The Raider Attack Banana Village Minigame

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!

We at Experimental Playground would like to wish all our readers

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Battle Mechanica Update (17/12/08)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. 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 a long period of meditation and soul-searching, I'm back. I've also brought some updates for Battle Mechanica. The rules was almost a complete overhaul, but the major changes were necessary in order to make this game both easier to design and play.

I won't go into lengthy detail on the changes. Instead, I'll just briefly highlight on what are the major changes.

List of major changes:

1. The battleground is now tile-based. This is one of the biggest changes to the system. The game no longer needs rulers and templates. Instead, the hex-tile system will take care of all the measuring.
   
2. The attributes in Unit Profiles has been changed. The new set of attributes are: Hand-to-hand Combat, Ranged Attack, Strength, Control, Movement, Special Ability, Experience Level.
   
3. Rounds and Phases have been simplified. Each Round consists of 3 Phases: the Check phase, the Reinforce phase and the Activate phase.
   
4. Units are now represented by a single miniature to indicate the unit's type, and Strength counters to represent the unit's strength (just like a traditional board wargame).
   
5. The Hit Zone system has been removed. It's no longer needed since a unit will only consist of a single miniature.
   
6. The combat system has been simplified. It still uses attribute comparison, but the combat now is much simpler to play.
   

Additionally, the game will also introduce new features listed below:

List of planned features:

1. Simulate fog-of-war effects.
   
2. Implementation of reserved points that players can use to create game-changing effects.
   
3. Create game-affecting traits for terrains (for example, swamp slows down movement).
   
4. Create factions for the game
   
5. Create basic units for playtesting.
   

That's all for this post. I'm hoping to finish the basic ruleset of this game by the end of this year. In the mean time, if you missed ClickStartPlay.com's HobbyCon 2008, go here to see a coverage of the event.

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

Hobbycon Minigame Flyer

more minigame yay! this time around im twiddling around with hobbycon theme on how to make a minigame out of hobbycon minigame flyer using only availability around us (i.e coins, paper, etc). there is 3 attempt at making it, each improve one another until finally i get this one

the first: theme is actually a war game. about a bear fighting with some other mascot on whose going to be the hobbycon mascot this year. uses six sided die, and very random at it. wasn't that fun at all.
the second: change to competition event, using coins substitute to dice to generate number and uses action point to boost stats. resolution task is flip coin + action point vs difficulty of the event. turn out its kinda ugly and very very predictable. it has character generation which make setup long.
the third:the one you saw, it still a competition, instead of character generation, each player start with 10 effort points, which have different uses on each competition. each event has different style of play unlike the previous one where you only look at difficulty level. uses finger to generate numbers.

without further ado, here is hobbycon minigame flyer (download and print)


go to this page to download, click full view.

Battle Mechanica Update (22/10/08)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. 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 have a small but important update. Battle Mechanica will make a big change of direction: Battle Mechanica will now be a tile-based boardgame/wargame. It will be less like Warhammer: 40K and more towards Heroes of Might & Magic.

Why change?
Warhammer: 40K (and similar games like Warmachines and Confrontations) requires a level of complexity to make the game playable AND balanced at the same time. Ultimately, its the notion of managing dozens of tokens, paper models or miniatures that will bog down the design.

The new design will take a simpler approach, mechanics wise. Battle Mechanica will move more towards being a boardgame, while maintaining that wargame feel that one would get when playing the games mentioned in the previous paragraph. It will also make the design easier (compared to the previous design) which would allow me to move on to other projects faster. Lastly, it makes the game stay true to the credo of Experimental Playground: being simple to learn yet fun to play.

I'll give more update on the new tile-based design in my next post.

Battle Mechanica Progress Update (6th Oct 2008)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. 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.

Another small update. I've added a "General Rules" section to the rulebook, which contains brief information of the following:

1. How distances are measured
   
2. Unit formations, Unit Types and Characters
   
3. Unit movements
   
4. Model's field-of-vision and how to check a its line-of-sight
   
5. Model profiles
   
6. A brief overview of the game's flow of play
   
7. Made some changes to the types of Ranged Attacks:
   
8. Changed 'Burst' to 'Directed Burst', which is a fan-shaped area-based ranged attack, like flamethrowers.

I'm working on the Turns and Phases next, and after that I'll be working on the rules for Movement. Before then, check out this post from Life In Borneo about the recent bloggers gathering in North Borneo, or visit the forum that I frequent to, ClickStartPlay.com. I go by the handle shiVER.



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

Battle Mechanica Progress Update (29/09/08)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. 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.

Hello again, everyone. Just doing a small update. This game has undergone constant rules re-writing since my first post in November, though nothing significant. Anyways, here is the update on this game.

1. Combat still uses simple attribute comparison, but now a new system is added to resolve Combat faster: The Hit Zone system. The Hit Zone is a universal system that determines how many casualties can be inflicted on a unit. Simply put, if an enemy unit is within your unit's Hit Zone, then they can become the target of its attack. But it goes both ways - if your unit is within enemy unit Hit Zone, then it can become the target of their attack.
2. Added three types of range attack: Missile (direct long-range attack), Barrage (indirect long-range attack) and Burst (variable-range area attack). Burst can also be combined with either Missile or Barrage.
3. Melee Combat is now known as Hand-to-Hand Combat. Just reflecting my preference, that's all. Nothing significant.
4. Added to the core rules on how to determine Casualties, which rely on the Hit Zone system.

That's all for now. I'll post more info next week. In the meanwhile, you might want to checkout my digg profile and see the stuff that I dugg recently. Or follow me on Twitter and tweet "Hi" to me.


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

True Hero minigame

this is somewhat a version of mini gamebook that i wanted to make, it supposed to fit an A4 paper, complete with rules and the entries. i did this game way back last year 2007 for the TDD comic book. i dont know if anyone played it, but i did get my objective of doing a 1 page diceless gamebook.



in this game you're a hero and your job is to find a lot of experience point running through an unknown dungeon. that is pretty much everything.

to play the game, download the game HERE and print in on an A4 paper. read the rules and start playing!

good luck hero!

Battle Mechanica - Overview of the Game, Part 1

*Note: I have changed the name of this game to Battle Mechanica, since the name Battlefield has been extensively trademarked and copyrighted by EA.*

This post is a continuation from my previous post here. In this post, I shall present an overview of play in Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work-In-Progress, which means that the game is still incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

UNIT PROFILE
All units have a profile that represent their abilities in this game. Below is an example of a unit's Attributes, with a brief explaination on each:

Combat
The unit's fighting ability in both ranged and hand-to-hand combat, as well as defending themselves in said situation.

Resilience
The unit's hardiness, which determines the unit's ability to withstand injuries.

Control
The unit's ability to think on its feet. It is the sum of their intelligence, wits, psychological well-being, leadership quality and discipline as a single unit.

Movement
The unit's movement in inches.

Special Ability
The unit's special ability, such as Flight and Cavalry Charge. If they have any special equipment (magic weapons for instance), it is counted as Special Ability as well.

Experience
The unit's combat experience. The more experience the unit has, the stronger they are.

Stay tune for Part 2 of this article. In the meanwhile, check out Lee Hng's JEP1 and Rob-Jr's Dwarf Tactics, two other experimental tabletop games currently in development. Please leave some comments while you're there!


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

Battle Mechanica - An experimental diceless wargame

This post is a continuation from my previous post here. In this post, I will discuss about the general idea behind Battle Mechanica - my first attempt at creating a diceless wargame - and the (still early) core mechanics of this game. Please bear in mind that this is a Work-In-Progress, which means that the game is still incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

What is Battle Mechanica?
Battle Mechanica is an attempt at creating a tabletop wargame that forgoes the use of dice-rolling to determine an outcome. It instead uses diceless combat resolution that uses simple calculations to make the game easier and faster to play, while remaining tactically realistic and engaging.

This game was inspired by a lot of gaming systems. Its core mechanics was primarily inspired by Little Fantasy Wars and Hordes & Heroes, while the units took inspirations from Games Workshop's Warhammer: 40,000 universe. It uses paper cutouts as units and terrains, but players may use miniatures and 3D gaming terrains instead as long as they in proper scale.

Why use a diceless system?
Dice-rolling systems rely on chance to resolve an outcome, where your success is entirely dependant on having as much dice in your hand as possible. It also tends to lead players into taking extreme risk by hoping for a miracle roll - which is antithetical to a sound, tactical approach. In actual warfare, generals do not take chances; though commanders do at times take calculated risk, they do so only after meticulous planning.

By taking out artificial randomizers (such as dice) from a wargame, players will have to execute brilliant tactics rather than counting on blind luck to win a battle. Just like in a poker game, a diceless wargame is where you play against your opponent's skill, not your opponent's luck.

The diceless combat system - In a nutshell
The system uses simple attribute comparison to determine whether a unit could cause casualties upon the ranks of the enemy. In melee combat, for instance, two opposing units simply compare their Combat attribute against one another - the unit with a higher Combat attribute therefore will cause casualties on the other unit, while the other unit will most likely only be able to weaken it's enemy (that is, injuring or wounding the enemy ranks).

This simple system is used in many aspects of the game, from determining whether a charge could break the ranks of an enemy infantry to calculating whether a unit of spearmen could falter after the third wave of attack.

In my next post, I will briefly explain some of the aspects of the system, including Units and their Characteristics, so stay tuned! In the meanwhile, you might be interested to check out my other blogs, Epiphany! and The Borneon Ninja. If you like stagnant blogs, I recommend the latter.


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

Greetings from another member of Experimental Playground!

Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a gamer and have a passion of creating new ideas, and one of them is coming up with new game design. Most of the time, these flash of inspirations will either end up in as a material for an RPG campaign or it gets forgotten (which tend to happen because I rarely keep track on them). So it was a godsend when Rob decided to start this blog. Finally, there's a place for me to pour my ideas into and share it with everyone, especially those that have the same passion as me.

My Homebrew Games

Let's get to the meat of things - homebrew games. This blog is about having fun with the boardgames that we create, and that's what I intend to do. I have three games currently in early development. They are:

1. Battle Mechanica - A diceless tabletop wargame set in a steampunk world.
   
2. Dancing Shadows: St. Hallow - A diceless boardgame with elements of mystery and horror.
   
3. Tales of Medda-Loren - A story-driven RPG boardgame that aims to be light on mechanics and heavy on storytelling.
   

I'm currently working on Battle Mechanica, and I will explain briefly the workings of the game in my next post. Stay tuned!

JEP1: Combat System Blue Print

Today we will have a look at the basic combat system of JEP1.

Combat in JEP1 is very much influenced by 2 systems: the D6 Fighting Fantasy game books, RISK board game & the Warhammer fantasy combat system.

Melee Combat in this system is fought this way:

INITIATIVE PHASE: Both combatants roll a d6 + their initiative score. The highest goes 1^st. A tie would result in a roll over until some one goes first. This only applies to the 1t round of combat, on further rounds after the 1^st, use the base score of both combatants to see who goes first: the one with the higher score will go first for the rest of the round. If there is a tie, roll off & keep this score for the rest of the combat rounds.

MOVEMENT: Attacker may move 4 squares before his melee attack. A melee attack can only be initiated if the attacker is adjacent to the defender .

PRE-HIT SKILLS: The attacker may use a “skill” before rolling his attacks. After the attacker declares his “skills”, the defender may use a “skill” before the attacker rolls attacks. A maximum of 2 skills can be used in this phase for both attacker & defender.

ROLL TO HIT:

• Attacker rolls 1d6 for each score written at his melee; example: if the score is M2, then attacker rolls 2d6 as attacks.

• Defender rolls 1d6 for each score written at his melee; example: if the score is M2, then defender rolls 2d6 as defense.

• Attacker adds the d6 value to each of his melee score & add up the total; example: if attacker has a melee of 2 & he rolled a 4 & a 3, that means his attack value is a 6 & a 5.

• Defender adds the d6 value to each of his melee score & add up the total; example: if defender has a melee of 2 & he rolled a 4 & a 1, that means his defense value is a 6 & a 3.

• Defender then chooses how the defense dice goes. If the attacker’s attack value is higher or equal to the defense value of the defender. Then a “hit” is scored; example: Attacker has a attack value of 6 & 5, defender has a defense value of 6 & 3. Defender chooses to use his defense 6 to “block” the attacker’s attack 6. But since attacker has another attack value of 5 which is bigger then the defender’s next defense score of 3, a hit is scored!

PRE-DAMAGE SKILLS: The attacker may use a “skill” before rolling his damage. After the attacker declares his “skills”, the defender may use a “skill” before the attacker rolls damage. A maximum of 2 skills can be used in this phase for both attacker & defender.

ROLL To Damage:

• Attacker rolls 1d6 for “hit” made; example: Attacker scores 1 hit, so he rolls 1d6.

• Attacker adds the dice value & his strength score; example: Attacker rolls a d6 & gets a 4, he has a strength of 2. So his “damage” score is 6.

• Compare the damage score to the defender’s toughness score. If the value is higher or equal, then 1 damage is scored.

ARMOR BUFFER:

For each damage that has gone through the toughness, minus 1 damage for each armor value defender has. Example, attacker scores 1 damage, if defender has a armor value of 1 as well then no damage is taken. If attacker has scored 2 damage & defender only has armor value of 1, then a wound is scored.

COUNT WOUNDS:

For each wound scored, defender loses 1 health. If the defender has a health of 0. The defender is dead.

PASS PRIORITY:

If defender is alive, the priority is passed & the current defender is the new attacker, the current attacker becomes the new defender. Once the new defender & attacker reached the next “Count Wounds” phase, a round is done.

• For range attack, the system is generally the same with the exception of attacker uses his range to roll number of attack & defender uses initiative to roll for defense value.

• Attacker uses the weapons strength value to determine if he scores a damage against the defender’s toughness.

• Attacker need not be adjacent to defender as long as his range weapon can reach the defender.

That’s all for now. :)

* pictures are borrowed from googles, just so this post dont look too empty bah. XD

Dwarf Tactics minigame

hi there, this is rob-jr and i love to create boardgame and stuff especially minigame (game that is simple and play for around less than 10 minutes). what i have here is a remade game that i did somewhere early last year 2007, me and my brother tweak the system a bit, because last time it is way unbalance, but it doesn't mean these game is balance. don't worry just play the game and have fun.



HOW TO PLAY

here is how to play the game, this game is for 2 player, each act as the dwarf chief try to defend each castle and at the same time try to eliminate opponent's castle. you start with 10 castle point and resource at Lv 1 (which is 4 resource) and you need atleast 2 six sided dice, game is played in turn. play rock, paper, scissor to determine first player.

game is divided in phase

RESOURCE PHASE
at this phase, you replenish your resource to the value of your level. anyway resource that you didn't used that turn will go to waste. so use it wisely.

*there are 3 level of resource, each increase by 2. you start at 4 resource,

Lv 1 = 4 resource
Lv 2 = 6 resource (you need to pay 4 resource to upgrade to Lv 2)
Lv 3 = 8 resource (you need to pay 6 resource to upgrade to Lv 3)

BUY PHASE
at this phase you buy unit. refer to units cost in the battle stats card. you can put maximum of 5 unit in your unit placement and you can only buy maximum of 5 unit of peon, 4 unit of warrior and 3 unit of juggernaut.

BATTLE PHASE
battle phase is where you try to eliminate opponent and if opponent doesnt have units, you attack his/her castle directly. (for balance issue, you cant attack on the first turn of the game if youre the 1st player) before attacking, attacker choose which of his/her unit attack which opponent's unit. 1 unit can only attack 1 unit.

peon = roll 2d6 pick the lowest value
warrior = roll 1d6
juggernaut = roll 2d6 pick the highest value

both attacker and defender roll dice according to each unit and compare the result.

if attacker result is equal or higher than defending unit, attacker killed the defender unit. if defending unit is higher, defender won and attacker retreat (nothing happen).

if there is no defending unit, attacker roll dice for each unit and that damage is dealt to opponent's castle point.

END PHASE
you end your phase, now its opponent's turn to attack.

VICTORY
you win when you successfully reduce opponent's castle points to zero.

p/s: my english is quite sucky here... also, this game still need to be tweak and all. so comment and critique is welcome.

VARIATION 1: this time around you can use resource to buy other stuff instead of unit

pay 1 resource for 1 castle point
pay 1 resource to add +1 to a unit before combat/battle

NEW UNIT!
Dwarven Sapper (cost 4 resources) contributed by questing gm
Digs underground and can attack the castle without going through the defense unit.

Roll a d6
1-4: Sapper dies, deals no damage to the castle.
5-6: Sapper dies, deals 1 castle damage.

My 1st experimental post: JEP1 introduction.

Hi everyone! The name’s Julian.

I feel happy to be apart of the “experimental playground” crew & guess I’ll share abit on some game mechanics that I’ve been thinking about lately. But 1st, alil sharing about my love for RPG games. :)

My 1^st experience playing an RPG was from my high school years when I accidently pulled out a Fighting Fantasy book by Ian Livingstone & Steve Jackson. It was there & then that I founded my inspiration to dwell more into the realm of fantasies.

My love for these “game books” brought me later to the Lone Wolf Saga & Grey Star. Later on, I switched school & got hooked up with some friends that taught me how to play Dungeons & Dragons My 1^st ever pen-&-paper RPG.

Like most RPG enthusiast, I wanted to create my own game. At 1^st I wanted to create a game system for a role-playing game, very much like Dungeons & Dragons, but wanted something simpler. In my later days I was introduced to White Wolf’s D10 system & also the Warhammer Fantasy combat system. I was generally impressed with the two & this is what I came up with:

(I haven’t really come up with a name for this system, so for now I’ll just call it JEP1; as in “Julian’s experimental 1”.)

The game sheet looks like this:

We will go on the other details of the game as we slowly progress, today I'll only point out the "combat related states" & the "non-combat related" states.

********************

Combat States (CS):

Melee (M): This is the score used to attack & defend against “melee only” attacks (unless another skill specifies an extended use). The score here also symbolizes the number of “melee attacks” a character has, determining how many dice the character may use in a round.

Range (R): This score is used to hit to a target with a range attack. The score here also symbolizes the number of “range attacks” a character has, determining how many dice the character may use in a round.

Strength (S): This state is used to determine the character’s strength & his ability to lift objects, push, carry things & also if his melee strength is strong enough to penetrate an opponent’s toughness,

Toughness (T): This state applies to the constitution & stamina of the character. It also acts as the 1^st “buffer” against an opponent’s strength attack.

Initiative (I): This state symbolizes the character’s reaction in combat. It is used to determine which character goes 1^st in combat & also is used to avoid Range attacks.

Health (H): This score represent the amount of damage the character can take.

Armor (A): This state here represents the armor protection of the character. It also acts as the 2^nd & last buffer to an enemy’s strength attack.

NON-Combat States (NCS):

These states here are used for role-playing purposes (unless stated otherwise by a new skill). They are divided in to a few categories:

Acrobatics: The character’s ability to do high jumps, balance & landings.

Athletics: The character’s knack in dashing, long jumps & maintaining his stamina for long distance running.

Commerce: The character’s ability to haggle, barter, appraise value, knowledge of market trends , demand, currency values & entrepreneurship.

Engineering: The character’s knowledge & ability to operate machines, piloting, driving, read blueprints, hacking & understanding how a mechanism works.

Pathmanship: The character’s ability to navigate, always know where north is, understanding the terrain, wind conditions, weather & sensitive to his surrounding.

Medical: The character’s knowledge of how the body works, heal & how to perform 1^st aid or even surgery.

Nature Lore: Knowledge of animals, monsters & plants, ability to tame & the character’s knowledge of natural medicine from both flora & fauna.

Occult: The character’s knowledge in the realm of the occult, forgotten languages, culture & ability to operate certain ancient artifacts.

Perception: The character’s sensibility of vision, touch, smell & hearing.

Social: The character’s charm, bluff, charisma, connections (casual, political or underworld) & ability to read innuendos.

Stealth: The character’s ability to hide, move silently & avoid leaving traces.

Swim: The character’s ability to swim, dive & maintain his breath.

********************

So that’s the general Idea of the states, till next time I will explain how to use the combat system & also the purchase point system at a different time.

For now, this is Julian signing out! :D