Hello BGDF

Heya Vim!

Welcome to BGDF first of all! I love your challenge that you have set yourself with the right number of "bits" - very cool.

Also, it's a good job that you have joined up here at bgdf (and I assume bgg) to get advice - we will happily help you :)

Your list of boardgames sso far are very "full on" boardgames. Very confusing to those who are new in the hobby and some would argue that these are some of the more "heavy" games.

If you want to copy (or at least: borrow from) some of the games in your list, your game is going to (listen to this because it's true) going to get bigger and bigger, you will ply more and more rules into it, there will be more and more unnecassary stuff jammed in it and you will be unwilling to take it out when it gets to big.

Happens all the time. WoW, dragonquest, and mageknight (i havet played the last) - they are all heavy dungeon crawl games and listed in the "heavy catagory" of each of their respective areas.

What I would advise you at this level, is try out some other non-dungeon crawl games like "Carcasonne" or "Settlers of catan" or even something like "Dominion" - these games at their core are very simple but some argue make better boardgames than the others you listed.

So first : that. Keep a watch out man. A strict stern watch for runaway games rules bloating everything up.

Second: Remember the goal of a good game is NOT to list as many catagories in it as you can. The goal of a good game is to be fun. If you stick rigidly to your list of mechanics your game will look something like this:

Miniatures in a Dungeon Board.
Each has equipment cards and event cards.
Dice are rolled for combat.
Players are on the same side to defeat the npc board.
Someone will need to take control of the "baddies" or you will need algorithms (aka instructions) for your monsters written down (eg: "take one step towards the nearest hero, choose the one with least healthpoints if they are equal distance, then use your basic attack once, then your super attack once." for each monster)
The board will be square/rectangel interchangable pieces that can random-up the dungeon at the start of the game with the "goal" (Team flag? Boss? Gold?) being placed randomly under one of the "secret treasure" cards
Game is an RPG - so full stats and upgrades will be needed for every hero seperately
Players will need to collect sets of armor and weapons and what not (like diablo matching sets) to reep super powerful benefits
Players will lay tiles as part of the dungeon map when they travel in any unexplored direction
Players will be able to give eachother equipment and weapon cards
Each player is different.
Players powers will be created via a plugin deck building mechanic that will get too out of control and sloppy and you will probably need to take it away :(

No doubt your hero classes will be straight outta lord of the rings? baddies n'all

So that is my "grumpy british" attitude towards your game design so far man. I think a better way of approaching it as opposed to leeping straight in to it via pigeon-holed mechanic catagories is probably design a simple system and see if it fits with what you want. As soon as you declare that your game is "a deckbuilding, dice rolling, auction based, compact, 123 components, modular board, figure represented, space, fantasy co-op combat" - then it puts some unnecassary restrictions on you to try and make your game MASSIVE - when it COULD be, simple and elegant - but butt loads of fun!!

If you are sure you want to go the "deck building dungeon crawl" route - then you have to check out Thunderstone. It is deck building merged with a kind of dungeon crawl and is probably the kind of thing that you would appreciate (still being the "hack n slash" rpgish monster fest BUT has a nifty "fashionable" deck-building element)

But whatever you choose to do man, bloody good luck and its a pleasure to have you here in bgdf :)

Hope ive helped

sam