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The Arachnids are Back

2022-12-06 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid v25 by Roger Meloche

The Arachnid game has gotten a serious overhaul. Version #25 created on “Tabletop Playground” is shown above. In spite of all the changes, the theme remains the same. You are part of a colony of intelligent spiders living in a missile silo. You struggle to survive, and fend off waves of invaders as you build your web and try to solve the mystery of “The Red Beacon”. You must unlock and activate the launch beacon to start the new age of Arachnid. Time is limited because the “Hoover-Bot 3000” is getting closer and closer to the web, threatening to destroy the colony in a horrible “Hoovergeddon”.

Under the Hood

In the previous version, the actions were performed by a worker placement system. The quarterbacking, however, became a problem, especially when there was an alpha player or one player more experienced than the others. A completely open system just provided too many opportunities for quarterbacking. I decided to go back to an action card system, much like the one used in Concordia. Each player has a hand of cards representing various actions. Each round, players select an action, then they are simultaneously revealed. The players can discuss a general plan of action before they select their cards, then debate the order the action cards are used after they have been played, but they cannot tell another player which card to choose. That is the intent of this new system, but we will soon see if this actually works.

The prior version of Arachnid also had too many moving parts and the administration was excessive. The AI used to activate the “Critters” invading the web and Flies being trapped has been added to the ever growing scrap pile. It involved of a bag of chits, a die with a weird action table, and an action track. This, combined with various scripted behaviors of the Critters resulted in a ridiculously overcomplicated system. Players used to flip over rocks as well, revealing some bonuses as well as new Critters. All of this is gone. The new “Event” deck will be used to trigger Critters invading and Flies hitting the web.

Better Decisions

In the prior few versions, players flipped over tokens as the web was expanded up to them. They contained bonuses, keys to the Beacon, and new Critter Spawn points. This did the job but the game decisions were too obvious and even a bit boring. These tokens were also eliminated in the latest version. Players still have to gain a number of keys to unlock the Launch Beacon, but it’s a bit more complicated to do this. There are a number of action cards available for purchase, but you can’t spend money or food to get them. These cards also have keys on them, and you have to sacrifice a portion of your web to gain the card. This is costly because you need your web to catch food and evade Critters. At some point during the game, players have to permanently discard these powerful action cards to unlock the beacon. Timing is important because you need the abilities of these cards.

Each card you play stays on the table until you play a “Rest” card to retrieve them back into your hand. This, however, will trigger the Hooverbot advancing closer and closer to the web. Do you retrieve that card you desperately need and get the colony one step closer to annihilation?

Will it Work?

This is an extreme overhaul of the game. It might just result in my own private Armageddon with the game going up in smoke. I guess we’ll find out soon. Fingers Crossed.

What’s New Under the Hood

2022-11-06 / / 0 Comments
Nova Raiders version-20

Nova Raiders version #20 has some new features. So far, they have tested well enough to show off in the next On-Line Protospeil coming up in January. The game has been streamlined and has a new dice engine. It still needs a little tweaking, but is is coming along quite nicely.

I had originally considered abandoning this game because it was a bit repetitive, had a little too much “Take That”, and wasn’t really engaging enough. While playing the game with a game developer Chris Chung, we came up with the idea of drafting the dice rather than constantly re-rolling a set of your own dice. This sounded like a great idea, so I started to come up with a dice drafting mechanism to suit. It had to have the following attributes:

  • It had to be simple and fast
  • accumulation of bonuses must be possible
  • players could use more than one die on their turn
  • a player can’t be faced with no movement options on their turn

I started out with a public pool of dice (The Power Market) which each player draws from on their turn. They then add the new die to their personal power bank, and decide to use any or all of their dice to move. Any spent dice are re-rolled and added to the public pool. Bonuses are enabled as the power banks fill up, so a player can sit back and try to build up a killer combo. This gave the game a nice syncopated rhythm and allowed for more strategic play.

The original “Hijack” move had to be modified. It was too punishing, too complicated, and didn’t allow for an easy counter-attack. Players can still land on another player’s ship, but the attacked ship is simply bumped around the orbital ring onto the next open spot. This allowed for a possible counter-attack, and was much more fun.

The game, however, got a bit more aggressive. It became much more challenging to bring home stacks of energy, so I had to modify the time track to speed up the game. I also eliminated the “Expansion Rate Track”, which was too complicated anyway. The time track is much shorter and is advanced each time any player brings in an stack of energy to their dock. This gave players some control over the game pace and added more strategic possibilities.

Overall, the game is much more engaging and might be more appealing to hobby gamers. Players can chose to play with the simpler movement rules if they want a lighter game, giving the game a broader appeal. Let me know if you want to try it out, I’m always looking for play-testers.

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Voices in my head?

2022-05-15 / / 0 Comments
The Sheeny-Man Game

My head is a scary place lately. I’m supposed to be working out the kinks of my latest game “Arachnid” and finalizing the rules, but I keep getting distracted by two new games in my head, just itching to get out. I’ve put a couple earlier games on the back burner for now so I can concentrate on the latest one, but these two new games are coming together as if they’ve got a mind of their own. Here’s a peek at one of them.

Sheeny-Man

Sheeny-Man will be a card based game that has a two-phase turn system. Each player, in turn order, will perform phase one, which will be two actions from a list of three or four available. These actions will include “Pick’n” to collect items, “Shift’n” to arrange them on your tableau (Your junkyard) and “Swap’n” items with other players. There will be a unique method of set collection and a super simple but effective market mechanism. Turn order will be tracked by the “Sandford and Son Pick-up” first player marker which is passed to the next player after phase#1.

The second phase will be led by the previous winner of the “Gavel”, rather than the next player in turn. This is where a player can auction things off to other players, sell items at the market and then auction off the “Gavel” by itself, or auction off various power-ups which become available in the later part of the game. The player with the “Gavel” will have an edge when auctioning the power-ups and can only sell their valuable sets of merchandise when they have it. This will make the “Gavel” a very desirable item. It is passed to the winner of the Auction, ending phase#2.

The next round will be started again at phase#1 by the player who has the pick-up marker. Phase #2 will then be initiated by the player who holds the “Gavel”. It is possible for one player to have both items, which could result in a powerful turn.

Timing is crucial in this game. The value of your items will fluctuate with the market, there will be times when you really need that Gavel, and don’t forget about the “Market Crash” which happens near the end of the game.

Accurately assessing your opponents is also important because different phases of the game are triggered as players fill their mattresses with money. You need to anticipate when somebody is going to trigger the market crash or the final phase where the market is declining again and you must hurry to sell off your items before they become valueless.

There should be a lot of fun decisions in this game. For example, when Pick’n at the dump you might find a “Diamond Ring”, but you could also find a “Dead Possum” which will actually cost you money to get rid of. Don’t worry because you can always auction off the possum to another player who’s desperate for that “Gavel”.

Stay tuned for Sheeny-Man…..At tables near you.

Broke Again – The Arachnid saga continues…

2022-05-15 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid version 20 by RogerDogerGames

The Arachnid game was coming along quite nicely. The cooperation between players works quite well. Each player tends to have their own speciality, but they also have to depend on each other to get things done. The mechanics are smooth and intuitive and the game length seems just about right. In spite of all this, I still went and broke the game.

Working out the earlier kinks made the game run smoother. Unfortunately, it started to make the game a bit boring and predictable. There was no compelling reason to come back and play the game again. The players had experienced most of what the game offered. I needed to inject some replayability into the game or it would just end up on the shelf after one play, never to be taken out again.

I started with the current main objective. Players have to acquire 4 or 5 keys to enable the launch button before “Hoover” ends the game by finally reaching the web. This worked fine, but would just be a boring repeat if the game were played again, in spite of the different ways the spider characters evolve during the game. I decided to mix it up a bit. Players can play their introduction game with the keys displayed on the corners of the hex shaped player board as before, but they can choose to randomize the positions in subsequent games and hide the keys under rocks. This way, a player never knows when lifting a rock, whether it will reveal a new ability, be one of the sought after keys, or reveal a dangerous critter. This will create some variability to the game.

I also decided to start working on the action cards, increasing the count, so that only a small subset of the total cards would be in play in any given game. This should greatly help with the replayability of the game. It’s a real challenge coming up with new and interesting spider behaviors and ways to implement them, but I’m slowly picking away at solving this puzzle.

The third way I plan on dealing with the replayability problem is by introducing different scenarios with unique objectives. I will address this after I work out the latest kinks in the game and expand the deck. Some of the new cards can even be specific to certain scenarios. I will get to all of this after I fix what I just broke in the latest version of the game.

One of the complaints from the paytesters was the excessive administration of the “Critters” during their activation phase. This caused a break in the rhythm of the game which broke the players immersion of the game. This needed to be dealt with, so I decided to simplify the critters to eliminate redundant behaviors and reduce the administration of these A.I driven beings. This is how I actually broke the game……BOOGERS…..!

Originally, as you tried to acquire the keys, you activated Critters from the same location which could start chasing you around the web or wreak havoc in other ways. There were some logistical problems with the new, hidden, critters which were revealed as you turned over the rocks so I had to change this. In an effort to simplify the rules, I decided that the critters would enter the web at one of the six points of the board. This would be decided by rolling the A.I. die, the same way as they entered when drawn from the event bag. This simplified the rules, but turned out to be a very bad decision.

The result was a reduced risk of exploring and acquiring things because the critters would enter the web in places that didn’t immediately affect the spiders. This removed almost all of the tension from the game and made it very easy to win. It sucked the life out of the game, just like a spider drinking a “Critter Shake”. I now have to backtrack a little and find another way to deal with the introduction of the critters as they are revealed. They absolutely must start out from the rock under which they are revealed. This will create a tense moment whenever a rock is flipped over. I don’t know what I was thinking when I eliminated this in favor of a simpler rule-set. I just have to find an elegant and intuitive way to do this. I’m always amazed at how easy it is to derail a game with a simple rule change. It’s time to put my thinking cap back on and fix this game, then start making it better. Piece of cake…..LOL!

More Bugs – Less Filling

2022-04-20 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid 19d
Arachnid 19 on Tabletop Playground

Arachnid has gone through some major changes to reduce the number of components, simplify set-up and streamline game-play. I was worried for a moment after I finally worked out most of the problems with the action deck and action board. Once the game flowed smoothly, I realized that there weren’t enough interesting decisions throughout the game. I thought this game might just end up on top of the ever growing scrap-pile of dysfunctional games.

I took a short break from the game before deciding it’s fate. After taking a fresh look, and getting some good input from my #1 playtester (my wife) I was able to narrow down the problems. To start with, the game was too easy to win and the path to victory was too obvious. The “Critters” attacking the web weren’t really much of a threat and the end-game countdown (Hoover) wasn’t very dramatic. This all made for a boring and predictable game. With just a few tweaks, I was able to turn all this around.

The main objective in the game is to acquire the four keys in order to unlock the “Launch Button”. I made this task more complicated so players had to work together or find different ways to get them. I added more Critters and gave them more interesting and dangerous behaviors. This really ramped up the tension in the game and forced some tough decisions between defending the web and acquiring the keys. Having so many things to do and limited time to do it, automatically, made the end-game count-down much more dramatic.

It looks like the game is back on track and it’s time to write a final set of rules. Writing the rules is an important part of the design process. It reveals logic errors and provides a completely different perspective on the game. I’m really looking forward to ironing out the final glitches. I just hope there aren’t any really big issues I’ve missed. The “Kinda” “Sorta”, simultaneous turn-order (but only if you need to…) is going to be tough to explain. This should be fun!

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Arachnid Version 19