Author: DesmondRossignoli

Posted on

Bang! & Prototyping Review

Over the years, I have played many role-deduction games, such as Mafia, Werewolf, Secret Hitler, and Don’t Mess with Cthulu.  I appreciated how Bang! took this classic game format, and added extra mechanics.  In all of the other games I’ve played, death is immediate; there is never a health bar.  In many of these games, only certain roles can kill others, whereas in Bang!, everyone can kill.

If I had to place the acts, the second act would start the moment the sheriff shoots at somebody, and the third act begins the moment people begin to die or shoot the sheriff.  Given that this game could easily be re-skinned, I am guessing that the mechanics were developed before the theme.

I also had the opportunity to prototype Robert’s Love Triangle today.  The rules were solid and the theme was fun and well-executed.  However, the game became a repetitive grind after a few playthroughs.  This could probably be fixed by adding more variety to the cards or giving the player’s new actions.

Posted on

1st Playtest of ‘Death Sentence’

The first playtest went surprisingly well for Death Sentence.  There were minimal holes in the rules, gameplay was easy to understand, and everyone had a good time.  Still, there are a few items I need to address:

  1. The name ‘Death Sentence’ is no longer appropriate for the game, and needs to be revised
  2. Some typos in the rules need to be fixed
  3. The theme/lore/idea/background of the game should be added to the rules
  4. A less random trading system has been suggested

If I playtest this game again after Spring Break, these items will be considered, and more official playing cards will be printed through the website makeplayingcards.com.

Posted on

5 Resource Games

5 Resource Game Ideas

Mana Surge: Charge up spells by channeling/siphoning various forms of mana (arcane, elemental, etc), and use them to attack opponents and surpass obstacles.  Everyone is in different places in a randomly assembled dungeon, and the last mage alive is the winner.

Nimble in Nimbus: Each player runs a crime syndicate in the floating city of Nimbus.  Everything was going great until one of your lackeys accidentally stole the anti-grav core.  As chunks of the city falls from the sky, you must build up a network of thieves, which requires tools, people, and capital.

Booze Cruise: The apocalypse has happened, and you and your mates have discovered an abandoned cruise ship full of alcohol.  Search, drink, trade, and destroy in a competition for who can get drunk the fastest.  Each player can only drink a specified preferred beverage (beer, wine, vodka, whiskey, etc.).

Liquidators of Catan: Catan has been settled, but is no longer profitable.  Be the first to liquidate all of your assets and vacate the island.

Weary Wedges: You’re a simple person with a lot of money, and you cannot be bothered to open doors in your mansion anymore.  Race around the mansion searching for door stops and propping open doors.

Posted on

Resource Games Reflection

I really enjoy games with the resource-collecting mechanic.  The act of collecting resources gives players small bursts of happiness which adds to the fun of the game.  Catan provides this every time one of your numbers comes up.  Splendor provides this every turn in the form of gaining new gems or cards.

The second act in our Catan game happened abnormally early, as Robert had an extremely advantageous spawn point.  The third act started when Robert began to upgrade all of his villages to cities.  The second act in Splendor started the moment people started to purchase cards.  The third act began when nobles began to be claimed.

Catan was relatively lacking in theme, which is why I’d guess it was developed with mechanics in mind.  While Splendor has a bit more theme to it, its mechanics could easily be re-mapped to a different theme, which is why I’m guessing it was also developed with mechanics in mind.

Posted on

ChessRPG Rules

ChessRPG – Desmond Rossignoli

Materials Included:
Standard 8×8 chess board
2 sets of 16 chess pieces with draw-erase bases
12 Ability cards (2 sets of 6)
Draw-erase marker w/ eraser

Set-up
The game is set up like a standard chess game.
Row 1 (Player 1): Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook
Row 2 (Player 1): Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn
Row 7 (Player 2): Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn, Pawn
Row 8 (Player 2): Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook
Set all of the pieces to maximum health by filling in the numerator on the bottom of each chess piece (for example, the bottom of the queen should show 2/2).
The younger player goes first.

New Rules for Attacking:
– When attacking a piece, check your attack value and subtract that from the opponent’s piece.
– If you do not completely kill a piece, you do not move your piece to replace it.
– If you successfully kill a piece, you MUST move your piece to replace it.

New Abilities:
King: Enemy pieces adjacent to your king cannot move or attack.
Queen: When your queen has line-of-sight to the enemy king, the enemy king’s ability is canceled.
Bishop: As your action, you may swap a bishop for one of your dead pieces.  The piece is brought back onto the board at full health.
Knight: When one of your pieces is adjacent to one of your knights, that piece may move and attack as a knight would.
Rook: Any of your pieces next to one of your rooks cannot be attacked.
Pawn: If a piece of yours is attacked and a pawn of yours is adjacent to it, the pawn may take the damage instead.

Stats:
King: 5 attack, 1 health
Queen: 4 attack, 2 health
Bishop: 3 attack, 3 health
Knight: 2 attack, 4 health
Rook: 1 attack, 5 health
Pawn: 1 attack, 1 health

*Stats and abilities are displayed on ability cards

End of Game:
The game ends – as any chess game does – when a king is removed from the board.

Posted on

5 Building Game Ideas

Desmond Rossignoli

  1. Warped Space – I am not sure how this game is to be played, but I envision players placing new tiles and expanding the board.  Tiles would come in shapes that tesselate (such as triangles, diamonds, and rectangles), and would have grids on them which the player could move along.  The grid squares would be varied in size, and proportioned 1:4:16.  This would allow players to move quickly on some areas of the board, and quite slow in other areas.
  2. Obstacle Source – Players will increase their stats (jumping, running, climbing, dodging, etcetera) while collecting obstacles.  Players may play obstacles in front of each other, ideally building up an obstacle course in front of each player.  At the end of the game, the players run their courses simultaneously, and the first to the end is the winner.
  3. Demonlords – A new layer of hell is being developed, and God has appointed some new Demon Lords to take charge.  As the new layer of hell begins to expand, players will take over swathes of land, build up various torture rooms within their territory, and populate their rooms with sinners as they begin to flow in.
  4. I Want to be the Dungeon Master – Ever play a round of Dungeons & Dragons where everyone wants to be the Dungeon Master?  I know your pain, which is why in this game, each player plays as a dungeon master, competing for various tiles to add to their dungeon, placing treasure and monsters as they go.  In phase 2, each player randomly gets assigned a dungeon other than their own, which they must survive and loot.
  5. Sanitation Frustration – A cooperative game where pollution gets placed on an ever-growing map, and players must work together to fix the environment.
Posted on

Week 4 Board Game Reflection

Desmond Rossignoli

Of the two games brought in today, my group only had the opportunity to play Nano-bots (because of interviews).  Fortunately, RMU’s Tabletop Club will be purchasing Carcassone and its expansions soon, which will give me the opportunity to experience it in the future.

Nano-bots was frustrating to play but in a good way.  Not only were moves extremely strategic, but they also provoked loud debates between players, advising alternate moves (which might be more advantageous).  I enjoyed this atmosphere a lot, as it introduced a cooperative element into an otherwise competitive game.

The third act came very late in the game, as it took a while for any of the players to get a firm lead.  If I had to guess, I would say that the mechanics of this game were developed (mostly) before a theme was concocted.

Posted on

Death Sentence Rules

Death Sentence – Desmond Rossignoli

Materials Included:
6 Play Mats
120 Noun Cards + 5 Blank Nouns
120 Verb Cards + 5 Blank Verbs
48 Adverb Cards + 2 Blank Adverbs
48 Adjective Cards + 2 Blank Adjectives
48 Location Cards + 2 Blank Locations

Set-up:
1. Shuffle all of the cards into one deck
2. Each player starts with a play mat in front of them
3. Deal 5 cards to each player
4. The player who read a novel for leisure most recently begins, and play proceeds clockwise.

On Your Turn:
1. Draw 1 card
2. Place 1 card from your hand to the corresponding space on your mat
3. Trade 1 of your cards with a random card from one of your opponents

End of Game:
After the 10th round, the game is over, and points are tallied.
1. Earn 1 point for each card present in a complete sentence
2. Each player chooses their favorite sentence which they did not write, and awards 1 pt to that player (this step is skipped in a 2-player game)
3. The players vote together for their favorite sentence, and award it 2 points
4. In the event of a tie, the person with the most verbs/nouns in their hand is the winner.  If there is still a tie, the player who was last in the turn order (between the tied opponents) is the winner.

Prototype Play Mat Format:
[Verb] and [Verb][Adj] by [Noun]
[Adv][Verb] in [Location]
[Adv][Verb] by [Noun]
Killed by [Noun] in [Location]
Death by [Adj][Noun]
[Verb] by [Noun]