Hello BGDF

Hello All,

I've been playing board games since I was quite young. Things like the original Dungeon! and Dark Tower (interested in the reboot). There was a bit of a gap before the large resurgence that started with Catan coming to America. In the mean time I dabbled in Magic: The Gathering and D&D. I was sucked back into the hobby with so many great games coming out and I try to spread the word when I can. I was always one of those people who would take exception to certain design choices or broken strategies. I've done more than a few house rules that I was rather happy with. A couple years ago I found myself unemployed with a lot of free time, so as a hobby I thought I'd try my hand at designing a game. I got fairly far in the process and had a number of good playtests, but then I hit some hurdles. Among other things, I got a new job (thankfully) so I had less time to work on it.

Recently, I've thought I should pick up where I left off and try to finish what I started. So I'm currently doing what I would call the second major overhaul of the design and I plan to start playtesting again soon. I started getting involved on the design forums of BGG and thought I'd check this place out as well. So here I am.

If you're curious about my project, I'd call it an "action placement" game. It's a minor variation of worker placement in that you have three numbered tokens you take turns placing in a round. In my head, this is one worker (the player) doing three different things in order. I'm sure some other games work in similar fashion. Thematically, players are competing merchants trying to sell equipment to adventurers that show up in town. The main meat of the game is buying materials and having weapons and armors built to serve the specific needs of the adventurers. This is very similar thematically to Bargain Quest which came out in the middle of me developing this game the first time around.

In my version, the weapons and armors have characteristics represented by a location in a 3x3 grid. Each hero has similar grids that represent their compatibility/training. The heroes are looking to buy items that best suit them by comparing these grids. Once a hero has bought both a weapon and armor, they seek glory in the dungeon. They will draw a random monster card and compare their power (based on the equipment and a single die roll) versus the monster. If they are successful, this will generate a monster material that can be used to craft special order (epic) items. Each round there are different weapons and armors available to be made as well as new deals on materials. New heroes will also show up each round (as long as there is room). So it's a very tactical game, trying to make the most out of each round and the order of actions needs to be considered. It's important to craft the items the heroes are looking for as they come up, but it's also important to get a good deal on materials to maximize profits. At the end, the player who has made the most money wins.

There are some other minor details, but that's the broad strokes. I think I am just about ready for another round of playtesting.