The List - November 2023

   I know I just posted about The List a month ago, but I've already got some updates to it!

Published Games:

- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG) [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Isle of Trains (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) (BGG)
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) [now available from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [now available from Renegade!]

- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Development projects - Games I've done freelance development on

- Amun-Re expansion [Alley Cat Games 20th Anniversary edition] - Heavy Development

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

- Holiday In Rome (add BGG link) [by Cory Andalora from Pandasaurus Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

Finished But Unpublished Games - in line to be published:
- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]

- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game) [Ready for art] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

Currently Pitching Games - "actively" looking for a publisher (though I haven't actively been doing much of anything lately!):

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Exhibit (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Keeping Up with the Joneses [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

- Alter Ego (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Dice Works (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Suburban Sprawl [pitching to publishers]

 

"Finished" But Unpublished Games - abandoned or backburnered designs that are "done":
- Wizard's Tower (BGG) [Abandoned]
- Watch It Played [Abandoned]
- Now Boarding [Abandoned]
- Rolling Realms: Jaffee Realms (for Jamey Stegmaier's Rolling Realms)

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022)

- Worker Placement Microgame

Current Active Designs - these are the games I'm actively testing or working on:

- Let's Go Balloon Racing

- Taiko Kiri (co-design with Steve Carleson)

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Eminent Domain: Coalition [solo mode]

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

Backburnered Designs - I kid myself into thinking that I'm still working on these:

- Isle Of Trains: The Board Game (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Joan of Arc

- I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement

- Kingdom Realms (KBGames 3-lane game jam entry, Nov 2022)

Promising Recent ideas:
- Worker-ception [with David Short]

- False Prophet [Mancala/Worker Placement]

- Come And Play [Sesame Street memory/rondel game]

- Candyland Game [Candyland/No Thanks mashup]

- Hanabi Wonders [Hanabi/7 Wonders mashup]

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

- Eminent Domain: Legacy [campaign mode]

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central [Abandoned]
- Hot & Fresh [Abandoned]

- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG) [Abandoned]

- Reading Railroad [Abandoned]

- Moctezuma's Revenge [Abandoned]

- Kilauea [a designer showed interest in co-designing, but that didn't go anywhere] [Abandoned]

- Automatown [with Michael Brown] [Abandoned]

- Dynasty [I still think this one has potential] [Abandoned]

Misc and Really Old Stuff - most of this I'll probably never get back to, but I like keeping it around just in case:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)

- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- The Untouchables
- Day labor game based on craps

- Rondel Role Selection

- Scourge of the High Seas [deckbuilding game with 2 center rows]

Recent updates to the above

Finished But Unpublished Games

- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]

Renegade hasn't sold through the initial print run of Crusaders yet, it seems it hasn't performed as well as they'd hoped, so it seems the 5th and 6th player expansion stuff has been put on hold, so I've updated their status accordingly. it's disappointing, but understandable.

 

Current Active Designs

- Taiko Kiri (co-design with Steve Carleson)

This is the game my friend (and now co-designer) Steve made, inspired by Tri-ominoes. We've decided to go with a Japanese theme: the game takes place during the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, perhaps the most famous figure in Japanese history, and is centered on Kyoto, which was then the capital of the shogunate. Players are prominent members of the bakufu, the central administrative branch of the shogunate during Hideyoshi’s rule. They are tasked with revitalizing the city and its environs, with the player who does the best job gaining Kampaku Hideyoshi’s favor.

- Eminent Domain: Coalition [solo mode]

I figured out a way to play Eminent Domain cooperatively, and I put together a prototype to try it out. I've played twice so far, and I think it's a solid beginning. I even have ideas to address the biggest problems with the game so far. I'll be posting about the progress on this game sometime soon.

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

This heavily developed version of Deities & Demigods was originally slated for crowdfunding this month, but the publisher has decided to wait a few months until their previous crowdfunded game has been delivered. So this one should hit kickstarter in January or February 2024.

I got a chance to play the latest version a couple of times, and I've been communicating with the developer about some last minute tweaks and changes, so I've moved it to "Currently Active" status.

Promising Recent ideas:

- Eminent Domain: Legacy [campaign mode]

Some years ago I had an idea for an "Eminent Domain Legacy" tournament format, where each round your starting deck is different based on its end configuration in the previous game. It's not enough by itself, but I think that could be the core of a campaign mode for Eminent Domain, and since that's being reprinted next year by Rio Grande Games, now's as good a time as any to explore the idea further.

Eminent Domain: Modus Operandi?

Eminent Domain has been in a restful slumber for some time now, ever since Oblivion came out in 2018. Soon after that, TMG started a slow and painful demise, and along with it, any chance for further sales or content for Eminent Domain.

So, it's been a while, but last January's Rio Grande Games newsletter contained this little tidbit:

° We have also begun planning our new games for later in 2023. These include three rail games: Prussian Railroads, Wabash Cannonball, and Balkan Railways; Pacific from Donald X Vaccarino; and a new production of an old favorite Eminent Domain.

We're almost one year out from that newsletter, but I'm happy to report that I've seen some of the new artwork for the boxes and the cards, and it looks pretty great!

I had thought that after the base game, Escalation, Exotica, Oblivion, the standalone Microcosm microgame, the Bonus Planets promo, Chaos Theory (an unreleased EmDo dice game), and the Terra Prime reboot as Eminent Domain Origins (an EmDo prequel), that the well had run dry. I did not have any plans to further expand Eminent Domain.

However, in the wake of TMG, as I tried to find a new home for my titles, it seemed any publisher that showed interest in picking up the line wanted to do a Big Box version, or add some content to freshen up this decade-old game. And I get it -- it's nice to reach a new audience who never had the pleasure of playing EmDo the first time around, but it's also nice to offer something of interest to fans of the game who may be willing to buy it again (but not if it's the same thing they already have). new art alone is not really enough to entice those people, but even just a little bit of new content might be!

EmDo Solo

So, what to include? Again, the well had run dry... I am pretty happy with the amount of actual content that's been added to the game in the three expansions. I don't know that I'd be interested in creating more tech cards, or trying to shoehorn in another new mechanism (like Exotica's Asteroids, or Oblivion's Politics role). Well, I'm not much into solo play, but nowadays more and more players are. It so happens that prolific solo mode designer David Turczi is a fan of Eminent Domain.. maybe having him create a solo mode would be a nice chunk of new content for the game. Well, good news: he's working on it!

However, a solo mode might be better placed in the same box as the base game, so that people wanting to buy the game to play solo don't need to buy both the game and an expansion box. Then again, maybe keeping the base game box more affordable, and keeping the solo mode separate would serve a bigger proportion of the audience. Ultimately that'll be up to Rio Grande Games. 

EmDo: Legacy

Some years ago (2014) I ran an "EmDo Legacy" tournament at Strategicon in L.A. -- here's a description of how it went from a blog post back then:

Round 1 was a normal game of EmDo - players started with the basic starting decks.

After Round 1, I recorded the contents of each player's decks - the number of each standard role card.

For round 2, You started with 1 fewer card in your deck for whichever Role card(s) you had the fewest of at the end of round 1, and you started with 1 more card in your deck for whichever role card(s) you had the most of at the end of round 1.

After round 2 we did the same thing again, but didn't count any card that you started with 0 of... i.e. if you started with 0 Warfare after round 1, then after round 2 you look at the card you had the fewest of BESIDES Warfare.

There were some really interesting starting decks in the final round!

I never tried that again, but I've always thought that format had some potential. When a couple of prospective publishers mentioned wanting to add a sort of campaign mode to freshen up the game, this Legacy format immediately came to mind. I am not sure what else could be added, but I did discuss it with someone who did a TON of playtesting for the expansions back in the day, and he had some really good ideas as well.

So who knows, perhaps the materials needed for a campaign mode could be placed into a 3rd box

EmDo: Coalition

Another potential mode that could be added to the game would be a cooperative mode. Orleans: Trade and Intrigue did that - added a cooperative mode in an otherwise competitive game - and it went over pretty well as I recall. I'm not the biggest player of cooperative games (though there are some I enjoy), but I put a little thought into what a cooperative EmDo might look like, and I stumbled onto something that I think might be the key to make it work!

Imagine that the players have formed a coalition (like a galactic United Nations or something -- United Empires?), and are working together to complete an ambitious project - perhaps a Dyson Sphere:

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone.

The goal of the game would be to complete the project before the game ends (when one (some?) stack runs out). The key mechanism is that whenever you flip a planet, or buy a tech card, you will choose whether to keep it for yourself (like normal) - powering up your engine, or to commit it to the project, placing the card in a slot on a Project board, representing progress toward victory.

In the meantime of course, there would be a deck of "bad stuff" cards that would come up after each round of player turns, representing some antagonistic force (hostile aliens, or space pirates). Players would need to defend against this force, lest they get "curse" style cards in their deck, or lose progress toward winning.

I'm actually pretty excited about this co-op mode, and I'm anxious to get a prototype together and give it a try, maybe this Thursday!

The List - Oct 2023

  Once again it's time to revisit The List! Let's see if anything's changed since last August

Published Games:

- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG) [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Isle of Trains (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) (BGG)
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) [now available from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [now available from Renegade!]

- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Development projects - Games I've done freelance development on

- Amun-Re expansion [Alley Cat Games 20th Anniversary edition] - Heavy Development

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

- Holiday In Rome (add BGG link) [by Cory Andalora from Pandasaurus Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

Finished But Unpublished Games - in line to be published:
- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game) [Ready for art] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

Currently Pitching Games - "actively" looking for a publisher (though I haven't actively been doing much of anything lately!):

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Exhibit (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Keeping Up with the Joneses [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

- Alter Ego (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Dice Works (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Suburban Sprawl [pitching to publishers]

 

"Finished" But Unpublished Games - abandoned or backburnered designs that are "done":
- Wizard's Tower (BGG) [Abandoned]
- Watch It Played [Abandoned]
- Now Boarding [Abandoned]
- Rolling Realms: Jaffee Realms (for Jamey Stegmaier's Rolling Realms)

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022)

- Worker Placement Microgame

Current Active Designs - these are the games I'm actively testing or working on:

- Let's Go Balloon Racing

- Tri-inspired (co-design with Steve Carleson)

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

Backburnered Designs - I kid myself into thinking that I'm still working on these:

- Isle Of Trains: The Board Game (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Joan of Arc

- I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement

- Kingdom Realms (KBGames 3-lane game jam entry, Nov 2022)

Promising Recent ideas:
- Worker-ception [with David Short]

- False Prophet [Mancala/Worker Placement]

- Come And Play [Sesame Street memory/rondel game]

- Candyland Game [Candyland/No Thanks mashup]

- Hanabi Wonders [Hanabi/7 Wonders mashup]

- My First Ark Nova [Simpler version of Ark Nova]

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central [Abandoned]
- Hot & Fresh [Abandoned]

- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG) [Abandoned]

- Reading Railroad [Abandoned]

- Moctezuma's Revenge [Abandoned]

- Kilauea [a designer showed interest in co-designing, but that didn't go anywhere] [Abandoned]

- Automatown [with Michael Brown] [Abandoned]

- Dynasty [I still think this one has potential] [Abandoned]

Misc and Really Old Stuff - most of this I'll probably never get back to, but I like keeping it around just in case:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)

- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- The Untouchables
- Day labor game based on craps

- Rondel Role Selection

- Scourge of the High Seas [deckbuilding game with 2 center rows]

Recent updates to the above

Published Games
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
Isle of Trains: All Aboard had a strong Kickstarter project, and is currently delivering to backers. I haven't got my copies just yet, but I have seen a number of positive reviews and posts about it, which is great!

Development projects

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

The new version of Harvest from Keymaster games had a strong Kickstarter recently, and will now move into production

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

Expeditions has been released. It was over a year and a half ago that I did some consulting for an earlier iteration of the game, hopefully my comments were helpful, though it looks like the final game changed significantly since then

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

I did some consulting on these two games for Mark Swanson of Odd Bird Games, and I see that I'm listed as Developer on their BGG entries. I don't know when they'll be coming out, but they're listed on BGG as 2024 and 2025 releases respectively

Finished But Unpublished Games

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

The publisher has done significant development on Deities & Demigods, and I believe it will be coming to Kickstarter by the end of the year under the title The Sixth Realm. I've seen a little of the artwork for the game, and it looks awesome!

 

Currently Pitching Games

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

A publisher expressed some interest in both of these titles, I'm waiting to hear if they will decide to sign either of them (fingers crossed!)

 

Current Active Designs

- Let's Go Balloon Racing

This started as an idea for a mechanism for a kid's game to play with Corbin, and has grown into a legit game with a quirky theme. I'm trying to keep it light, quick, and accessible  

- Tri-inspired (co-design with Steve Carleson)

My friend Steve had an idea for a game, which he described when he was in town visiting recently. I discussed it with him and had a lot of suggestions even then, and after he went home and made a prototype, I played it and had even more (or more specific) suggestions... I really feel like it's got potential as a popular game product. He accepted my offer to co-design the game with him, so now it's on the list!

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

I was engaged as a Developer to revamp an old game that a publisher had signed, and ended up designing a whole new game using the main mechanism and the aspects of the original that the publisher was most interested in. Currently another developer has started to work on it as well, because my draft might have been a bit too "big" for the publisher's brand

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

Dranda Games, the new publisher of Isle of Trains, said they'd be interested in a sequel multi-use card game with positive player interaction, so I did some brainstorming, and I think I've got a good start on a game similar to IoT, where you recruit and equip adventurers and explore a dungeon rather than build and load train cars to fulfill contracts. So far it sounds promising, we'll see how well that holds up as I get a prototype together

Promising Recent ideas:

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

Back in February, I had a bunch of thoughts about a horse management game, initially spurred by the pun title Stable Genius. I actually used AI chatbot ChatGPT as a sounding board to talk through ideas for this one, and when it came down to it, the approach that interested me the most was a more serious game, for which that title wouldn't be appropriate. I don't know if I'll ever get back to this one, or if I really think it'd be that good to begin with, but we'll see

Horsing around

Stable Genius

About 5 years ago, the then-president of the United States had his mental acuity challenged in the media, and in contesting those allegations, he said, in public, on Twitter: "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.... I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star... to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!"

Pretty much ever since then, I thought it would be funny to see a horse management game or something entitled Stable Genius. Years passed, and I still haven't seen any such parody game, and recently I had some thoughts about how a game like that might go. Here are some ideas...

1. A horse training game, where the you're trying to get the best trained horse in the stable: the Stable Genius 

2. I can imagine a Euro-style game where you manage a stable, assigning horses to things like races (for money), dressage (for points), farming (for food), breeding (for more horses), or sale. You could upgrade or expand your stable to maintain more horses, speculate on horses (buy low, sell high), breed horses to sell, race, or show, and in the end, the best manager could be labeled a Stable Genius

3. A twist on the above, same thing but add a Mental Acuity track - which would range from "stable" to "unhinged," and would trend downwards (toward "unhinged") over time. Perhaps you would suffer in-game penalties if you drop below a certain threshold, and at game end maybe you gain a bonus for being ahead of other players on the Acuity track. Or like corruption or unrest in some other games, maybe the least stable player straight up loses the game! There could be Mental Acuity challenges which you could earn: cards with in-game conditions on them which, once satisfied, move you up the track. Or maybe even better, literal mental acuity challenges, such as riddles, logic problems, or word puzzles, which you would need to solve to gain those advances.

At that point I took a step back and realized that if I were really to base a game on a pun/meme title that refers to some politician 5 years ago, I'd really have to lean into it, make it look like a parody,  not some game that tries to take itself seriously...

4. As if out of Orwell's Animal Farm, you are a horse angling to be crowned ruler of the ranch, and you'll have to use all your acumen and political machinations to defeat your opponents - for the role will only be won by a true Stable Genius!

Wingspan of Horses

To be honest, the idea that interests me the most is number 2 above, and I don't think it's worth shoehorning in that pun title. But it could be a fun code-name until I come up with a better title. I like the sounds of Equestria, but that appears to be the name of some place in My Little Pony lore, so I'm not sure if it's OK to use. So maybe just Equestrian or something. Lean into the realistic aspects of managing a stable, and maybe I can design, as my playtester put it, the "Wingspan of horses."

Side note... when I heard "Wingspan of horses," all I could think of was Pegasus. My response was "wingspan of horses? What is that - about 35 hands?"

So here are some details I thought of about a potential game about horse management. You may be amused to hear that as a sounding board, I "talked this through" with ChatGPT (the AI chat bot you may have heard about), and it actually proved very helpful!

There are a lot of details that could go into a game about race horses specifically. Pedigree is a huge deal, and while a race horse can earn money by winning races, my understanding is that the real money is in studding out your champion horse. That could be a game all in itself, but I was attracted to the idea of managing a stable of horses, and having to decide what to do with each horse every round. Do you send this horse to the track to earn money? Or should you breed it instead, so you'll have more horses to work with later? Should you train this horse for Dressage to earn some victory points? or put it to work on the farm to produce food to help keep your other horses fed? Should you expand your stable to hold more horses? Or keep your stable small, requiring less food and other resources to maintain?

Breeding

One idea I had - and I think this isn't really accurate to how horse breeding works, but maybe it's acceptable artistic license - was that your horses start out generic, and if you send them to a race, then they "become a race horse" - they are now "better at racing" (whatever that means), and if you breed them, you have a better chance of getting a new horse that's "better at racing." That's the artistic license part - I'm pretty sure the breeding is just based on genetics, I don't think you can pass down training to an offspring. but maybe one can say that you sent the horse to race because you noticed it was good for that, so *hand wave.* Anyway, I liked the idea of having to choose between racing your champion race horse, or breeding it.

Another, different idea I had was that maybe you don't have to choose to breed a horse over doing something else (because I didn't want players having to just breed their horses all the time and not do anything else with them). Instead, maybe you have a number of "Stallions" (which you could increase), which just means you get that many new horses each round to assign to races, shows, farms, sale, etc. Maybe the current configuration of your horses influences whether you get foals of a particular type - for example, maybe you roll a special die for each stallion, and the resulting face shows you what type of horse you get... brown (generic), green (good at racing), purple (good at dressage), yellow (good at farming). Maybe you have a yellow die with 1 each of those faces, plus 2 more yellow faces - so 50% likely to be good at farming, and then similarly a green die, a purple die, and a brown die. Then for each Stallion in your stable, you roll a die, and you get to choose the color of each based on where your horses are assigned.

Both of those sound kind of reasonable to me, depending on how the rest of the game works.

Lifespan

Another aspect is that a horse's useful life is only so long, and it's even shorter for a race horse. So maybe your horses only last a few rounds (like 3), then you have to sell them off or something. And maybe a race horse only lasts 2 rounds instead, representing their shorter useful lifespan due to injury and like, wear and tear. 

If a horse is past its useful lifespan, maybe you automatically sell it for some minimal amount of money, but based on the Input Randomness card mentioned above, maybe you could choose to sell a horse that's on its last legs for more money (and points?) rather than race it or work it.

Input Randomness

In order to make it a game, and dynamically change player incentives, I thought there could be an Input Randomness card drawn each round. it could indicate things in the game that are variable, such as:
* Price at which you can buy a new horse
* Price at which you can sell your horses
* Available races and contests where you can send your horses

Races, Dressage, Selling, Farm work

... sadly, I started writing this post back in February, and I had stopped writing at this point. Having only come back to it now, *8 months* later, and I'm not sure I remember all the details I had in mind at that time. This is why it pays to finish posts or note taking right away!

I know I had been considering that you would assign your horses to the following things each round:

* Racing, where you earn points and money from winning races to supplement income

* Selling, where you can sell your horses for money rather than keep, feed, and use them - see Input Randomness above

* Dressage, where you earn big points for winning First in Show

* Farm work, where you produce food to help feed your horses (vs having fewer horses to feed, or buying food for them)

So each turn you would gain some income and new horses, assign your horses to various jobs, resolve things, and finally feed and age your horses.

That's about all I have at the moment. It kinda sounds like a euro-style resource management game to me... what do you think?

Isle of Trains follow-up: Isle of Adventure?

Dranda Games, the new publisher for Isle of Trains, told me that they had a great Essen, and that people loved their new edition of Isle of Trains: All Aboard - which is great news!

I asked the Dranda guys if they'd be interested in Dana and I revisiting our ideas for an Isle of Trains boardgame, one version of which was a fairly simple rondel game, but they said they'd be more interested in another small-box card game, with multi-use cards, the had similar positive player interaction (like the IoT load thing)

They even floated some ideas they'd had:

* Isle of New York - building skyscrapers with lots of cards then selling them for a profit

* Isle of London - building the subway (I think Isle of New York would be a better start and London would be a good sequel)

* Isle of Taxis - picking up passengers. Like a Crazy Taxi card game 😂

* Isle of Dragons - don't know what to do with that but fantasy games sell well!

I know Dan had made a pirate hunting game based on the IoT mechanism called Queen Anne's Revenge, which got honorable mention in the Hippodice game design contest, and even had publisher interest I believe, but I don't know what ever became of it. I suggested to Dan that perhaps we could distill that down to a small-box card Isle of Pirates card game, which could be doable.

Then I had a new idea that sounded interesting to me. After a days brainstorming, this is what I have so far, and the Dranda guys like the sound of it:

Isle of Adventure

Play as a party leader, recruiting and equipping adventurers to delve the local dungeon looking for treasure!

Each card in your hand could be an adventurer (Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Thief), or equipment (Bolt, Scroll, Potion, Pick?), or can be used as coin to hire new adventurers or train them up.

A dungeon is laid out on the table, built of face down tiles. Players will move their parties through the dungeon, racing to loot it of valuable treasure! On your turn you will do 2 of the following actions:

* Draw a card (search the room? Go to town?)

* Recruit an adventurer to join your party

* Train an adventurer (they level up)

* Equip an adventurer (yours or an opponent's)

* Delve into the dungeon (facing its challenges)

When equipping an adventurer, you tuck the proper equipment card under them. If you equip your own adventurer, you get nothing but the equipment. If you equip an opponent's adventurer, you get paid in cards, gold (virtual cards to spend), and actions:

* Party Leader: Delve/Explore the Dungeon

* Warrior: Recruit/Train

* Mage: Gain and cast spells, giving you ongoing abilities

* Cleric: Heal damage from party members

* Thief: Equip

Your party leader would have a green "Fleet of foot" value - this is the capacity of your party, and also helps you move in the dungeon. Each adventurer would have a number of red foot icons (never to exceed your leader's green foot value) - the bigger the party, the slower they move through the dungeon. When you Delve (explore), you will be able to move through face up tiles, and flip up a face down tile using your remaining green foot icons - and discarding cards to gain feet for the turn. When you flip up a tile, you get a chance to pay the required equipment (and maybe take the required wounds) in order to gain the benefit printed on the tile.

(Wounds reduce the effectiveness of your adventurers - they won't be able to take new equipment until they are healed by a cleric)

Some tiles have Boss Encounters on them -- chances to gain lots of treasure if you have the right assortment of equipment

That's all I have so far, but it sounds promising to me, and slightly more than a straight re-skin if the spells and the dungeon tiles work out well.

Let's Go Balloon Racing - status report

After testing this game a few times now on Tabletop Simulator, I'm happy to report that I think it's actually working quite well!

The race algorithm makes for some dramatic swings of fate, and after a few tweaks I think I've honed in on some details to make the game work as intended. Here's a current rundown of the rules:

Let's Go Balloon Racing!

SETUP
1. Lay out balloon cards (or balloon board, perhaps)
2. Deal 1 Effect card to each balloon
3. Deal 1 Stowaway card to each player

GAME ROUND
1. Players simultaneously choose a balloon, then place their player cube under that balloon
2. From left to right, activate the effect on each balloon that has at least 1 player cube under it, then move the player cube onto the balloon card (adjust the balloon's altitude if necessary) 
3. Shuffle and deal 4 Movement cards. For each movement card, move the indicated balloon:
High altitude (0-2 cubes): 6 spaces
Mid altitude (3-4 cubes): 4 spaces
Low altitude (5+ cubes): 2 spaces
4. Shuffle all Effect cards and deal a new one to each balloon

RACE END / GAME END
At the end of each round, if any balloon has crossed the finish line, do the following:
1. Any player with a Stowaway card matching that balloon reveals their card and adds 1 of their player cubes to that balloon
2. Count all player cubes on all balloons that have crossed the finish line - if any player has a clear plurality, then they win the game. If there is a tie, then the game continues. Check for a winner again the next time any balloon crosses the finish line.

Balloons that have crossed the finish line are "locked in" -- they no longer get effect cards, and cannot be the target of effects

I have tried to keep the Effect cards such that play can be simultaneous, and the effects won't create any decisions or turn order issues when resolving. Currently some of the effect cards will situationally have no effect at times, and as my friend Mohan put it, I'd rather they all have an effect every time, so there ay be room for improvement there.

The next thing I intend to try are "Alone bonuses" -- either structurally, or per card, there could be an additional or augmented effect if you are the only player to play on a balloon. Since this would avoid turn order issues, these affects could target particular cubes, or allow for moving cubes from balloon to balloon, which I'd like to see more of.

It's not terribly thematic, but for the next test I think I'll try a standard Alone bonus of "move 1 of your cubes from this balloon to any other balloon, or from any other balloon to this balloon" and just see how it goes.

As for the Effect cards, here's what I've got at the moment:

BURST OF WIND: Move all balloons in MID altitude 2 spaces

GUST OF WIND: Move all balloons in LOW altitude 3 spaces

CUT THE ROPE: Return 1 cube at random from this balloon to its owner

GRAPPLING HOOK: Move the nearest balloon(s) in each direction to this space

HEAD WIND: Move all balloons in the lead (1st place) BACKWARD 3 spaces

TAIL WIND: Move all balloons in the rear (last place) FORWARD 3 spaces

UPDRAFT: This balloon moves as if it were 1 level HIGHER this round

STICK TOGETHER: Add 1 more cube to this balloon

SHOTGUN APPROACH: Add 1 cube to all other balloons in this o adjacent spaces (do not trigger effects)

PICK UP THE PACE (x5): Add this card to the movement deck (there's one of these for each color)

I had 2 others, but I think I am going to cut them because I don't think I like the dynamic they bring to the game:
KAMAKAZI: Discard all cubes on this balloon (including cubes placed this turn)

SUICIDE MISSION: Each opponent discards 1 cube from each balloon in this and adjacent spaces. Discard the cube you placed this turn.

With the exception of those cuts, I'm pretty happy with the other effects, except sometimes they end up being null -- for example, Burst of Wind and Gust of Wind in the first turn of the game are pretty useless, as none of the balloons probably have enough cubes on them to drag them down into the lower altitudes. Mohan suggested perhaps replacing those with "all balloons with the most cubes on them..." and "all balloons with the fewest cubes on them..." for example. that way they'd always have some effect.

I'm interested in more ideas for effect cards, if you have some, put them in the comments!

The List - August 2023

 Once again it's time to revisit The List! Let's see if anything's changed since last November

Published Games:

- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG) [new edition coming 2023 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2023 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2023 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2023 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG) [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Isle of Trains (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) (BGG) [new edition coming 2022/2023 from Dranda Games!]
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) [now available from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [no available from Renegade!]

- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Development projects - Games I've done freelance development on

I've started doing some freelance development. As games I've worked on come out, I'll add them here

- Amun-Re expansion [with Alley Cat Games 20th Anniversary edition] - Heavy Development

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Holiday In Rome (add BGG link) [by Cory Andalora from Pandasaurus Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

Finished But Unpublished Games - in line to be published:
- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game) [Ready for art] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]

- Deities & Demigods (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [signed by a publisher!]

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

Currently Pitching Games - "actively" looking for a publisher (though I haven't actively been doing much of anything lately!):

- Sails & Sorcery [with Michael Mindes] [pitching to publishers]

- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Exhibit (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Keeping Up with the Joneses [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

- Alter Ego (BGG)

- Dice Works (BGG)

- Suburban Sprawl

 

"Finished" But Unpublished Games - abandoned or backburnered designs that are "done":

- Wizard's Tower (BGG) [Abandoned]
- Watch It Played [Abandoned]
- Now Boarding [Abandoned]
- Rolling Realms: Jaffee Realms (for Jamey Stegmaier's Rolling Realms)

Current Active Designs - these are the games I'm actively testing or working on:

- Worker Placement Microgame

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022)

- Kingdom Realms (KBGames 3-lane game jam entry, Nov 2022)

Backburnered Designs - I kid myself into thinking that I'm still working on these:

- Isle Of Trains: The Board Game (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Joan of Arc

- I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement

Promising Recent ideas:
- Worker-ception [with David Short]

- False Prophet [Mancala/Worker Placement]

- Come And Play [Sesame Street memory/rondel game]

- Candyland Game [Candyland/No Thanks mashup]

- Goballoon Racing [auto-battler attempt]

- Hanabi Wonders [Hanabi/7 Wonders mashup]

- My First Ark Nova [Simpler version of Ark Nova]

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central [Abandoned]
- Hot & Fresh [Abandoned]

- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG) [Abandoned]

- Reading Railroad [Abandoned]

- Moctezuma's Revenge

- Kilauea [a designer showed interest in co-designing, but that didn't go anywhere]

- Automatown [with Michael Brown]

- Dynasty [I still think this one has potential]

Misc and Really Old Stuff - most of this I'll probably never get back to, but I like keeping it around just in case:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)

- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- The Untouchables
- Day labor game based on craps

- Rondel Role Selection

- Scourge of the High Seas [deckbuilding game with 2 center rows]

Goballoon Racing - some thoughts on card play possibilities

After posting about this new, updated idea using that simple race mechanism I'd mentioned before, I had a few different ideas about how to do card play. here are some of them, stream of consciousness style:

1. Maybe just make a few (3-4) different effects, and give everyone a deck of 15-20 cards, each card with one of the effects paired with one of the racers/balloons. You'd draw a small hand, and then your options would be to jump on those particular airships, and get those particular effects. So if you want majority on a particular ship (and you had a card fort hat in hand), then you wouldn't get much control over the effect. On the other hand, if you want a particular effect from one of your cards, then you might not get influence on the ship you want...

2. Maybe instead of a hand of cards and individual decks, just have 1 deck, and deal out a display of cards. On your turn, play one of the cards from the display (then refill it). This removes simultaneous play -- is that a good thing or a bad thing?

3. Maybe separate the racer from the effect on the cards, and just deal cards with effects into 5 slots - one slot per racer (like in Keeping Up With The Joneses). On your turn, you'd choose a card to resolve the effect, and you'd get a gobbo on the ship who's slot that card is in. And in this case, probably don't refill the display until the end of the round, so you can't all pick the same balloon to jump on.

4. Is this an interesting twist? Leave the card effects in play, and the next time that ship gets jumped on, the new effect <i>and all old effects</i> will resolve (a la Wingspan or Deus).

I could see any of these formats working, no way to know what would be best, so I'm soliciting opinions in the comments: Which of these ideas sounds best to you, or can you suggest a different format you think would work better?

The goal, I think, is to have a quick playing, fun game... not too time consuming, not too thinky, not too AP provoking. Is simultaneous play better fort hat purpose? Or is it better to take turns? Let me know what you think!

Let's Go Balloon Racing!

I previously had an idea for a sort of race game (see bottom of post). Well, more like a race <i>mechanism</i>, which I thought could be used as the central resolution mechanic in some simple game.

In addition, I have been playing a lot of the new, KdJ winning game: Challengers! Which is pretty cool... it's got an auto-battle feel, as you start with a standard deck, then iteratively draft a couple of cards into it (remove anything you'd like), then resolve a match vs an opponent via a simple algorithm, then you get to draft a couple more cards and do it again.

When thinking about other types of resolution mechanics that could be used in a similar way, I remembered this race resolution mechanic I'd had. I spent some time thinking about (and trying various versions of) how players could iteratively race the characters a little bit, then bet on the outcome, then race some more - not unlike a simple version of Camel Up, or Downforce. That was certainly simple, but came with some challenges -- some of the same ones I remember seeing in Downforce when I played that, and some new ones as well:

1. "Betting" has some baggage, and might not really be appropriate for a kid's game, which I had in mind as I began this idea

2. There's no real reason not to just pick the obvious winner (Downforce felt this way at times)

3. Everyone has the same information and agency to affect the outcome (that is to say: no agency), so everyone's just guessing based on the same information

To combat the first issue, I decided that instead of placing bets, you would just put a player marker behind one of the racers - which one are you supporting/rooting for? Then, when one of the racers wins, the player with the most markers on it would win the game

To combat the second issue, I tried giving players 2 different picks each round - that way, they could pick the obvious winner and one other racer, or if they wanted to gamble or if it wasn't clear who would win), then they could do that. Then of course if the 1st place racer had a tie for majority, you'd look at the next racer(s) as well, etc. That kind of worked, except for problem number 3... no asymmetric information, and no real agency over the outcome means you're still just arbitrarily guessing which racer might win.

The 3rd issue was going to be the most important one to address, and I wasn't sure how to go about it. My first thought was that you'd maybe have a small hand of cards that would have some effect on the game, and would back a specific racer -- so you might want to play a card to back the winner, or you might want to play a card with an effect you like, even if it doesn't back the racer you want - something like that. Nothing was sounding very good yet though.

When mentioning this idea online, someone suggested something that sounded like it would turn this whole idea into an actual game: whenever someone backs a racer, make it somehow <i>hinder</i> that racer! You back the racer that you want to win, but doing so makes it less likely for that racer to win.

With that agonizing decision point in mind, I gave it another go, and this is what I came up with:

Goballoon Racing (could use a title!)

Fantasy NPC races are having their annual hot air balloon race! Each year people come from far and wide to watch this breathtaking event, as these airships navigate through a dangerous canyon, fighting for first place. No goblins allowed!

Your goblin clan has made its own version of this race -- as the racers navigate the course, each goblin clan tries to win their own victory... by jumping aboard, grappling, or otherwise grabbing on to the airships! The clan with the most gobbos on the winning airship will earn the Goballoon Cup. In case of tie, consider the next place airship(s) as well, etc.

So you win the Goballoon Cup by piling onto the winning airship, BUT, a balloon with extra weight dangling from it will not move as fast, so by backing a racer, you are necessarily slowing it down. Every round each racer moves some number of spaces around the track, less 1 per hanger-on. This is determined by shuffling a deck of 2 cards per racer, and then revealing 4 cards from it. Those airships move as indicated on the cards, the rest move a minimum amount based on the WIND. WIND is a value that can go up or down over the course of the game, and it's the minimum amount an airship will move. In this way, the racers move a handful of spaces unhindered, but then slow down to a crawl with a bunch the goblins hanging from them (but could still win that way). Or maybe the leaders get so bogged down by gobbos that the stragglers sail past them in the late game!

So you do a round of racing, then everyone backs a racer by simultaneously playing a card, then another round of racing, etc

Max movement would be based somehow on number of likely rounds, and so number of hangers-on that racers would likely get. There could be a max, I suppose. Only so much room to get a grappling hook on there...

Rather than simply "picking a winner" (and hindering that racer), I think the players choices should have some other impact on the game. For example:

* Modify the WIND value (the amount a racer moves at a minimum, or if their card doesn't come up)

* Move racers in this row/altitude extra (assumes an up-and-down sort of path, where any given balloon might be at any given altitude, irrespective of their position in the race)

* Maybe move gobbos around somehow (cut their rope, throw their hook to the next balloon, etc)

 

So maybe you have a deck of cards and draw a hand, and to "bid" you play a card on a particular balloon, and it has an effect on that balloon, or that row, or whatever it says

I'm amused at the image if the balloons all having little dragons powering them, with a pilot pulling it's tail to make it breath fire 🙂

Maybe each balloon (fantasy race) is different, ones got some kind of magical flame, another is burning sticks, one has a dragon whelp, one then pilot IS a dragon... Something like that. Then the areas you're trying to control with most gobbos could matter somehow

MAYBE rather than it being a straight up race, the racers could be trying to escape a pursuer, which could justify jumping aboard the leading airship. That could get dark...

*A flock of Rocs fleeing a dragon, jump on the one you think is most likely to escape (this process sure to bring about the demise if some innocent, unsuspecting Rocs)*

Side note: I like the idea of picking a racer to sort of sabotage them (because you're leading majority on a relacer that's ahead of it)

Maybe it would make sense if, when a certain threshold is reached, a random goblin falls off to the next airship in line or something. That could lead to people jumping onto an overcrowded racer to try and take majority (hoping the majority leader is the one who loses a gobbo) 

Anyone have a feeling about one of the posited themes, or another, better idea for a sort of race between NPCs, where player's units jump onto the racers in an attempt to have the most in the winning racers?

I suppose it could be like "all racers to cross a certain threshold" rather than just the winner - like anyone who makes it to X is safe, everyone else gets caught by the bag bad chasing them

More effect ideas:

* Move this racer ahead 2 spaces (you'll be hindering it by a space each time, so this helps a little of you play it on the racer you actually want to win)

* Move this racer back 1 space (mostly for sabotage purposes)

* Increase wind speed ("wind speed" is the minimum amount that every racer moves, or maybe just the racers who's cards don't come up in the resolution - this could be good if you don't control the leading racers)

* Decrease wind speed (good if you control leaders)

* Move all racers at this altitude 2 spaces (where racers could be at different altitudes, but the same altitude as some other racers - like maybe there are 3 altitudes on the track, and you gonuo and down as a matter of course, you don't decide what altitude to be at)