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New Theme for my Card Game.

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Thu, 12/10/2015 - 18:58
Casamyr
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Okay. Having had a few discussions here in my previous thread, I think a new theme might be the best way to go, with the mechanics I've been working on pretty much the same as they currently stand (playtesting still to happen of course).

So I thought I'd give the themes i'm thinking of and seeing what people would be more interested in. I know which ones i'd be more interested in exploring in more detail.

Without further ado:

• Monster Dinner (not the name)
o When running an evil lair, someone needs to keep the monsters fed. It’s up to you to create the monster’s favourite dish before someone else does and feeds you to the monster instead. Would be a very tongue-in-cheek kind of game.
o Suits – represent different things – animal and plant. Perhaps each card isn’t just a value, rather it’s a part of the animal or plant. I would expect that one of the animals will be humans.

• Dungeon looting theme
o cards represent an adventuring party who are attempting to loot the dungeon for treasure.
o Suits represent fighters, thieves, clerics and wizards.
o Each floor of the dungeon requires a unique party mix – by winning tricks players build the correct party to be the first to complete that floor of the dungeon and claim the loot.
o Game ends after x floors. The holder of the most loot wins.

• Mad Scientist
o Trying to complete your evil scheme to take over the world!
o Resources to represent different types of minions – thugs, techie types, smooth talkers, etc.

• Potion Makers
o playing ingredients to create potions
o Ingredients – Anything – Mandrake leaf, Eye of Newt, etc. Maybe each suit is a set. So one is plants, another animals, another liquids and each card is a possible trick winner?

• Steampunk Theme
o Players are using resources to complete contraptions. Maybe 5 parts to build. Each part gives you a card manipulation mechanic that can be used each round.
o Resources – Gears, Dials, leather, Brass
o Contraptions?

Which would you be more interested in playing? See my previous thread for how the game would likely play, http://www.bgdf.com/node/17174, if you haven't already.

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Thu, 12/10/2015 - 19:17
#1
questccg
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My vote

#1 = Potion Makers... Sounds cool... Medieval "Mad Scientist" - I like it!

#2 = Mad Scientist... Also sounds cool. But I prefer potion making...

"Monster Diner" reminds me about "Monster Keep, v1.0"... I decided on not going down that route - I had ideas - but I wasn't crazy about the theme.

"Dungeon Looting" has been done, done some more, pour some blood, and done even more! Boring in my opinion.

"Steampunk" while more original, I've been seeing a bunch of Zeppelin games and they all seem the same (gears, wrenches, zeppelins, etc.) This would be my #3 (but #1 and #2 are way cooler - IMHO)

Keep us updated - would like to know what you choose!

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Thu, 12/10/2015 - 19:35
#2
Casamyr
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Thanks quest. You'll be sure

Thanks quest. You'll be sure to know once I make my choice.

It's good to know what people are finding interesting though.

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Thu, 12/10/2015 - 19:44
#3
questccg
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More on #1: Potion making

The game could be about "Druids" and their secrets rituals they use... Doesn't strictly need to be ONLY about Potion Making. Or maybe something along the "Elvish" persuasion??? Sort of like "Earthly"-Magic...?

This type of "fusion" could be very interesting. Can't say that I know ANY popular "Druid" games. Yeah - BGG has some - but not very good ratings and nothing spectacularly popular either.

Just some ideas - things and thinking that I would encourage!

Sounds interesting - and more unique also!...

Update: I can Picture Celtic (Irish) type of symbols like this:

Just some more ideas! Cheers... :D

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Thu, 12/10/2015 - 21:04
#4
questccg
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REAL Magic making (like #1 but BETTER)

How about REAL SPELLCASTING!

You know go to your local library and read through the books about "Magic". Not FANTASY-type magic - ACTUAL RITUALS for different things...

See if you can INCORPORATE that into a REAL GAME!!!

Kinda like Spell-casting 101 - rituals and rites...

That could ALSO BE VERY COOL! Plus it can be freaky if some sh!t actually goes down! Hehehe... ;)

Update: Why I suggest the "local" library is because PUBLISHED works are much better than the cr@p spells you find on-line. IDK why, but at some point I wanted to look into the idea. And I found some real good books at the library. Surprisingly they had a few books on the matter and it was all serious stuff... IDK how that stuff is ever edited (like who knows if the spell is correct or not?!) but anyhow it is MUCH better than the Internet which is filled with GARBAGE on the subject matter.

Plus IF you LUCK OUT and find some OLD, Out-of-print Magic Spellbook - I'm sure it will seem pretty surreal! With all kinds of ideas you never even thought of... Look for Black Magic and White Magic books with rituals, potions and magical pendants/blessings, etc.

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Fri, 12/11/2015 - 01:17
#5
Soulfinger
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Monster Dinner: I feel like

Monster Dinner: I feel like I've seen this before, but I may just be thinking of the old Dungeon Keeper PC games from Bullfrog. There's a room full of chickens that your monsters enter to get a meal. Worth checking out if you've never played it. But I know that bad guy managing minions is a well established theme in digital and tabletop.

Dungeon Looting: There are just sooo many of these. I think it goes zombie, dungeon crawl, Internet pornography in terms of quantity of offerings.

Potion Makers: Soda Pop Miniatures just beat you to it with Black-Handed Henry's Potion Party, or something like that. I think even Lego did some potion or alchemy game a while back.

Steampunk/Mad Scientist: Again, this one is getting to be well-traveled. Among the titles put out by other companies, I remember Fantasy Flight putting out a game called Steam Planet not long ago. Not that you couldn't do something new, but I'd research the genre before committing to the whole build a contraption theme. Kind of similar with the mad scientist shtick.

Overall, I feel like you aren't "thinking outside the box" as the kids say (if those kids are corporate executives from 1990 with Benjamin Button syndrome). Try this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Do it two or three times, string the titles together, and that's your game. I got Christian School Basketball Archaeology Site and Chiwang Hinterland.

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Fri, 12/11/2015 - 04:27
#6
Casamyr
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Hmmm. I think I'm still going

Hmmm. I think I'm still going to run with the potions thing. I've come with an idea for it. It's just going to be a little filler game, nothing too serious so I'm going to see what I can do with it and see if I come up something that works and is relatively fun to play.

That potions game you mentioned, is quite different to mine, especially mechanically. I'm not too worried about it to be honest.

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Fri, 12/11/2015 - 19:55
#7
Soulfinger
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Casamyr wrote:That potions

Casamyr wrote:
That potions game you mentioned, is quite different to mine, especially mechanically. I'm not too worried about it to be honest.

There are actually a few others, notably http://rightgamesrbg.com/games/potion-making-practice

questccg wrote:
How about REAL SPELLCASTING!

You know go to your local library and read through the books about "Magic". Not FANTASY-type magic - ACTUAL RITUALS for different things...

This reminds me of that scene from the '80s movie, The Gate, with the kid listening to his black metal album backwards and acting out whatever silly ritualistic movies. I expect a "real" magic game would be just as awkward.

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Fri, 12/11/2015 - 20:03
#8
questccg
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Don't knock it!

Soulfinger wrote:
This reminds me of that scene from the '80s movie, The Gate, with the kid listening to his black metal album backwards and acting out whatever silly ritualistic movies. I expect a "real" magic game would be just as awkward.

Actually have you gone to your local library and FOUND spell books?! I have and they are pretty serious about all of the stuff they write. Somethings like a Rabbit's Foot for good luck are common beliefs - but they have how to make charms and then using a ritual, how to enchant charms and pendants for all kinds of reasons...

It's not at all like "The Gate", it's more like your Sunday Church Ritual, less the friendly pastor, more the dark and your average, umm how do I put it, outcasts? Would you qualify spell casters as being outcasts shun by society that they practice in dark recesses in secret locations?!

I don't know HOW to qualify them - but one thing for certain they are not your "average" individual. They are "special" in their own and unique way for certain...

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Sat, 12/12/2015 - 01:34
#9
Casamyr
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I'm actually looking more at

I'm actually looking more at medieval cures, some of which are actually truly terrifying when you think of what they were trying to do.

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Sat, 12/12/2015 - 17:00
#10
Soulfinger
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questccg wrote:It's not at

questccg wrote:
It's not at all like "The Gate", it's more like your Sunday Church Ritual, less the friendly pastor, more the dark and your average, umm how do I put it, outcasts? Would you qualify spell casters as being outcasts shun by society that they practice in dark recesses in secret locations?!

I don't know HOW to qualify them - but one thing for certain they are not your "average" individual. They are "special" in their own and unique way for certain...

Nope, I'm very aware of them. A close friend of mine collects rare esoteric works. I've seen hermetic writings, Crowley's stuff, Egyptian magic books, read up on Vodoun, and so forth. A favorite book in my collection is the Malleus Maleficarum. It looks super mysterious in print. In practice, magic rituals look ridiculous, nor does a single "spell" have any more effect than casting Bigby's Crushing Hand from an AD&D Player's Handbook. The people I know who practice that stuff, contrary to what you say, are very average people.

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Sat, 12/12/2015 - 17:05
#11
Soulfinger
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Casamyr wrote:I'm actually

Casamyr wrote:
I'm actually looking more at medieval cures, some of which are actually truly terrifying when you think of what they were trying to do.

Hey, one of my favorite subjects back in college! I'll have to see if I can dig up some of my notes. Don't forget to reference the old bills of mortality for the disorders that you are looking to cure. Gripping in the Guts and Rising of the Lights have a certain poetry to them.

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Tue, 12/15/2015 - 10:34
#12
Midnight_Carnival
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to be honest I don't think you should change the theme.

I know I sound rather confused since I suggested you looking at the game with a different theme (I think I posted "why magic themed") but I don't think you should actually change it.
I think your game seems to work well and happens to have a similar theme to other games around, if the game works then why is the theme so important.
No offence to any actual steampunks out there, but I feel that making it steampunk themed would actually cheapen your game. I don't mean that there is anything wrong with steampunk itself, only that making it the main attraction of your game would seem to me a lot like taking a good storyline and needlessly tacking gratuitous sex and violence onto it in a way which actually disrupts the flow just so you can sell it on sensationalism.
I don't think a good game needs cheap tricks or clever gimmicks.

Think of a "classic" board game which was around for ages and everybody's played - most times you find that it isn't "about something", it may have overtones of something or it may be abstract, but the only thing it is "about" is playing and having fun.

Of the suggestions you've offered, I most like the "monster dinner" one and also the mad scientist/alchemist one.

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Tue, 12/15/2015 - 14:05
#13
Casamyr
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Midnight_Carnival wrote: I

The Monster Dinner idea I have on the back burner at the moment, I will play around with it, but I'm working towards a potion making themed trick taking game. I have four 'suits' of ingredients and could easily add a 5th if needed. I just to whip up some cards to begin play testing and tweaking. We are off camping for a week soon, so I'll take it with me and play it a lot there with a bunch of friends. I should be able to get some good feedback then.

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Tue, 12/15/2015 - 23:22
#14
questccg
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An aside - resume thread! :P

Midnight_Carnival wrote:
Think of a "classic" board game which was around for ages and everybody's played - most times you find that it isn't "about something", it may have overtones of something or it may be abstract, but the only thing it is "about" is playing and having fun.

This is somewhat true - but "classic" board games could be things like "Monopoly", "Clue", "The Game of Life", "Snakes & Ladders", "Candyland", etc. and all of those games are "roll & move" games.

Yet they probably account for MOST of the board game sales (in terms of percentage). Perhaps you could add "Risk", "Stratego", "Operation" and you also have games with unique mechanics that are different from the aforementioned games (and they too account for some percentage also).

But it's once you get into the hobby - that you realize staples are things like "Smallworld", "Settlers of Catan", "King of Tokyo", "Ticket to Ride", "Heroscape", "Pandemic", etc.

Each game very different from the other. It's not like Monopoly and Clue are "identical", but the dice rolling and moving is the primary mechanic of both games. The staples listed here are so very different that it would be hard to compare these games with one another - because they are so different.

It comes down to a matter of personal taste - which kind of game do you prefer.

So "classic" can be interpreted "roll & move" or "abstract" (like Chess, Checkers or Backgammon). I wasn't 100% certain which you meant. To me "classic" means the staples I have stated not "roll & move" or "abstract" games...

Note: (Back to the OP) Congrats on choosing Potion Making - I personally think it was the least frequently used theme (of all the choices you presented). Be sure to keep us updated as to the game's progression!

Cheers!

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Wed, 12/16/2015 - 15:17
#15
Casamyr
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questccg wrote: Note: (Back

questccg wrote:

Note: (Back to the OP) Congrats on choosing Potion Making - I personally think it was the least frequently used theme (of all the choices you presented). Be sure to keep us updated as to the game's progression!

Cheers!

I'm begining to think about making this a little more than just a trick taking game too. I was thinking of your idea about Druids this morning on the way to work on the bus and began to think that perhaps the players armed with their sickle and trusty bag head into the forest for herbs to create a potion for some reason. But all is not well in the forest - Druids will need to pacify irate badgers, appease Herne the Hunter, and calm the forest in order to harvest the herbs to create their potions.

I'm thinking it'll still be a card game though.

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Sat, 12/19/2015 - 03:31
#16
Midnight_Carnival
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too late to change my vote?

I also like the potion themed one now that I've seen it.

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