For the past three years I have been writing down notes and ideas to develop a table top minatures game. I would spend a good few months writing down my ideas and game mechanics. I would pack up the project for a few months and once again approach the project with a fresh set of eyes. In most cases it would totally mean scrapping out sections to improve the game flow while not making it overly complicated. Part of the problem I was facing was picking a theme. I have enough notes and ideas to do one hell of an Robotech Space Combat tabletop game. It is painfully hard NOT to do one when I have the ability to 3D print all my REF ship models. I have even gone as far as asking my contact in Harmony Gold if I could create it for them. Which was a no.
So I am switching my Theme to Battlestar Galactica.
Yes, I know I dont have the licensing rights to do so. I am creating this game for myself 1st and for most. Plus prove to myself and others that it can be done. It is a huge undertaking, designing the mechanics, keeping the theme throughout it all, while making it a co-op and not making it complicated. Then there is all of the graphics work that will need to be done.
So this past week I started to design out my cards for this game, just the mehanics and wording for them. I quickly hit 88 cards written out and this doesn't even scratch the surface of the game.
Let me explain, the over all idea of the game. You and your friends will be captains in the colonial fleet at the start of the Cylon's war. The first mission will get the story going and take you threw all of the phases and steps. This will function as a story and teaching the players the rules. You will have choices and actions that will have effects on your fleet that might not seem obvious at the time. Once you get past a few of the basic missions, you willjabe even more choices in mission selection. Each play session represents 1 week in the fleet in which you try to complete the mission. From here we zoom into what happened during the week of this mission. There will be 7 squares for each day of that week. A mission objective will be placed on one of these days. Each day may have an Event Card or possibly left blank to represent a very quite day in the fleet. The Mission objective as an example could be on Day 4 and a Cylon Basestar could be on Day 7. As the fleet attempts to each their objective they must reveal the Event Card for that day and resolve it. As an example you might reveal a Delay card, which advances your mission objective 1 day further down the week. So it is now on Day 5. You might reveal a card that moves the Basestar 1 Day closer to your fleet and your objective. There is both good and bad results in these themed Event Cards. Do not get to attached to certain ships in your fleet. Just like the show there are times you may have a 20% chance of loosing one. Which will affect the out come of your fleet. Once you or the Cylon reaches the Mission Objective is when the Battle phase starts. This is where the tabletop side of the game comes out. Cylons will function off an AI card deck. The deck will be robust with the ability to bring out aggressive and defensive behavior. There will be enough variations to ensure that it will not react the same way each time. Just attacking may cause a reaction.
Its been a fun process so far, there have been several times this week where a new Event Card idea has made me laugh out loud at work. Thank fully I keep scrap papper to write on so I dont loose the thought or idea completely.
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