[NaGaDeMon] Almost Ready to Play

Day 12: I didn't do much game-wise over the weekend except work on the Tao of Gaming, and I'm OK with that.

Reorganized components, in the
check box that holds the whole game.

I took an inventory of my scavenged components. Each color has 55 cubes, 5 settlements, 4 cities, and 15 road segments. That leaves 55 yellow cubes.

And then it hit me. Yellow cubes can represent gold. Road segments are sticks in the shape of a sans serif I, so why not use them for Influence? And suddenly I have enough components for the game without bashing another game nor buying anything. I wonder if we'll ever run out of counters for gold and influence - 15 of each per player seems like it may work for a small game, but playtesting will tell.

Bonus: Everything for the game fits in an empty box that once held checks. And I can stuff it in my backpack for easy transport. It's a little too fiddly and space-intensive to play on the train, but I can definitely break it out during Potluck Game Day on the 24th.

This strikes me as very old school, like the tiny box of Monopoly components sold back in the first half of the 20th century. I like the way that feels: like an homage to the early history of modern board games.

I've got some definitions and action explanations to write up, and possibly a second action for each type of power center to create, but I don't want to get too wordy or too contrived with actions. As it is, I'll probably need to make cheat sheets detailing the list of actions. But each action can easily tie to a group doing something in the background of an RPG world, which makes this game something that can easily happen on a metagame level during your ongoing RPG campaign. That jazzes me, but I hope the game will stand on its own as well.

I think I'm in good shape. I can tackle writing the rest of the rules I need on the train tomorrow. That leaves making the hex dividers. Maybe I can do that after work today.

And if so, that means I can play a test round on my own as soon as Wednesday, and modify from there. A playable prototype before the 15th? I'll take the win and move on.