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Generating stats/numbers for games

2 replies [Last post]
Mon, 03/14/2011 - 23:12
caladan21ph
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Joined: 10/03/2008

Hello! I'm starting to create the prototype for a game and I would like to know how you guys generate stats/numbers for your games. At the moment I just want to test out the rules( see if it flows etc..) and I need to generate numbers quickly. If the rules work, I'm going to put more time in creating the stats/number for each card.

Thanks!

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Tue, 03/15/2011 - 00:59
#1
loonoly
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Joined: 02/12/2011
Nandeck

I generally use nandeck to quickly prototype cards. It has a combination/permutation system that allows you to generate a full range of values to place on cards. See the following tutorial:

http://www.nand.it/nandeck/tut_c.html

However, if you have never used nandeck before, there is a bit of a learning curve to using it.

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Wed, 03/16/2011 - 22:35
#2
CloudBuster
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Joined: 04/14/2009
Would you please provide some more details?

I'm not sure what you're looking for...you need to generate numbers quickly...for what? Do you need to provide a certain number of a common resource and a certain number of a different (less common) resource (for example)?

Maybe a personal example will help:
My daughter and I are making a space-type board game. One of the things you can do is mine asteroids. Every turn, your asteroid will generate a certain amount of Rhodite (a mineral I invented). Anyway, you never know how much Rhodite your asteroid will generate until you start mining. Each asteroid can generate from 1 to 4 Rhodite per turn. Most asteroids will only give you 1 Rhodite...some will generate 2 Rhodite, etc. I have not tested this, but I'll have a bunch of mining tokens in a bag and you simply reach into the bag when you claim an asteroid to see how much Rhodite you get. You place that token on your asteroid and as long as you've got a ship there, you get that number each turn.

I think Paster Mora (on this forum) mentioned this. It's called a Fibonacci Sequence. You simply start with a number and the next number in the sequence is created by adding the previous numbers.
So you get something like this: 1,2,3,5,8,13,22

So...to start out I have 13 1 Rhodite mining tokens
8 tokens that yield 2 Rhodite
5 tokens that yield 3 Rhodite
3 tokens that yield 4 Rhodite

As I said, these will all be in a bag (mixed together) and you simply grab 'em when you claim an asteroid.

The cool thing about this sequence is that this seems like a pretty good mix. Depending on your game, you can start off anywhere in the sequence (I didn't want only 1 or 2 asteroids yielding 4 Rhodite because you can also buy a scanner in the game and "discover" your very own asteroid to mine...the other asteroids are in the center of the board and they're already "known" to all the players. I wanted the chance for a great yield after a scan).

I haven't had a chance to test this out yet, but I think it'll provide a good place to start.

I hope this has been helpful.

-CB-

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