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Combine Cluedo with elements from LOTR boardgame, US Patent Number 1 and Alien Frontiers.

You are a supervillain.
Captain Stupendous is dead!
You didn't do it.
But... nobody else knows that.
If you can show those fools (show them all!) that you DID do it, you will be the most famous supervillain in the history of supervillainy!
MuaHaHa?!




So, this isn't even QUARTER baked yet, but I want to write this stuff down.

There are three tracks for proving you did it.

Method:
  1. Bonus points for being the first one to (correctly) announce to the public how it was actually done.
  2. Points for having demonstrated that capability.
  3. Lose points for having that as your vulnerability.

Motive:
  1. The more motives the better!  Announce your grudges against the good captain to everyone you meet.  Take over the airwaves and broadcast!  Blog about it!

Opportunity:
  1. I voz zere, und I can prüf it!
  2. I woz zere!  Und I voz over zere too... but I voz zere!
  3. You cannot prüf zat I voz NOT zere!
  4. I voz... over zere.  Novere near. ... But zat did not stop me!


Roll some dice.  Spend some to move around the board.  Use some to activate the abilities of the locations you arrive at.  Use some to gain or plant evidence against yourself, or to discredit evidence against your rivals.

The cop and the capes moVe around the board, hoovering up the evidence.  (Catan-style movement?  Directed?)

When the cops prove a case - the game ends.  Whodunnit?


Clearly I prefer this to "The dragon dun it" which was a similar, though fantasy themed, idea.  (Where everyone KNOWS the dragon did it, but you sure as heck aren't going to try to arrest HIM!  Better to frame someone.)



Next tranche of ideas.
Board is a 3x4 with the catty-corners cut cleanly.
Each turn you roll 4d6 and arrange as 2 pairs, which you then spend.
Most locations will have something like 7+ do something / else something else, or 'any double' do something.  (Roughly the same odds)
Or you can use a pair to teleport yourself or the superheroes (so easy to trick) to the location.  (With 2-3 merged and 11-12).  The police trudge one number at a time, and are also the turn counter.
You're not allowed to use the power of a location unless you're the only one there.
Maybe allowed to just walk to neighboring location?
Final use of a pair - trade in the dice for rant cards.  Most of which will be proclamations of motive, but I think I should mix a few 'nix someone elses scheme' cards in too.




Ok - here's the next step in working this out.
The game is 10 turns long (measured by the policemen plodding from one end of the city to the other.)
Each turn:
Move the police along.  They hoover up all the evidence on that square.
Then - simultaneously - the players roll their dice.
They then have 15 seconds to call out a number (made from 2 of their dice); and either move there, or move the cape-squad there.  (Only the first to move the capes may, and they get a bonus card for doing so)
Then simultaneously again, spend your remaining pair of dice at your location (if you are alone) or pick up the cards at the location and place a card back (again, only if you are alone) or activate cards from hand.
The capes hoover up all the evidence wherever they are, everyone picks up their dice and starts the next turn.

Most cards are alibis and similar.

The only cards that count are ones hoovered up by the police and capes.

I now really want to add persistent-board stuff, where previous games played can have an effect. --Vitenka




Rules Draft 1



Setup.
The board is a 3x3, each square having one of the numbers possible on 2d6, with 2-3 collapsed, and 11-12 collapsed also.  Each player picks their character (which gives them a power and a starting location) and takes a stack of motives, and distributes them on the board.  Then they pick out a random opportunity card, and put the rest on the board - starting at the lowest number square (so that at least one is guaranteed to be picked up by the police)

Play.
The turns start is announced by someone moving the police one square along.  If that moves them off the board, the game ends this turn - otherwise pick up the cards at their location (without looking at them) and put them into the evidence locker.
Simultaneously, players then roll their dice (4d6 normally) they can use a die to move themselves one square, or a pair of dice to teleport to that location, or a pair of dice to teleport the heros to that location (but only the first person each turn can teleport the heros)  Any set aside dice you have, you can 'roll' to any number you like.

After that bit of silly pursuit, players can do stuff at their location - everyone who is alone at their location can be simultaneous.
You can spend any of your remaining dice on the power at the location, or on the power on the card.  (Most powers manipulate the cards, letting you take extra ones, or move some around - some manipulate dice, letting you set them aside for another turn, or steal set-aside dice)

You can also spend a die to examine the cards at a location - you may take one into your hand; but if you do, you have to put a replacement one back.  You MAY put down an additional card.

If, however, you're with someone else in the square; then you can't use the square's power (though you could still use a power card) - instead you may fight them.

To fight, you activate a power.  Your opponent must reveal an opposed power, or they lose the fight.
If you win, they have to give you an opportunity card (their choice), or reveal their hand and you get to pick a motive off of them.  (Foiled by your ignorance!  I will crush you for this insult!)
Of course, they can still fight you back...
You can use each power card only once during a fight; but as long as you have more powers (and yes, different fire powers still count as different powers...) and the dice to activate them, you can keep on fighting.

If multiple opponents are present you only fight one - in preference: Another villain, the heros, the police.

If you fight the heros, they activate a random power for you to defend against (always pulling something new out of the hat, that's how they roll) If they win you have to put a card into the evidence locker - otherwise you're allowed to look at the contents of the locker.  (Strap them down in the death trap, monologue a bit, you know the drill)  You can attack them, but they win.  They're the heros, it's what they do.

If the heros are alone, or won their fight - they now pick up the cards at their location and put them in the evidence locker.

If you don't fancy fighting, you can trade freely - no promises for later turns though.  The heros or police will accept one, and only one, motive card - it goes into the evidence locker.

Any dice you didn't use, you may set aside for a later turn.

Everyone take a moment to look at each other.  Smirk, or grin evilly.  Cackle, steeple your fingers.  Stroke the cat.

Then grab for the policeman, because the next turn is about to begin.

Ending.
Once the police have plodded to the end of the track, they announce to the world their brilliant deduction.
Their plodding procedure:
  1. Reveal the evidence locker.
  2. Sort out the motive cards.
  3. Sort out the opportunity cards - these are the method that the police found was actually used.
  4. Starting with the person with the most motives, they politely ask them whether or not they could actually do it.  Do you have matching opportunity cards in hand?  If you do, you win.
  5. Go down the list of all possible suspects, until one could have done it.  Assume they did.  They win.
  6. If no one could have done it, then amongst those who most nearly have the opportunity, it's the one who has the fewest excuses for their behaviour (least cards in hand) that did it.  They win.
  7. In the case of a continued tie, convict the lot of them.  They're all guilty of being supervillains anyway.  Everyone wins.

And that's all she wrote - though a big chunk of the game is the powers (both ones the players get, and the ones on the board)  Of note, the "Put unused dice aside, or steal the unused dice" power is going on the 7.  And when used, those dice are wild - they roll whatever you need.

(Explanation of cards a bit better:  Motive cards each name a villain.  Some start on the board (placed by you) some in your hand, and some spare for gain-a-card powers.  You want yours to end up in evidence, and your opponents to not.  Method/Opportunity? cards can be thought of as Suit/Number?.  For every card in the hero's pile at the end, you want to be able to match either its suit (having another opportunity card that matches) or its number (having a power that lets you bypass).  For example:  "Method - Entrance - Forced Entrance! The door was broken open! (6 - Brick)" The hero's found this evidence - so you either need the named power (being a brick) or you need to have one of the other 'Entrance' cards, to show that you got in some other way after all, that they didn't find evidence of.  Arranging the right evidence to end up in your hands, and that it matches what is in the hero's pile, is the whole object.)
While I'm at it:
Sample Motive card:  "Motive - Von Bernshinkle" (He laughed at my weaponised duckies!  Fool!  I'll show him!  I'll show him all!)"
And sample power: "Power - Gedgeteer - {roll a 1} : Draw a random new power card. - Defends against Speedsters (with a super hyper glue gun).  Defends against Psychics (With Science!) - Weak against Blasters and Bricks."

... And I've just realised that in avoiding another problem I've inadvertently set it up so that fights in the later game, when players are more likely to want them, are much less likely to be winnable.  Which is.. kinda nice, but I need to add some kind of resource to let that be overcomable.  Ah - got it, powers usable only once per fight on defence, too.  So if an opponent defends by gathering up one of each power, you can still beat them up by having multiple of the same power.  So you need to watch each other and collect the right powers.



Feedback



I really like this one - LOTS of potential.  Suppose you have a city where Captain Stupendous lived and fought many battles in various locations throughout the city.  Motive could consist of planting evidence against yourself that you lost previous battles against him (and having it discovered by a nosy reporter).  Opportunity would consist of planting evidence of your presence in a location as near as possible to the location that turns out to his eventual death site (and having it discovered by the detective - I'm imagining that some of the things you can use your dice for are to move yourself or the detective or the reporter around the board).  Other things to spend dice on would be acquiring weapons (from locations, or stealing from other players?), planting evidence and removing evidence.  Anyway, those are my immediate thoughts.  I'm going to be really interested to see where you go with your idea.  --Pallando
Yup - the current idea is you go to locations and add/remove your/other people's alibis (including using the museum of time machines from the future to get an 'I was at the scene of the crime' alibi) and the police, as you shunt them from location to location hoover up the evidence you've planted.  --Vitenka

Reminds me of Who Stole Ed's Pants. --AlexChurchill
[link for my ref] - I'd not seen that one.  --Vitenka




TODO



  1. Need to fix saved dice.  At the moment there's no point at which you don't know "Ah, someone is going to steal dice this turn, I need to spend them." when you cannot spend them.  Either need to change the timing on saving/using or I need to put some other tempting thing on the 7 so that you can reasonably risk saving dice in the thought that they are going for the other thing.



CategoryGame
BoardGame (I hope, eventually)

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