Dung & Dragons Progress Report

Mockup-C Heyo! So here is where my head's at since the last time I talked about Dung & Dragons. I'm continuing the central idea introduced in that last post. Each player chooses one numbered action card from his hand each turn. Then all players reveal their cards at the same time. Actions may incur bonuses if the total of all numbers is above, equal to or below the average.



There are six actions, you may only do one on a turn:

  • Shovel earns you 1, 2, or 3 victory points for shoveling your dragons' stables. There are two Shovel cards in your hand.
  • Build lets you add 1, 2, or 3 buildings to your ranch.
  • Raise lets you advance your dragons 1, 2 or 3 levels. This growth can be spread across multiple dragons or focused on just one.
  • Feed lets you give 1 or 2 food to your dragons.
  • Hatch lets you add 1, 2, or 3 dragons to your ranch.
  • Upgrade lets you advance your buildings 1, 2, or 3 levels. This growth can be spread across multiple buildings or focused on just one.

The game lasts four rounds ("weeks.") A week is five turns ("days.") You cannot use the same card twice in one round, so there will always be two cards that you don't use by the end of the round. Between rounds, you draw back up to your full hand.



The board shows the Hatchery and the Workshop. When a card is taken from the board (because of Hatch or Build) they are replaced with cards from the deck. (I may actually merge Hatchery and Workshop into a single pool to keep things simpler.) The deck also acts as the food supply for dragons. Food cards are always kept face-down. On the top right you'll see the progress meter. To the side is a little tile that shows the average number for this size group.




Your "ranch" is your collection of dragons and buildings. As the game progresses, you'll use Raise or Upgrade actions to rotate cards and increase their value or gain new abilities. The uppermost wedge shows the active effect.

  • In this case, the dragon on the far left says "If your neighbor feeds, place one face-down card from the deck onto this dragon."
  • The middle dragon says "When you shovel this dragon, gain +2VPs, which explains why there is so much poop stacked on top of this card.
  • The building to the right gives you one extra rotation when you choose to upgrade.

As you can see, I've removed any explicit currency from the game. No gold or gems or ore and whatnot. It's all about the food cycle, limited time, and being as efficient with it as possible. The card-rotation gimmick may not work if cards are placed on the dragons.

Perhaps there is just one big pile of poop you keep in your ranch? Or the cards can be big enough to stay upright, but with a token to show progress a la Kingsburg? Either way, I need to hash out some basic outlines of what each dragon and building can do. Then, playtesting!

Comments

  1. DenaghDesignJanuary 9, 2013 at 4:51 PM

    Poop should go under the dragon tile. Either directly under the tile or below the tile on the playspace. That way, you have a dragon sitting on top of a pile of filth instead of a dragon crushed under a mountain of excrement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanielSolisJanuary 9, 2013 at 5:33 PM

    Well that solves a lot of problems! Excellent suggestion. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more