SynergiesOfPiecepackComponents

Stones, Sticks and Sand

At the most basic level of game design stones, sticks and sand can be used to play games. Stones have colors and positions, sticks can draw in the sand, and sand can be the canvas or the board. Modern versions of those basic elements are pawns, pencils and paper.

See Low-Tech Game Systems (2003) for more on this idea.

Coins, Dice and Pawns as Stones

• Stones can be moved on a board.
• Stones can block the movement of other stones on the board.
• Stones can be considered bridges between areas of the board.
• Stones can mark a certain section of the board as owned by a player
• Stones owned by players in certain sections of the board can be considered: lost, sequestered, recharging, upgrading, mired, ready to be collected...
• Tiles can give structure to the board.

Synergies between Pawns and Dice

• Throw a die, the outcome represents how many spaces a pawn of the corresponding color should move. As in Adultery.
• Throw a die, the outcome represents what happens in the space where the pawn in currently located. As in SanAndreas.
• Throw a die, the outcome represents if the pawn stays in the current area or moves to other areas. As in Martian Miners.
• Set the face of your die in secret, then reveal, the face represents how the corresponding pawn should move. As in GlobalWarming.
• Throw a die, if the outcome is special (ace or null) give a special power to the pawn. As in CreamOfTheCrop.
• Play a pawn on top of a die to block its use, or to reserve it.

Synergies between Pawns and Coins

• Use the coins to program the future movement of the pawn. As in Everest.
• Play a coin and use its color to determine one of the 4 cardinal directions on which the pawn should move.
• If the pawn is in a special place the player can exchange coins between his hand and the bank. As in Martian Miners.
• The player uses a specific collection of coins (3 moons, 4 of different suits, 4 of increasing value) to move the pawn in a corresponding specific way, or give it a power (more liberty of movement).

Synergies between Dice and Coins

• Have coins in the hands of players as money and use them to buy dice throws based on their value. The dice could have powers based on their value or color.
• Throw a die of your suit, select the corresponding coin from your set of coins.
• Throw a die of a selected suit, select the corresponding coin (to move, to activate, to eliminate).
• Play a coin from your hand, if the value is special use the die of the corresponding suit. As in Martian Miners.
• Play a coin from your hand on top of a die to block its use, or to reserve it.
• The value of a revealed coin can be used to set the value of a die (its top face for example) as in Desfases.
• Throw a die and use its value to discard/select a coin on the corresponding value, maybe use the color of the die to select from coins of that color only.

Synergies between Tiles and Coins

• Have a tile in your hand, use the suit and value of the tile to identify a coin on the table. As in Matches.
• Place a coin on one of the small squares of the back of tile.
• Mentally divide the front of the tile into 4 quadrants (one of the quadrants contains the suit of the tile), place a coin on one of them. As in ShoppingMall.
• Take a coin out of a bag, the coin represents what tile should be eliminated from the board. As in GlobalWarming.
• Take the top tile from a pile, the player holding the corresponding coin is affected.
• Place a coin on one of the small squares of the back of tile, the direction mark of the coin points to the small square affected by that coin.
• Place a coin on one of the small squares of the back of tile, the value or color of the coin affect the surrounding squares. As in Japan.
• Have coins in the hands of players as money and use them to buy tiles available based on their value. As in Palazzo.
• Place a coin on the value-side of a tile to add to its value, or multiply both, for multiplicative scoring.

Synergies between Dice and Tiles

• Throw a die, the outcome represents in what face-up tile something should be placed (maybe a coin, a pawn or the die itself). As in GoodsFromCapeToCairo.
• Throw a die, move/discard/select the corresponding tile.
• Place a die on one of the small squares of the back of tile.
• Place a die on one of the small squares of the back of tile, the top value of the die represents its amount of influence on that square. As in Ship It.

Synergies between Tiles and Pawns

• Place a pawn on a tile to affect its value. As in Palazzo.
• Use the tiles as a board on which a pawn can move.
• Stack tiles to form towers on which a pawn can perch.
• If a pawn is placed on a tile that matches its color the value of the tile is affected.
• Use the ace (or null) tile of each color as pedestals on which each of the pawns should be placed, taken from or returned to, by players. As in KingArthursCourt.

Paper and Piecepack Components

• Several excellent board games are made out of a printed sheet of paper and dice. The Piecepack has dice and several other components that can interact with that sheet of paper to enhance a game.
• The sheet can provide information
  • Describes the possible sets of coins that when collected and used, give powers. As in Martian Miners.
  • Describes the die throw combinations that give points or abilities.
  • Describes the resources that are available in the game.
  • Describes the possible activities the players can reserve (in a "worker placement" game) Provides spaces to place those workers.
  • Describes the possible Piecepack component combinations that can be reserved in a "worker placement" game, or collected in a "set collection" game.
• The sheet and the components can be used together
  • The sheet provides the scale of a slider, a pawn provides the setting of the slider.
  • The sheet provides the scale of a turn-nob, a coin, with its direction mark, serves as the nob.
  • The sheet provides areas for the collected components of each player.
  • The sheet provides a track for the components to move through (while tiles are needed for another purpose)

Playing Cards and the PlayingCardsExpansion

• Playing Cards A-6 are functionally equivalent in many respects to original Piecepack coins. However,
  • Coins are smaller and cards are thinner and can more easily be held in your hand, privately.
  • There are additional cards 7-10 and K,Q,J that could benefit games.
• Arrange the tiles on a grid, shuffle the deck of cards A-6, and reveal a card. This card indicates which tile to eliminate, or affect (as in the commercial game Forbidden Island).
• Place tiles 1 to 5 on top of certain cards to establish a course to travel in a grid of cards (as in RoyalRacers).
• Collect cards of specific suits. If you have enough, you can establish a path between two tiles of the associated suit.
  • For example, if we want to create a path between tiles: e.g., 2 of clubs and 6 of diamonds, we can say we need 6−2=4 cards of diamonds because the 6 of diamonds is the higher card. This mechanism was used in a simple port of Ticket to Ride, and it is partially borrowed from the game Cross Currents by Sid Sackson.