World Domination Notes

Okay, here are last week’s notes on the game:
- Players felt that the world map was too big for what was trying to be done, they suggested axing several of the territories (About half) to funnel players together.
- Several players wanted to try where the Money rating didn’t affect rolls, but was instead (Money Rating * 100) is the amount of money you got, this I disagreed with after testing it for several rounds as money began to pour in too quickly.
- Combat needs to be reworked, I suppose, as at one point I toppled Mike’s Empire across the Asian subcontinent in only a few turns, and a few turns after that, Jo destroyed my Empire and bank system in one turn as well.
- Buildings need a rework in defense, Mike lost his Forward Base (And stopped playing) after he left it undefended. I lost my bank after Jo attacked it, although I had one defender.
- Length of play and effort to destroy enemy HQ are skewed.

The list isn’t long, but it’s large enough to demand a massive rework on several fronts, changes:

- Reduced the map size, eliminating many of the low S/M rating areas.
- Kept dice rolls in effect for gaining money, it seems to work fine to be, but we’ll see if more players advice change.
- Combat, okay this one is a little fudgey on how to change, with Combat being entirely dice based, a D6 is the only real way to get through this, I guess I should implement the “Motor Pool” building’s escape rule into all minions from teh start of the game, with the Motor Pool giving a +1 or +2 to the escape rolls. This means minions have a chance (On a D12 roll of 1, 2, 3, or 4) to return to their headquarters.
- I suppose including “Defense” measures in a bank/Forward base, such as “Requirement of 1 minion in the bank/base at any one time is required.” or maybe applying three “Security guards” to any base whom receive a -1 to their rolls on defense, but only act in defense.
- It seems that simply giving players a free minion when they lose their last one isn’t enough to keep them in the fight. The requirement to build a Satellite Launch Pad in order to find the enemy’s HQ (Steep price attached), means that the game takes a lot longer than it should, with players ending the fight by simply conquering enough territories (Raking in maybe 6k at a time, as Mike did) to buy enough minions to stop all player advances. I can’t seem to think of how to fix this except for removing the Launch Pad and putting the HQ in a hidden place ON the map via cards for each territory to choose where yours is, and having players “Gather Intelligence” on a region, maybe.

Revision: World Domination

The world has a shape now, that’s for sure. A map now allows the players to visually play the game, rather than just through stats and cards. This map has changed a lot of the rules, allowing a lot more in how it can be played, thus resulting in revisions.

Headquarters: These are not present on the map or in any territories, and rest outside the map hidden away from the other Evil Geniuses in the world. They can not be attacked until an Evil Genius builds a Satellite Launch Pad first. Loss of the headquarters is the players’ end.

Territories: Each territory (Amount to be determined) as a Security rating and a wealth rating (Okay, I know, freaking rip off right?), a player must roll higher than a security rating to begin operating in the territory for a turn. If the player decides to gain money from the terriroty, they roll a ((D12 + Money Rating)($50)) and that is the amount of money gained. Territories such as the US with a high security rating offer an equally high money gain, where less secure territories are less developed, thus easier to get into, but the pay off is potentiolly less. Each turn the player must reroll to keep his minion in the territory if they don’t move them, if a security roll is failed, the minion is lost.

If two minions are positioned on the same territory, they must engage in a fight over operating rights, and a D6 for each player is rolled, higher number wins, ties force a reroll until a clear winner exists.

Minions: A player starts with one minion and will always have at least one minion, if a player loses all their minions, a free one is provided to them to allow them to continue to operate.

Minions cost $1,000 to train for operation. They are weak, so beware.

Minions can be moved back to the player’s headquarters at any time.

(Will update again later, got to test Mike’s game.)

Continued post:

Jobs: Minions may undertake jobs for their geniuses to undermine the field efforts of other Evil Geniuses. Jobs include attacking enemy banks (This does not destroy the bank). These jobs cost money to set up and for logistical support.  Available jobs as followed:

• Bank Heist ($100): The player grabs as many minions as they desire up to four and sends them to an enemy bank. The player must roll against the area’s security roll first, if passed, they must take out the bank’s defending forces with minions rolling against local security forces that have a -1 to their rolls. If the bank heist is successful, the player takes money in equal to the following equation (D12 * $50). Any minions of the bank’s owning player on the territory may join the defense effort with no -1, and is the first to be fought, if killed, the bank’s security forces take over as normal.
• Interrogation($600): The player sends a minion to face another minion in a territory who has already passed a security roll. The attacking minion rolls against the territory’s security, and then rolls against the defending minion with a +2 to the attacking roll as it is a surprise attack. If the roll is won, the attacking minion has napped the minion and receives information on the area, giving a bonus against security rolls for the attacking player in that territory amounting to +2. The minion captured continues to spill secrets, resulting in a loss of $200 each turn to the captured minion’s owner until the minion is ransomed by the controlling Evil Genius or until the player sends a minion to either rescue or execute the captured minion. To execute the minion, a player must roll a D6 with a four or higher. To rescue the minion, a player must roll a D6 with a roll of five or higher, success results in the return of the minion. Failure in either case results in the loss of the minion executing or rescuing.
• Draw Attention to Enemy ($1,000): This heist takes an entire turn to actually complete. A player selects up to four minions to enter a territory and begin spreading propaganda against a competing Evil Genius. the four minions must each roll against the region’s security rating, the survivors beginning the operation. On that player’s next turn, the operation is complete and the Evil Genius that was targeted receives a worldwide +2 to all security rolls for four turns. The targeted Evil Genius may disrupt this operation by beginning his own Draw Attention campaign or by attacking the minions directly by selecting up to four of his own minions and sending them to the minions creating propaganda, the minions must pass the security roll before beginning direct combat with the defending minions. Destroying all defending minions results in the propaganda campaign ending with a -1 to the attacking players security rolls for the next turn. If the defending minions win, the campaign completes and all negative effects are in effect. A player may attempt to stop the minions a maximum of twice in the one turn.
• Assault Forward Base($2,000): The attacking player selects as many minions as they desire and sends them into combat at an enemy player’s forward base, each minion must pass the area’s security roll before entering the base The minions must first fight off enemy minions by rolling against each other. After all defending minions are destroyed and there are remaining attacking minions, the attackers must roll a D12 and any minion must roll a 5 to 9 to damage installations on the base (The installations are destroyed; installations are the laboratory, laser, or motor pool selected by the attacker.), a roll of 10 to 12 to destroy the entire forward base.
• Better Training ($2,000): This job increases the combat effectiveness of up to five minions to gain +1 to their attack for the next three turns. The trained minions must be placed in a territory, pass the security roll on each minion to be trained, and left still for an entire turn to complete training. Other minions may attack the training minions by selecting up to five of their own minions, passing the security roll, and directly attacking the trainees.

 

In this incorporation of World Domination I have included buildings that can be built on territories for Evil Geniuses to lay stake to pieces of land, some of the buildings so far:

• Bank ($3000): Choose a territory to build a bank on, roll against that security roll. If the security roll fails, the bank and its financial investment (What the player paid) is lost as the local government catches on to what the evil organization is up to. pass and the player no longer has to roll security rolls as long as that bank remains. Banks earn money for the organization through the following formula ((D6 + Money Rating)($25)) Minions can enter territories with banks on them and not attack them if they choose.
• Forward Base ($7,000): This forward base allows the construction of buildings to your benefit away from your headquarters, thus continuing to hide your secret location while attention is drawn to your little base. A forward base can be built on a territory after is passes the security test (And then it must roll a D12 every  turn after that, a roll of a 1 and the base  is discovered and lost to government employees), it provides no financial benefits. A territory with a forward base can be occupied by as many minions as the player wants, but only one can be actively stealing money, the others are considered “In the base” and do not have to roll against security. Players can invade other forward bases (As Evil Geniuses are smarter than governments), and each minion fights against each other minion until none are left or until the attacker or defender retreats his forces back to his headquarters. Any territories adjacent to the territory occupied by a forward base receives further intelligence, thus, an additional $25 to the money gain rolls. Any buildings attempted to be built on the forward base  must pass the territory’s security roll, if the roll is failed, the building and its financial investment is lost and the player must roll to keep the Forward Base hidden by rolling a D12, a roll of 1 and the base is destroyed.
• Death Laser ($6,000): This laser is only able to be built in a territory occupied by your forward base. Roll against the security, if the roll passes then the government doesn’t notice it being built and it survives. When the laser is built, every three turns a player may target a territory occupied by enemy minions and roll a D6, a roll of 1,2,or 3 and the minions on the territory are destroyed, this does not count the minions inside a forward base.
• Laboratory ($4,000): A laboratory for your minions in the field. This is built in your forward base and must pass security roll. If built, the building grants worldwide bonus to your minions, giving them a +1 on any roll against security rolls.
• Motor Pool ($4,000): A vehicle collection for your minions on the go. This is built in your forward base and must pass a security roll. If built, the building allows any minions that fail a security roll to roll a D12 again, a roll of a 1,2,3, or 4 and the minion is rescued by a daring driver in a laser armed helicopter, machine gun armed car, or just a really fast ATV and sent back to the headquarters and unusable for a turn. If a Medical Facility is present at the headquarters, the minion is out for two turns while he is experimented on.
• Pool filled with Sharks($7,000 because the development cost to put lasers on their head is steep): Built in the evil headquarters, this has no security to roll against and no way to be discovered, but it does offer some interesting perks: minions don’t want to be the next meal and as such, receive a +1 on all defense rolls.
• Medical Facility ($7,000): Built in the evil headquarters, this has no security to roll against and no way to be discovered. Despite what it may sound like, minions prefer not to be put on the table to be treated by an evil doctor, and thus fight harder to avoid being placed there. +1 to attack rolls for minions.
• Armory ($3,000): This is a minion’s favorite place in the evil headquarters. This has no security to roll against and no way to be discovered. The armory stalks all the weapons an Evil Genius’s forces might need incase the headquarters is discovered (Despite how unlikely). When this structure is built, all defending minions receive a +1 to defense rolls of the headquarters.
• Satellite Launch Pad ($12,000): This is the grand finale for any Evil Genius wishing domination, once built it allows the Evil Geniuses to discover the location of enemy evil headquarters. The owning Evil Genius can then send minions to those headquarters and finish off their opponents once and for all (The Evil Genius must wait 2 turns after building the structure first). If the attacking player destroys all defending minions, the headquarters is lost, the Evil Genius defaced or worse, and their organization collapses, the player removed from the game.

April Fools Game

Okay, the premise of the game:

There is a stack of objectives, each player draws an objective card and has to complete whatever objective is labeled on the card without the other players catching onto what they are attempting to complete.

If a player thinks he knows what another player’s objective is, he can take a shot at guessing what it is. If the player guessing is right, the other player loses. If the player guessing is wrong, they lose.

The game is about fooling the other players as to what your objective is.

 

Playtesting:

At first the game was actually pretty funny to watch with test Group A (Karl’s group), but when it moved to Group B (Nate, Kyle, Darko, Mike), they game toned down with each player not really interested in the game at all, though there were fast tracked points.

 

The game seemed to be picked up pretty well but I could use a ton more objective cards.

Challenge Revision: Terraformation

Added a dice roll (Players roll dice to dispute land changes when they plan cards ontop of an enemy token or the same piece of land changed twice in one turn.)

Surpisingly, the dice roll made the game a lot more playable with the addition of the regular rules (5 cards per player, cards can be played at any time to dispute land changes/change land, cards are only drawn at the beginning of a turn, cards can be placed on tokens, tokens can’t move across or off of mountains, rivers send tokens back two spaces, volcanos send tokens back to the player’s side and can’t be removed.)

The most notable and persistant problem so far is a lack of mountains, however. I do need to create some more of them, having roughly three to one (plain to mountains) ratio.

Challenge (Whatever number): Values

Evil Genius game!

Yes, it’s far fetched. The game, as we found out, is highly erroneous and lacks any way to mess up other players. We’ve discovered that having a world map would vastly improve the game, but take much longer to create and make rules for. 

As current, the rules are:

At the start of every turn roll a D12, on a 10,11, or 12, a Secret Agent is attempting to stop you, from then on, roll a D6, on a 5 or 6, the secret agent adds +2 to your rolls. (The game favors lower numbers).

During your turn choose a JOB card or pull out 3 PLAN cards, choose one, and then pick one of the choices on it and roll to affect stats. JOB cards give money, PLAN cards effect values. (Society values: Secrecy, Image, Fear. Personality values: Method (Brutality is positive, politeness is negative), Technology, Mentality (+ is smarter, – is degreading).

Affecting values too negatively in the social category (to -10) causes the populace to learn of your actions and stage a revolt against you rule, ending your game. You’re not out, however, as you can still use your money to bribe other players to do things towards your archnemiseses (The other evil geniuses)

Uses of Money:

Hire Henchmen for $200 each. A henchman placed on your JOB or PLAN card will give it a -1 to its result. Placing it on an enemy JOB or PLAN adds a +1 to their roll. Henchmen can target other henchmen (Highest roll wins), or attempt to remove a Secret Agent (D12, a 10, 11, or 12 succeeds, the Secret Agent is then removed, failure results in a dead henchmen)

Put up a reward: Incentive for players to focus on one player, or get help from other players.

Corrupt: Pay off the game moderator (Keeps track of the secret stats), to do favors.

Challenge 7: Changing Gameboard

Original rules were:

1. 5×5 board created by drawing land cards off a deck.
2. Players can use their cards without limit (4 in their hand that replenishes at the start of their turn)
3. 5 tokens on edge of board and first to get all his tokens to the other side wins.
4. The player can move any piece to a maximum of two spaces (Two tokens for one space each, or one token for two spaces each.)

There are four land types:

1. Plains: Regular movement
2. Mountain: A token can’t move on or off one.
3. River: Moves a unit back two spaces
4. Volcano: Moves a unit back to the player’s side of the map.

Rules evolved as follows:

1. Players can use one card per opponent’s turn and all on their turn.
2. Players can only use one card on the other player’s turn and one on their own turn.
3. Players can change land underneath the opponent’s peice, and the land takes affect on them. If a mountain is placed under a token, the token cant move until it’s changed back to a plain.
4. Must move two tokens a turn if possible in any direction.
5. Players can only play on an opponent’s turn if its counteracting a reterraformation of the land. (A player can’t change an untouched land at the end of the opponent’s turn.)
6. Volcanos can’t be reterraformed, they are terraformed.
7. Players can play all their cards when dueling over a piece of land’s terraformation.

After that, the players became bored, and the rules stayed at their most recent.

Business Cards

The original idea for a game on the back of a business card consisted of: “For every person you meet, take the 1st (later 2nd) letter of each person’s name and add it to the blocks”, with six blocks for six letters, the next set of directions being, “Now try to make atleast five word out of the letters.”.

This proved to be problematic as the 1st letter rule was consonant heavy, and the 2nd letter rule was vowel heavy (With some being completely vowel dominated.)

As such, a rule revision was suggested to create the rule of using the letter in a person’s name that corresponds to the number of the block, so the 4th block with the name STEVE would have V in it. 5th block with NANCY being C.

I have a Dream…

Due to a sudden underestimation of the sleep drug Unisom and missing two classes after being asleep for a complete twelve hours, I finally got this posted..

The idea behind the I Have A Dream game..

After a car accident, three friends are left in an awkward position. Two of the friends have damaged bodies, knocked into a coma by the crash itself. The third friend has recieved a nasty concussion, leaving his body fine, but his consciousness gone, and so it leaves an open body with two live brains to fight over it. Working fast, both subconsciouses begin to quickly gather control of the different limbs before vying for the body and the mind itself.

On a 7×7 grid (That I have), both brains move from space to space to gather body parts in specific spots. To move in any direction on the grid, a player must roll a D6 with a 4,5,6 to move. If a 1,2,3 are rolled, the player does not move.

For every body part captured, the players then fight over the overall control of teh body, rolling D12 against eachother with a bonus of +1 for each body part the player controls. Whoever has the highest roll takes control of the body and the game moves to the third step.

At this point, one of the players has control of the body, but the conciousness must take hold and so each player rolls a D6 with the highest roll winning. If the winner controls the body as well, he wins the game, however, if the player that wins the roll does not control the body, then the game is over with both players losing their consciousness into oblivion and all three perish.

Planetary Risk – Other Player’s Experiences

House rules overruled the lack of rules that existed in regards to gaining troops from objective and goal cards. The group decided not to move the troops when they were recieved, when last time’s play had us m oving them as soon as we got them. I understand the use of having them unmoveable, as the potentional for becoming a train through an entire planet exists.

And holy cow, last time I let Mike make cards! His objective cards are heavily reinforcing those with power in their hands, plus handing out troops at mass to simple tasks ssuch as building a battleship. We’ll have to go back over them, because the objective cards are crazy and the special cards are confusing and possible over powered.

The battle quickly degraded, twice in a row, into a stalemate with cold war like scenarios existing. It was humorous to watch the two giants fighting over to close planets, while the two underdogs were stuck fighting eachother with transports .

Planetary Risk updates

With the game finally being truly tested and several rules being changed outside my knowledge, we’ve arrived at several conclusions as well as alterations…

Wormholes are a good plus to include, getting from one side of space to the other without going through the ten or so turns to transport troops interplanetarily.

Asteroids are a little useless right now, space not being much in the way of use in our test game. There were several fights that broke out in space – Transports defeating Battleships, etc, but they were inconsequential.

Transports not getting a cap to their rolls is nuts! Transports were easily wiping out Battleships with no help – We need to return to the original roll methods for them, Battleships are really useless, even in an attack. The rules were changed to say Transports only get a -1 to rolls on attacking territories – Not off putting to their increased transportation utility.

Troop creation numbers are crazy later in the game. With three planets under my control, plus territories/2 (Round down), and my territory cards, I was pulling in an easy thirty with no territories to put them with a 15 cap on them – Had to start throwing them into space (On transports of course.)