Shaolin Temple - 1-6 player Co-op

So players have a choice of different characters that use different fighting styles, and each character has a special ability that only they can use - nothing mind blowingly new there.

For example:

- Striking Snake can move 2 spaces instead of 1;
- Leaping Dragon can reroll their Attack dice
- Roaring Tiger always deals +1 wound

Players begin in the centre of the board, and at the beginning of the game each player rolls 2 dice and places 2 enemies from the cup on their corresponding spaces. The players then go first.

Each turn, a player can move 1 space, and then fight any enemies in that same space.

Combat at the moment is very simple - the player rolls 2 different coloured dice (1 for themselves, 1 for the enemies). The player adds their Attack score (which is noted on the character card) to their roll, and the number of enemies in the space is added to the enemy dice.

For example: Striking Snake has an Attack of 3, and she's moved into a space with 4 enemies. She adds 3 to her dice roll, and adds 4 to the enemy roll.

If the player wins, the difference between the 2 rolls is the number of enemies they've slain. If the player loses, the enemies have managed to fend of their attacks.

In the above example, Striking Snake rolls a 4, for a total of 7, and the enemies roll a 1, for a total of 5. This means that 2 enemies are removed from that space.

After the players have all moved and attacked if they can, the enemies have their turn. They start by having the players roll for each space the enemies are in, and moving the direction the dice indicates, starting with the centre-most spaces and working outwards. If the enemies move into a space with a player, they then attack in the same fashion (the player rolls 2 dice etc.) If the player wins, they have defended their attacks, but if they lose by any amount, they take 1 wound. A player can suffer 3 wounds before they are out of the game.

The board is designed so that enemies will group up into larger and larger numbers as they move towards the centre, becoming more and more difficult to fend off. A Shaolin Monk is going to have no problems taking down 1 or 2 enemies, but fighting 8 or 9 on their own is going to be tough. Players can also support each other by moving into the same space to fight/defend. When this happens, the players decide who is going to fight, and the supporting players each add 1d6 to the attack/defence roll of that player, so there's going to be times when you'll need to get help from your friends to fend off large groups of enemies. If multiple players are in a space and are attacked and lose, they must decide who among them is going to take the 1 wound.

Fences and buildings hinder the enemy advance - they need to break those down before they can continue to the next space. If an enemy rolls to move but there's a fence in the way, they instead stay where they are, and the fence is removed. Buildings work in a similar fashion, but take 2 hits to burn down.

Building that remain standing at the end of the wave may give the players some bonuses, such as rebuilding fences, repairing burning buildings, healing wounds, or they may betray the players and do the opposite.

Things certainly get tense by the 3rd wave, when many fences and buildings have been destroyed, giving the enemy a clear run up to the temple.

The game is all about working out where to move when, when to fight and when to retreat. There's always tough choices to be made 'Do I move over here and support my friend? But if I do that, these guys will destroy this building. Should I stay and defend this fence, or sacrifice it to stop this building being attacked instead?' There's a lot of those moments throughout the game.

The combat system is something we're currently working on. It works incredibly well and quickly, but we feel it could just be a little too simple and monotonous. It feels a bit like Talisman. We're trying to think of ways to make the combat more fun, but still work as quickly and efficiently as the current system does.

Hi Dan,

Thanks so much for your feedback - much appreciated! Glad you like the sound of the idea.

The idea actually began as a '7 samurai' style theme, but we soon dropped that when we decided that there were already a lot of games out there set in feudal Japan, and it was hard to differentiate the Samurai from one another. The different animal styles of Kung Fu lent itself well to a much more diverse and individual cast of characters.

To clarify your dislike - the enemies never move backwards. They are always advancing towards the centre - whether they advance forward-left or forward-right is determined by a dice roll (reference the map image), until they reach the 'Building' ring on the map, upon which they simply move forward into the main hall.

There's a lot of moments where you're fighting on a space against a group of enemies, and there's another group of enemies in the next space out - when you roll for them to move, you're thinking 'please don't come this way, please don't come this way'. If they do, you might be outnumbered and have to fall back, or hope that help arrives quickly to help you fend them off.

The single-dice combat system certainly works very well with the game, I don't think there's any denying that having played it a few times, I just don't think it's quite as fun as it could be. I'm all for brevity too - don't confuse 'more fun' with 'more complex'. Any alterations we made to the combat would still have to keep it brief and simple - we're certainly not trying to make a wargame here. What I'd really like is for the combat to be so fun that when the game is over, you want to set it up and play again straight away. I've personally never played any board game where I've wanted to do that, so that's the goal. It's fun and it works, I just don't think it's quite at that level yet.

I do like your custom-dice idea however, it could be something as simple as that that makes the difference in making the combat a little more interesting. I'll bring it up with my co-designer when we next meet.

I'm also very much giving an overall summary also - there's more to the game that I haven't gone into, such as Chi. Each character has a single Chi card, and that card can be used at any time to:

- Ignore a wound
- Add an extra dice roll to an attack

Once it's gone, it's gone, so choosing when to use it and for what is another tough choice to be made. In a playtest game with my wife the other night, she used hers in the second wave to add a dice to her attack and take out a particularly large group of enemies in one go, whereas I used mine in the 3rd wave to ignore a wound and buy myself an extra turn to keep fighting (we still lost though).

Perhaps each character could also have a unique Chi power as a third option, though I'd be hard pressed to think of 8 more different effects on top of the one each of the 8 characters already has. The mechanics are already fairly simple and straightforward, so there's only so many ways I can think of to bend them.

If anyone would like me to upload a copy of the design document that contains all the rules of the game (so far), let me know and I'll do so so that you have a complete picture of how the game works.

*IcePeddlerGames* - We like the simplicity and the fast pace too, it just didn't seem that 'fun'. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't boring, but it felt like something was missing - the skeleton of a good game. We resolved to keep the system and simply add some new mechanics in other parts of the game with the Chi Powers to boost the enjoyment of combat. I'm excited to try this - the notion of it makes the whole game seem more enjoyable already.

Adding a timer would just add to the stress I think. I see where you're coming from, but it's a very tactical game with a lot of decisions that need to be made as a group. Almost every turn, especially in the 2nd and 3rd waves, you're discussing with your fellow players 'Should I move here? Or stay and fight? I think I can beat these guys, but if I move here it'll save this building. If I move, these guys will break down this fence.'

These tough choices are part of the fun of the game - I wouldn't want to hurry them along too much, especially if there's 5 or 6 players.

You're right on the pace and action though - it's a happy blend of tactical decisions meets fast and action-packed gameplay. An unusual mix, but it seems to work really well in this.

I'll get our Design Document edited into something readable and upload it to this thread for everyone to have a look over. If you print out the map attached further up, you could theoretically have a game yourselves with the design doc using some dice and paperclips/tokens from other games.