The Permons, being the mining-savvy dwarf stand-ins of my setting, have
an annual 'ironman' style challenge, with each competing team fielding
four chosen Permons who work in the mining industry. You could play for
the default teams and team members provided with the game (each would
have a profile card, sort of a parody of collectible sportsman cards or
MtG style cards), or you could make up your own home-brewn teams and
their members.
In this race, the contestants have to use both their physical prowess
and their wits to reach the finish line. Each of them is hauling ore in
some means of transport, which they can gradually upgrade over the
course of the race, if they earn a certain number of points. Along the
way, there are also sections of the track with certain obstacles or
threats. For example, unexpected rock slides, ambushes by highwaymen and
bandits, ambushes by smaller fantasy monsters/critters. However, the
players can counteract this with skill, or by finding "pickups"
alongside the track, and/or by applying luck cards provided in the game.
These would be the aces up your sleeve for more difficult situations
and encounters. They might provide you with, for example, an extra
boost, an extra throw of the die, the ability to call in reinforcements
(here you get the opportunity to show non-Permon locals, including
Rarach and Bigfolk humans, the Stonie martenmen, et al, in a heroic
role, rather than just occassional adversaries). If one team's racer
knocks out another team's racer, the knocked-out racer can continue, but
has to wait a round or more. Depending on the size and capacity of his
upgraded vehicle, he has to wait one, two or three rounds (this
represents him putting the vehicle back in order and loading the ore
again).
Unlike in MäDN, the goal of the game wouldn't be only making it
to the finish line "stable" with all four of your figures. You'd have
several ways to win by achieving a certain score. In addition to being
the first team to get all four figures carrying ore to their contest
destination, you could reward the first team that achieves the highest
score in transporting ore aboard upgraded means of transport, or the
team that uses the highest number of "aces" picked up along the way in
the most effective manner, the team that manages to avoid the most
threats along the way, and so on and so forth.
I imagine the game board would also come in four illustrated variations,
each reflecting the four different seasons of the year. Depending on
the season of the year, you'd also have somewhat different threats to
the contestants of your team.
In terms of cultural esthetics, don't think "Tolkien" or "Scandinavian"
or anything of the sort, but the more "late-medieval / Renaissance
central European" esthetic of my setting, especially the cultural and
historical inspirations behind the Melzan monarchy. Also plenty of
colour, the art style colourful and lighthearted, kid-friendly,
family-friendly, but still with a bit of believable grit to the
esthetic. Neither saccharine fairytale nor tiresome grimdark, but with a
very historically inspired esthetic.
This evening, I've had this idea about creating a smaller tabletop board
game, which would have some added depth, but still be simple and with a
humorous undertone. Specifically, I'm thinking of creating a slightly
more complex version of Mensch ärgere Dich nicht / Človeče nezlob se,
the continental European cousin to the anglosphere's better-known
parchisi or Ludo. By more complex, I don't mean an outright strategy
game or anything like that, but still a somewhat more complex game than
the usual Mensch ärgere dich nicht.
At its heart, Mensch ärgere Dich nicht is a racing game, where
you're trying to get your four playing figures/pieces around the track
and then into a "finish line row" of sorts. You win the game by parking
all four of your figures in the row, after each one crosses the track
once. You need to throw a six on a six-sided die to get your figure onto
the track. If another player steps on your position and ejects your
figure, you need to return it back into the game.
The game will actually be set in my own fantasy setting and deal mainly
with its local equivalent of dwarves, the Permons. You'll play as
several teams of Permon (dwarf) miners in the vicinity of an old and
respect precious ore mining city. Though it's a fantasy world, it's
going to follow the typical esthetics of my fictional setting and be
fairly historically inspired, including by the old mining cities of my
homeland and their cultural and historical aspects.
The basic plot is that the Permons are taking part in some annual
contest, a certain "tournament of the most skillful miner". (Think of it
as an ironman style challenge attended by average Joe dwarven/Permon
miners.) Several teams are competing (at least two, i.e. two players),
each with their own team colours, and the object of the contest is to
transport as much freshly mined ore through the various winding
corridors of the mines, and the winding quarries and mountain paths
outside, until they reach their destination (e.g. an ore grinder or such
or hammer-mill or such) and then they return to pick up more ore and
race the track again.
One of the scores in the game is not just making it as the first team (as in Mensch ärgere dich nicht),
but also earning the most points, awarded for transporting the largest
amount of ore, or transporting it with the least amount of mishaps, or
investing the most skill points into upgrades. Yes, you'll be able to do
a few subtle upgrades to improve your odds. The contestants start out
with basket backpacks for carrying the ore, then once they have enough
prerequisites and gain enough skill points as a result, they can upgrade
the backpack to a wheelbarrow or a little handcart. Finally, they can
upgrade the vehicle to a two-wheeled cart pulled by a donkey or a pony.
Like in the ordinary Mensch ärgere dich nicht, it's possible for
the players to inconvenience the opponent's figure when they land in its
exact spot. However, unlike in that classic game, my Permons wouldn't
get thrown back to the start, but simply get driven off the road, all of
their ore falling out, forcing them to gather it and right the vehicle
before continuing in the race. Concerning penalties, once this happens,
the specific player figure has to wait out a round. To make things more
balanced, realistic and trickier, though each of the upgrades to your
means of transport will make it easier for you to transport more ore and
accumulate more overall points to your score, if your means of
transport is out of luck, the more advanced it is, the longer you'll
have to wait out a round. Basket backpack, one round. Wheelbarrow or
handcart, two rounds. The donkey or pony cart, three rounds.
I'm also thinking there'll be sections on the track that offer some
element of random peril. Your team's contestant is going through a
mountain pass infamous for occassional falling rocks... you pull a luck
card, and you might get hit with a tumbling boulder... or dodge it. Or
he's passing through a forested part of the road, where highwaymen and
other bandits have a habit of lurking... maybe if you're lucky enough,
you can summon fellow Permon reinforcements (local guards or knights, as
you're just an ordinary miner who doesn't know that much about
fighting). And so on and so forth... Various occassional complications.
From time to time, you might find a precious item or some clockpunk-ish
technical gadget that'll represent an ace up your sleeve or a saving
throw of sorts. There's plenty of things that could be added for extra
thrills and unpredictability, while still keeping the game focused and
simple. You could add various other, explicitly fantastical elements
(though ones still grounded in feel). Said clockpunk stuff, humorous
elements, etc. Something to complement its esthetics of
late-medieval-and-Renaissance era Kremnica or Banská Štiavnica style
environments, with an extra layer of an earlier industrial revolution.
There's plenty of gameplay-and-esthetics balancing possibilities. I
still need to think over a lot of the details.
Obviously, as is frequent in my fantasy setting, the tone would be
rather tongue-in-cheek, on the funnier side, but not completely madcap
or campy.
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