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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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Testing for Roll For The Win is going well. I need to make some clarifications in the rules and straighten out the terminology, but that shouldn't take too long. There may also be some changes to the Pirate ability to increase player interaction. More details here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/793109/assembling-playte...
Also, we had a chance to test out the new card game idea and it is coming along. There have been a few different iterations, but it is getting closer to a good game every time. Based on a suggestion Todd (FezAz), I started thinking about a fantasy based theme and finally came up with something that works. Picture a fantasy themed blacksmith where Gnomes/Goblins/Dwarves (I haven't decided which... any suggestions?) are working to forge different weapons and armor. Instead of a traditional forge though, they use dragon fire. In order to get the fire out of the dragons, they place items on their bellies. The key to getting the perfect temperature is the weight and number of items. For example, a sword may require 2 items (2 cards total) and a weight of 10 (numbers on the cards).
Here are a few logos I'm experimenting with:
and
The Wyvern one is more of a joke because of the acronym it creates.
I hope to get some more testing done this week and start thinking about sending it out to playtesters.
Game on!
Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:04 pm
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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Playtesting Roll For The Win has gone pretty well so far and I'm starting the next phase. I've ordered a bunch of components and am getting ready to ship them out to testers. If you are interested, please let me know.
More info here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/8988343#8988343
I tested my cheese cutting themed game a few weeks ago and it worked out ok. I'm in the process of making some adjustments and hope to try that out again soon. Once that is more solid I hope to start looking for some playtesters on BGG.
After toying around with the logo I thought it would make a cool T-shirt so I submitted it to one of those T-shirt a day companies. Who knows if it will go anywhere, but it was worth a shot.
I'm thinking of calling the game: Fart Club
Finally, I had an idea pop into my head and my wife and I have been testing out a few iterations of it. The original idea involved filling up boxes for shipment, but that seems pretty dull. It's essentially an abstract card game, but I'd still like to apply an interesting theme of some kind. It works well with 2 players, but we need to try it out with 3 and 4 players.
More details on that coming soon...
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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Things have been quite busy with the For The Win Kickstarter campaign so I haven't had much time to work on other game designs. Here is a quick status update for each one:
For The Win - Reached the $15K goal and moving along to the $25K goal. It's going to be tough to get there, but there is hope.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelmindes/for-the-win-zombi...
Getting there would be absolutely amazing, but even if the 3-4 player expansion isn't included, it will be cool to see the 2 player version get out there and enjoyed by others.
So far there have been 7 reviews and all have been positive which is encouraging.
A few people have compared For The Win to Hive which is quite a compliment because I'm a huge Hive fan. Both games are abstract, and involve placing tiles to form a board, but beyond that they are fairly different. I'm also excited to see the new (even more) portable version of Hive that is coming out. My wife and I love taking Hive to restaurants and giving it a smaller footprint is great. It's also cool that the new version includes the Ladybug because I've not yet acquired that for my regular set.
Roll For the Win - If For The Win does well enough, the dice version may have a chance of getting out there. I'm still looking for playtesters and feedback: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/737817/need-playtesters-... The print and play for this is fairly simple, especially if you use the standard dice option (no character images).
Aces & Eights: Dead Man's Hand - Hoping to wrap up playtesting by the end of January and start pitching it to potential publishers. If you want some Geek Gold or want to have your name listed in the credits, let me know soon; time is running out. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/7982418#7982418
Coming soon... Beasts Unleashed. A 2-4 player game where players struggle to release desired Beasts into their region while keeping out the corrupted Beasts. Players must strategically use baits and other means to direct the Beasts toward or away from them. ...more to come, stay tuned.
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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I finished a draft for the Daily Telegram cards:
There are 12 cards total and are sized at 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 (standard playing card size). There is certainly room for more daily events and I'm hoping more ideas will be generated at BGG.con.
I look forward to any feedback from those who play with these.
Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:33 pm
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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I haven't had much time to spend on A8 recently, but made some progress last night. Here are 3 sets of shot glasses that I plan to take to BGG.con for demos:
Here is the sign I plan to use for A8:
Also, here is the sign for the Coerceo tournament I plan to run:
The prizes for the tournament are really high class so if even if you aren't an abstract game guru, it's worth trying out.
Disclaimer: Red Rook Games (my imaginary publishing company) is not associated with Coerceo. I'm simply a fan of the game and the Coerceo company generously donated some very nice copies of the game to take to the convention. I have no financial interest in the tournament or the company. I just see a great abstract game and hope to help give it the attention it deserves.
Next steps for Aces & Eights: Dead Man's Hand:
I'm pretty much ready for BGG.Con, but still have a few things I'd like to work on if possible.
1. Finish daily event cards
2. Finish back story
3. Update rules
4. Add daily event board (outhouse option 8)
5. Improve main board if time allows
6. Update PnP files if time allows
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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I've been playing A8 with the Event cards and that has been working quite well. Sometimes the event shakes things up a bit and other times it has no effect. Either way, it adds some theme and variety to the game. I'm thinking about making a separate board to hold the Event cards. There would be 7 spots on this board and setting out each Event card also helps the players know how many rounds have occurred (and more importantly, how many remain). I'm also toying with the idea that the board can represent the 8th location - i.e. My hand of cards is too weak for me to even try so I'm going to sit this one out. The board could have an outhouse to represent that. Even though it would rarely be used (sitting out a round), it adds to the feel of the game. "I'm going to hide in this here crapper for a while."
Originally, I was thinking of using newspaper headlines for the Events, but decided that a telegram message may work better. The small town is under siege and it seems unlikely that a printing press would be up and running. A telegram seems more urgent and frantic.
Here is a sample of what I'm working on:
Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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Development for A8 was very productive this weekend. I ended up playing a few times - one was with David Short, Don Dehm, and my wife at NOTACON.
We used the Event Cards which worked well along with the Character Cards. The Character Cards were not great and will be difficult to balance so I'm considering leaving them out for now. David used his ability for Frye and Lisa used her ability for Gina (it was amusing, but almost too much "take that" because she essentially took points away from Don). I didn't use my ability for Hughes... I was waiting for the right moment and realized I should have used it in the beginning. Don didn't use his ability for Brock which sucks because it would have kept him in the game instead of dying when he did. We were so focused on finishing the game and closing down the Con that we all forgot about his ability.
David came up with an idea for the damage caused by the Poker Dice roll that is almost a no-brainer to implement (pun intended):
David Short
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Previously, you could have an awesome hand (say, Full House for a value of 6) and go for a location where you only need a value of 2. You would still have to count the damage from the Poker Dice roll. With the new rules, any excess attack power is used to defend against the Poker Dice roll. Essentially, you know the minimum number of Ghouls at a location, but roll the dice to see how many of their buddies show up. I think this is easier to explain and seems more fair. This also allows you to play more cautiously or push your luck if you prefer. The change is subtle, but we tested it on Sunday in a 4 player game and it worked well.
After several plays, it appears that the Bank Notes card is overpowered, even though I still lose when I get it. When the overall values of the cards were higher, adding 1 point to each card was not a big deal. However, now that they have been reduced to mostly 1s and 2s adding 1 point to each other card is the same as doubling the value in some cases. To correct this, I'm considering limiting the number of cards to add 1 point to a maximum of 3 cards. This way, it is different from the property deeds and may not be as powerful. However, if you focus on getting 3 other Bank cards it can pay off. This is especially handy if you have the Bank Bandages and add a point to something that would not normally have points. This is also interesting (even though it was like this before) because the Bank Bandages can potentially be more valuable than the other Bandages cards.
I had given away my D8 dice to some playtesters so we've been using playing cards to signify the location selection. This has been a bit chaotic and it is apparent that dice or something else should be used. I considered giving the players dials with the location names, but that would be costly and language dependent. Dice are easy to use and fairly cheap. Don had a great idea to use shot glasses instead of covering them with hands/cards/chips. This adds to the them and is functional.
I started looking into different types of shot glasses and came up with these:
I'm leaning toward the skulls because they fit the theme, are dark enough to hide the dice (at least the black one is) and are cheaper. Now the question is what should be used to tell the players apart when they put their marker on the location. The marker could either be the D8 or the shot glass. If the D8, then each would need to be a different color. This may be more expensive because I'm considering buying a bulk set of D8, but they'd all be the same color. If the shot glasses are different, they could be different styles (similar to the picture) or they could all be the same, but with a different color painted on bottom (or in the eyes in the case of the skulls). I'm leaning toward using black D8s, use the skull shot glasses and color the bottoms to represent the player colors.
Any suggestions on that would be greatly appreciated.
Lastly, here are the latest boards we've been playing with:
New board idea #1
New board idea #2
Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:01 pm
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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It may not be the final board, but it's a lot further along that the first couple versions:
The board is not 100% necessary, but provides a place for the cards and adds to the theme. My wife and I played a game of A8 yesterday using the board for the first time and it added a nice touch IMHO. The shaded spots are only large enough for about 2 cards per location so if there are more than 2 cards, you have to overlap them or let them hang off the edge. I thought about making the board big enough for the extreme possibilities, but those are rare and you could have up to 7 cards at one location (in theory). Making the board big enough for those rare situations would result in a huge board with little benefit so I'm holding off on that for now.
In addition to the board, we used the new cards from ArtsCow (turned out great) and used the Character and Daily Event cards for the first time. The events added just about the right amount of variety (aka chaos) and we each used our character abilities. She was Frye, and I was Gina. The character abilities are all different but are useful in certain situations. It comes down to choosing the right time to use the ability.
Some of the Daily Event cards had no effect, which is fine. The first one would have given health chips, but there weren't any lost yet so it didn't matter. When "Skipping Church" came up, there were no Ghouls at the Church that round so it was moot as well. I may need to clarify some of the events and character abilities in an FAQ for unusual situations, but overall it worked well.
Hopefully we can test more this week and get some new testers at NOTACON this weekend.
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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I started working on a board for A8 and posted a poll for the first one I made:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/7557293#7557293
Even if I tweaked the style to make it less cartoony, the building shapes are more medieval than old western so I tried a new approach:
The layout is supposed to represent the perspective from the end of the main street. There are 2 separate images so that they can be printed on normal 8 1/2 X 11 paper and spliced together for the prototype. I need to do some more tweaking on the alignment and perspective, but it is a start. If you have any suggestions on parts that "don't look right" please let me know. I plan to add some flavor like tumbleweeds and dirt road as suggested by:
Samantha RD
South Africa
Harrismith
Free State
The shaded area is where the cards for that building are placed when they are revealed. The question now is, how much flavor should be added? Should some ghouls be added? What's missing?
As always, any input is appreciated!
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Red Rook
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Something clever...
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Some playtesters suggested adding characters to the game to increase the theme. Instead of making the addition purely thematic, I thought it may be fun to give each character a 1-time ability that they can use during the game. I need to test the abilities for balance and hope to come up with about 7 characters in all. Currently, Aces & Eights: Dead Man's Hand is recommended for a maximum of 4 players so not all characters would be used every time. (however, the game may work with 5 players... still being tested)
Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated as always.
Character Cards (optional)
At the beginning of the game, players are randomly dealt a Character Card. Players may use the ability listed on the card one time during the game. When the ability is used, they flip the card over.
Brock - A beast and a brute, Brock is as tough as they come. He’s been known to take beatings that would end normal men several times over. Ability: If Brock gets down to 0-1 health, he may recover 3 Health Chips (if available).
Gina - Ever since Gina was a farm girl, she enjoyed getting the attention of rowdy boys and then beating the stuffing out of them. She’s adapted this to dealing with the roaming Ghouls as well. Ability: After the locations have been chosen (after any wagering) and before the Ghoul Attack phase begins Gina may move a Ghoul card with 1 or 2 Ghouls from another location to her location.
Hughes - Hughes is a scrapper and can deal serious damage when needed. Ability: During a Ghoul Capture, Hughes can increase his attack strength by 3.
Pierre - Pierre is sly and can move out of danger faster than a scared jackrabbit. Ability: During a Ghoul Capture, Pierre can ignore any number of Ghoul cards. The original number of Ghouls is still counted for the Ghoul Attack (dice roll). Pierre only collects the cards he chooses to compare his damage (card values) against.
Frye - Experienced and wise, Frye knows when an attack will work and when something else should be tried. Ability: After drawing back up to 5 cards during the Draw phase, Frye can discard his entire hand and draw 5 new cards. He is allowed to use Draw abilities before or after this.
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