Twenty One Turn Hero 3 comments

The world is in turmoil! THE SORCERER discovered a 21 turn spell that will destroy the world! YOU as a hero need to defeat the sorcerer! Good luck hero!

This is a game for single player where you becomes the unfortunate hero that need to defeat the sorcerer that wants to destroy the world with his 21 turn spell!



download the game here

Battle Mechanicum Update (8/8/09) 2 comments

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanicum. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

After months of hiatus, I've finally managed to playtest an early draft of Battle: Mechanicum with a couple of friends, one of them the great rob-jr himself. This version had minimal rules and was played with only two factions, each with a small number of units. We used Mage Knight minis to represent the units and a map from a D&D campaign. Of course, the size of the bases of the minis were too big for D&D battlemaps, so we had to improvise a bit on that one. It went pretty well though, and the playtest allowed me to spot the flaws in the game.

First, and most importantly, was the target roll. In layman's term, a target roll is the number that the player must get (or exceed) when rolling a dice in order to claim a success. The target roll was originally 6, but after last nights playtest, I found that the magic number is 5.

Second, the grid's square should be bigger so that it could accomodate more that one figure. I noticed that if the figure's base (such as that of a mounted unit with a base of 1" by 2") is bigger than the size of the square, it's difficult to position that figure to attack an enemy that is situated diagonally. This is not really a big issue, but this is just some of the problem that comes with using a square grid map.

Third, the number of figures per unit. I had initially set each unit to 10 men (with the exception of certain units, such as the solitary Commander and a 6-men cavalry squadron). I'm still trying to figure out the proper size for a unit, and I'm also wondering whether I should try an unconventional approach to unit composition (like that of a mix-matched band à la D&D adventuring party).

Fourth, line-of-sight. Should I allow figures to shoot through members of the same unit (like in Warhammer: 40K) or should I strictly follow rules of line-of-sight (no obstacles from shooter to target)? I find that it's much more fun with former, and works well if I opt to go for the "unconventional approach to unit composition").

Fifth, the wargame's direction itself. Should I make this boardgame lean more towards conventional wargame, or should I make it totally outrageous? There a tons of war boardgames out there, and most of them took the traditional route for war boardgames (most of them simulated historical battles), but I think that if I really wanna make this game stand out, I should turn 180° and create something totally out of the norm. I think I'll do that.

That's all for now. Time to make a revision of this game and playtest it again next month. You can read about a review of the playtest here or, if you haven't, check out rob-jr's latest creation, The Nasi Lemak Stand.


Creative Commons License
Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

The Nasi Lemak Stand 3 comments

Its recess time at Adam High School. Apparently, some student doesn’t really like the school canteen’s food. So, instead of buying them there, they go outside of school and buy uncle Gram’s delicious nasi lemak (na-see le-mak, Malay delicacy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_lemak) which is located right outside of the school compound, and it is very popular with uncle Gram special topping (i.e the extra egg, beef and squid). This is where the game comes in. You are to play as uncle Gram and collect as many points as possible before recess time is over, remember the faster you serve your customer, the more point you get. Oh yeah it’s a solo game.



you can download the game rules here!
and the board game and counter here!

Battle Mechanicum Update (2/17/09) 0 comments

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanicum. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

I've pondered long and hard on this issue and I've finally decided which grid system Battle Mechanicum will use: square grid. Despite the flexibility of the hex grid, I found that the square grid was far simpler to incorporate into the game. Simplicity of design won over simulation of realism.

So why Square Grid? Well, the reason why I chose to use hex grid in the first place was because it models diagonal movements nicely. But I found that hex grid doesn't work well on rectangular boards, since it's difficult to make all the hexes on the edges equidistant with their opposite counterparts. That was the only real issue for me.

Square grid solves this problem, and a whole lot more than I care to admit. It may not model diagonal movements well but it is simpler to implement and easier explain to would-be players.



Creative Commons License
Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Happy Chinese New Year from Experimental Playground 1 comments

We at Experimental Playground would like to wish all our readers
Happy Chinese New Year!

The Raider Attack Banana Village Minigame 1 comments

The Raiders are attacking Banana village again! This time the villager are not going to hold back!

This is a game for 2 players where one player control the Raiders while the other controls the villagers. Villagers set traps and save routes, while Raiders maneuver through the map, both players collect points according to their strategy and player with the highest points is the winner.



download the game, print and play!

Merry Christmas from Experimental Playground! 2 comments

We at Experimental Playground would like to wish all our readers
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!