A new game: DungeonBuilders

[Jorge Arroyo Gonzalez <trozo@...>]

Hi.

I've posted a new game to the wiki: http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/ 
DungeonBuilders

You can also download the rules from: http://george.makasoft.net/ 
piecepack/DungeonBuilders.pdf

I'm quite happy with it, and would really like to hear what other  
people think about it, especially for multiplayer games, which I  
think the game is more suited to... When played with one piecepack,  
it's for 2 to 4 players, but if you've got expansions, then each  
extra suit increases the player range by one, so potentially it could  
be played with up to 12 people but I don't think it would be that  
great... maybe it's ok up to 6, I don't know...

Here's the info from the wiki page:

This is a game that combines different mechanics into one fun  
multiplayer experience. First you've got the Dungeon Building phase,  
where everyone participates adding items, monsters and rooms to the  
Dungeon or powering up their character. Then the most powerful  
adventurer will enter the dungeon and try to get as much gold as he  
can without being defeated by the monsters inside. In the end, the  
player that manages to get a set amount of gold after a number of  
rounds, wins the game. It's a short game but with enough tension as  
you don't know who'll enter until the last moment...

This is my newest design. I've been thinking about Dungeon Crawlers  
lately, and about what could be done with the genre. I've recently  
also played a little, very nicely designed flash game called Grow RPG  
( http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/RPG/index.html ) where you place  
different things into a world and then an automated character tries  
to win the adventure. Depending on the order you chose, he will be  
more or less successful.

This game was inspired by all this. First I was thinking about it as  
a whole new game with its own components (cards, tiles, etc...) and I  
may still design that game, but then I thought that if the game could  
work only the piecepack system, then it would be a step in the right  
direction. And here it is...

The game has a first building phase where players build the dungeon  
together. As no player can be sure if they'll be the ones entering  
the dungeon or not, there are some nice decisions to make: Should you  
make the dungeon very difficult? Should you add helpful items? Also,  
bluffing is encouraged (place an item that looks like it's a monster  
to scare other players away from trying to enter, etc...).

Then the exploring phase is like a quick mini dungeon crawl in which  
one player uncovers all the mysteries of the dungeon as their  
character explores it tile by tile, trying to get all the treasures  
(tiles of the same suit as the players). Here everyone can get some  
points. The player that placed a monster gets gold for each unit of  
damage it inflicts. Also if the character exploring takes helpful  
items, it benefits the player that placed them...

And when that is over, another round is played. Each round can be  
played very quickly, and the length of the total game can be easily  
adjusted to the players' liking.

So, I hope you enjoy it, and I'd really appreciate suggestions and  
feedback...


-Jorge