Vieux Carre - New Orleans parade game

Thanks for responding! I think the "longest parade line" has the most potential and makes the most sense...giving players just the one to focus on and grow.

In the "pick up" and "steal" mechanics, yes it should be your first line which determines which paraders you attract. I like the idea of luring opponent paraders away based on the attractions you build into your first line, which could be boiled down to color or icon.

I'd like to tie some significance to the locations and the paraders you might attract, as that would offer strategy in planning your route. Perhaps the paraders too have "types" which correspond with the locations...for instance you can easily attract a lot of bar-hoppers, but they're much more fickle and will leave your line randomly. Pass Preservation Hall with a big band, and music lovers will stay with you till the end...unless a better band (your opponent) comes close by! Families in souvenir shops love floats and more circus-like attractions but they're on a schedule and can only stay for a fixed number of rounds...etc.

Need to identify the balance of 5 or so parader types with their first line attractions...not to mention how players physically move their parade as it gets longer...maybe magnetic pieces?

Anyways thanks all for your valuable opinions!

I like the idea of "populating" the city before playing, so you can see potential paraders you may pick up. This would give the starting board, and the city, some "life" before players begin their parades.

Randomizing would be key so that play the start is always unique. Perhaps it's a s simple as dropping (10) paraders pieces onto the board, placing those on the space on which they land and removing those which do not find a space (say, on top of a building or street dividing structure.) A chaotic start for sure, but somehow fitting the feel of the city, excess and "laissez le bons temps rouler!"

I agree streets must have significance to require players to strategize their route...so far my thought is that certain streets feature more attractions which satiate paraders of a certain type, and that, as a scoring device, the player with the most paraders on a given street at the end wins a certain number of additional points. The longest parade is one major scoring device, but not the only one...

The overall goal so far is to attract and keep your different "categories" of paraders happy by:
(A)maintaining a certain First Line, or lead parade, and
(B)passing by attractions that interest them, lest they wander off to find them themselves (often into opponent parade lines)! If you do not do this, you lose paraders...but only on that street, which offers incentive to "snake" your parade around the board in order to help control your line.

Everything comes down to categories of paraders, and categories of attractions which they find enticing and keep them in your line.

Here are those categories so far:
Revelers: Out for the party, you must pass bars to keep them in the line.
Artists: Stay in line unless you pass a cultural landmark or another parade line.
Tourists: Have a range of attractions they want to see and therefor must pass to keep them in line.
Musicians: Stay as long as a minimum "first line" requirement is maintained, but you lose them top other musical attractions or opponent parades.
Locals: Never leave the line...score fewer points, but give you safety in numbers.

Again, players only lose those paraders of a particular category on the street currently occupied, not ALL of them in the entire line.

Sorry if this sounds confusing, as I'm thinking a bit out-loud. These are all just ideas without a firm backbone...there's a ton to figure out and the game is FAR from complete...but I'm really diving into this one and appreciate all your guys' input! At the end of the day, I want this to be simple and accessible, but with enough strategic meat to make it intriguing...a game which shows the range of characters which NOLA attracts to its streets, encounters all of those "faces" of the city, and leaves players satisfied as though they were actually there for a fleeting moment!

Here's where I'm at in regard to your thoughts...

"Can one parade line permanently or temporarily block progress for a different parade line?"

Yes I think a crucial part of the play will be players' ability to block off streets, forcing opponents to go around. Paraders may cross their own lines, however.

"Can parade lines run in parallel on the same street or must one be in front of the other?"

Currently I think that only 1 parade ma occupy a street at a time, though the most infamous of streets (Bourbon) could feature 2 lanes for parades to occupy...this offers great opportunity to stealing/trading paraders, assuming that mechnic requires proximity to one another.

"Can a parade line become "double wide" and occupy both lanes of a street?"

Interesting thought...guess it depends on the ultimate "purpose" of having a double-laned street...do players want to run paraders along side of an opponent's?

"Are line 2 paraders basically generic or do some of them have unique abilities?"

Line 2 paraders are broken into categories, based on what they want out of their NOLA experience. I noted these in a comment above: Revelers, Artists, Tourists, Musicians (may drop this one and lump into Artists) and Locals. They all basically have different requirements which you must meet to keep them happily parading in your line, or risk losing them. Loss is limited to only paraders of that type on the street currently occupied, not ALL paraders of that type in your line.

"Can line 1 paraders become line 2; can line 2 become 1?"

Still thinking through the mechanics of Line 1...thoughts have been card drafting of Characters and Events which force players to mix up and manage their Line 1 throughout the game...say an Event Card says, "all brass musicians get called away for a gig." Players draws new Line 1 cards, but they may be floats and clowns. Good for Tourists, bad for Artists. The Line 1 cards affect your Line 2 paraders. Could have a row of face-up Line 1 characters to choose from, kind of like Ticket To Ride...choose or draw.

The relationship between the Lines is a critical one and I'm not 100% sure which way to take it yet...thoughts of course are more than welcome!

Yeah the artwork could get WAY out of hand...not to mention the size of the board if using illustrated character tokens, which would require a minimum of a 3/4 inch square to be decently readable. The current total space count is 291...so you can see how scale can quickly get out of hand! More on how that number came about below...

Using color-coded mini-meeples or cubes significantly reduces the size which the paraders need to be, the spaces they occupy, and thus the overall board. I like the idea of having one larger meeple to represent the entire First Line set of cards in a player's possession...one which players can move independently of the parade in strategic ways.

Staying true to the main streets of the Quarter creates a grid of
13 streets x 5 streets. This leaves the 4 main boundary streets (Rampart to the N, Decatur to the S, Canal to the W and Esplanade to the E) as player organization areas for their First Line cards, extra parader pieces, etc.

Within this grid of 13 x 5, I currently have a total of 291 spaces which player pieces may occupy. You can see how the parader pieces now much be scaled appropriately! With each "type" of parader being a different color, I think the board will still certainly be bold and appealing as the game progresses...and the colorful character art can be confined to the First Line cards...who are the real stars of the show anyways.

"Moving" the parade will have to occur from the front, rear or small spaces within the middle...definitely not the entire line. That would be a huge hassle! I really like your thoughts on that...giving the illusion of movement without actually moving each piece.

Lastly for tracking your line VS opponents...if the paraders are color coded by type, and all players share in the same pool of paraders, the game will need a simple way to know whose line is whose as they grow larger and snake around the board. As the rule stipulates that you cannot cross an opponent's parade line, this should help avoid confusion. The simplest would be, as each player starts from a different side of the board, to trace the line back to your side. Doesn't seem like an issue that breaks the game...but interested in any thoughts on this in particular.

Orangebeard you're rocking this thread! Thanks for getting into the vision of the game. Yes for now I think keeping the haunted sites in the Quarter as a general interest of the Tourists is better...especially considering I have a lot of work to do on the core mechanics and adding another Parader type is likely premature at this point.

I like the addition of event cards...these either help or hinder players at random. Things like minor street closures which wipe all paraders from that block of street, reroutes, or as you wonderfully suggested, affect your line based on how you have it currently constructed.

I also considered an Objective Deck which players secretly draw from at the beginning...but perhaps it's better with common objectives, you can choose any you want, though another player may be trying the same thing. For instance, having the most Revelers on Bourbon Street sounds like a natural objective. Perhaps a mix of secret and common???

In regards to gaining Paraders:
1. Players gain the number of particular paraders shown on the First Line cards. This would give a fixed number each round and offer a bit of hand management within your First Line.

2. Additionally, if a player ends their turn in front of a landmark favoring a particular type of Parader, say a bar for Revelers or a museum for Artists, they roll to see how many of that type exit the venue and join their parade. If however there are Paraders of the same type within range, they'll naturally want to enter the landmark which interests them...

3. I also played around with 2D6 rolls adding Paraders. One die for the number, the other for the color/type you gain at random. Basically I like the thought of dice in the game, because as they say, "let the good times roll!"

One more thought for a "wild card" event is the random appearance of the Voodoo Priestess, who mysteriously whisks a number of paraders away if her path crosses theirs. Perhaps she sweeps through streets, her path determined by a die roll, or her movement is triggered by cards in the Event Deck...seems fitting to make her appearance an Event.

The board itself is serving to help design the game, as I'm trying to stay true to locations. There's room to tailor the board to the mechanics, but the major landmarks are where they should be...and that's crucial to the experience in my mind.

I like the idea of her either helping or hindering you, depending on some factor which you can plan for. Perhaps you have to maintain a certain number of Locals, which stand to reduce final score, but give you security from her cutting your line in 2...or you must have a particular balance of characters in your First Line.

Speaking of that, I currently have 5 core "types" of First Liners:
Rhythm, Brass, Singers, Dancers and Floats. Still working on the specifics of the relationship between these and the Paraders, but it's feeling right thematically.

What I think think will work for First Line setup is this: At the beginning of the game, players draw 3 First Line cards at random. These cards show a number of Paraders which they give you, as well as a total number of Paraders they can entertain (the max. number of Paraders of a type which you may have in your line under that character).

Basically, a bigger First Line (up to 5 cards) allows you to grow a longer Parade Line, and "better" First Line performers attract and maintain a bigger crowd.

Gotta play this out, as I don't want the experience to be a bunch of constant counting...but there's plenty to think about on the table!

The biggest cost impact will by far to be the number of mini-meeples or cubes needed to represent the paraders. I no longer think going until the board is full is a viable option, rather game ends once the final parader is placed. These pieces must be 3D, as the spaces on the board must be kept relatively small given the number of them (319 spaces at 1/2 square each creates a board roughly 22" x 18.50" including border). 3D pieces are also easier to move, and the parade line movement mechanic is coming along very nicely!

Components are as follows...numbers are approximated:

Parader mini-meeples/cubes (200...limited distribution by type)
Voodoo Priestess meeple (controlled entirely by Event Deck cards)
First Line Deck (30)
Objective Deck (30...players may share same objectives)
Event Deck (30)
Parader Dice (2D6? random determination of Paraders gained)
Game Board (size: 22" x 18.50")

Hundreds of Paraders!! That's undoubtedly where I'll get a few off glances from publishers...but if it plays and the game obviously needs that number, the discussion can continue.

As a toy inventor, my business model is to create products with the goal of licensing them to companies...and I'll likely continue that with these games. I regularly pitch the "majors" like Mattel, Hasbro, Spin Master, etc. This is certainly NOT their kind of game however, and it's not meant to be. This one will require some work on my part to reach out to smaller, more "gamer" companies, certainly at an upcoming Con.

I've had success meeting and pitching smaller companies at New York Toy Fair (Buffalo Games and Blue Orange have taken in games for further review) so I'm sure I'll be successful given other opportunities.

All of the above pending vigorous, bourbon-soaked hours of play testing, of course!

Would be represented entirely by the mini-meeples/cubes, color-coded by type. The cards in front of the player would be First Line performers only.

Pieces are on their way from Meeplesource...I should be running some preliminary tests next week!

Thanks for the kind offer of proof-reading a rules draft...I'll be happy to send one along once I have things feeling streamlined. My hope is that this is no more complex to learn and play than say a game like Pandemic, which has an 8 page rulebook (large format which could be condensed, I'm sure). If I can do it in 4-6, I'll be happy!

COMPONENT CORRECTION: The board is actually 13"x18" in its current layout...not sure where I got 18.5"x22" previously. Anything that saves a little cost is key!