So what would people think if I said I was considering making a board/card game of the basic ideas here? I think there's a lot of potential here, and my idea's distinct enough I don't think it's really stealing any more than the basic "evil overlord waking up and trying to subvert the world" thing. Two player asymmetrical, with one player as the Dark Lord and one as the Chosen One.
The "board" is a set of cards laid out with connections between them. That gives it instant readability, with the full rules for each location right there on its card, as well as modularity. Swap some cards around to make a new map, or randomly draw the whole board. Rules for that won't be considered until I have the core gameplay figured out though, of course.
The core gameplay loop is closest conceptually to netrunner, with some RPG and wargame type systems supplementing it for theme and additional functionality. One player is the Dark Lord (think sauron more than cthulhu) and his gameplay resembles TWS. He's got minions who serve as his actions per round, dark power which functions like mana and gates the power of actions, and various cards representing schemes, equipment, spells, defenses, etc. The basic action available to him is placing a minion and a scheme at a location anywhere on the map. The scheme remains on the board until it's discarded at will by the dark lord, interrupted by the chosen one, or it matures, which takes time based on the difficulty of the scheme and the minion's skill in the relevant ability (Summoning a demon is Lore, subverting a kingdom Diplomacy, etc. Standard board game stuff).
So the dark lord, like the corp in netrunner, essentially sets the pace and terrain of the game by creating threats and challenges that the chosen one must figure out how to respond to. Various cards can be played on a scheme to protect it, like guards, traps, etc. If schemes are hidden until interrupted, this adds the additional dynamic of red herrings and trap schemes. If you know where the chosen one's hiding, lure him out with a dummy scheme and pop a trap on him, but you're wasting time and resources if he doesn't take the bait. Haven't decided how I'd work that one though, face-down schemes. The Dark Lord wins by victory points, gained by subverting and conquering the nations of the world, or by killing the chosen one.
Anyway, the Chosen One's where things get a little different. Rather than being like TWS where the chosen one is unknown, the Dark Lord knows who he is, but can't find him. The Chosen One has a hidden movement mechanic where he records his movements on a sheet hidden from the Dark Lord. Instead of agents he can gather followers, other heroes he can keep in his entourage or send out on their own to give him greater reach. The tradeoff there is pretty obvious, he can send out his guys for more actions but that limits his personal power, a la War of the Ring's fellowship mechanic. Like the Dark Lord the Chosen One can win through victory points by uniting the nations and freeing occupied territory from the Dark Lord, or by gathering up enough heroes and artifacts and spells to take the fight to him and destroy him directly.
The biggest difference from TWS is the chosen one focus. Nations take a backseat and function mostly as terrain, obstacles and objectives for the players to compete over. Getting a nation on your side gives you control of its army, though you'll have to dedicate a character card to controlling it if you want it to do more than defend its home, plus various benefits like equipment and special heroes, and hindering enemy actions in the nation's territory.
One thing I like about the concept is that there's several paths to victory and the character-based action system lets you divide your efforts among one or both of them however you want. As the dark lord you could ignore the chosen one and focus on heavily defended schemes to take over the nations and conquer them, or you could scour the land to hunt him down, or anywhere in between, and likewise with the Chosen One.
Author
Topic: That which sleeps- Kickstarted! (Read 372377 times)