Inspired Updates 8/19/2013

+Erik McGrath

I've been focused on 16-Bit Adventures a lot lately, and I'm still working on it but this week I want to take some time to give some updates on the current state of everything else as well.

Battle Tank

As I have mentioned before a board game that needs as many pieces as Battle Tank is an expensive undertaking and Inspired can't afford it right now. We are considering our options on physical production but they look a ways off. 

So instead we are working on making a PNP version so that those who have expressed interest can at the very least try it out. Once we get some feedback on that front we want to work on how to improve that experience. 

Sudden Death

The game is ready, the artist is lined up, what we are missing is the time to really promote it. This is probably my favorite thing that Inspired has designed for its simplicity. We will get this made, its just a matter of getting CJ and I in the same room to do the details. 

The most important of those details I think would be videos to showcase the game and talk about why we made the decisions we have with the art and gameplay.

Drachenheim

Magnus by
+Laura Fallon Andersen 

I'll admit this one has been pushed to the back burner pretty hard. I return to it every now and again to poke it and see if any new ideas fall out. It feels almost done to me but the gameplay is just a little too clunky and there is too much reliance on dice rolls for my tastes. 

Its a boardgame where the board is defined by the cards in play rather than a pure cardgame so I'm ok with some dice rolling but I prefer the decisions of the players to be the most important piece and leave the dice to decide limited things. If I can get to a point where the dice are only thrown to decide the outcomes of battles I will be very happy.

Celestial Warriors

Our first RPG is in the midst of a fourth version and it is a long time coming. With this iteration I think its time to add some art and sharpen the formatting skills I've been working on with 16-Bit Adventures to make it look more interesting and so that it reads more easily. 

16-Bit Adventures

We didn't get a chance to play with the whole gang this week but we did come up with a solution I like to the fact that DEF could still go over 10. That answer is that separate devices give separate DEF ratings so if you have a Shield and Armor you don;t add the values together, instead you check all incoming attacks vs both values. 

We call this effect Double DEF. If an attack is under both then you only take quarter damage from that hit. If its under one but not both you take half. If its over both you take normal damage. 

Wrap up and Downloads

So that's were we stand right now. We'd love to hear your comments and feedback about any or all of our games. 

PDFs

16- Bit Adventures V2

Sudden Death

Celestial Warriors v3

Drachenheim: Upgrading Gameplay to Version 2.0

-Erik McGrath

This week we took a break from Battle Tank to let our ideas solidify. In its place we spent our time play-testing Drachenheim.

For a while it was basically the same game, just with more moving parts added as we went along, but now the gameplay has definitely moved into version 2.0. The new turn sequence is my favorite part. Before it was fairly standard and each player got their own complete turn before the others did anything. Now there are three phases to each turn with every player acting in each phase before moving on to the next. The phases are: Resource, Flight, and Action.

The first thing that became apparent with this new turn structure was that going first was a disadvantage much of the time and that dueling became extremely common whereas before it was rare. So to spread the disadvantage around the turn sequence now moves around the table clockwise with each new Resource Phase. In our game it was Jillian, then myself, then CJ at the start, so once we changed to the new structure Jill took the first turn as normal but after the action phase the start passed to me so that I had to move first and Jillian last, then CJ got first move and I last, then back to Jillian first and CJ last, etc.

The round-robin style was a lot of fun but, like I said, dueling was an emergent problem. We tried several methods to resolve that and settled on a simple one. Dragons always get their movement, so if someone moves onto the location you are in you may simply fly away during the Flight Phase if you want to avoid a duel. So far this seems to still allow Spike to benefit from his higher Might since it encourages other players to flee and let him have whatever was at the location. But as CJ found on a few occasions, Spike isn't so much more powerful in a duel that he always wins, so for valuable things Jillian and I were willing to stand and fight.

Minions and Natural Disasters

There were two other big things added as well, stat boosts and full rules for minions.

First stat boosts; I mentioned in a previous post that Dragons have four stats: might, majesty, flight, flame. We have made four dragons and each exemplifies one of the four stats. Spike is brutally strong, Magnus is awe-inspiring, Zephyrus is sleek and swift, and Fiero is an engine of destruction. Dragons are rated at 3 in  three of the stats and 4 in their primary one. In the event deck there are several natural disasters that can be encountered. In addition to being devastating events that can destroy settlements or kill minions, a dragon who conquers the disaster also gains power from it in the form of a stat boost.

Minions add an additional layer to the turn sequence as they give the controlling dragon additional options. Minions move and act much like dragons and thus they get their own token on the table to show where they currently are. Unlike dragons, though, their options are fairly limited. Most minions can only do one thing and have limited carry capacity. For instance Goblins can pillage but they can only carry a single gold token and only villages are vulnerable to them. The Black Knight, on the other hand, will carry no resources, but he is a deadly combatant able to stand up to a dragon and quite skilled at burning down settlements. The Giant is the most powerful of the minions and it can take almost every action a dragon can, it is limited mainly by its slower speed and the fact that it needs to be paid; so while it can carry a great deal, it will only part with a fraction of what it steals.

And that is the current state of Drachenheim, the card game where you play a young dragon seeking glory, power and treasure.

Drachenheim Design Progress

Photo source

-Erik McGrath

Seen here is a mock up of a location card.  This is not the final image by any means. The actual graphic will be changed this coming week, but this one gives the idea we are going for. The arrows indicate how this card can attach to other location cards. As of now the direction of the arrow doesn't matter, you simply place the cards so that the arrows are touching. 

Locations make up the entirety of your own, as well as your enemies' domains.  Currently you gain control of a location through subjugation (using your dragon's majesty rating), thus adding it to your territory. Distance is abstract and measured solely in cards, each one you wish to move through costs a single movement point, so how you arrange locations in your territory is important. You want your resources close by so that you can fly out and claim them, but you don't want to make it too easy for rivals to pillage your settlements, and you certainly don't want to allow heroes a fast route to your lair.

Nothing is set in stone, though. 

You can spend your action flying out over your territory looking for alternate routes between places. Depending on how high your flight rating is you can reposition one or more of your cards to change the landscape and bring juicy settlements closer to your lair while pushing dangerous or meager ones further out; another abstraction of the effort your dragon takes to destroy old routes and blaze a trail to create new ones.

What's New: Drachenheim

-Erik McGrath

This is the first post in What's New, a semi-regular series where we talk about our ideas and what we intend to pursue. Today's feature is Drachenheim.

Drachenheim is card game where the players take the role of young dragons staking claim to their first domain. They have left the protective umbrella of their parent's lairs and ventured out into the world where they must burn, subjugate and pillage the countryside while fending off rivals and obnoxious heroes with flame, tooth and claw.

Play proceeds in turns and on each turn the young dragons take to wing and fly out over the land. They can spend their action exploring the wild places and perhaps find treasures to fill their hoard or bands of savage creatures to destroy or dominate. They can fly to nearby villages and towns and subjugate them to provide a regular source of tribute or burn them down and simply carry off whatever they wish.

Settlements produce many kinds of resources but dragons care mainly for wealth, cattle and maidens. The size of the settlement, whether it is a village, a town or a city determines which resources they can produce and how much they can have at any time. Wealth is coin and rich goods rarely found in villages. Cattle can be cows, goats, sheep or even horses and are found in great abundance in rural areas. Maidens are young men and women, dragons are not picky about gender.

Beware taking maidens in tribute! While they are the most prestigious of treasures and the most delicious of meals the snatching of the citizenry is the leading cause of heroes taking up arms and seeking to slay the marauding dragon.

Development is in the early stages but we expect nothing will change dramatically over the course of the project. The young wyrms will always cause trouble for the folk, seek adventure and have to fight for their lives when the natives get restless.