After giving it some thought, I’ve decided to give Arachnid one more chance. It will be a competitive game like I had originally planned. I believe I can now solve the political problems and dissuade players from “Turtling”. (sitting back while other players battle it out) There were a few things which players enjoyed in the game throughout its development:

  • Spinning webs to enlarge the spider’s territory was fun.
  • Fighting, pouncing and biting critters (Or opponents) was fun.
  • Catching flies for food was really cool and sometimes challenging.
  • Acquiring skills was satisfying.
  • Being part of a colony was comforting.

In the competitive version, each player will manage their own colony of spiders, acquiring skills, expanding the web, and growing the colony. Some traits will be unique to each spider in the colony, but some will be shared. One spider in each colony will be the leader which will acquire the shared skills and command the other spiders. The other spiders will have various roles and unique abilities, but can also use the shared skills when necessary. The colony will work together to grow, learn and defend the web. As the colony grows and expands, it will inevitably clash with the other colonies.

Early Version of Arachnid

The Nuts and Bolts

I was thinking of a simple chit-pull system for resource management and conflict resolution. It would be similar to the chit-pull system used in Wonderland’s War, with a few twists:

  • The chits will generally be publicly displayed.
  • Some will be shared while others stay with the specific spider.
  • Some will represent energy resources.
  • Some will represent talents and skills.
  • when a conflict arises, the chits are placed in a bag along with any shared skills and drawn out to resolve the battle.
  • Some chits like energy and shared skills can be lost in battle.
  • Some chits like talents cannot be lost.

I will try using a hex based modular system where the hexes can be stacked to represent stronger webs and give spiders on the higher hexes a tactical advantage when battling.

Of course, what would a the game be without a few NPC’s running around wreaking havoc and a global catastrophe or two. These, of course, would be added later if the game appears to be working well.

I will put this game on a short leash. If it doesn’t seem to be working in the first few iterations, it will go back onto the scrap pile permanently. It would be cool if I can pull this one off. Fingers crossed.