Jason’s Blog

I have just put up a little race game that was sort of a side-effect of a board game project I am finishing up for GAMBIT (details forthcoming). Early on in the project the team was asked to spend a weekend thinking about a mechanic they might like to see in the game. This is a useful exercise for people new to design as it helps them think about game systems on a low level; to go from “what if the game is about cavemen in France trying drawing stuff in caves?” to “on your turn you can trade resources and move your pawn.”

The game we were making had to feature a short-term sacrifice for long-term benefits. One idea I had involved moving a playing piece along a track. Players would have the option to skip moving on their turn in order to get a better move at a later turn. That mechanic did not make it into the final game, so I turned it into a rough little race game. The mechanic works well because there is a definite benefit to skipping turns, but while you are doing so your opponent is edging ever closer to the finish line.

How the game works:

Each player is trying to get to the finish first. Pieces move along independent tracks and do not interact. On your turn you may either roll a D3 (a six-sided die divided by 2, rounding up) and move that many spaces, or skip your turn to add a bonus token to their stockpile (three tokens maximum). Before rolling you may cash in as many bonus tokens as you like. Each earns you two spaces of movement. So if you cash in one token, and roll a 5, you would move five spaces in total; two for the token and three for die roll (5 divided by 2, rounded up is 3).

The ultimate effect of the bonus tokens is reducing the randomness of future moves. For example, if I roll the die two turns in a row, I will move between 2 and 6 spaces in total. If you skip a turn, and then next turn cash in your earned token and roll, your move will be between 3 and 5 spaces in total.

While I was not thinking of it at the time, I later recalled that this is one way Diablo II handles elemental damage. In that game fire damage covers a narrow range, while lightning damage covers a very large range.

Be sure to check it out, and email any comments to jsb -at- jasonbegy -dot- info.