Re: [piecepack] New game needs help

["Mike Schoessow" <mikeschoessow@...>]

Hi Adam,

Welcome!

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kistaro Windrider 
  To: piecepack@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:44 PM
  Subject: [piecepack] New game needs help



  So I've perhaps started to maybe come up with a new Piecepack game,
  but the rules I have just don't work. I need advice on what to do to
  make this workable, if anything can be done.

  The general gist of what I have right now:
  1. Set up a board of 20 tiles: a 4x4 square, and then one at the
  middle of each edge (offset realtive to the othe tirles). All of these
  are face-down (grid-up).
  2. Each person choses a side and a suit. The pawn of that suit is
  placed somewhere in the single tile outside of the square, while all
  the coins are placed, suit-side up, with a row of four in the center
  of the closest row or column of the 4x4 square, pointing towards the
  edge, and the other two in the next row up, in the center, pointing
  towards the center. Direction is highly relevant in this game.
  3. Each die is set at 3.

  4. The goal of the game is to destroy your opponent's laser by zapping
  it with your own.
  5. On each player's turn:
  a. That player decrements his or her die if it is not already at the
  ace. (3 becomes 2, 2 becomes 1.)
  b. That player moves one coin. The current move mechanics are
  Halma-style: one step orthogonally, or any number of jumps over
  friendly or opponent pieces orthogonally with no captures. The coin
  may be placed in any of the four directions when landing. A coin may
  not be rotated in place.
  c. If that player's die is at the ace, that player may optionally fire
  his or her laser. He or she choses a direction for the beam to be
  fired from his or her pawn. Whenever it hits a coin, the laser is
  deflected to the direction the coin is pointing. If it hits a laser,
  the owner of that laser (and don't shoot yourself!) is out of the
  game. His or her laser is removed from the board, but the coins
  remain. If the laser fires off the board, nothing happens. If an
  infinite loop occurs, ALL coins involved in the loop are "vaporized"
  and removed from the board.
  In any event, after the laser is fired, that player's die is reset to 3.


  Yah, it sounds like a pretty interesting game, with some original ideas.


  So that's the rough draft of the rules I have. I've come up with a
  wide and creative variety of deadlock configurations: ways to set up a
  few pieces so one can never lose.


  Can you describe three or four of the most common deadlock scenarios? I'm sure that if I set it up and tried it for thirty minutes I would discover more on my own but it would save time if you listed some.


   You can't win in them either, but at
  least you can't lose.

  Problems:

  1. The deadlock problem I mentioned.
  2. The beginning of the game is very slow. Nothing interesting happens
  for a while.


  Consider an alternative initial placement so conflict occurs earlier. Alternatively, consider allowing the players to alternate placing their pieces anywhere on the board at the beginning instead of starting with a fixed setup configuration. Other possibilities include restricting players at this stage to placing pieces only within their own "home territories" (however you care to define those), or allowing players leaway only in the placement of their last two or three pieces, etc.

  3. In many games, deadlocks occur before anything interesting happens at all.

  I need to know more about the details of various types of deadlocks to intelligently comment in detail, but some possibilities include, disallowing infinite loops or multiple deflections beyond a certain number (although it's always better to have basic rules that inherently prevent problems rather than introducing new conditions to prevent problems).

  4. If too many coins ("mirrors") are vaporized, the game deadlocks.
  How should they get back on the board?

  Possibilities include:
  a) add a price for vaporizing, such as turning over for one game turn, one coin for each enemy coin vaporized (not sure how you'd keep track of coin ownership while they were turned over :-)

  b) When ever you vaporize more than one enemy coin per turn you remove n-1 of your own coins from the board (n = number of coins vaporized), your choice which to remove.

  Note: a) and b) are ways to keep so many from getting eliminated rather than finding a way to get them back on. 

  c) Whenever you vaporize more than one enemy coin per turn, the enemy gets to re-enter on the board n-1 of his own previously vaporized coins. There are various possibilities for where they may be re-entered. One interesting possibility is that he must stack them on top of a coin of his already on the board. These may then be moved apart on a future turn, but if a stacked pair is vaporized they both are removed from the board.


  5. I'm certain there are more, but the previous four thwarted my
  preliminary tests.

  Anyway, I'm looking to y'all pros for advice. This is sort of a group
  brainstorming session, if y'all would indulge me. Suggestions, please?

  I see some good possibilities here. Keep at it, and good luck!


  -Mike Schoessow


  --Adam Norberg at his shiny new e-mail address





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