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Seeking playtesters for Davy Jones' Locker - a medium/light 60 minute game for 2-6 players

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Mon, 01/14/2019 - 11:32
bmorayta
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Sell Sheet

This is a medium-light game with quick turns, a bit of take-that, and just the right amount of luck. The goal is to make, and keep, the most victory points.
Steer your sailing ship as the “wind” roll allows, to be the first to discover the landmarks on the board.
Draw chits for treasure and actions, but only if you have space on your hand. To free that space, bury your treasure along with booby-traps to keep it safe.
Steal other players’ chits with your pirate ship, by attacking them, or digging their treasure out.
To win, be the player with the most points, in hand or safely buried under your Xs.

You can download the PnP here:
https://goo.gl/forms/wB53C95shAWFFiMb2

or the TTS Mod here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2113567178

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Sun, 02/03/2019 - 18:34
#1
stuartellis2
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Joined: 01/23/2019
Avast ye!

Really cool to see this

My brother used to have an old 80s pirate game called buccaneers. You had to load up your little plastic ships with little bits of treasure and try not to lose it when sailing home to your bay.

I really like your idea though of digging up buried treasure

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Wed, 05/20/2020 - 14:26
#2
bmorayta
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Work-In-Progress in BGG

I finally started a WIP thread for this one... if anyone's still interested... :)

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2432291/wip-buccaneers

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Wed, 05/20/2020 - 19:50
#3
questccg
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The better way would be...

To start a BLOG on BGDF.com and SHARE that link over at Board Game Geek! We value our community and are always trying to get more content of value and contributors to the website.

(Note: there are a LOT of "haters" hanging out on BGG... Our community is much more open to helping out other Designers... Trust me I say this from first hand experience...)

I was going to moderate the URL back to BGG ... Because quite frankly they have enough users and fund enough monies to pay for their site. We on the other hand have a smaller but more friendly community... And I'm positive we'd be glad to follow your BLOG.

But consider it being on BGDF.com and linking to it on BGG...! Best of luck(!?) with your game... Just wanted to ADD that there are A LOT of games called "Buccaneers"... You might want to find a better name. Or at least one that has been used LESS OFTEN. Cheers!

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Thu, 05/21/2020 - 07:39
#4
bmorayta
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Thank you!

Thanks for all your advice...!
I really just created the WIP to catch eyes. I'll definitely consider a blog, though I'm not the most active - I usually just post the first, and reply to comments, but very (very) rarely do I make a new entry... :P
I agree on the friendliness of this community!! I really need to dedicate some time to exploring this site. It has invaluable resources, and I should make more use of them!!

And yes... I'm aware of the name... It's so conflicting to me because even the theme is not my favorite, but the mechanics marry so well with it! :P
But to be fair, there are 10 entries in BGG with "buccaneers", but 3 pages of them for "pirates", so of an unimaginative name, it's not the worse I could've chosen... ;)
I'm sure as this progresses, at some point a perfect name will arrive...

Thanks again, and I promise I'll make a conscious effort to be more active here... :)

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Thu, 05/21/2020 - 08:52
#5
Tim Edwards
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stuartellis2 wrote:Really

stuartellis2 wrote:
Really cool to see this

My brother used to have an old 80s pirate game called buccaneers. You had to load up your little plastic ships with little bits of treasure and try not to lose it when sailing home to your bay.

I really like your idea though of digging up buried treasure

That's a brilliant game. My dad's set is from the 1960s.

Definitely interested in checking out this other buccaneer themed game. :)

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Fri, 05/22/2020 - 07:11
#6
bmorayta
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Tim Edwards wrote:Definitely

Tim Edwards wrote:
Definitely interested in checking out this other buccaneer themed game. :)

Hope you enjoy it!! :)

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Sun, 06/14/2020 - 08:39
#7
bmorayta
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Joined: 10/02/2018
Tabletop Simulator

I've made a Tabletop Simulator mod for the game!
It's accessible on this URL:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2113567178

I'm working on cleaning the rules a bit, and adding images and examples, but that might take a little bit. For now, the current rules (same as in the PnP) are inside the TTS mod, for ease of access.
Thank you!
Ben.

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Sun, 06/14/2020 - 19:49
#8
questccg
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About the name...

You could still use "Davy Jone's Locker" ... As this SEEMS like a name that has NOT been used by any other Game Designer (doing a search on BGG found no hits/results).

Your Pirate ships are used to dump treasure chests into the depths of the ocean/waters... That's why I thought ... Maybe the name might FIT!

Cheers ... It's just a suggestion.

Note #1: If the game had a Kraken ... Well then it might be more "theme"-related to the Title (Davy Jone's Locker). Maybe if you try to pick-up plundered chests from the depths of the ocean ... There is a RISK that you awaken the Kraken ... And as such lose one of your Sailing Ships! Not an immense change ... Has to be a rare occurrence . Like if you roll a "6" on 1d6 when you retrieve the chest ... That awakens the Kraken, and your Sailing ship is lost... Or you need to start from some far-away port. (And the treasure chest is lost to the ocean ... removing the "x" from the sea...)

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Tue, 06/16/2020 - 10:58
#9
bmorayta
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Awesome!

That is actually an awesome name suggestion!
Since you actually bury treasure in the middle of the sea, and many times both of your ships can sink, it would be a good match, even without having to change any mechanics...
However, there IS a (misspelled) entry on BGG:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/32192/davey-jones-locker
I'll have to think about it...

edit: I actually went ahead and requested the change of name in BGG, since the misspelled one is not a boardgame but a miniature game book, it's from 1991, and it's not visited a lot... We'll see if/when they accept it, to change all the branding everywhere... :P

Also - There's no Kraken, but there IS a "Poseidon" action that could very easily be changed to a Kraken, and remain the same... also food for thought... :)

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Tue, 06/16/2020 - 10:44
#10
bmorayta
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By the way...

@questccg
I sent you a PM about a month ago - if you have a chance to check it and reply... :)

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Tue, 06/16/2020 - 14:03
#11
questccg
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You are very fortunate!

When I did the BGG search ... I was not paying attention to misspelled game names. When I put in "Davy Jone's", I had 0 hits. So I tried just "Davy Jone" and again 0 hits. BUT in any case, even if there is a misspelled war game/book ... You are using the correct name. And therefore the change should be allowed.

Furthermore, I have seen games with the SAME name. Look at "Dragon Valley" on BGG. Dragon Valley (2012) and Dragon Valley (2014). Same NAME and there are TWO (2) Board Games that are completely different from one and another.

So it goes to show you that the name of a game can be in conflict.

And I think your game was perfect for the name too...

Note #1: About the Kraken, I saw it next to the title and thought it might only be "aesthetics" ... So I guess you already do have one. I have not seen the game rules yet...

Note #2: I downloaded the rules and took a quick look and yes, I see the stuff about "Poseidon". Maybe change that to Kraken and update the icon ... And it could be EVEN more thematic!

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Wed, 06/17/2020 - 07:14
#12
bmorayta
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Kraken

Yeah, the Kraken was just aesthetics. I used it on the map for one of the "landmarks", and liked it for kinda hugging the title.
In any case, all the art is borrowed and it certainly will change...

I think yes, I will change the Poseidon to Kraken - I like it more, I just need to update the tiles and rules.

Re: the name, I've seen many repeated names on BGG, but it comes to two things: 1. avoiding as much as possible any chance of litigious conflict, and 2. search hits. It's much easier to find a game with a name that doesn't repeat...
Searching "mechanical beast" or "droplets game" brings those on top (or almost), but searching "buccaneers game" is all about Tampa Bay, and even "buccaneers board game" my link doesn't even show up in 10 pages... :(

The change hasn't gone through, though I don't see why it wouldn't. The only reason might be that it wasn't that long ago that I created the game's page, so I don't know if they don't like changes that happen right away...
Worst case scenario, I would have to create a "reimplements" page, but I don't think it'll be necessary... :)

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Thu, 06/18/2020 - 16:26
#13
bmorayta
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Davy Jones' Locker!

Well, it had to happen. :)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/310009/davy-jones-locker

Thank you SO MUCH for the perfect name suggestion! It was a bit of work changing it everywhere, but so worth it... :)

(I've yet still to test having an inherent risk when digging treasure out, on top of whatever the "owner" planted in terms of boobytraps within, but I'll test and let you know how it works!)

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Thu, 06/18/2020 - 16:44
#14
questccg
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A bit of luck too...

In one way you are a bit "lucky" too! Because many of the names I think up are already on BGG. Which goes to show you the "over-saturation" of the names being used for games. Everyone is trying to be "more clever" like: "Roll Player" or "Loot Quest", etc. You don't know HOW many "Quest" games there are... Probably as much "Dungeon" games too.

So it was deemed to be YOUR name... Because nobody had chosen it already.

And remember, the reason I personally thought it was GOOD was because of dumping all the treasure overboard and into the waters. That made the sense of Ships dangerously searching for sunken treasures and triggered the NAME: Davy Jone's Locker!

It seemed obvious that this made the most sense. Cheers! And best of luck finding a Publisher for the game (or are you Self-Publishing???)

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Thu, 06/18/2020 - 17:11
#15
bmorayta
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Lucky, indeed!

Yes, it WAS very lucky! And also lucky that the name occurred to you. For years (since 2001-ish) I'd been trying to come up with some name that was non-generic, but also not a made-up land, impossible to pronounce, where you have to create a whole world and lore around just a name...

And yes, names are crowded, that's why I was also very surprised when I also snatched Mechanical Beast, and Droplets! :)

Thank you for your wishes! I'll search for a publisher - I'm not made for self-publishing (definitely not a businessman).
I'll keep you posted on whatever happens to it. :)

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