Captain's Blog. Stardate 10/28/2012

Captain's Blog. Stardate 10/28/2012

Danger, Matt, Nina and I were able to meet up from about 4pm - 9pm and make a whole slew of changes to the game.

New Map: Courtesy of Matt Eckersley, the new map has been updated with the intention of creating more areas, and "Skyline Routes" (dotted lines)

New Art (Casey Bridgham)

Terrorerrier 

Dryad

Mandrake

Wraith 

Murdersaurus

Playable Characters (More to come soon)

Tour Guide  (Support)
Zoology +7 (1-7)
Speed +3 (1-3)
Strength +2 (1-5)
Fortune +2 (1-5)

Special Ability - Know It All - Affects another player with a case of "the smarts", increasing their Zoology statistic by 3.  Cast-able on self.

Zoo Keeper (Jack of all Trades)

Zoology +4 (1-7)
Speed +2 (1-3)
Strength +3 (1-5)
Fortune +3 (1-5)

Security Guard (Fighter)

Zoology +1 (1-7)
Speed +1 (1-3)
Strength +7 (1-5)
Fortune +4 (1-5)

Starts with: Sidearm (+2 strength) & Flashlight (+1 Fortune to Paranormal Creatures)

Park Mechanic (Support)

Zoology +1 (1-7)
Speed +2 (1-3)
Strength +3 (1-5)
Fortune +2 (1-5)

Tamer (Fighter)

Zoology +3 (1-7)
Speed +1 (1-3)
Strength +6 (1-5)
Fortune +1 (1-5)

Starts with: Whip (+2 strength when confronting Beasts) & Rune Engraved Chair (+2 to Fortune)

Custodian (Support)

Zoology +1 (1-7)
Speed +3 (1-3)
Strength +3 (1-5)
Fortune + 5 (1-5)

Starts With: Mop and Bucket of Holy Water & Aka Name ([Companion]Filth Eater creature)

Rules

Movement: 
1. Each "Area" (Represented on map as Circles) has 6 paths leading out from it to nearby Areas.
2. Each of the 6 paths is represented by a Rune symbol.
3.  These 6 runes will be represented on a custom made 6 sided dice.
4. Players are notified of monster movement via "Event Cards" (Drawn every Round).

• Players then the Rune Die.
• Whichever Rune symbol is shown represents which of the 6 paths all monsters move on.

5. Players do not follow these rules and may choose their own path.

6. Monorail runs around the circumference of the map and can be utilized by the player to travel around faster.

Goal Update:

1.  Players must reach the quota getting 100,000 visitors to visit the park by the end of a set amount of turns (Yet to be determined)

2. 3 counters represented by rollers (such as those on lock combinations) built into the board (possibly separate piece)

• 1st counter = Quota: 100,000 visitors.  Starts at 0, and will be moved up at the end of each round (1 week) as the number of visitors increases.
• 2nd counter = Number of visitors currently in the park.  Out of "100" (subject to change).  As visitors are killed by escaped monsters, this variable is decreased at the end of each player's turn.  At the end of the round, the # remaining is added to the Quota counter.

Event Cards:

1.  Drawn every round (1 week)

2.  Event Cards detail a specific occurrence in the park.  These can affect the players negatively or positively.

3.  Event Cards dictate monster movement (if any) in a footnote on each card.

4.  Event Cards will notify the players of a monster breakout.

Equipment Cards: 

1.  Obtained via the Park Arsenal in the center of the map

2.  Equipment aids the player by providing a special ability, boosting statistics, or both.

3.  When drawing, unless statistics or owned equipment otherwise states, a player will draw 3 cards from the top of the Equipment Deck, choose one of their choosing, then place the remaining two cards on the bottom of the Equipment Deck.

4.  Equipment Cards can be kept in player inventory but only 3 cards may be put into play at the start of their turn. 

2.  More details to come.

Next Meeting on Tuesday.  Stick around.

Captain's Blog Stardate 10/26/2012

Stardate 10/26/2012  - Meeting # 3

1. Finalized rules for the Prototype of Terror-arium

Goal: Be within budget by the end of 52 weeks.
Losing: If...

A. You are under budget within 52 weeks.
B. if 10 minor monsters escape the park.
C. if the tourist count is ever 0.

Turns

- Each players has a turn
- After all players have had 1 turns, a single week has ended
- During a player's turn, that player moves, and then a monster (if any have gotten out of their enclosures) moves.
- Players take turns being the Administrator of the park for each week.
- At the beginning of each week the Zoo Administrator draws an event card.  Depending on the event, all players might be affected by the event, or the Administrator keeps it in his hand.

Movement

- Players roll for movement
- Monsters movement is decided via die roll

Detaining a Monster

- 2 players must physically block off the movement for a small monster
- for a BAM (Bad Ass Monster) ..........?
- Trap cards: Whoever possesses a Trap Card may play it on their turn.  Trap cards instnatly detain a small monster and will stun a BAM for one turn.


Collection of Misc Meeting Notes

Narrowed down the classes that players will be able to play as:

Tour Guide
Monster Tamer
Janitor (Special ability = keys to every enclosure in the park)
Food Service
Vet
ZooKeepers for each enclosure (10 in all)

- Zoo Admin possibly has certain responsibilities that encompass the other players

-If a player is eaten/destroyed/killed/torn apart by a monster, that player can re-enter the game as a brand new player class if the other players decide to spend money to hiring a new employee.

- 1 Week: Every Player has a turn

- 1 Turn consists of the player moving and then the monsters (if escaped) moving.  (4 player movements = 4 monster movements)

- Train moves once after every player's turn

- Toying with idea where the certain "weeks" during the game represent the park's off season.  Meaning that less tourists are in the park, making things more difficult.

- Event Cards

- Lots of event cards
- 1 - 4 chance of drawing a monster escape card.

Captain's Blog.  Stardate 10/25/2012

Class Today.  After a quick lecture on Semiotics the group quickly went to work.

Brain Hurricane

Tasks pursued:

1. Matt: Designing the board layout.  The idea of creating the board in the shape of a pentagram was previously discussed, but since there was no way to efficiently fold up that kind of board we decided to place the pentagram shape on a folding map (inspired by the fold-out maps from various zoos and theme parks)

Early Board Prototype

Second Board Prototype

 2.  Casey: Monster design.  Casey quickly got to work.

Handful of Monster Designs (Casey "Danger" Bridgeham)

Humanatee (Casey "Danger" Bridgeham)

The rest of us buried ourselves in research, and tried to narrow down what types of monsters and monster enclosures we would include in our "Nightmare Park".  Here is what we came up with.

 Work. Work.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Captains Blog. Stardate 10/21/2012

We have managed to retain the services of the previous crew: Sailing Master Mathew Eckersley, First Mate Nina Park, and Master at Arms Nejla Jalawi.  Midshipman Casey "Danger" Bridgham is our new recruit.

Although it took awhile to regain our momentum from our previous project, Alpha, our first meeting proved to be surprisingly fruitful.

1.  Quickly decided to place the restraint of making a cooperative game on ourselves, in order to get ideas flowing.

2. After discussing numerous possibilities, we started playing one of Casey's older co-op board game designs and started chatting in a more relaxed manner.

3.  The idea arose from the group of designing a board game based around the concept, "Zoo Keeper of Hell".  The idea being that each player takes on the role of a zoo keeper in the worlds most dangerous fictional zoo.

4.  Everyone departed from the meeting feeling good about the theme.