Inflatable Jewels? A Modular Method for Indexing Inflation in the Mansa Musa Game

MansaMusa Value Tracker

Here's my current experiment with adjustable values for goods that get progressively inflated or deflated as Mansa Musa passes through. (Reminder: Mansa Musa was the richest human in history. On his pilgrimage from Mali to Mecca, he spent so much gold that he caused a wave of hyper-inflation across North Africa. His procession was basically a Medieval Singularity of post-scarcity.)

I'm considering using a set of cards to create a winding connected path representing Mali to Mecca. I think this linear path can serve two purposes: It's a pacing mechanic for the game a whole with Musa inexorably traveling east, then back west. It's also a sliding dial to note relative inflation.

Basically, the Musa meeple acts as a progress bar and wherever you are to the east or west of that progress bar indicates the relative value of your goods. After all, checking an inflation line chart isn't exactly a fun time for most people.

I wanted to index the value of goods to Mansa Musa's progression across the track. Every so often, there is a demarcation space in the track that is used as the increment of inflation. In the final game, these might represent cities.

The base value of goods are as follows:

ARCH.:    3
MATH:     2
ART:      1
SPICES:   1
STONE:    2
JEWELS:   3

If you're to the WEST of Musa, the value of the first three goods is increased while the other three are decreased. When determining the value of ARCHITECTURE, MATH, and ART, add the number of hexes between you and Musa to their base value. For SPICES, STONE and JEWELS, subtract the hexes.

In the example above, the blue player is two hexes west of Musa, so the value of goods would be:

ARCH.:    5
MATH:     4
ART:      3
SPICES:   0
STONE:    0
JEWELS:   1

If you're to the EAST of Musa, the value of the first three goods is decreased while the other three are increased. When determining the value of ARCHITECTURE, MATH, and ART, subtract the number of hexes between you and Musa to their base value. For SPICES, STONE and JEWELS, add the hexes.

In the example above, the orange player is one hex east of Musa, so the value of goods would be:

ARCH.:    2
MATH:     1
ART:      0
SPICES:   2
STONE:    3
JEWELS:   4

For now, goods cannot be worth less than zero, though I am amused by the idea that if you're far west of Musa, people would actually pay you to take away their jewels. It's an idea worth considering if it's not too mentally burdensome in actual play.

For replay value, the map cards could be shuffled or flipped for alternate layouts. More cards could be added for more players, too.

Comments

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 tha...
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