Monday, March 20, 2017

Surrounded with a Shotgun - new weapons?

The decision has been made at VPG to treat all games like potential Kickstarter productions. That is to say, that in development we have to consider what kind of stretch goals may make sense with the game.

So now, I'm considering what can be added to Surrounded with a Shotgun as stretch goals. It is proving difficult, especially given that I personally really don't like the concept of gameplay exclusives.

Unfortunately, given the game's components, there aren't a lot of non-gameplay exclusive options that make sense. Which means any exclusive will likely have to include a gameplay element. So, I've been giving that some thought.

I've settled on a mechanical short term exclusive. Basically, alternative weapons for the players. I have a set of 4 of them, each of which works a little different. 

As a point of comparison, the basic shotgun mechanic is as follow; for each hoodlum in a target space, roll 1 dice (up to 5 dice total) and apply any DRM (dice roll modifiers) to each dice individually. Any final result of; 4 causes a hoodlum to move away (Scare), 5 causes a hoodlum to be removed from the board back to the pool (Run Off), and 6+ caused a hoodlum to be removed from the game and put back in the box (Kill).

The new weapons are the Magnum, the Hunting Rifle, the AK-47, and the Katana. 

With the Magnum, you still roll the same way as the Shotgun, except that results of 3 also result in a Hoodlum being Scared, and if you roll more than one 6, only one Hoodlum is Killed, the rest are Run Off.

With the Hunting Rifle, you roll 3d6 and compare to a table which will tell you how many hoodlums are killed (never more than 1) how many Run Off and how many are Scared. The big advantage of the Hunting Rifle is that the distance DRM only applies to the total of the roll so overall it is better at long range.

The AK-47 is particularly good at short range and large groups. The mechanic is 2d6 plus 1 for each Hoodlum in the space. But distance DRM's apply for each hoodlum in the space. Then again, compare to a chart to find the number of Kill, Run Off and Scare results.

Last, the Katana. The player playing with the Katana must move into the same space as the Hoodlums to attack them. Then they roll 1 d6 and as long as they don't roll a 1 at least one of the enemies in the space will be Scared. They never have a negative DRM, because they are always at close range. They can also move outside the building which no other players may do, but it isn't a very efficient use of actions so if they move too far away they may find they can't get to a position to stop a hoodlum down the road.

2 comments:

  1. Nathan - looking for an email address so as to forward a file to you. Please see message @ the Community Forum. Thanks - Jim

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  2. I can be reached at nathan.harvey.hansen@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete