Hello everyone, thanks for adding me to the forum!
I have an idea for a new workerplacement-game, and I would like to check, if there is (I hope not...) a game already existing. It would be quite hard, if I developed this idea further and then all people say "oh man, it`s a copy of game xy". So, with no further ado:
Is there a workerplacement-game, where you "draft" workers in different colors, that fulfill special roles when placed?
Thanks alot!
Could you elaborate a bit more on how the mechanic would work?
Do you mean that different colored workers acompish different things when placed in a similar place?
It doesn't make any difference. Why? Because some games use Meeples and each Meeple can be a different "Worker Class". Usually they are "color-coordinated" so that the Purple Player's Meeples don't clash with the Red Player's Meeples.
So my answer is... A "variant" is having different Meeples PER PLAYER. And those Meeples can all be matching in color PER PLAYER (Green Fighter, Green Wizard, Green Thief, Green Cleric, etc.) And the Meeples are DIFFERENT.
Your "color-matching" idea is that ALL Fighters are Red, ALL Wizards are Green, ALL Thieves are Yellow, ALL Clerics are Blue, etc. Right???
I see nothing wrong with this idea. The only thing is that you could NOT place your workers on a COMMON "Game Board". Because HOW would you recognize YOUR Red Fighters vs. your OPPONENT's Red Fighters?!?! You can't.
However if you are using PLAYER BOARDS (like a worker mat) then each player has his own "Board" and on there you could play your Meeples and there would be no confusion between players since each player has their OWN Player Board.
I can't say IF this idea has been used before. But there are RESTRICTIONS like I have explained with a COMMON "Game Board". I've tried to offer up a solution like the Player Boards to circumvent this problem...
To me it doesn't matter if Game "X" has a similar concept... Design your game and focus on it being unique in your "execution". No doubt something similar may exist... But don't let that stop you from designing your game.
Maybe someone else might have ideas concerning Game "X"...?
The other possibility is this:
At the start of the game, each player "chooses" a "Game Mat". The Game Mat in question represents the SAME "Land" as the other players with DIFFERENT "landmarks". This adds some variability in that the "Land" is unique for each player even though the known world is identical.
It's like each player has his own "Land" and the areas are the same. When two (2) or more Red Fighters are placed on the SAME position in their respective "Game Mat" maybe some kind of CONFLICT occurs (like a 2 or more person battle) at the end of the round...
So it's like move your Meeples and then at the end of the round "resolve" Meeples and their actions.
Again I'm not assuming that your Meeples are Fighters, Wizards, Thieves and Clerics, etc. I'm just using this as an example.
You might have a Farmer, a Miner, a Soldier, etc. And if TWO (2) Farmers are on the same square, each player earns 50% of the wheat this round, etc. Things like that...
Again I have no idea how your game is played and what your Meeples (or workers) are all about. Just suggesting some ideas based on the OP.
Cheers!
I just read a BGG thread where a "new mechanic idea" was put out only to have 5 posts with some variation of the phrase "Oh you mean like Game [x]?" in response. Go with ya got. Mechanics are tools and can be used to build a unique game.
People like quality pieces and aesthetics. I notice the Game Grafter has custom full color printed overlays for meeples.
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/publish/product/CustomPrintedMeeple so they are distinguishable to the players...? Maybe you can dress them in color coded outfits. Or use some other visual distinction for each player.
Now, the recruiting mechanism may or may not be a "draft"...
Is that to say it's a bit like San Juan with the ROLES??? Like there are four (4) players and maybe there are ONLY five (5) Meeples?!
Or is it more like there are 10 Meeples: 4 Farmers, 3 Miners, 2 Soldiers and 1 King. You choose a CATEGORY: like ALL Farmers, ALL Miners, ALL Soldiers or the King...!
As you have suggested ONE Meeple can perform ANY "Action" (The King). He could be WHITE (as an example). The 2 Soldiers (RED) can prevent another Meeple (besides the King) from accomplishing its task (for example if a player plays one of his Soldiers on a space with a Farmer, that Farmer's Food goes to the opponent — An example). The 3 Miners (BLUE) can extract gold from mines. And lastly you would have 4 Farmers (YELLOW) that could gain Food from various locations.
Is this something more inline with your IDEA(!?)
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Thanks for all your comments!
The fun thing about the different colors of workers would be that certain actions can only be performed by a certain color whereas there are other actions that can be performed by all colors. This way you can prevent other players from doing a specific move not only by occupying the spot through placing your own worker but rather by taking the last meeple in that color.
You canˋt intermix the meeple, because the meeple are drafted from a pool of meeple, that is replenished each round.
Again, thanks for your answers!