Need a good hook to this resource management/area control game

Here's some detail about the different structures that can be built.

SHIP
2 Resource cards
Benefit – Able to go from where ship is located to any other location. (Since all the locations touch the water). Normally you would have to move to a location adjacent to where your character is currently positioned on the board.

WELL
2 Resource cards
Benefit – Increase Strength +1 whenever playing a healing card

MINE
3 Resource cards
When drawing a card that costs gold, Pay 1 less gold for each mine you have. (Must build in cave or mountain)

TOWER
3 Resource cards
Opponents must pay you 1 sword card when traveling through a region you have a tower in. If you have a tower in a region you never have to pay anyone a sword card while in that region. There can be up to 2 towers in a region. If you are in a location that another player is in and they do not have a tower in that location or an adjacent location, but you do, you may randomly draw one card from their hand that is from the location you both are presently at.

SETTLEMENT cards
3 Resources
Draw 2 cards instead of 1 when at the location of the settlement. Still only pay the cost once.

I should mention that on your turn rather than moving to draw a card, there is also a pile of gold cards (they all only have a value of 1) and you can draw 1 of those, increase your strength by 1, or draw a sword card.

I've never played that game so I looked it up. It seems the main similarity is that there are locations that each have their own deck. Is that a fair assessment?

I feel the choices you'd have to make in the game I'm making up might be significantly different enough to not be considered a copy.

Things you might have to decide are, "Should I build a tower now to stake out an area of the board as mine? Should I collect as much gold as possible before it is all gone? Should I build a settlement or should I move and attack another player and steal one of their cards? Should I focus on getting resources first or go straight for the Hidden Treasures and rack up victory points right away? How much priority should I put on building a ship so that I can move around the island more quickly and not have to deal with interacting with areas other players control?

Of course if you think the two games are too similar, got any ideas on how I could distinguish mine enough?

Thanks for taking the time to try to understand the game. Really appreciate it!

Yes, at the moment there are only 28 points, though one way more could be added is if some of the Wild Beast cards offered victory points.

Yes, you can only get one card on a turn.

Sorry, yes There would also be sword cards (or I might just use chits instead of cards for swords). Everyone would start with 3 swords and then could gain more through taking them from other players or for an action that could draw one sword.

My current thought is yes, you can save healing cards. The max strength you can have is 10, so you could save the healing cards for when you go to places where your strength is drained quickly. The danger of having low strength is if you are in the same location as another player and they have 4 or more strength than you they can take one of your cards that is from the location that you two are presently at.

Yes, you could increase your resource by 1 for an action, but the resource cards from the locations would have a resource value of 2 or 3 on them. The idea is that in general you should use an action to just gain an extra resource or extra gold. You should only do that on occasion if you really want to build something before someone else for example and you need that extra resource.

I'm thinking that every player will have a player mat where they will track their health, gold, swords, resources.

There's a possibility that you will draw a character card that will give everyone slightly different advantages and different things they will start the game with. But on average I'd say everyone starts with at least 3 gold, 3 swords, and 5 health, and maybe 2 resources.

All good questions! It will take some playtesting to get everything right. I would like a visit to Goldfire mountain to be good for a couple turns at least so that you don't have to go back to the mountain every other turn. I'd say the Gold cards from the mountain would give you a value of 3 and occasionally a value of 4, (and maybe one 5). Of course as you pointed out if you just hang out at the mountain you will lose at least 2 strength each turn you are there, plus any would you get from fighting beasts. Also each turn you have to fight a beast so as your strength diminishes, the less likely you will win a confrontation with a beast.

You are right to assume that you can't build a mine on the field. I think you should only be able to build a mine at the Mountain or the Cavern. It will take some adjustments I'm sure to make sure that isn't one clear strategy, but many ways to obtain victory, and where you have to use the strengths of your character, and the situation of your opponents to win.

I'd have to play it a couple times to see if it feels like there are too many turns. Currently there would be a little over 50 cards total, so if there were 5 players and everyone took a card each turn. (I'm thinking it doesn't cost a turn to build, but I might change that). Of course with fewer players there would be more actions for everyone. Also, moving isn't a big deal because you could get across the entire island in about 3 moves (1 if you have a ship).

Thanks for giving me some things to think about.

Thanks. :)

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to take that. It is good to know which games are most similar to the one I'm working on. It's inevitable that it will be similar to some game out there, so it is good to know what those games are so that you can differentiate yourself from them.

My original thought is that on your turn you could draw from the location you are at or from an adjacent location. Now movement would cost you if you wanted to move to a location that wasn't adjacent. The reason that I said it would take 3 moves max to move across the island is because there are only 8 locations, with most locations touching 2-3 other landmarks, so getting from one end of the board wouldn't be too hard. So perhaps you could take a "charity" if you didn't draw a card from any locations.

Yes, in the field of dreams you could draw a card and next turn collect a coin and then the next turn draw a card again and keep doing that, but something tells me that wouldn't be a very efficient way to play since charity doesn't really give you all that much. If in playtesting one location is too much better than the others they could always be adjusted.

Thanks for your encouragement!

Zag24, I think you are right. I think having 2 actions, but they both can't be to draw a card would work well. I was thinking maybe that would make a ship useless, but since with it you could get anywhere on the island for 1 action, still giving you an additional turn, maybe it would still be quite valuable.

Yeah, the settlement could potentially be quite helpful, though if you build it when the location is almost already drained, maybe not so much. I was thinking maybe it could be worth the equivalent of 2 cards when counting at the end to determine who wins a region, while the towers are the equivalent of 1 card. So these two buildings would play a part in determining who controls a region.

I've been thinking a little bit how conflict should work. What if whenever more than one player is at a location everyone at that location has to pay 1 sword. If a player has no swords and you are at that location you can draw a card from their hand. If a player is more than 1 location away from one of their towers, and you have 3 or more strength than that player you can draw a card from their hand. Of course I'd have to come up with a good way for players to get swords. I'm thinking one of your 2 actions can be getting 2 more swords. Also, whenever someone passes through a location where you have a tower, they have to pay you 1 sword so you could get some that way, especially if you strategically place your towers.

I really like your little analysis you've done. Feel free to do some more of it if you'd like.