Wednesday, August 11, 2010

In Which The Board Game Takes Shape

So we worked on the board game a lot this weekend. We got a prototype built enough for us to give it a run through.



The first game was more or less a disaster. Brother died almost immediately. So we took notes, made some changes in the game play and tried it again.

It was much better the second time around but still needs a lot of work. Still I'm pretty confident we can fix a lot of the issues by adjusting a few aspects here and there.

One of the things our game has is character cards. Everyone picks a character and depending on who you choose your skills and starting items differ.

We have ten characters, each one with a backstory.

Twin and I worked on the backstory for each character on Friday evening. It was almost like writing a mini query for each character and some of them turned out great!

Here's an example of a few of the fun character backstories (more or less, why they're stuck in the game)

The Nurse:

Nancy Wu has been an End of Life nurse practitioner for five years. So when the evac comes, she volunteers to stay with her patients, especially since the DRRT (disaster relief response team) officials promise her help will arrive shortly.
But when the days pass and all her patients (and patience) expire, Nancy is left to find a way through the city herself. Before she meets her own end of life.


The Military Officer:

Lt. Matt Olson is on his way back to the base after a week of leave when his car breaks down outside of town. He radios the base for assistance, but no one answers.
Set on a long trek back to base, Matt is worried that perhaps an “incident” has occurred. It would explain the radio silence.
Matt needs to get back to base ASAP, before everything winds up FUBAR


The Athlete:

Adrienne Ramsey has been training for the Olympics since she was fifteen years old. She runs six miles a day, lifts weights Monday, Wednesday, Friday and takes a night swim at Lake Ruth every Saturday.
Normally after her swim she rewards herself with a hot cup of coffee at Sal’s diner but this time Sal’s is closed, along with the rest of the city.
Adrienne needs to get out of town as fast as possible or the race out of the city could become a race for her life.


Fun times!

Also this is a reminder that next week I will be on vacay at a cabin on the lake. There were be some posts, but I won't be able to respond to comments until I return.

25 comments:

Anne Gallagher said...

Wow, just wow. This looks so cool, I might even want to play it and I don't play board games! Congratulations Sarah, Twin and Brother, you guys are totally rocking on this.

And btw, when the athlete stops for coffee at Sal's diner, could that possibly be 'Sal' from my current wip. LOL.

Hannah said...

Awww awesome! That sounds like much fun is to be had!! I can't wait to play!

Jaydee Morgan said...

Glad to hear you got a prototype up and running so you could give it a test run. The characters sound great. Good luck with it!

Erica Mitchell said...

So neat, I love the characters and the backstory for them all. Can't wait to hear more about it! Are you sure it wasn't Brother's lack of skill or...was it the game ;) Looks amazing!

Austin Gorton said...

Ha! I love it.

But when the days pass and all her patients (and patience) expire

Zing! I love the closing lines of all them; very board game-esque but uniquely clever.

Seriously, that must have been so much fun, coming up with those.

M.R.J. Le Blanc said...

Okay this sounds like it's turning into an awesome board game. I'd totally play this.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Piedmont - Hah! It totes could be your Sal! I didn't even think about it

Palindrome - i can't wait for it to be at a place where you can play

Jaydee - thanks!

Erica - we did give him crap about it, but then we died shortly after, so it was clearly the game.

Teebore - once we got the first two done, then they got easy and fun. But the last ones were hard again

MRJ - ooh thanks for that. Maybe one day you will!

Southpaw said...

How fun. I love to create games too.

Summer Ross said...

Looks like fun, I hope you have a fun time at your cabin.

Matthew MacNish said...

This looks like when we used to use miniatures and 2d dungeon maps while playing D&D as kids. Except more organized. And cooler.

Unknown said...

That looks so cool. All the hard work you put into it. What's the game called?

CD

Anne Ahiers said...

damnit, my comment didn't save

@Teebore- it was totes fun- you know our love of puns.

And by 'Zing', i'm sure you meant 'Zam', right? ;-)

Austin Gorton said...

Zam it all, I did mean Zam!

Okie said...

Nicely done. Sounds cool and kudos to you for getting some working prototypes in place and playtesting them. That's awesome.

So is this set up co-op style...all the players against the game? Or are you each out for your own glory/escape?

What sort of "play time" are you shooting for (I must say that's the main thing that's kept my gaming group away from Arkham Horror is the massive time investment)?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That sounds like fun. Did you secretly enjoy watching your brother die right away?

Sarah Ahiers said...

Holly - ooh i'd love to hear about them

Summer - thanks and i'm sure we will

Matthew - oohhh, there will be minatures...

Clarissa - we haven't come up with a name yet. Something to do with the apocalypse maybe...

Anne and Teebore - Hah!

Okie - it's mostly characters vs the game, but there's certainly in-game opportunites to screw other players. There's also a team up option. Ugh, arkham horror is sooooo long. Our gameplay has a set amount of time, depending on amount of players. Currently it has 31 rounds, and each player has a turn within the round. That may change a bit in the future, but with the 3 of us playing, it wasn't long at all

Sarah Ahiers said...

Alex - oh yes. There was much teasing to be had

Touch of Ink said...

Oh this sounds fun! Is it a zombie thing?

Whether it is or not, I want to play. (We've been looking for a boardgame we can play as a family.)

Lola Sharp said...

*bowing down to your awesomeness* Dude. Tell me there's goon be brain-eating zombies!! Please!

Are you taking it to the cabin to play?

Have fun on your vacay.

Okay....back to write on con-
Lola---->out.

Unknown said...

You have some great characters! I'm sure you all will have a lot of fun working the "bugs" out.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like fun! Congrats on getting thus far. The character cards are a really great idea.

Definitely keep us posted.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Suzi - there will indeed be zombs. And have you tried settlers of Cataan? That's a family game

Lola - there will indeed be zomb. We plan on making a zombie expansion pack. In this version, though, there's just "infected"

Janel - thanks! And yeah, i can get behind this kind of "work"

Kelly - thanks! And will do!

Hart Johnson said...

This looks very cool... And Sarah, I've given you an award today (well, you and Yvie) for being truly and fabulously STRANGE! Come on over!

http://bit.ly/aNBVbr

Anonymous said...

This is fascinating. I've always been a board game freak but I din't know that people still played them.

Thanks for a great post.

All the best, Boonsong

Sarah Ahiers said...

Hart - ooh thanks! I'll stop over right now!

Boonsong - i think a lot of people still play board games, but it's not as ubiquitous as it used to be due to video games

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