Apocalypse: The Game

Rules Sheet Complete

2006-11-15T02:42:00.000-05:00

So, here's a link to the rules sheet. If you guys happen to check this before class, tell me what you think.

Rules Sheet in PDF
Rules Sheet in DOC

The board and pieces seem to be drying fine now. I took some photos of the completed project in all of it's unfolded glory.

EYE CANDY!!

Painting

2006-11-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I went and bought paint today and I've been painting the box. I didn't want to use spray paint, because I don't have the area around my house to do that, so I just bought Rustoleum paint. It actually turned out really well in my opinion. I like the texture on the box. Unfortunately, I bought a 79cent brush, so there are some hairs stuck in the paint :( Not a tremendous problem, just an annoyance. The box is done, the board backing is done, and I'm going to flip the board over to do the edges before I leave for my 5 o'clock class, so everything will be ready for 7:30

- Jeff

Printing

2006-11-14T12:25:00.000-05:00

The board, cards, and logos have been printed. The board looks really nice, I think. The cards are large, but since they're not actually meant to be held in the player's hands it should be fine.

I went to OfficeMax first at around 8:30. I asked if they could do double-sided printing. Despite her answer of "yes", I don't suppose they actually had a double-sided printer because she just ran the cards through twice. I haven't looked too closely, but they seem to have lined up well. I also had OfficeMax print two copies of the logo. They didn't have a large scale printer, but the lady called Staples for me and told them I would be coming there. Went to Staples, gave them the CD, and an hour later I went back to pick up the board. I only had them print one copy. Since it cost around $20 and it only took about 45 minutes to print, I figured if we needed another one we could have it done quickly tonight.

So, by about 11 AM I had it all done. The board is flat in the trunk of my car - by itself; it's safe. The cards and logos are with me. I'll see you guys tonight at 7:30 to wrap this thing up.

- clint

Creating Game Pieces

2006-11-13T00:24:00.000-05:00

So, we needed Harvesters and Portals, but we didn't have the time or money to make non-abstract representatios, IE small little portals or what not. So, here's what I went through today.

First off, I bought some 3/4" PVC pipe and cut out 100 1/4" tall cylinders, like this

Now, we need to have 2 kinds, one for each building type. So, I had to make a setup

I heated the cylinder with the heat gun and stretched it out

Then I crammed three pieces of metal inside to form a rounded triangle

And viola!! Two different pieces. Repeat 50 times, and we are done

Total time from tube to triangle: 6 hours. Good thing someone else is painting them. I don't want to look at them anymore.

- Jeff

2006-11-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

ya man looks good, like the text I think it will work great, it sounds like you got a large work load to take care of....good luck and cya tomorrow

Logo with font added...

2006-11-12T20:48:00.000-05:00

I took the logo and used the font type that I had used for the game board, did a little bit of tweaking, and got this

What do you all think?

I've got all the harvesters/portals cut now. I did 100 of them (50 harvesters, 50 portals) so 10 per player. I figure that's enough to get the idea across of the game at least.

I ended up just cutting 1/4" tall 3/4" diameter cylinders out of the PVC pipe. That way, the "harvester" is simply a ring that wraps around each marker on the board, but it's still easy to read what the number is for the resources. I'm going to try and type up a rules set before the end of the night, but I've got other things I need to be working on also, namely ZBrush stuff. Time to go back and sand the 70 remaining harvesters/portals and then figure ou tsomething to do to the portals to make them different from the harvesters. I just had an idea. Let me see how it works out...

2006-11-12T18:38:00.000-05:00

so here is the logo with the text and i'll also put up a color palette so you guys can see some other colors. The font was the best i could find and I think it expresses the word pretty well. It could use some more work which would be fine with me but i dont want to go any farther w/o ya'lls comments. Aight cya tomorrow

2006-11-12T15:36:00.000-05:00

aight guys this is the first image for the logo its the inverted pentagram which is called "the devils goat" pretty sadistic looking i think.
let me know what you think

-johnny

Now with more Demonic Runes! Crunchy...

2006-11-12T14:39:00.000-05:00

Eh? Better? I sent you the Card PSD, Jeff. And yes, please send me the full resolution continents.

- clint

Happy Valentine's.

2006-11-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

Better? Worse? The End? The board is no longer at a resolution of 300. It's 175. These pics are scaled down from that, though. As for the card, when you think it's done how am I going to get you the PSD? Or will you need it? Should I just put up the full size JPEG and let you use that? I don't guess you'd need the PSD unless you were going to have text slide under the fire somehow.

- clint

Game Board Layout

2006-11-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

So, tell me what you guys think

And here's a full scale closeup, to see the details:

Feedback please.

- Jeff

Board and Cards

2006-11-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

I showed you guys this World Event template that I threw together Wednesday:

It still needs a lot of work (which I'll get to eventually...), but I thought I'd just throw it up here for you guys to comment on.

Last night and this morning I've been working on the actual board. Well, at least the image that will cover it:

What do you think? I've still got to recolor/redesign the continents/territories. Are we going to keep the same territory names? (Irkutsk...pfft.) What numbers are going to be associated with each territory? Also, what are our team colors going to be (so I can put the "personal hell/void"s on the edges of the board)?

We forgot something...

2006-11-09T00:43:00.000-05:00

What are we doing for Harvesters and Portals? Any ideas?

Game Ideas from 11/7

2006-11-07T11:40:00.000-05:00

So, yet again, more updates to the game:

Avatar Movement

Inter-continent travel: 1 soul

Trans-continent travel: 2 souls

Event Cards

Event cards allow the "chaotic" feeling of the apocalypse by changing the game rules randomly. Every time a player destroys an opponents gatherer or portal, a new even card comes into play.

Events

- Portal allow 2 souls to enter the world instead of one
- Player's gain double resources during the resource phase
- Avatar's may only attack harvesters and troops may only attack portals
- Avatar's are able to move for free
- Resources that would be gained from the continent of (N. America, S. America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia) are not gained
- No troops may move inside of the continent of (N. America, S. America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia)
- No troops may enter the world through portals located in (N. America, S. America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia)
- Troops may move twice
- Avatars may not leave their current continents
- Player's do not gain resources during their resource phase, but other players still do
- Other player's do not gain resources during your resource phase
- All player's may place troops in the world during any player's respawn phase
- Troops may not enter the continent of (N. America, S. America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia)
- Mark of the Beast - If the resource number rolled is a 6, players gain 3 resources instead of the normal 1
- Player's gain control of the troops/avatar/resources of the player to their left
- The player with the least number of harvesters gets one soul from every player during his/her resource phase
- Order of player reverses
- Roll 2 dice instead of 1 during the resource phase. Player's gain resources if either of the die rolls matches a resource marker. Gain double if doubles are rolled.
- Player's only gain resources from even number resource markers.
- Player's only gain resources from odd number resource markers.

Vocab

The void - area that holds souls not directly owned by the player
Personal Hell/Domain/Limbo - the souls a player controls that are not part of the world, ie resources
In the world - Souls that are in the world and can be used as troops

Tomorrow I want to have a rules sheet for everyone to see during play test, but since guitar hero 2 comes out today, I'm not sure if I'm going to even sleep tonight :-P

- Jeff

Ideas

2006-11-06T00:24:00.000-05:00

Yet another post by me

Replace the three separate resources with the "souls" idea again. Break down of buy costs as follows:

3 Souls to purchase a hell gate (troop portal)

4 Souls to purchase a stronghold

5 souls to desecrate a zone. Desecrating a zone makes it yours permanently. This means there is no reasons for you to keep troops there, as no one can take it. It also turns the zone into a resource factory. During YOUR resource phase, you automatically get 1 resource for every desecrated land you own. This will increase the amount of resources in the game drastically.

Also, replace "reinforcements" with "summons". The troops that you purchase with souls, not the ones that you spawn with hell gates, will only last through the end of your turn, then they return to hell.

Another idea is remove troop portals, and desecrating a zone turns it into a hells gate. So:

4 souls to create a stronghold

4 souls to desecrate a zone, turning it into a troop portal

The difference being that strongholds allow you to gain resources while desecrated lands create troops. Then we can make it that Avatars can close portals to hell, effectively destroying troop portals, while troops can destroy strongholds, reducing resources. This gives the avatar something to do, but removes the upgrades system.

And perhaps you can still gain resources from your Avatar being in a desecrated zone or a non-desecrated zone?

World Events? Anyone? Any suggestions?

I hope you guys read the blog before class tomorrow.

- Jeff

Game Updates from 11/5

2006-11-05T17:20:00.000-05:00

These were the updates that John, Clint and myself made to the game from the play testing session on Nov. 5th

Object of the Game
Destroy all other players

Order of Play
Resource
Spawn Troops at Portals
Build
Movement
Combat

Starting the game

Play goes in a clock-wise(?) fashion after determining who goes first. The first player places a stronghold on any zone on the board. The next player does the same. This continues until all players have placed 3 strongholds on the map

Next, each player in turn marks one of their strongholds with a troop portal. Then they mark the Avatar home and place their Avatar at that location.

Strongholds
Each stronghold in the game has only 2 upgrade sockets

Build Phase

The following items were added/modified:

Troop Portal - 1 Fear and 1 Hate to build
Wall - 1 Fear and 1 Chaos to build
Build Stronghold - 1 Fear, 1 Hate and 1 Chaos
1 resource - Re-inforce: add 2 troops to any zone in which you currently have troops

Combat System

Troop vs Troop

Both players roll 2 six sided dice. The player with a lower total roll loses one troop. Rolling continues until all troops of a players are lost. The number of dice rolled is modified as follows. The player adds another dice if:

- a player's forces are larger. For instance, Player 1 has 3 troops and Player 2 has 4. Player 2's forces are larger.

- a player controls a stronghold in the combat zone.

- a player's avatar is present in the comabt zone.

Resource Changes

Each zone has a predetermined resource number from 1-6 instead of a player placed resource number from 2-12.

The player's avatar now counts as a floating stronghold for resource reasons. This means that if a player's avatar is in a zone that would award that player a resource if he had established a stronghold, that player will still receive a resource.

Desecrating a zone now gives the desecrator 3 resources

Destroying an enemy stronghold now awards 1 resource

- Jeff

Rules developed from 11/1

2006-11-03T20:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, so here's all of the things we developed in class on Wednesday 11/1. If I can read my notes.

We did a 20% iterative playtest and developed the following rules

Object of the game
Collect 10 Apocalypse points or destroy all of the other players

Order of Play
Gathering - Resource collection phase
Trading - Trading resources with other players
Movement - Moving troops
Combat - combat from the currently player's movements
Building - Purchase unoccupied strongholds or upgrade previous strongholds.

Board Layout

Stolen Directly from Risk. Each section of the world will have a marker representing a stronghold that controls that section of the world. Originally this came from the idea of cities, but for simplification, it turned into "zones". Each zone's stronghold will have a variable number of upgrade sockets. For instance, the Western United States might have 3 possible upgrade sockets for it's "stronghold", allowing players to modify the capability of individual zones.

At the beginning of the game, markers with numbers from 2-12 are placed at each stronghold. During the "gathering" phase of each players turn, they roll 2 six sided dice. For each stronghold that a player currently controls that has the same number on it's marker as the die number rolled, that player draws a resource card from the resource deck.

Resource System

The resources of the game are used by players to purchase upgrades for locations. Each upgrade will cost a variable number of resources. Resources are divided into three types: Fear, Malice and Chaos.

Combat System
Combat is divided into three main types: Troop vs Troop, Avatar vs Stronghold and Avatar vs Avatar.

Troop vs Troop
Through the use of portal upgrades, players may "spawn" 1 troop per portal at every stronghold that has a portal upgrade. Troops are used to capture other players strongholds and defend strongholds. In Troop vs Troop combat, we decided to use the "Paul" system. In this system, before combat begins, each player has an option of how many dice they wish to roll for combat. If a player has more than 2 troops involved in combat, they may choose to roll either 1 or 2 die; if they have 2 or less troops, they may only roll 1 die. The defender and the attacker then each roll dice, adding the totals. The player with the larger sum wins combat. The loser then loses a troop for each dice the he or she rolled (maximum of 2). Combat continues until either all units of the attack or defending player's army are destroyed.

Avatar vs Stronghold
Avatars may not directly attack troops, nor may troops directly attack Avatars. Avatars may storm a stronghold and destroy it's upgrades. Each upgrade has a predetermined destruction level that a player must roll in order for their Avatar to destroy the upgrade. Players roll two 6 sided dice for this action. For the player to even attempt this sort of combat, they must use one single resource of any kind (hate, fear, chaos).

Avatar vs Avatar
If an Avatar attempts to attack a stronghold in which the other player's Avatar currently resides, or if a player tries to defend against another player's Avatar, then hot, steamy Avatar on Avatar action starts. The attack power of an Avatar is equal to the number of cities controlled by that Avatar's player. Combat starts with each player rolling a single six-sided dice and adding their Avatar's attack power. The difference between the two rolls is the amount of damage that the lower rolling player's Avatar takes. For each point of damage, the Avatar's controller must sacrifice any one type of resource. If the player does not have enough resource to cover the damage, then the Avatar returns to it's spawn point (explained later).

Stronghold Management

Any stronghold not previously occupied by a player may be "purchased" by any player that can get either a troop or avatar to the stronghold. The purchase cost is to be determined later.

Player's must keep at least one unit inside of a stronghold or they lose control of it. A unit may either be an Avatar or an actual Troop.

Player's may capture another player's stronghold by removing all troops from the city and destroying all upgrades (see Combat). Once the city is clear, the player may move troops inside and purchase the city normally.

Desecrate a City
Player's may also desecrate a stronghold instead of purchasing it. To desecrate a stronghold, a player must not only pay resource, but must also sacrifice a predetermined number of troops (yet to be determined :-P). Desecrating a city makes it unoccupiable by any player, including the desecrater. The act of desecrating a city earns a player 1 Apocalypse point. Note: A player may only desecrate a stronghold that he/she recently cleared another player out of. Purchasing the stronghold ends the ability for that player to desecrate it.

Desecrating a stronghold causes a world event (explained later)

Am I done typing yet??!?!

Upgrades

Upgrades are divided into 3 main categories: Offensive, Defensive and Passive

Offensive

Offensive upgrades apply to all units in a players army no matter which stronghold they are currently located. Possible upgrades discussed so far include the following:

- +1 to Avatar Power
- Increased Troop Movement
- Temple - convert a troop from opposite player's stronghold to your side

Defensive

Defensive upgrades apply only to the stronghold attached to that upgrade. Possible defensive upgrades discussed inculde the following:

- wall : A wall must be destroyed by an Avatar before troops may even attack other troops in the city
- Attacking army loses 1 troop member automatically

Passive

Passive upgrades are any upgrades that are neither Offensive or Defensive. Two possible upgrades were mentioned

- Portal : troop creation. 1 per round
- Avatar Home : This is the spawn point for when the avatar dies. If it is destroyed, the avatar's owner instead moves it to the next closest Stronghold of their choice. if there are no other strongholds, the player loses the game.

Destroying other players

If all of a player's strongholds are destroyed and their avatar is also destroyed, then that player loses the game. Destroying a player awards the destroying player 2 Apocalypse points.

Movement

Troop Movement

Any number of troops may move from one stronghold to an adjacent stronghold per turn. For instance, a player may move any number of troops from Western US to Eastern US in one round, but may only move troops from that zone ONCE per movement phase

Avatar Movement

During the avatar movement phase, the player rolls two six sided dice. The resulting number is the location where an avatar may instantly teleport to. These numbers correlate directly to the resource numbers used in a resource phase. For instance, a player rolls a 7. That player may now move their avatar to any stronghold, occupied or not, on the map that has a resource number of 7 (We need to develope a term for the resource number)

World Event

Each time a stronghold is desecrated, a new world event occurs. The player that desecrated a stronghold takes the top world event card and puts it in play, replacing the current world event card. ONLY 1 WORLD EVEN CARD MAY BE IN PLAY AT ANY POINT IN TIME DURING THE GAME. World events affect all players equally, be it a positive or negative effect.

Example world event card: World War III All players with strongholds in Europe automatically lose 1 troop from their strongholds during their combat phase.

Okay, so that's EVERYTHING I can remember and get from my notes from Wed. Did I miss anything? I'm planning on getting those Risk boards tomorrow (Sat) for the meeting on Sun. We'll take one of the boards and a sharpie to mark on when we do iterative play.

The two main things I'm worried about are 1) Resource system being balanced with Upgrades/Purchasing and 2) It being to easy to turtle. Do we have a time frame we want to shoot for on this game? Should a single game take like 2 hours or 2 days? I think it could work either way, but we should figure this out to modify mechanics to fit what we need.

Also, we need to think up all this macabre stuff to make it more paranormal. If you get bored, start drawing avatars and thinking about token design. What will stronghold's look like? What about troops/upgrades? Are we just going to use circles to make it easy? etc etc

-Jeff

It Starts

2006-11-01T00:31:00.000-05:00

Please follow these postion conventions:

All posts should be followed by the posters name.
Please try to keep format readable. IE no run on sentences, no leet speak, etc
Don't piss on the electric fence

-Jeff