melee dice get criticals more frequently. Ranged get more generic hits more frequently, and maybe a result that reduces damage taken.
I was also thinking of piloting dice (reduces damage taken by avoiding hits, also can be used for speed checks, etc) and covert dice (sneaking and remaining undetected). Missile swarms may be a done with a token that's discarded, an equipped shield can be discarded to ignore damage dealt to the mecha.
Any other mecha skill ideas?I'd like to have it that players could choose from a moderate selection of builds (ranged and combat, piloting and covert, covert and melee, etc) that would give a different playing it.
To note, my idea for the dice it to have most apply to more than one skill. Melee and Ranged dice could also have a pilot hit on a 1, meaning they can be used as pilot dice (although very poor pilot dice). Pilot dice reduce damage and can occasionally hit a wildcard side, meaning the result can be one of anything you want. Covert may have some combat hits on them as well as sneaking hits.