Inspiration can come from some strange places...

So, about a week ago I came up with two game ideas on a road trip to RAGEcon. Both mechanically very similar but thematically quite strikingly different. They were both inspired by the song Suicide is Painless (the MASH theme), as performed by Marylin Manson. I'm going to be looking to test both of these soon. If you are interested in either or both please enquire. If you want to just try it out and not give feedback... well the images you need are below.

Game One - Suicide

 

Red Values are Mourn Value

The first I'm actually calling Suicide for the time being. It's based on the idea of wanting to be the first one eliminated while still wanting to last as long as possible. It is kind of a micro game. 25 cards allow for a 5 player game. Each player has 5 cards; 4 which have scoring and mourning values and one Suicide card. Each round players choose an order to play their cards and then they reveal them simultaneously one at a time. That is everyone reveals and scores their first card, then everyone reveals and scores their second card, etc. For each card before a player is eliminated, they score points based on the scoring value minus the mourn value for each player who has died previously. When the Suicide card is played that player scores the Mourn Value of all players who have not died yet. They only score for that card reveal, not previous ones.

Theme wise and art wise I'd say I'm looking at something like Gloom here.

Game Two - The Bubble

The other title is a bit less dark. Not exactly bright and cheery, though... It is currently called The Bubble. Conceptually it is about economic bubbles. This plays similar in that you choose an order for you cards to be played in, and reveal them simultaneously. It's different in how the cards act slightly. Instead of having a kill card, you have five cards numbered 1-5. On each reveal, the highest value pops. That is that player is eliminated. I haven't decided if they should score or not. On ties for highest, no one is eliminated. I'm also thinking this one would have a rule that you only compare your value to the two players still in the game to your immediate left and right. With that rule in place, I think you could reasonably have a game of up to 20 players with only 100 cards. And again it's a play a number of rounds until you reach an agreed upon score.

What I haven't decided on with The Bubble, is if I want to have each player representing a different industry or tie it all to one industry. I'm very tempted to make it the Tulip bubble.

Oh, and just in case it's not obvious, I know this is not at all an accurate representation of how a financial bubble works. It's just a theme.