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SpellMasters — Sample "Lore" card

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 18:52
questccg
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Okay so here is a "Level 1" Sample "Lore" card for "SpellMasters". So I won't spoil the card... but it's pretty easy puzzle to solve.

I can count six (6) different ways to "bridge the lair" and a whole slew of words that can "link the key"!

But it gives you an idea... This is very simple to "introduce" players to the game ... and working together to A> Solve the Puzzle (if it is easy enough) B> Work on winning the most amount of points (competitively).

Feel free to post some comments below with "possible" solutions!

Enjoy this first preview (I may do 5 ... since there are 5 levels of difficulty). But the design of the Puzzles is a bit difficult (it ain't easy...) So I'm going to take my time when designing these "Lore" cards!

Cheers!

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 19:46
#1
let-off studios
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Solving It

How does the game work? Do you have to come up with a word that starts at the first "R" in TREASURE and reach the key? Like, a five-letter word that starts with the letter "R"?

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 19:56
#2
questccg
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Well yes and no...

Yes you need to find a word to LINK the KEY. What this means is that you need a 4 to 7 letter word to get the key. You need to be at minimum adjacent to the key.

So yes, from the first "R" in "Treasure", you must find a corresponding word to "reach" the key.

Same goes for the the word "Mimic", you need to create a BRIDGE in the map to make it to the Mimic's LAIR. Obviously you need the KEY to complete the level.

All the while, you can ADD more words wherever and whenever possible to score additional points. You'd be amazed at how many words actually fit in this Level 1 Puzzle... Which is why it's a Level 1.

Level 5 Puzzles will be harder because you also need to complete a Side-Quest and get a Potion, in addition to linking the KEY and bridging the LAIR... I know Level 1 is pretty easy and there are multiple paths to solve the Puzzle (which is good... because you want players to enjoy the first level and think a little bit... and then be victorious and try to score even more points!)

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 20:01
#3
questccg
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And you DON'T need the whole word

If you can co-operatively AGREE on a "Word" and where to place it... Players can collaborate in building the word. See each player has his own BAG of Game Tiles and they are all COLOR-Coordinated. So at the end of the level, you know exactly who contributed to making what words!

So it's not ALL-OR-NOTHING scenarios... It team collaboration and competition to score the most points too... Because that allows you to "upgrade" your Wizard (each player will have a Wizard's sheet that allows them to unlock different abilities via experience accumulated from the Game Tiles...)

Note: To BRIDGE the LAIR, all you need is to find one (1) word that connects from "Treasure" to "Mimic". As I have said, I've already figured out six (6) ways to do so. There are probably more...

Which is GOOD because it's a Level 1 Puzzle... Needs to be "FUN" and light... To get people more involved with the game as Puzzles become more and more challenging!

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 20:18
#4
questccg
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You can also CONNECT via

the "T" or the first "E" in "Treasure" too! This Puzzle is indeed a Level 1 because there are so many different combinations that WORK!

It's my job to make the Level 1 Puzzle easier to complete. With a multitude of possibilities!

I'm sure you can just sit there and ponder the Puzzle to see what can be achieved...

Cheers!

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 20:36
#5
questccg
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Also if you are having TROUBLES...

You can refer to the "Hint" in the text area below for possible words that "might" work with the Puzzle. I know there are four (4) words that I've put in there that can be inserted into Puzzle... These are not small words like "We" or "As" ... which can also count if trying to get the most amount of points as possible! (LOL)

But hints will get less and less helpful as the levels get higher.

This is just the First Level that I have designed today... I've got 10 Levels from another version that I can "use/edit" to this NEW version with the Puzzles!

Cheers...

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 21:21
#6
let-off studios
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Skull Icon

Yep, the puzzle is easy enough. Plenty of options, depending on the player's available tokens. Cooperative play makes it a very approachable Level 1 puzzle.

What is the skull icon? What does it indicate?

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Sun, 09/16/2018 - 22:54
#7
questccg
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Further explanation

let-off studios wrote:
What is the skull icon? What does it indicate?

The Skull is the location of the "Lair". So the idea is that the START and FINISH words will be always made available. But how EASY that connection is will vary upon the difficulty of the Level.

For this Level 1 Sample, I used 1 Word away (Bridge). But in a Level 5 Puzzle, it will be 2 or more Words away plus have a side-quest to get and a tougher link to the KEY.

Note: The "Star" indicates the STARTING point for the word used to begin the game. Again players can use the letters available to them and not have an absolute word. "Treasure" is LONG and hard to spell-out IF it is only a 1 Player Word. But if three (3) or more players combine their Game Tiles, the word can be split into several segments...

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 09:10
#8
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This is a good example of why

This is a good example of why people need to create rulebooks :)

No part of that first post is obvious..

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 12:15
#9
larienna
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It can be any word in the

It can be any word in the dictionary, or it must be thematically related to the words on the card?

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 15:31
#10
questccg
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Any word but foul language

larienna wrote:
It can be any word in the dictionary, or it must be thematically related to the words on the card?

Well I think it could be any word, with the exception of foul language...! We don't want people using foul words and just be distasteful.

But yeah any word (and thematically too). There is a HINT area at the bottom of the card which suggests words that might work too... If the players are younger or get "blocked".

It's a tricky game, because with the wrong word, you can block off a path towards victory! Intentional or not... The idea is players need to "co-operate" to solve the Puzzle and sometimes it's more challenging too...

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 15:44
#11
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This is not an online thing?

This is not an online thing? It seems like the sort of game that would work quite well as an app or something, but I'm having trouble picturing it as a board game.

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 15:54
#12
questccg
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Not online

Each player has hir/her own bag of "Game Tiles". The game comes with enough "Game Tiles" for up to five (5) Wizards. I'm still in discussions about the board... But the idea is to have a "cloth/material" game board that can be folded up nicely into the small-ish sized box.

I'm still not 100% sure how many "Lore" cards will be part of the game. Or the winning condition of the game. Right now, it's a Word Game. It's a co-operative/competitive game where players try to score the most amount of points as possible.

And for sure I can picture this as a "Board Game"... I'm just trying to be more thematic with the five (5) Wizards ... what kind of abilities I will give each one. TDB.

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 16:57
#13
questccg
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Inspired by Rogue

Jay103 wrote:
This is not an online thing?

And one of my sources of inspiration was the DOS-Based "diskette" game called "Rogue". You would descend into a dungeon and travel uncovering the map for each level. There would be a starting staircase and an ending one which brings you to the next level...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDFLAArINEA

So maybe that's why you got the "hint" of it being something online...

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 17:09
#14
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Didn't make me think even a

Didn't make me think even a teeny bit of Rogue, but obviously I'm not seeing the whole game :)

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Tue, 09/18/2018 - 19:55
#15
questccg
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Corridors down a "map"

Jay103 wrote:
Didn't make me think even a teeny bit of Rogue, but obviously I'm not seeing the whole game :)

Well Rogue is partly my inspiration for this game: the windy corridors one travels. I know there were rooms... BUT I've played OLDER versions of Rogue which were ONLY "Black & White". Rogue had color... And I got it from an Uncle who has sadly passed away (way too young from cancer).

And I should ADD, that you may only use a WORD once per level. Like if you use "Magic", you can't use "Magic" vertically from the "M"... "Magic" can only appear once per level...

Update: Working with the Puzzles that I had already designed a while back when I worked intensively on this design, I have managed to "convert" three (3) Puzzles so far. It takes quite a bit of manipulation in Illustrator to get the Puzzles properly converted.

Basically I'm using the previous "theme" of the cards and modifying them to the NEW format ... with a "solution" followed by the unsolved Puzzle.

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Tue, 09/18/2018 - 21:53
#16
questccg
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Sample solution

This is an "example" solution to the Puzzle. This puzzle is worth 130 points and is designed 100% from the "Hint" given in the sample.

Of course there are many, many possible solutions. This is only one such version.

I know I haven't released the "Scoring" scheme... So it's not possible to see if your own solution scores more points than this one. At the present time, I'm going to hold off posting all that information because it's a bit complexe to present.

But rest assured, I've worked on THREE (3) Puzzles and it takes me about 1 Puzzle per day to EDIT, SOLVE, and DOCUMENT each one. It's quite the lengthy process, even though I have material to work with!

And to me, it reminds me of "Rogue" (and Crosswords). But still the corridor concept came from "Rogue" even though I think most of you will think it looks closer to Crosswords...

Cheers!

Note: The BRIDGE word is "CHEST" and the LINK word is "REAL"... Forgot to mention that.

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Wed, 09/19/2018 - 09:09
#17
larienna
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The problem with puzzle is

The problem with puzzle is that once they are solved, they are solved.

Now I don't dislike the idea of using a scrabble like mechanics for dungeon exploration. I have seen other games like Rummy and math formula using a scrable board.

Maybe you should focus on that. Players try to build up a dungeon using words that makes thematically sense with each other (A bit like the game "Imagine") in order to acquire resources on the board by making connections to it.

Maybe only the first entrance word is placed, and then players must build from there. So if the first word is "treasure", people needs to add new words from there which is related to the word treasure. Of course, you'll want to use bigger words to make it easier to make addionnal connections.

Get a scrable game and make some improvised playtest and see how it end up working. Build from there.

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Wed, 09/19/2018 - 09:27
#18
let-off studios
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Score Relevance

questccg wrote:
This is an "example" solution to the Puzzle. This puzzle is worth 130 points and is designed 100% from the "Hint" given in the sample.
That's quite an extensive solution you've presented there. Based on what you had mentioned in your previous posts, I would have simply added two words: one to connect the lair, and one to connect the key. Both would have intersected the word TREASURE.

I suspect you'll need to make scoring more relevant to the puzzles or game mechanics, otherwise players will simply burn through your levels - regardless of how much time you spent working on them. A couple suggestions:
- Players must gain a certain "baseline" score to consider the level solved.
- Players suffer a penalty if their score doesn't reach a specific amount. For example: "Unless you score 100 points, discard 1 or 2 unused tiles," or "you may not use the letter "E" in your next puzzle.
- Allow players to add tiles back to their hand based on the score they've achieved. Something like, "If you score up to 50 points, add 1 tile back to your hand. If you score 100 points, add 3 tiles back to your hand."

This will make it more worth the player's time to attempt a high score and sprawl their words all over the map (instead of just relying on "bragging rights" regarding high scores in a cooperative game).

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Wed, 09/19/2018 - 17:11
#19
questccg
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Subject to thinking

I am "considering" re-adding the Monster Combat phase. Which means after you have completed the Puzzle level and score a bunch of points... You then enter into a "Battle Mode" where you combat the Monster in question.

Some considerations:

1. When you die (or run out of HP) you are unconscious and therefore out of combat until all your other players are also unconscious (and therefore all defeated) or victorious (with a certain amount of Wizards still okay).

2. If you lose your HP and your fellow Wizards are victorious, you can continue onwards with the game and play the next level. (As if nothing happened).

I'm still thinking about this... So I'll get back to you once I've figured out the "simplest" and "most elegant" way to implement this...

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Thu, 09/20/2018 - 16:41
#20
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Thoughts

Have you considered having the playing words drive the combat? I was thinking some like having a move and or attacks and or mana symbols on each letter tiles. Then word that you play a word on the board your wizard could take the appropriate move/attack/spell actions.

Have you considered having the word board double as the combat arena? The words would form walls to impede player/monster movement. Maybe you could trap a monster by surrounding it with words. Maybe if a player or monster is present you can't play a word over them.

With either idea maybe a special power is activated if you play all of your letters.

Just some thoughts. Feel free to disregard use or improve upon. Good luck with your game.

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Thu, 09/20/2018 - 22:08
#21
questccg
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Two (2) Phases

let-off studios wrote:
...I suspect you'll need to make scoring more relevant to the puzzles or game mechanics, otherwise players will simply burn through your levels - regardless of how much time you spent working on them...

See the "Dungeon Crawl" (or Crossword Puzzle) is the SOURCE for getting MANA. Each tile you play in the dungeon gives you that LETTER for the 2nd Phase of the game which is the Monster Battle.

So the idea is to have AS MUCH LETTERS possible to be able to combat the enemy.

When you as "A TEAM" run out of words for SPELLS, all you are left with is "Basic Attacks". And if the Monster wins (defeats all players), that's the "end of the game".

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