Let us gather for beers and snacks and play games we have made ourselves.
I love boardgames but was disappointed that classics like Monopoly and the game of life did not have the aspects of gameplay that I wanted. The Game Of Life in particular seemed too limited in your choices and it did not show much interaction between players and society.
I decided to fix it by making my own board game. I first did everything in pencil on note cards and made the rules. I then tested it on those willing to play my crude game. Since then I have discovered some tools to help me make a more serious prototype (Inscape Card Extension, Instructions 1, Instructions 2, Path Making). With these new tools I created a beta version that needs to get tested.
Since we can only have 3-6 players on my game at any one time I am encuraging others to bring in their games or bring in standard games and modify the rules in some way to make them play differently. Let me know in the comments if you plan to attend.
About My Game
The working title is Generations because I wanted each game to be one generation and each generation to impact the one to follow. For this reason there is both a society and personal scorecard. When you die your score card is wiped but your impact (if any) on society is impacts the next game.
Each game winner is determined by a point system based on a combination of who lives the most years (100 possible) and personal achievements accomplished in that lifetime.
On each personal score card there are three meters (education, income, health) where you can earn and lose points. Throughout the game there are choice and opportunities for achievement that require a base level education, income or health to qualify. For example you might have the choice of going to become a scholar but you will need a base level of education to qualify for college and be willing to sacrifice a point of income to get the experience. This sacrifice is likely short term because other opportunities (like becoming a business owner) my have the scholarship achievement as a qualification.
To mix things up further there are periodic elections. There is a pool of candidates with different characteristics. They all can shift the way society makes investments that impact everyone and they have a specific policy platform that often targets a specific constituency. For example they could give an income boost to people who have achievement the parenting achievement. This can pit your self interest vs the interest of your society. Do you pick the candidate that panders to your needs but is bad overall?
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Full board game with cards.
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Peronal card with meeters for educaiton, income and health as well as possible achievements.