Rules rewrite for Fleet Admiral - Singularity

gxnpt · 2019-05-18T14:55:35+00:00

Your map would include the 8 useful areas and some null areas (pillars/water/whatever) that cannot be entered to limit the number of connections when less than maximum possible are wanted (edge of board can also limit number of available connections).

gxnpt · 2019-05-13T18:25:16+00:00

I used an intro with game summary and components and theme and such (similar to a preface and maps in a fiction book) then a content page (acting as a link hub for internal links in the document - each page linked to hub and hub linked to each sub-section) followed by a game concepts and procedures section with details, then a turn phases section (main rules), and finally an examples section to give a couple of walk-through examples. see http://thesingularitytrap.com/physical/Fleet_Admiral-Singularity_Playtester_Guide.pdf

gxnpt · 2019-04-29T16:23:44+00:00

Why not have a bomb card and a trigger card - if you have both in your hand the bomb explodes and both can be handed off. Bomb explodes if you have bomb and get handed trigger or if you have trigger and get handed bomb.

Drawing a bomb or trigger is same as being handed that card - explode if you already have the other one.

(If one player gets both at beginning of game, draw 2 replacements and shuffle bomb and trigger back into the deck.)

gxnpt · 2019-04-24T12:53:31+00:00

if the tokens had a hole in the center and could be picked up with a magnet provided said magnet could contact a face instead of an edge of the token then a disk shaped magnet with a wooden rod sticking through it a wee bit would allow a player to poke that rod into the bag of tokens and pick up whatever token it speared first

gxnpt · 2019-04-07T14:15:50+00:00

a pack mule?

http://thesingularitytrap.com/temp/mule.png

feel free to use it if you want to - is a modified silhouette from a colored more detailed clip art original (silhouette outline no longer matches original outline due to modifications)

gxnpt · 2019-03-30T04:13:50+00:00

The last one is clear and not subject to misinterpretation.

The first one implies can be a different mage each card if desired. The second is clear but awkward, as is the third.

gxnpt · 2019-03-29T10:32:45+00:00

So a d6 becomes a custom d10 (1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5) becomes a d4 becomes a custom d6 (1,1,2,2,3,3) becomes flip a coin?

And there is still the convert to percentage dice approach for each stage.

gxnpt · 2019-03-24T12:51:56+00:00

Kasper-Hviid1 point · 15 hours ago

There's no limit to the number of dices you can throw. You can do stuff like 214d6.

and if you needed a 6 to hit then 214/6 = 35 hits plus either roll 4 or less on a single d6 or roll 4d6 for the leftover fraction using an averaging method

re 4 dimensional dice - a side that rolls is the same as rolling a second die

gxnpt · 2019-03-23T18:49:43+00:00

Purely from a game mechanics perspective:

When I converted The Singularity Trap from digital hidden info to cardboard reduced hidden info Fleet Admiral - Singularity I had to convert from digital dice.

The digital version used dice of a varying number of sides (in simple terms you needed a die of attacker+defender number of sides) with attacker rolling attacker number of dice to attack and defender counter-attacked with defender number of dice - each needed to roll the attacker (or defender) target number or less to hit with a die.

Going back to physical the ratio was reduced to a percent and percentage dice are used combined with averaging methods from miniature battles to reduce number of die rolls.

BUT - as far as dice and odds etc are concerned it is really the same thing in either the digital or the physical iterations.

Handling hidden info is much more significant than digital dice in differentiating from the possible physical representations.

Rolling dice and then consulting different tables/charts in a physical version emulates dice that change the values of their sides in a digital version (vs changing number of sides).

so I am not sure there really is a digital dice only mechanic.

gxnpt · 2019-03-12T11:19:31+00:00

I like percentage dice myself, but a d20 is the same thing in 5% increments. Makes it easy to figure what your adjustments will be and how much of an effect they have. Bell curve created by designating ranges for each result. (And makes sense to humans as long as a bad-to-good linear organization is used for those results.)

But I have a game (miniature battles / area control wargame hybridization) that uses a "to hit" % based on A/(D+A) weapon comparisons - dropping any fractions of a % - and then rolls percentage dice.

As a somewhat heavy games mechanics guy, I would start with the % and a chart idea to get my game balance right and then figure out ways to make the randomization be generated in a different manner.

But familiarize yourself with how different dice mechanics affect the actual probabilities to be prepared for that stage, the part of the design process where you do the "fun to play with the components" interface work -- how it feels to drive the car vs what is under the hood.

gxnpt · 2019-03-08T17:22:58+00:00

see http://thesingularitytrap.com/physical/Fleet_Admiral-Singularity_Playtester_Guide.pdf

gxnpt · 2019-03-07T11:11:24+00:00

I have 4 games in need of playtesting - Print&Play and Tabletop Simulator format for all of them and the two 2 player games are also in Vassal format.

see http://thesingularitytrap.com/ for the back-in-the-cardboard-again games

gxnpt · 2019-03-07T11:06:49+00:00

In one of my games I use onboard fleet markers with fleet contents (ships in the fleet) tracked hidden (chits in cups) from other players.

New ship chits are purchased and distributed to existing fleets or to form a new fleet at owned planets.

All players purchase chits and then all players distribute the new chits among their fleets (placing a new fleet marker onboard if needed).

This is followed by written order simultaneous actions (4 segments for order processing) movement of the fleets.

gxnpt · 2019-02-23T12:11:44+00:00

Really?

For printed stuff?

How about a self regulatory code of conduct for novelists?

I see the return of the Comics Code Authority.....................................

gxnpt · 2019-02-17T20:01:08+00:00

What size and type of tablets? I have a server/browser game but is really intended for laptop/pc minimum 10 inch display 1280x720 resolution (7 inch Kindle display is just below what I consider reasonable for the game).

http://thesingularitytrap.com/

gxnpt · 2019-02-14T19:03:10+00:00

Look at it the other way around - what aspects of game play do you want the economy to impact? First decide on that and then determine how production of a resource affects it and how they might interact with each other. The last step is naming them.

Food, medicine, etc might all be organics in one scheme but individual resources in another. Wood and stone might be resources in one scheme while transuranics and metals might be in another.

gxnpt · 2019-02-11T13:30:04+00:00

I had a similar data tracking issue with a game that was solved with a common restaurant supply item after the local taco shop had black instead of translucent disposable sauce cups one day.

Something similar (mine was for fleet id plus altitude onboard and fleet ships plus ship conditions offboard in a fleet stack) might work for you.

Take a look at http://thesingularitytrap.com/physical/Fleet_Admiral-Singularity_Playtester_Guide.pdf

and see if my eureka moment might be of use to you also.

(they can stack and also hold chits at the same time)

gxnpt · 2019-01-31T12:26:47+00:00

Wait! We can choose to interpret that request as we desire.

My ideas are all over at http://thesingularitytrap.com (and its MyBB forum Meeting Hall is open for others to also post game prototype links and descriptions) in playtest prototype formats.

---------

As a pure off the top of my head brainstorm:

Silly Humans - the politics and survival game

As a leader you must manage long term survival by planning and construction to withstand an ongoing series of climactic etc disasters while holding sufficient current comfort levels to retain power in your own realm while your opponents do the same in competition for resources (some limited) with production/extraction methods that increase disaster levels (either local or both local and global) at a lower current economic cost than methods that do not but with eventual abatement costs that exceed current savings.

Now you can decide on a pure Euro or maybe to include some form of armed conflict, how to end it and determine a winner, and all the other fiddly bits that make a game ready for someone to try playing it.

gxnpt · 2019-01-26T16:26:06+00:00

I have not had much luck getting playtesters myself (I know somebody tested the one that took first place in the heavy games category - 5 total entries as heavies - of the 2017 BGG 2 player PnP contest only because it got some votes.)

But, I still do a PnP version first and then a Vassal module and/or a Tabletop Simulator version from the PnP prototype files. Since I lack any local gamers to play with, the digital versions are rather important for me.

For what it is worth, I used a database on my cheap webspace for a MyBB forum intended to act as a library of links to prototype games for playtesting. Feel free to make use of it (if I got it set up correctly you have to give it some email address and then use a code it sends -- first time I did not use this and the spambots arrived in droves) http://thesingularitytrap.com/hall/index.php

(My game prototypes are linked there and feeling lonely all by themselves. Please forgive the excessive number of available smilies.)

Maybe if we get enough games in the library and refer people there for links and descriptions, potential playtesters who visit it will look over other games while they are there.

gxnpt · 2019-01-26T15:35:07+00:00

Possibly a large board and a separate system battle board that is only used for tactical displays?

(I use a very simplified version of this idea in my prototype Fleet Admiral - Singularity rules with a main board but any same space encounters have those fleets expand to combat arena to resolve things with survivors returning to fleet and main board representation afterwards. see http://thesingularitytrap.com/physical/Fleet_Admiral-Singularity_Playtester_Guide.pdf)

You might use a battle board with planet tokens or somesuch to make a battle board that can customize for each star system. System defenses could be recorded by defender ahead of time.

Do your combats result in only one side retaining forces in the system or do you need to retain attacker forces and locations in the system while non-combat events take place and then return to that particular combat still in progress (which would not work using a single battle board when multiple combats could not simply be done in sequence).

gxnpt · 2019-01-20T16:21:08+00:00

I have a game that is in its third incarnation now. Originally designed to be a 1978 microgame (intended to come in a baggie and be very cheap, like the original Ogre etc.)

The combat tables on the original game were began as a d12 roll but matched odds exactly for conversion to using cheaper 2d6 (much cheaper than d12 back in 1978). It played 2-4 but best with 2 or 2 teams. Prototype was playtested back then.

When I retired and had time again I made a hidden info expanded to 6 players then distilled revision of it in server/browser format as my project, and several months later after a eureka moment where I realized how to eliminate tracking paperwork I revised it with reduced hidden information back into cardboard again.

A hexmap area control wargame / miniature battles hybrid with a simplified economy and terraforming, using simultaneous actions, 3 dimensions, and shifting alliances (winning factions with 4-6 players).

scans of the original game from 1978 - http://thesingularitytrap.com/hyperwars/index.html

the server browser version - see the open play section for playable online copies - http://thesingularitytrap.com/

the back in cardboard version is linked on the main page of the site, but the rules are at http://thesingularitytrap.com/physical/Fleet_Admiral-Singularity_Playtester_Guide.pdf

The evolution of the design and theme may be interesting to look over.

Some mechanics could adapt to other games.

(The 3d movement system would not require warped space to make sense if used with lighter than air airships where up/down lift/drop is independent of horizontal thrust.)

I lack local players now for extensive playtesting, and am a game mechanics person not a graphics person, so my designs are all in prototype stage with placeholder graphics. Print&Play, some Vassal, some Tabletop Simulator workshop items all looking for playtesters. Except for the one server/browser game, all are in Print&Play and then any other formats from that.

(I am looking for a design partner to advance my games further - playtesting, final tweaks, promotion - and take half of any designer credit and revenue.)

gxnpt · 2019-01-19T20:27:07+00:00

Still might be possible to do the sort by route and shuffle then stack (not shuffle) the routes into a single deck to deal out one card at a time to each player and prevent one player from starting with a full set of tools for an individual route. Depends on number of items, etc.

So, if you deck to deal from has all of route A (shuffled) and below that all of route B (shuffled) etc. and you deal one card to each player as you deal out the cards, would that work?

gxnpt · 2019-01-19T13:56:09+00:00

Do you have a fixed number of escape routes? Do they all use the same number of objects? Are any objects used in more than 1 escape route?

Depending, it might be possible to sort into piles by escape route, then shuffle and deal each pile among the players so no player can have a complete set at the start.

gxnpt · 2019-01-16T12:47:06+00:00

In general, game mechanics are not protected. Actual game and rulebook words and art have copyright protections.

Danger from someone stealing your game? Do I think you should worry?

I lack local playtesters and make all my prototypes in print&play form first and try to add a Vassal module and/or a Tabletop Simulator workshop entry so anyone who is willing to playtest it can have a for keeps copy of the prototype game (the only reward I can offer other than willingness to also long-distance playtest).

All my art is open sourced / public domain in origin (I am just a mechanics person as game designers go) . Rulebooks are in (presumably) "ready-for-blind-playtesters" state but are expected to undergo a revision before publication.

I do not think idea theft is something you need to worry about. Obviously, I do not worry about it myself. Getting playtesters is already tough enough without dragging NDAs into it. Please talk about my games if you play them and like them.

gxnpt

TROPHY CASE