Skip to main content

Mechanic Monday: Movement Based On Adjacency Strength

Honestly, I just want to get through Mechanic Monday today.  It’s been a long week with plenty of stress and disappointments, and I don’t have much cute noodling to offer for filling in the blanks.  So let’s get to it, shall we?

Movement Based On Adjacency Strength

GREEM is a 2-player area control game where 25 Markers are up for grabs on a 5x5 grid.  You and your opponent start out in control of Markers on opposite corners of the grid.  On your turn you either move pieces from one Marker or add a piece from your reserve to a Marker you control.  The distance that pieces may travel from their starting Marker are determined by the number of friendly pieces on the starting and adjacent Markers; on a turn, any number of friendly pieces may be moved from one Marker, and pieces may be moved together to another Marker or split up to multiple Markers, but the maximum number of moves is determined by the number of friendly pieces adjacent to the origin Marker.  Control of Markers is determined by a simple majority; a Marker may have up to seven Pieces in all.  The game ends once one player controls 13 Markers, or when a player controls four more Markers than their opponent at any given moment.

Right, so the experience I’m going for is a balancing act between spreading out, consolidating your strengths, and jockeying and blockeying for position.  I want to see seemingly sedentary consolidation turned into a burst of mobility; I want to see Sure Things overcome, Feints as positions of Strength are abandoned/endangered for a quick win or a setup for the inevitable Big Majority.  Maybe there needs to be some kind of blocking Mechanic, or a Cala-style track requiring that pieces be left in each moved-to Marker.  Either way, it seems like there’s a fun elegance with Room for Drama.

Ok, that’s it, good night!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TTRPG Tuesday: Three Means Of Resolving

Hi it’s another TTRPG Tuesday! First of the year.  Let’s get right into it. Saw a challenge on Twitter to make some resolution mechanics.  I can do those! Here we go: Hand to Hand The player performing the action and the person running the game or otherwise opposing the action both put their dominant fists toward one another, bounce them three times to get a rhythm, and reveal a number with their fingers, 0-5.  Sum the two numbers, and if the number is greater than 5, subtract six, so that the final number is always between 0 and 5.  On a 0, the action fails catastrophically, on a 1-2 it fails, 3-4 it succeeds, on a 5 it succeeds spectacularly.  The player taking the action starts the game with all five fingers up on their non-dominant hand; after an attempt, they may lower fingers on that hand to add to the sum of the attempt. Ex. Alice attempts to seduce Cat’s character over to the coup conspirators.  They put their dominant hands together (right for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

TTRPG Tuesday: Campaigning

  Hey it's TTRPG Tuesday, let's see if I get something written before sleep overtakes me. I'm still on that Channelers kick, but today I want to talk about a possible campaign path: The Magpie Offensive.  I see this as a military campaign where the PCs are conscripted, volunteers, or mercenaries for an army that is marching to quell Spirit threats and unite the region under a protectorate. There should be free RP sections as interludes between missions, and missions should be chosen by the party.  The army ensures loyalty with intangible rewards as well as artifact items. NOTE: This whole thing is being designed with the Rascal article on militarization in ttrpgs in mind. What is the thrust of the campaign? It's fundamentally one of conquest.  How do I encourage characters to question their presence and their complicity? How much interpersonal violence is an acceptable price to pay for environmental justice? How can party composition affect all this from jump? H...
Post a Comment
Read more

TTRPG Tuesday: The Secret Calendar

Welcome back to TTRPG Tuesday! Have I done any this year? Looks like no! On pace to be a pretty low-posting year I guess. Today I actually have a full-fledged one pager TTRPG to share.  I was listening to a Ludology with Camilla Zamboni as the guest and was inspired by her collection Roll for Learning.  The Secret Calendar came to me pretty much fully formed as I walked and listened to the episode, though I do want to acquire RfL to get layout inspo. Anyhow, the first draft can be found HERE .  I think this could be a fun activity for students (was also thinking of Wolfenoot) and maybe I’ll publish it or submit it at some point. Okay I’m out of practice so that's it buh bye!
Post a Comment
Read more