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[Mephansteras]

Out of curiosity, are you making this game for just your own use or are you thinking of trying to publish it?

Long term goal is to try and kickstart it. I already got a potential artist lined up for the art, but before I get there I need to do the bulk of the written stuff.

Ok. Well, rule #1 for game design is - do a cheap proto-type and test the hell out of it! Especially in your case, since it sounds like a very complicated game. It has lots of potential, yes, but the more complex the game the more places for problems to crop up. Your combat system, for example, could be a lot of fun. Or, it could drag things out and add a lot of down time for the players not involved in that particular combat, which makes things boring. It needs to be tested, not only as a sub-component but also as part of a full game with the max number of players you're planning on having for the game.

Fluff and Story are great, but you really need to have the bare mechanics working properly. A car with a great paint job that won't run isn't much practical use.

One thing you should figure out, if you're going to try and kickstart it, is who your target audience is and how many of them are out there. What are their interests and tolerances for things like game length, down-time between turns, rules complexity, and so on. Other things you'll need to consider is the effects of randomness on the game. Your description of the game play makes for interesting narratives but also has a strong possibility of a player being effectively/actually eliminated during the course of the game. For short games, this is fine. For long games, you end up with bored people with nothing to do who never want to play the game again.

Not trying to dissuade you, or anything, just trying to make sure you're far enough along in the actual game creation phase before you try to do anything that costs you real money. There is a big difference between making a good game and getting people to buy your game (no matter how good). 

[Stas]

Oh yeah, I am quite aware of all that and have given it much thought.
There is still quite a lot of work before I can get a working prototype made.
You are right, the nature of the game is pretty complicated and will take a long time to test, but I have a couple of guys that will be happy to help me out with that.

In all honesty, I don't see anything really involving any money until one or two years from now, if not more.

[Mephansteras]

Good, sounds like you've got the right perspective on things.

[Stas]

Yeah, I approach it from a realistic perspective.
I don't want to make money off the boardgame (although a few bucks wouldn't hurt  ), I am doing this because I think that my idea is interesting enough to try and get it out there.
Basically, I want to share a story.

We will see how that pans out.

[Mephansteras]

Back from Vacation. Got...pretty much nothing done while there. Turns out doing spreadsheet work on a kindle is more trouble than it is worth. Ah, well.

Anyway, I've spent a little time working on the Character decks for Magitech Mechs. So those are sorted out, at least initially. Still have to do the rest of the Frames, Weapons, and Augments for them, but it is progress. Sadly, I'm not going to have time to get everything done before this weekend. I was hoping to have a prototype done so I could test things out a bit, but I don't see that happening. Getting sick right after the trip cut into my time a good bit.

In any case, here is the list of the initial 10 characters I have, and a little bit about them. Most don't have any real backstory or anything and the notes are more mechanical than anything else, but it is a start.

Character	Character Desc	Gender	Role	Role Description
Captain		Male	Leader	Diplomacy, Boost All
Ruby Knight		Female	Melee Focus	Attacks
Emerald Knight		Male	Range Focus	Attacks
Sapphire Knight		Female	Magic Focus	Attacks
Silver Knight		Female	Defender	Defend cards
Onyx Knight		Male	Artillary Mage	Area of Effect
Topaz Knight		Female	Engineer	Repair, Work
Doctor		Male	Support	Boost Others, Healing
Huntmaster		Male	Sniper	(Defense Bypass)
Lady Fortuna	A renowned explorer of distant lands, Lady Fortuna only returns to the home country occasionally. Her travels have brought her fame and wealth	Female	Balanced	Multisymbol cards, Money

Gender was mostly decided by a random script, with an enforced 50/50 split. Lady Fortuna being the primary exception to that, since I actually have a back story for her. I did run it a few times until I got a mix I liked, mostly because I didn't want to have all the girls relegated to the support roles which is what it did the first time.

People are welcome to give me suggestions for the others, if they have any.

[Mephansteras]

Ok, finally have all of the cards done up on my spreadsheets. Next is the fairly laborious task of getting physical cards made up for the first prototype test. But progress is being made!

[Mephansteras]

The first 4 Characters, Frames, and Weapons are done. If I can get 8 Augments & NPCs done I'll be able to do a first prototype test at a game day tomorrow!

Story and Plot cards won't be done, but that's ok. I can run it off a spreadsheet.

[Mephansteras]

First playtest went pretty well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we learned quite a bit about the game. Some changes to be made, certainly, but nothing really fundamental to the core game so far.

It'll be interesting to see how future plays go.

[notquitethere]

How long does a typical game last?

[Mephansteras]

How long does a typical game last?

Not sure yet for Magitech Mechs. We only got through 5 Story/Plot cards during our test (Which was...2 or 3 hours?), but we had done a test combat first and there were lots of pauses to the game while we discussed various rules and aspects of the game.

I don't think we'll actually know until we've done a few more playtests and the game is a bit more streamlined.

It may end up being a long game. But fortunately I have things broken into Acts for any given Story, so the game could be stopped and restarted at a later date with only some minor bookkeeping about who had what decks, how many Damage/Wounds each player had, and how many Light/Dark tokens the group had by the end of an Act.

[Mephansteras]

Any interest in me setting up a Forum Game to test out the latest version of Magitech Mechs through the first Act? That would be about 8 Story cards total, which on average is going to have 4 battles and 4 non-combat tests.

I figure being forced to explain the game well enough for people to play it via text should really help me get the rules down, and the games I've done on this forum so far have been pretty enlightening for me.

[EagleV]

Very interested. I didn't notice any thread yet, but regardless, dibs on a mech 

[notquitethere]

Any interest in me setting up a Forum Game to test out the latest version of Magitech Mechs through the first Act? That would be about 8 Story cards total, which on average is going to have 4 battles and 4 non-combat tests.

I'd play.

[Mephansteras]

Cool. I'll work on stuff this weekend and see about getting a game up next week.

[Mephansteras]

Ok, game is up for signups here

Probably won't actually start until next week, since I'll be out of town for the 4th of July weekend, but we can get rules questions sorted out and people can decide on their decks.