I've come up with this new game idea, inspired by the video game Pikmin, and some brainstorming would help.
Premise: You play on a scalable board, made up of Hexes, that can accommodate 2 - 4 players. The object of the game is to have X flowers, most likely dependent on the number of players. Each player starts with one flower and three "Seedlings." Seedlings are little seed people that you can move to different hexes and plant themselves in them. They'll accumulate droplets (more on that later) and eventually create a new flower. Flowers then produce more Seedlings.
There are four different hex types (at least right now...all of this is ludicrously early, so changes be a happenin'), each requiring a different number of droplets to grow flowers on them. Flowers on the different hex types produce different types of seedlings too! There's the basic Seedling that can't do much but you get a lot of them. There's one that converts an enemy seedling into one of your own (Converter). There's one that plucks planted seedlings and throws them to other another space(Pluck n' Throw). There's another that protects you from the evil garden prowler (Protector).
Evil garden prowler? Evil garden prowler! You see, at the start of your turn, you roll 1D6. On that dice are: one of each of the four different hex types, a flower icon, and an evil garden prowler icon. If you roll one of the hex types, you place droplets on each planted seedling and flower on that hex type (including your opponents seedlings and flowers!) This is how seedlings gain droplets to turn into flowers! You don't make a flower per seedling though. Rather, when you've amassed enough droplets on that hex, your replace each of your planted seedlings with a flower. When there are enough droplets on a flower, it creates new seedlings of the type that the hex produces (either Seedling, Converter, Pluck n' Throw, or Protector).
If the prowler is rolled, the player who rolled the die gets to do one action with the prowler: move or eat. While the prowler is in a hex, it prevents one seedling from accumulating droplets. If it chooses to eat, it can eat any one seedling in that hex, planted or un-planted.
If the flower is rolled, the player who rolled gets to place one droplet on any one flower he/she controls.
After you roll, you can make 2 actions on your turn. Actions include:
- Movement: you move as few or as many seedlings from one hex to another adjacent hex.
- Plant: you plant as few or as many seedlings in one hex
- Throw: you throw one seedling that shares a hex with one of your Pluck n' Throw seedling to a hex with a flower the thrown seedling controls. Use of once per Pluck 'n Thrower.
- Pluck: one planted seedling becomes unplanted, losing all droplets.
- Convert: one seedling an enemy controls in a hex shared by your Converter becomes a basic Seedling of your color. If used, your Converter also becomes a basic Seedling.
- Scare: if the prowler is in the same hex, or an adjacent hex, to your protector, you may move the prowler to a different space. Choose which seedling stops producing droplets.
As a side note, the prowler can't move into a space that has an un-planted Protector.
Hexes with opposing flowers can be replaced with your color flower, but it requires +X more droplets than usual.
So there you have it. My goal was to create a war-type, unit based game that doesn't actually feature real combat. I also like the concept of your units functioning as your resources too. You can probably tell I took some (many?) concepts from Settlers of Catan (dice roll helps all, theif, hexes), so if it screams unoriginal, let me know. And if it scream PIKMIN!!!!!, let me know as well.
I tested it out by myself today and found some issues. The basic Seedling unit doesn't do enough. You just move them and plant them. So maybe there should be a benefit to not planting them, like, uhhh, guarding that hex? I also found that the player who got the better rolls at the beginning had more momentum going forwards.
Well, thanks you so much to the people that read through all of this. Ask me anything, suggest anything.
One big problem was that the basic Seedling unit could only move and be planted. There was no reason not to plant them. That's not good. The way I see it, most game pieces should provide at least two functions, and it's up to the player to determine which one is going to be more helpful for you.
Another problem was that dice rolls that added droplets to your planted seedlings was swingy. You couldn't play into the probabilities of gaining droplets. Instead you were either lucky or you weren't. That's no bueno.
Now unplanted basic Seedlings "chant". So when the dice are rolled at the beginning of each turn, the numbers 1-5 correlate to the number of chanters on each space. If you have 2 chanters, and you roll a 1 or a 2, the planted seedlings all gain droplets. 6 is still the prowler.
I'm still struggling with the more interactive elements between
players. I enjoy the more passive-aggressive qualities of games like Catan (building roads and settlements to prevents others from doing so, stealing longest road and largest army), Carcassone (battling over farmers and knights), and Seasons (picking dice that your opponent might want, or speeding up the clock). What happens when basic Seedlings of different players share the same space?
Right now the beginning of the game is a slow build-upon troops rather than actual competitive interaction.