[NaGaDeMon] Domo: Download and Summary

A winner is me!

I think I've slain the NaGa DeMon for 2012, but Domo is far from done. I've got a playable prototype, and I've updated the rules based on issues uncovered in the Alpha Playtest. I tweaked the costs to hopefully prevent the resource stockpiles, but these changes need to be played with to make sure they work.

I technically beat the challenge, but that doesn't mean we're ready for prime time yet.

Downloading Domo
For those of you who want to play Domo or tinker with the rules, you can download Domo Rules v0.7.docx. It's 27K, so don't blink or you'll miss the download.

No, the rules ain't pretty; it's still a playtest document. I still need to add examples for clarity and flavor fiction just because. I included a list of where I got the components for my playtest. I'll see if I can get a hex divider template together for download sometime soonish, but no guarantees. You can play on hex paper or run it via email (if you're interested in playing via email let me know), but I prefer the feel of moving pieces around and seeing how the physical map stacks up.

If you play a game of Domo or even just read the rules, please let me know what you think. Feedback is welcome, and it will only improve things.

Tin Ear Game Design Contest
For those of you interested in a game design contest with props, check out the Tin Ear Game Design Contest. Get those tins ordered and pull your game together by January 31, 2013.

The Archive
In the interest of keeping an archive of this month's activities in one easy-to-view list, here's a link to every blog post about Domo made during NaGaDeMon 2012. Read the three posts about the Alpha Playtest if you want to see rules tweaking in action annotated with italicized asides.

• Post Zero: The declaration of intent.
• Trainstorming: Scattered ideas, and making the game more board game than RPG system.
• Getting Thoughts on Electronic Paper: Nailing down the basic system. WRITE THE BASIC GAME FIRST. COMPLICATE THINGS LATER.
• Gathering Components: Kitbashing Settlers of Catan and Ursuppe for components.
• Almost Ready to Play: Fitting the components in a check box as an homage to early board games.
• Prototype: Hex Divider: Pics of the first cardstock hex divider in action.
• Counting Coup and Editing: Day 15. Fiddling with the Coup action. Rules typed up. Cardstock blanks cut. Offer to edit other NaGaDeMon entries.
• Domo: Full Prototype!: Hex dividers cut and stamped. The story of faux Latin and the game's name.
• Domo: Alpha Playtest - The First Season (Ever!): A blow-by-blow of the first season of a Domo game, including notes as they occurred to me.
• Domo: Alpha Playtest - Seasons 2 & 3: Playtest continuation, still very turn-by-turn for maximum documentation and analysis.
• Domo: Playtest Results and Price Fixing: The rest of the playtest, summarized by season. Initial reaction and what's next.

Now get out there and design more coolness to play.

As always, thanks for reading!

[NaGaDeMon] Domo: Playtest Results and Price Fixing

I've finished the Alpha Playtest game. Red eked out a win, 29-28. I took pictures at the start of each season to see changes in seasonal chunks instead of monthly chunks.

I upped action prices, adding 1 Gold per holding rating to act or resist actions. It helped, but I think I'm going to increase Influence costs a bit for actions and lower income for owning a hex as well. I think the Government Intercession rules are enough of a bonus for hex ownership, so I'll drop income to 1 Gold and 1 Influence per season for hex ownership. Hopefully I don't overcompensate and make players sit around unable to afford any actions in a month as they wait for seasonal income in a 4-player game.

Year 1, Season 4
Blue pulls off a Coup in the top center hex, and Red loses a Militari attack against Blue's Religio in that hex, but adds an Arcanum-1 holding in an attempt to hold off the Coup. This was a terrible season for Red, and the next season's income reflects that.

Year 2, Season 1 Income. Red gets pasted.

Year 2, Season 1
Red expands Militari holdings, then Moves them to make a Militari-4 holding in the upper left hex in Month 3. Blue adds Arcanum holdings in 2 hexes to pave the way for other mischief, and Expands the Religio holding in the upper left hex to prep for an Attack against Red's Militari next season.

Year 2, Season 2 Income.
At this point there were so many resources that I used cathedrals to track 10s.

Year 2, Season 2
Red's successful Coup in the upper left hex is the story of the year. Red Declares War and goes on to win 2 Coup actions to take over the hex. Blue cast a Curse Holding spell, then relied too heavily on it, choosing to Expand into the lower right hex with a Religio-2 holding. Red used Government Intercession, but failed to block the Expansion twice.

Year 2, Season 3 Income.
It's more even, though Red is still behind on Influence.
Note the huge resource stockpiles. Need to find a way to limit that behavior,
but I bet the resource drain will be much more severe in a 4-player game.

Year 2, Season 3
Blue attempts a counter-Coup in the upper left hex after Red adds an Economia-1 holding there. Red's Militari-4 rises to the occasion and overcomes the Declare War +1 bonus to defense, crushing the rebellious Religio holding after they declared their intentions. In 2 months, Red's soldiers destroyed the entire holding, its leaders driven underground. Some escaped to the lower left hex as Blue Expanded to a Religio-2 holding there in Month 3.

Year 2, Season 4 Income.
I can't spend resources fast enough.
What if we limit the resource stockpile between seasons?

This season brings home the depth of story that can spring out of a game of Domo. And who wouldn't want to adventure in a region with this war happening in the background? The potential for PC involvement in a plotline like this is huge. This is why I wanted to make this game, and I'm very happy with the way Domo produces stories like this.

Year 2, Season 4
Neither side was in a position to do anything earth-shaking. Blue Reduced Red's Economia-1 holding out of existence in the top center hex, but Red Expanded 2 holdings to Economia-2s and added a Religio-1 holding in the upper left hex. I guess that new Government is working out well for Red.

Final tally: Blue 28, Red 29.
At game end, the next season's income total
(Gold+Influence) is counted as victory points.

What Now?
I've got notes madly scribbled onto my printed copy of the rules. I'll go back and revise with abandon, lowering hex ownership income, clarifying the Government Intercession rules, and raising prices on just about every action. We'll see how that works.

I need to figure out a logical limit for resources between seasons, so we don't end a game with 40ish of each resource in reserve ever again. I think a flat limit would work better than x per hex, as that would really limit what a player can do without owning a hex. Hm. I'll look at the pictures again and noodle on that for the next rev.

In a solo game, each season took about 5 minutes to play out, so I'm guessing about 10-15 minute seasons with 3-4 players, making this a 1-2 hour game for 2 years of game time. I think the power of Domo is the potential for ongoing play not arbitrarily ended after a time limit.

Overall Domo feels very fast to play. It's got an interesting mix of strategy and blind luck, and it's very easy to set up Arcanum holdings all over the place and throw monkey wrenches into other players' plans. I like it, but it's becoming time to let it free and expose it to everyone out there. It's probably just as easy to keep track of what's happening on paper instead of getting physical tokens and making dividers, though I can easily see this working as an app, too. More things to ponder as the process continues...

Thanks for reading!

[NaGaDeMon] Domo: Alpha Playtest - Seasons 2 & 3

Let's jump right back into the game.

The board at the start of Season 2.

Season 2, Month 1
Red Expands to Militari-3 in the lower right hex for 1 Gold and 1 Influence. Blue starts a Coup from the Religio-2 holding against the Government of the center top hex. Blue pays 3 Gold and 1 Influence, then spends 1 Influence to boost the d6 roll. Blue rolls a 5 for a total of 7 against the Government's rolled 6.

Blue's Coup starts off well...

Season 2, Month 2
Red Expands and makes a Religio-1 holding in the lower right hex for 1 Gold and 1 Influence. Blue tries a second Coup against the Government of the top center hex for 4 Gold. Blue spends 1 Influence to modify the roll. This time, Red spends 1 Influence to modify the Government's roll. Blue rolls a 2 for a total of 4, and  the Government rolls another 6 for a total of 7. Even if Blue maxes out Influence spending on the roll, that will only bring the total to 6 - not enough to win.

Note: Does the attacker lose 1 from the holding with a failed Coup against the Government? I think so. Blue loses 1 on a failed Coup, bringing that Religio holding down to 1 cube.

...but ends so very badly.

Season 2, Month 3
Red spends 1 Gold for a Move action. A Move targets one hex and all hexes adjacent, which encompasses almost the entire map on a board this small. For 1 Gold, 3 cubes of a specific type get to move around. He takes 3 Militari cubes and moves them to bring the top center hex's Militari up to a 4, the maximum holding size in a Forest hex. Blue Expands for 1 Gold and 1 Influence to bring the top center hex's Religio holding back up to 2.

A relatively docile Month 3, though Red's sudden Militari-4 means war.
Houses are holding-3s, which should cut down on the cube clutter.

Season 3 Income
Red has 2 hexes for 4 Gold and Influence, a Militari-4 worth 2 Gold and Influence, 2 Religio-1 holdings for 2 bonus Influence, and 4 Economia-1 holdings for 4 bonus Gold. Total income: 10 Gold, 8 Influence.

Blue has 3 hexes for 6 Gold and Influence, 3 Religio-2 holdings worth 3 Gold and Influence, and 1 additional Religio-1 holding for a total of 4 bonus Influence. Total income: 9 Gold, 13 Influence.

Red has earned the least Influence, and decides to keep the First Player token.

Season 3 income.

Season 3, Month 1
Red starts a Coup action from the top center hex's Militari-4 holding against the Government for 4 Gold. Red rolls a d10 now, but decides to spend 1 Influence before the roll. Blue has so much Influence on hand that spending 1 on this roll is a no-brainer. Red rolls a 7 for a total of 9, and the Government rolls a 2 for a total of 3. Blue can't change the outcome with more Influence, so Red wins the first Coup attempt.

Red''s Coup attempt starts out well...

Blue casts a Spell using the Arcanum-1 holding in the top center hex - this is the Arcanum holding's unique action. The Bolster spell costs 1 Gold and 1 Influence, and it increases a die one step for the rest of the season. Blue casts Bolster on the Government, improving the die from d6 to d8. Blue could have cast Curse Holding on Red's Militari-4, which would decrease the die from a d10 to a d8, but it's more expensive (1 Gold and 2 Influence). Only Arcanum holdings can contest a spell, so the Government is Bolstered without a fight.

Season 3, Month 2
Red Tries to finish the Coup in the top center hex by spending 4 Gold. Both Blue and Red spend 1 Influence prior to the roll. Red rolls a 5 for a total of 7, and the Government rolls a 4 for a total of 5. Blue maxes out the Influence (limit is half die size, or 4 in this case) and pushes the Government's total to 8. Red spends 2 more Influence to win with a total of 9. Red gets control of the hex.

...and ends up with Red controlling the hex.

Since the Government has changed hands, the Bolster effect ends since the old Government no longer exists. Blue could rolls the dice and start a Coup, but fears an Attack from Red's Militari-4 holding. Blue decides to Expand for 1 Gold and 1 Influence, bringing the top center hex to a Religio-3.

Blue sees the power of a large holding and expands to a Religio-3.

Season 3, Month 3
Red decides to Expand and set up a Militari-1 holding in the top left hex. There's no Militari holding to contest it, but Blue uses Government Intercession to oppose the Expansion with the Government's d6. This can be used once per season per player, and it lasts the rest of the season, so if anything else attempts to act against Militari holdings in that hex, Blue has the option of opposing with the Government's d6. Note: Expand Government Intercession rules to cover contesting a roll with no holding instead of just bolstering a holding-1 as written. Also add a cost of 2 resources (Gold or Influence) to activate this ability.

Blue spends 2 Gold to Intercede. Both sides spend 1 Influence before the rolls. Red rolls a d10 and gets a 6 for a total of 8. Blue rolls the Government's d6 and gets a 6 for a total of 7. Blue spends another 2 Influence to deplete Red's Influence, and feels foolish for not spending 1 more Influence on a Curse Holding spell instead of a Bolster back in Month 1.

Government Intercession fails, and Red makes a push into a Blue-only hex.
With a Move in Month 3, Red could Coup the heck out of Blue in those Hill hexes.

Blue Expands the Religio holding in the top center hex for 1 Gold and 1 Influence, maxing it out as a Religio-4 holding. Blue will probably go for a Coup in that top hex next season.

Season 4 Income
Red owns 3 hexes for 6 Gold and Influence, a Militari-4 holding for 2 Gold and Influence, 4 Economia-1 holdings for 4 bonus Gold, and 2 Religio-1 holdings for 2 bonus Influence. Total income: 12 Gold, 10 Influence.

Blue owns 3 hexes for 6 Gold and Influence, a Religio-4 holding worth 2 Gold and Influence, 2 Religio-2 holdings worth 2 Gold and Influence, and 1 additional Religio-1 holding for a total of 4 bonus Influence. Total income: 10 Gold, 14 Influence.

Red has earned the least Influence, and decides to keep the First Player token. There's an advantage to going first where Coups are concerned.

Season 4 income. Red is still lagging, but is closing the gap rapidly.
Blue may be playing defense for a while with Red going first.

Overall Impressions
Both sides are amassing resources. At the start of Season 4, Blue has 20 Gold and 26 Influence, and Red has 29 Gold and 14 Influence. Influence spends like water when modifying rolls, but Gold is harder to get rid of. One possible fix: Expansion should be more expensive when growing larger holdings. The 1 Gold and 1 Influence price tag is fine for creating a holding-1 or upgrading to a holding-2, but I think I need make it 1 of each resource per current level of holding. So Expanding a holding-3 will cost 3 Gold and 3 Influence.

The downside of that approach? Move becomes insanely cost-effective. Just crank out holding-2s in the heartland and Move those cubes to the front lines for 1 or 2 Gold. Or maybe I increase the Gold price on every action across the board based on the holding rating involved? Or lower income to 1 Gold and Influence per owned hex? All of the above? Hrm. More resource balancing is needed here, but I need to keep it simple so I don't drown in rules.

Also: Yay, the hexes aren't too small! I thought it might be cramped with several holdings, but so far it's all good. Picking up cubes works without my fingers bumping and destroying everything.

Timing
Between playing, pictures, and writing things up, it took me about an hour to play 2 seasons. With all the picture captioning and analysis, it's taken me 2 hours from start of play to posting this article. I'm going to play through tomorrow without the blogging overhead. Maybe I'll have an epiphany on what to do about resource accumulation.

Today's Final Thoughts
Yes, there's plenty to absorb here so far as play goes. It's basically a lightweight intrigue/wargame in this incarnation, but I think a little resource balancing is in order. And the cool thing? Every action in the game can become instantly relevant to an RPG setting just by naming the leaders, holdings, and hexes. Plus, it's genre-neutral, though renaming Arcanum to something more research-like might be in order.

Thanks for reading!

[NaGaDeMon] Domo: Alpha Playtest - The First Season (Ever!)

I managed about 30 minutes after work today to set up and photodocument the first ever season of play during this first playtest. I'm only one season in, but the photography, obsessive double-checking of rules, and constant stopping for pictures is really dragging game play out. Yes, this is real nuts-and-bolts stuff here, but I think showing an actual play session will expose both warts and strengths. I encourage comments and feedback.

Even three turns into the game, I've uncovered a few situations that I didn't consider while writing. I'll note them below and expand on them in the next rev of the rules.

Basic mechanic: Check your holding rating (h) and roll a d((h+1)x2). Add bonuses, and the higher total wins. A rating of 2 means a d6. Max rating is 5, so max die size is d12. Government has no rating and always rolls a d6.

I added things to the layout as it became obvious I needed them. Specifically, I added dice to track year/season/month, and a green cathedral as a First Player token. Additionally, I used green sticks to indicate things of note on the board.

I'm just focusing on nuts and bolts here. I would encourage the naming of hexes and holdings in an actual game to create a story. The original intent of Domo was to provide a political backdrop to an RPG, and I'd like to honor that intent.

So without further ado, I give you DOMO: The Alpha Playtest.

Setup
For convenience, I set up the game on my desk, crammed in front of my laptop. I went with a 6 hex map for space concerns, and the whole thing fits in a 22-by-8-inch area. So far, this seems to be working and generating conflict immediately. Note: cardstock is not terribly heavy, and a cough or even a heavy sigh can blow the hex dividers away. It's better with ownership cubes in place, but still...

The initial map, pre-placement. Each side gets 10 cubes to place.
Each side starts with 3 Influence (sticks) and 3 Gold (yellow cubes).

All hexes have dividers laid out with the power centers in the same orientation. Clockwise from the top, they spell out MARE: Militari, Arcanum, Religio, and Economia.

I stuck with 2 sides for sanity's sake - fitting 30 cubes on 6 hexes at setup can come later. Blue is led by a Religio who gets a +1 leadership bonus on all rolls involving Religio holdings, and Red is led by a Militari who enjoys a +1 leadership bonus on all rolls involving Militari holdings. Blue went first in the placement round, and focused on spreading out to own hexes as quickly as possible. Red was more reserved and tried to consolidate position, but ended up placing to block Blue from owning 4 hexes at the start of the game.

The board, post placement. Season 1 begins.
Gold and Influence income for this season is lowest.

The initial board is skewed toward Blue, and those Religio holdings will give a large advantage in Influence income. Hex ownership is 2 and 2, with 2 hexes contested. Seems like a decent setup.

Season 1 Income
We start the first season. Gold and Influence accrues at 2 each for hex ownership, and 1 per 2 cubes in a holding, rounded down. Religio holdings give a bonus of 1 Influence each, and Economia holdings give a bonus of 1 Gold each. Note: 12 influence income empties the bank of blue sticks before the game even begins. Guess I should get more Influence tokens when I go shopping to make the next prototype.

In Season 1, Blue nets 7 Gold and 12 Influence. Red ended up with 10 Gold and 6 Influence. Red gathered the least influence, so decides who gets the First Player token. He decides to let Blue keep it. Note: Clarify this rule for the first turn, since the First Player is decided prior to placement too.

Season 1, Month 1
Each turn, players choose 1 action from a list of 10. Half are available to any holding, but each power center has 1 unique action. Hopefully I'll get into those unique actions soon.

Both sides decide on Expansion actions, so this is an easy turn. Blue expands his Religio holding in the center grassland hex, and Red decides to build a Religio holding in the upper right forest hex before Blue decides to move in. Note: Add rules on how to create the first holding of a type, since this is Red's first Religio holding! Rules as written assume expansion from an existing holding. Thought: Use hex ownership's standard d6 to attempt creation, but that screws players that don't own hexes. Might make a Guerrilla option to create without owning the hex, but I think that'll be an add-on to the basic game.

Each Expansion action costs 1 Gold and 1 Influence.

Expansions abound! d6 shows Year, d4 shows Season.
Note that I incremented the Season d4 for a turn. Oops.
Next photo introduces a Month indicator: a green d6.

Season 1, Month 2
Here's where things get interesting. Blue decides on a Coup action from the Religio holding to take over the grassland hex he recently expanded. A Coup costs 4 Gold or Influence in any combination. Since Blue is flush with Influence, 4 of those go back to the bank.

Now for the roll. Government always gets to roll a d6 when it tries anything (mostly on defense, but the note in Turn 1 opens the door for offense). Blue is attacking with a Religio-2 holding, so that means a d6 as well, but at a +1 because of Blue's Religio leadership bonus. Blue wants this Coup to succeed, so spends 1 Influence prior to the roll to add an additional +1 and potentially add more influence after the roll.

Spending Influence was a smart move since Blue rolled a 2 for a total of 4 vs. the sitting Government's roll of 5. Defenders win ties, so Blue needs to add 2 more points to win. Blue can spend a total of half the die size in Influence on a roll, and the maximum of 3 influence is just enough. Blue's total roll is now 6, just edging out the Government. Note: Coup actions can target hexes or other holdings. Coup rolls that succeed by 3 or more will reduce the losing holding by 1 and expand the winning holding by 1. Expansion doesn't apply when rolling against a Government for control of a hex. Need to make that explicit.

After Blue's turn: Coup underway to take over the hex at the green stick.
There's the green Month d6.

Coup actions need to succeed twice in a single season to take control of a hex (or destroy a holding and add the remnants to the victor), so Blue has one more turn to take over the hex. Red could have put down an Influence prior to the roll on the Government's behalf and played the spoiler, but Blue is so far ahead in Influence that it wasn't worth the risk.

Red decides to Attack Blue's Religio holding in the lower right hex and take the Church of Blueness down a peg. Since Red owns the hex, no declaration of war (Declare War is an action) is required for an Attack - it's simply cleaning house. So Red's Militari swoops into the Church of Blueness and starts making arrests at a cost of 1 Gold and 1 Influence.

Both sides are holding-2s, so both sides get to roll a d6. Both sides get a leadership bonus of +1 for using their advantaged holdings. Both decide to spend 1 Influence prior to the roll in case to add to their totals after the roll. Blue rolls a 4 for a total of 6, Red rolls a 5 for a total of 7. Red will win, but Blue decides to spend the maximum 2 more Influence to force Red to deplete his Influence.

Attacks reduce the losing holding by 1 for every 3 difference in the die rolls, rounding up. A simple win means a loss of 1. A tie results in both sides losing 1. An attack means someone's going to lose something. Red rolled the dice hoping to take the Church of Blueness out in one shot, but couldn't arrest all the clergy.

Red's attack at the red stick actually worked!

Season 1, Month 3
Blue needs to Coup again in hopes of owning that hex, so retaliation against Red will have to wait. Note: I just realized I didn't have Blue pay for this Coup action. I've updated Blue's Gold count for Season 2. Blue (retroactively) pays 4 Gold this time since Influence is running out. Blue invests 1 Influence in the roll, and rolls a 4 for a total of 6. The Government rolls a 3. Success! Blue takes the hex as the old government is shown the door. And by "the door", I mean "the executioner".

Blue's second Coup action this season succeeds!

Red decides to switch to a more grass-roots campaign to destroy the Church of Blueness and uses a Reduce action. There's less risk than an Attack, but it will only ever lower a holding by 1. Red spends 2 Gold and 1 Influence on the action, then spends an Influence to modify the roll. Blue also spends 1 Influence on the roll.

Since Blue's Religio holding is down to 1 after the attack last turn, Blue only gets to roll a d4 and can spend a maximum of 2 Influence to modify the roll. Red is still rolling a d6 and can spend 3 Influence. Each side rolls a 2. Red spends 2 more Influence to overcome Blue's 1 more Influence. Red's offer of bounties turns the citizens against the Church of Blueness, and the rest of the members are rounded up in short order.

I just forgot to roll for Red's Reduce action before this photo.
Picture Influence being spent like water and each side rolling a 2.

Season 2 Income
I decided to forge on with Season 2's Income phase. You can see the incoming Gold and Influence in the photo above, but I thought I'd break it down here.

Blue owns 3 hexes now and gets 6 Gold and 6 Influence for that. Blue has 3 Religio-2 holdings which give another 3 Gold and 6 Influence, for a grand total of 9 Gold and 12 Influence. Hex ownership is a Big Deal, as intended, and Blue's Religio-based aggression is paying off so far.

Red owns 2 hexes for 4 Gold and 4 Influence. Red's 2 Militari-2 holdings give 2 Gold and 2 Influence, and 4 Economia-1 holdings each give 1 bonus Gold. Red also got into the Religio game last season for 1 bonus Influence. Red gets a total of 10 Gold and 7 Influence. Red needs to step things up or get run over since total resource income equates to victory points at game's end.

Season 2, post-income. I paid for Red's Reduce action in this photo.
Blue still needs to pay 4 Gold for the second Coup, though.

Final Words for Tonight

So far, the costs associated with actions seem to be about right. I arbitrarily assigned resource costs based on the utility of the action, to a maximum cost of 4 resources for a Coup, and the 4 actions covered (Attack, Coup, Expand, Reduce) feel like the core of the game. The other basic moves (Declare War, which lets you Attack or Coup in a hex owned by someone else, and Move, which lets you move up to 3 cubes of a single type of power center across hexes per 1 Gold spent) will come into play soon, and the power center-specific actions may come into play in Season 3 or 4.

I hope things move faster now that I've got the basics down in my head. I think a Year (4 Seasons, or 12 game turns) should play out in about 5 minutes per experienced player. I think one action per month would work really well in a play by email version of Domo, too.

Note: What happens when 2 or more players attempt to Coup the same Government? I think the Coup count needs to reset with a change of ownership. That top middle hex is going to heat up as the land grab portion of the early game comes to a close.

Blue has 1 Influence stick left in the bank for Season 2, and we've still got plenty of Gold to go around, but I'll need many more counters with a bigger map. Note: Rework the map sizes by number of players. 12 hexes is probably good for 4 players and may be a little big for 3. Using Influence on rolls gets expensive quickly, especially using it on both offense and defense. We'll see how the rest of the game plays out.

I think it's important to share the experience and thought process of developing the game. I'm hoping to play 8 seasons, but we'll see what kind of time I end up with tomorrow. And I hope the mice don't eat the prototype overnight, because I'm planning on leaving it set up.

Thanks for reading!

[NaGaDeMon] Domo: Full Prototype!

Day 19: Jacques the Knife has returned to cut again.

I finally looked around for a name other than "The Domain Game", and I settled on Domo. It's simple, but packed with multiple meanings. And, of course, there's a story that brought me to it. I'll get to that as the story unfolds.

The Bleedin' Hex Dividers
The hex dividers are the biggest time investment so far. That's hardly surprising since custom game components can suck a designer's budget dry. But I'm over the hump on that count.

After screwing around for a few days with ideas about making a plastic template that I could use to cut out the pieces directly, I took a manila folder and cut out a template to trace. I traced the shape onto the blanks with pencil, then went to town with scissors and my X-Acto knife from my Jacques the Knife days back when I was the layout guy for my high school newspaper.

Yes, newspaper layout was terribly analog back in the mid-'80s, and we cobbled that publication together every few weeks using non-repro blue graph paper, printed articles that we cut to size and pasted in, and yards of border tape to break up the inevitable white space and define the borders of a single article. I could eyeball a right angle and cut things to size pretty quickly, and I earned another nickname.

Last night I put my nose to the grindstone, and over a surprisingly short time I cut out the blanks, thus:

12 each of top-slot and bottom-slot.

And then I remembered I picked this little beauty up at a yard sale:

So I mashed the two together and ended up with this:

And now I've got a dozen hex dividers and a complete prototype copy. It may be hard to read in a few cases, so I might go back and add the letters at the top like in the original prototype.

But for right now, I have a complete playable game. YAY!

Why Faux Latin?
The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the four sides of the dividers aren't exactly the Military, Arcane, Religious, and Economic that I've talked about so far. They actually read MILITARI, ARCANUM, RELIGIO, and ECONOMIA. Funny story, that. Since the Excelsior Printer was a yard sale find, it looked like it was short on a few letters. When I started putting together the word "RELIGIOUS", I found that there wasn't a single S to be found. Using $ for an S just didn't work for a myriad of reasons. What can I do to adapt and flourish? Hrm.

I went with an abbreviation: RELIGIO. I decided it sounded like Latin, so opened up Google Translate. I looked for other bastardizations that I could print without using an S, and that's where the current list of power center names came from.

Domo: A Name, A Game, A World.
Once the faux Latin power center names solidified, I immediately started spinning out some ideas about the world of the game. What would a Religio group look like as opposed to just a church? Would Economia cover more than just trade and production? Could this work with lieutenants carving control out of a failing Imperium? I really like the direction this is drifting, and I'll probably write a snippet of fiction to introduce the world.

Then I started looking for Latin words for rulership and conquest, with a lean toward something simple. For "subjugation", the Latin verb "domo" came out. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It's also Latin for "house" or "of the home", and where else do you live but in your kingdom? And as an added bonus, it's Japanese for "thanks", and I'm thankful that NaGaDeMon inspired me to get something on paper.

Domo is the name of the game. Done.

Next Steps
I've got a completed prototype for 3 players. Hopefully I can do an Alpha playtest today on my own to make sure there's nothing blatantly stupid in the rules as they exist. Then I can rewrite and polish the rules for public consumption. I'll need to get a hex divider template in a downloadable form, and a list of components if you want to scavenge them on your own.

After that it's out in the wild, and let the hacking commence. Whee!

[NaGaDeMon] Counting Coup and Editing

Day 15: Half past the challenge.

Counting Coup
I did some thinking about the Coup action, specifically about what happens when the Government of a hex resists a Coup attempt. First, the Government is stuck at a d6. I think that low power reflects the fact that it's easier to take control than to keep it. It works well with Bolster and Defend spells, which will bring the Government up to a d8+2. Arcane holdings are a Government's best friend.

And yes, if a holding attempting to take over the government is foolish enough to attack twice and lose both times, it will destroy itself and convert to a new holding under the control of the hex's controller. It's cool to think about, but I doubt that will ever happen in the game as it stands. Taking over a hex takes your whole season. Declare War in Month 1, then 2 Coup successes to take over the hex. If the first one fails, you're better off waiting until next season and Expanding this season instead of risking your holding for zero return. Though maybe an optional "Double Down" rule would make that risk worth taking?

Current Status
I've got 5 pages of rules written up, and I think it's usable. It needs polish, but I want to make sure the base game functions before adding the trim and embellishments. I made a quick cheat sheet for actions, income, and spells, so that'll be handy for player reference. The hexes, cubes, and other wooden components are good. The only thing left is the other 11 hex dividers.

I took a few minutes last night and cut out some cardstock blanks (3" x 3/4") to whittle down for the rest of the hex dividers. If I can make a plastic jig as a cutting guide, Jacques The Knife will cut again and I should have the shapes done in about 15 minutes. Then to mark them up and assemble them, and we're good to play.

I monkeyed with Inkscape for a bit to make a divider template image. I got frustrated quickly, so I decided to do the rest by hand so I can play. I'll get a downloadable and printable version of the hex dividers later.

Peasant Revolt!
(My Economic-3 holding will
Coup against the Governnment
for control of the hex.)

It's still looking good for a solo playtest this weekend sometime. Then make the inevitable edits, whip up a hex divider cutout template, and I can get a playtest version online for downloading.

Yay!

On Editing
I also posted in the Facebook group that I'm willing to edit games from fellow NaGaDeMon slayers. (Yes, I just found the typo in that posting and posted a comment about that irony.) If you're interested, get in touch with me. I can at the very least give your game a once-over and get you some feedback/proofreading for free. If you want to really dig in and polish your game for publication, let's talk. Either way, give me a shout and we'll go from there.

[NaGaDeMon] Prototype: Hex Divider

I made a hex divider by freehand cutting a sheet of cardstock. It looks like this:

Red owns the hex, and has maxed out the Free Guild with an Economic-5 holding. Blue is making a play for the hearts and minds of the people with a Religious-2 holding, and Green is in a good spot to be a spoiler with a Arcane-2 holding.

I've settled on making each divider spell out MARE reading clockwise, for Military, Arcane, Religious, and Economic. I really like the supported cube in the middle of the hex to indicate ownership. I wasn't sure how it would work, but it seems really stable.

Yes, it may get a little busy with several cubes in there, but I think it'll work OK. This'll be easier to handle as a mobile app, and yes, the gears are already turning in that direction in my head. (Repeat the mantra: Basic Game First.)

Now to make a template sheet so I can print it and easily make another dozen of these things.

[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.

[NaGaDeMon] Gathering Components

Day 7: Still not king.

I spent a few minutes today and gathered some components. Yay, kitbashing!

I've swiped hexes, settlements, and cities from Settlers of Catan, and cubes from Ursuppe. Three colors matched between the two, so I've got pieces for 3 players. I'll keep the initial board small to minimize what I need, since I don't think I have enough pieces at the moment. I'll probably burn through those 5 settlements (denoting 3 cubes) and 4 cities (denoting 5 cubes) in no time.

Mental thumbnail: A board of 15 hexes means 60 power centers, plus a cube each for ownership. Hrm. Maybe I'll drop a terrain type and shrink the board to 12 for initial testing. New terrain types can get pushed to the Optional file. With 3 players, that small of a board will force some conflict quickly. Or with 2 players maybe I'll double up on colors to extend the usable supply of pieces...

Speaking of which, does anyone have a good source for wholesale colored wood cubes?

I'm starting to think how to order the rules to best effect. Component definition, what the board looks like, then startup and setting up the board, then how a turn works, then effects of specific actions - that seems to make the most sense. Now to actually finish writing the blessed rules.

All in all, still making progress. I should have something usable by Day 17, if not Day 10 this weekend. If it ain't beautiful, there's still time to rewrite and polish.

[NaGaDeMon] Getting thoughts on electronic paper

Welcome to Day 6, wherein I worked a bit on the train this morning. I waffled for a while on how to physically keep track of power centers in a hex. My initial thought was using various-sided dice in various colors, which would be very cool. But I can't hack together a prototype in a month without spending way too much on dice. I have dice, but not enough of anything in the same color.

Then I thought about using d6s in four colors to note the level of the power center, plus a cube or a disk to sit the die on to show who owns that power center. Workable, except it'll get crowded if everyone wants to make an economic center in a hex. And again, I only have a piles of d6s in blue and white, not the 4 colors I'll need to make this thing work. Back to the idea well to see what this pull brings up.

And the well bucket is full of colored cubes. I think I'll be able to cobble together enough - I can use houses from Settlers for 3 and cities for 5 to keep things from getting too cluttered. It should be easy for all players to dump a cube in a quarter of a hex and not have things spill everywhere. And the number of your-colored cubes in a power center equates to the type of die you roll to do anything with that power center. So one cube will get you a d4, 5 will get you a d12, and I'll cap it there. Sounds like it's workable, but we'll see how it plays.

So now I'm thinking of making cardboard hex dividers, with one quadrant each for Arcane, Economic, Military, and Religious power centers, plus space in the middle for a cube to keep track of who controls a province. The divider can be really low, probably 1/4" high or so, just tall enough to keep the cubes from getting bumped over into a different quadrant.

So I've got that construction to look forward to. Yay, crafty stuff!

Then I started listing out actions to perform on a monthly turn. Ideas compounded, and I started going down ratholes. I really like the idea of having a Shadow Power Center, where you choose one of the power centers and get a special espionage ability based on that. Then you roll a die one step smaller than your power center in a hex and make shifty things happen there.

But then a directive sounded deep inside my head, a smooth baritone dripping with authority and wisdom, a clarion call that I need to share with other NaGaDeMon fighters this month:

WRITE THE BASIC GAME FIRST. COMPLICATE THINGS LATER.

And with that, I'll go back and cut my notes into 2 files: one to keep working on, and a tickler file for future options, expansions, and complications.

Let's see if this thing can walk before we bolt on the clockwork wings.

[NaGaDeMon] Trainstorming

I took a look at the Birthright board game rules this morning. Not much there, as it's more focused on Regent characters and beating up everyone else. I'm shooting for more of a domain management game with a stronger focus on building each region.

Decisions: This will be a straight board game with hooks to use it in RPGs, not an add-on system to an RPG. Hopefully the game itself will work that way one I'm done.

Looking for ways to denote strength in a few categories on a hex space. Thinking of different-colored dice in d4 through d12. Elegant, and it lets you pick up dice from a hex and roll. Expensive to produce, so maybe tokens instead if this ever goes to production.

Also need a way to look at foreign influence by category in a hex. Tokens to sit the die on would work. May need to limit to one foreign influence per category for sanity, but we'll see how it plays out.

I'm getting some rules gelling in my head. Very cool. Will write them soon and start revising from there.

To get: sets of cheap dice. I may pass on the water hexes for now and trust the layout creativity of the players to make non-clumpy land masses and assume gaps are filled with water, either salt or fresh.

Still mucking with economy in my head, though the military mechanics may inform that.

What constitutes ownership of a hex? I want to allow conversion and economic takeover as well...

[NaGaDeMon] Post Zero.

There's a place and a time when the journey begins. Here is that place. Now is that time.

I just posted over at NaGaDeMon's 2012 Roll Call. So simple an act, but so big in meaning. I'm going to design and play a game in November. And you're invited to watch, cheer, provide feedback, and eventually play.

I'm going to move The Domain Game beyond the confines of vague system-like posts on the blog and into an actual system. It may not do everything I want out of the gate, and it may not even have the same province stats, but it will be workable and, more importantly, it will be done. And it will use Settlers of Catan terrain hexes.

Speaking of which, does anyone have any water hexes I could abscond with? Or at least any cheap sources of them? I'd rather not invest in Seafarers at retail just to cannibalize the water tiles.

Domain Game: What To Do?

Part of the Domain Game series of articles. Jump to the main page.

We've explored a simple way to describe provinces in the first article in this series. Now that you have provinces, what can you do with them? And how often?

The Domain Turn
In the original AD&D Birthright rules, a domain turn lasted a season (3 months), but you could do three actions or more during  this time. For the sake of simplicity, let's say a turn in the Domain Game lasts a month of game time.

I'll stick with the D&D 4e design philosophy for now. During a domain turn, you can perform three actions: Standard, Move, and Minor. I'll call these effort descriptors. You can use slots to perform a lesser action, so you can use your Standard slot to perform a Move or Minor action if you want.

Action Types and Scope
Different actions take different levels of effort, and some can only be done every so often to prevent a revolt. To model this, actions have a refresh descriptor: Yearly, Seasonal, or At-Will.

Every action affects a single province. If you want to expend an action to affect every province or holding type you control, raise the refresh descriptor one step (At-Will to Seasonal to Yearly). I'm thinking about requiring 2 actions of the same type in a single turn instead. That may model the extra effort better, but we'll see in playtesting.

Action List
Below is a list of actions. This is not exhaustive by any means, so if you see something missing or something that strikes you as odd, please let me know in the comments. The Domain Game is very much a work in progress, so feel free to chime in.

Actions are grouped by effort descriptor. The title is followed by the type of holding needed to initiate the action (or "Any" if its' nonspecific), then the refresh descriptor. The description covers the game effect of the action plus how it might look to a PC in the province.

"Crowning the King"
by ReptileCynrik

Standard Actions

• Claim Province (Psionic/At-Will) - Lets you take charge of a province. The previous leader will probably object, so there's a dice contest that needs to happen to see what happens. The government changes, which could be caused by a coup, or someone else assuming power, or an invasion from the country next door.
• Create Holding (Any/At-Will) - Creates a holding of score zero in the province. You charter a new group to work on your behalf in a province. PCs may see an announcement or hear about job opportunities associated with the new holding.
• Inquisition (Any/At-Will) - Uses a holding to attack and destroy a different holding. You must successfully perform this action twice in a row with the exact same holdings to destroy the target. Depending on the source you use, this action can take the form of an inquisition (Divine), a series of arrests (Martial), bankruptcy (Shadow), magical attacks (Arcane), or simply the rejection of the holding's authority (Psionic).
• Invest Authority (Any/Seasonal) - Creates a lieutenant, minister, or other named official with the authority to act on the leader's behalf. You must give control of a holding to the newly-anointed lieutenant, and the lieutenant can perform Move and Minor actions from that holding without your permission. Lieutenants give your province more actions, but too many lieutenants can lead to intrigue and rebellion.
• Oath of Fealty (Psionic/Seasonal or Yearly) - This action officially turns over power so the province is ultimately working for a different leader. It takes time to adjust to the new order, from a season for a single province to as much as a year for a larger domain.
• Redistribute Resources (Primal/Seasonal) - You can plunder natural resources or pull peasants from the fields to bolster a holding in a hurry. Permanently reduce the Primal score of a province by 1 and add 1 to any other non-Primal holding in the province. Symptoms of this action include strip mining, clear cutting forests, and crops left to rot in the fields.

Move Actions

• Muster/Train Troops (Martial/At-Will) - You can create as many units of troops as you can afford, or retrain troops with upgraded weapons and equipment, if available. This action requires plenty of money. You can muster or train only as many units as your Martial holding's score.
• Trade (Shadow/At-Will) - Removes goods from the province and ships them to a different province in exchange for different goods or money. You can trade as many trade units of goods as your Shadow holding's score. Trade caravans or wagon trains will seem common when this action happens.
• Produce Goods (Shadow/At-Will) - Takes goods and transforms it to a more finished product, like manufacturing padded armor from wool, or spears from wood and iron. Requires money and raw materials. Goods may be used to improve military units. For instance, upgrading a conscript unit to a regular infantry unit may require a trade unit of leather armor, shields, and a unit of weapons that are better than pointed sticks.
• Agitate (Divine/At-Will) - The clergy have developed the skill of influencing the emotional state of the people. Use this action to change the people's loyalty for better or worse, or to get the people on board with a particular course of action. Can cause a popular uprising if used well. PCs may notice more prevalent handbills and other propaganda on the streets, and they may hear pointed messages delivered from the pious followers of the Divine holding.
• Research (Arcane/At-Will) - Spend money and effort into finding some new knowledge, either technology like the secret of making steel, or a new magic spell. I hope to keep the technology tree very player-designed rather than a rigid structure. Different technologies will have different requirements and will require a variable number of successful Research actions to discover.
• Explore Province (Any/At-Will) - This action can uncover a wilderness's raw statistics or give you a report of all holdings in a province and who controls them. PCs may notice a survey expedition or hear people asking questions about holdings, or be counted by an official census bureaucrat.
• Harvest (Primal/Seasonal) - Gathers raw materials from the province. Most of this is food, but other resources can be developed as the province grows. You may gather one trade unit of resources per point of Primal score. Food and resources will be covered later.
• Increase Holding (Any/Seasonal) - Increases both the score of a holding and the associated score of the province. PCs may see building projects and recruitment efforts involving the holding.

Minor Actions

• Decree (Any/At-Will) - This action covers anything from holding a festival to declaring war (or peace) to bestowing honors and rewards on war heroes. Government deals with so many mundane decisions, that this action is reserved for proclamations that impact people throughout the entire province.
• Mission (Any/At-Will) - Hiring adventurers to perform a specific task. Tasks include information gathering, infiltration of a holding, stealing things, removing a military unit from active duty, sabotage, assassination, 
• Military Campaign (Martial/At-Will) - Invading a neighboring province takes at least a minor action. If the leader is present on the battlefield, it may take a Move or even a Standard action to properly execute. Defending your provinces and moving troops around to fortify or garrison defenses can be done at any time without spending an action. Moving troops into hostile territory takes some effort to defend supply lines and proceed in good order.
• Domain Magic (Usually Arcane or Divine/At-Will) - Domain Spells are large rituals that change conditions in a province. Domain Spells will have their own economy to be discussed later. Alternately, ignore Domain Magic entirely for a simpler and more realistic version of the Domain Game.

As I said, this is incomplete, but I hope it gives you a sense of the context for the Domain Game.

What actions am I missing? What actions are unclear?