Flavor:
Chop it, Chop it, Chop it! Gnomes in Beaver-suits? Giant mechanical scorpions? What is going on here? Trees are falling and logs are cascading down rivers! Hurry and deliver your lumber on time or lose face and money!
Command your fellow gnomes, make savvy business decisions, and deliver you lumber to the meglocorps and secure yourself stacks of coin. Bank it and retire. But don't forget, you can't do it alone so make deals, engineer steals, and upgrade your technology to come out on top.
Play:
You must manage the leases on land representing the rights to the trees growing there, hire and pay the salary of gnomes chopping your trees, transport those logs, mill them into boards and deliver on the contracts you fought so hard to earn.
The game is played over the course of 20 years (30 years in a long game) with each year representing a turn consisting of four parts. In the first phase of the turn players mimic the passing of time by advancing all of their leases and contracts on their tracker board. In the second phase all passive board elements trigger such as trees growing and rivers pushing logs downstream. Any number of actions are taken by each player one at a time in the third phase following turn order. This phase is where all of the negotiation and planning will take place. In the last phase of each turn any player which has successfully completed the prerequisites for a contract makes a delivery and collects payment. After 20 turns the game ends and players compare stacks of money. Its all about the Benjaminicins (A famous gnomish inventor minted on every coin).
Chop it, Chop it, Chop it! Gnomes in Beaver-suits? Giant mechanical scorpions? What is going on here? Trees are falling and logs are cascading down rivers! Hurry and deliver your lumber on time or lose face and money!
Command your fellow gnomes, make savvy business decisions, and deliver you lumber to the meglocorps and secure yourself stacks of coin. Bank it and retire. But don't forget, you can't do it alone so make deals, engineer steals, and upgrade your technology to come out on top.
Play:
You must manage the leases on land representing the rights to the trees growing there, hire and pay the salary of gnomes chopping your trees, transport those logs, mill them into boards and deliver on the contracts you fought so hard to earn.
The game is played over the course of 20 years (30 years in a long game) with each year representing a turn consisting of four parts. In the first phase of the turn players mimic the passing of time by advancing all of their leases and contracts on their tracker board. In the second phase all passive board elements trigger such as trees growing and rivers pushing logs downstream. Any number of actions are taken by each player one at a time in the third phase following turn order. This phase is where all of the negotiation and planning will take place. In the last phase of each turn any player which has successfully completed the prerequisites for a contract makes a delivery and collects payment. After 20 turns the game ends and players compare stacks of money. Its all about the Benjaminicins (A famous gnomish inventor minted on every coin).
First a bit on the components:
ReplyDeleteI have been using corrugated cardboard to make the 16 tiles that compose the main board and I am covering them with craft foam to make it more presentable. So far I think it looks pretty good and has a nice feel. They are in very distinct colors and each color has a group of tiles that will relate to a lease in game. This way you can bid on leases for 3-5 sets of regions as opposed to 16 different regions which would be mind numbing.
The trees are two sided 1" circular chits representing a full grown tree on one colored side and a sapling of the associated tree in white on the reverse.
When a tree is chopped down it is replaced with a two sided 1" square chit representing the corresponding type of log on one side and the milled lumber of the same time on the other.
All of the chits are constructed of a thin piece of cardboard with colored paper glued to each side and then stamped with a graphic.
The colors differ for each of the three different types of trees and are very distinct.
I have not yet given much thought to the tokens representing gnomes and machines but would like to use some miniatures so I need to look at some websites. I have also not spent any time on the player boards but have an idea as to the size and layout I want.
More on how the game works:
The player boards show 10 locations for cards with each space containing a number from 1-10 in order. When you take on a 5 year contract (or lease) it goes in the space numbered 5 and each turn you slide it towards 1. This should make tracking the progress of contracts and leases very visibly pleasing and easy to follow.
There are two different camps which have decks of contract cards only three of which are available at any time. Contracts that are long outstanding at the camps receive cash bonuses as incentives. When a contract is taken it is placed on the player's board and replaced with one from that camp's deck. Deliver on your contract and get paid, deliver early and get a bonus, miss your delivery date and pay a penalty.
The game basically revolves around managing your economy and providing services to other players at 'reasonable' costs. Players will not have enough cash to bid for contracts, lease land, cut, mill, and transport so they will have to specialize and manage their margins. w00t!
The first beta version was presented and some interesting ideas were tossed around. Players were not forced to negotiate with each other as much as I desire, and so I am makeing changes to put a heavier emphasis on this aspect of the game's design. One recomendation is to create a single specialzed card for each aspect of manageing deliveries. (Trucking, Chopping, Milling) If this is the case only one player will be able to get a specialized role and thus will be forced to negotiate their services to remain competitive. A single trucking firm, a single specialized chopping machine, a special mill available only to one person, etc.
ReplyDeleteA few changes:
Contracts that are long outstanding at the camps will no longer receive cash bonuses as incentives.
Contracts remain public until a player makes an opening bid on the contract in order to secure rights to deliver. In all other cases players will be able to complete any public contract.
Some method to incentivize or cycle through longstanding contracts is a must. I have plans to reward players for commiting to contracts early as well.