http://www.rule0.com We don't fight. We're Euro-Vikings. Sat, 17 May 2008 17:36:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I recently published two articles to BGG: a discussion of strategy in Modern Art and a review of the live-action pseudo-boardgame Cash & Guns: Live. http://www.rule0.com/archives/271 My idea for this is a little different than the solo Dice Quest. There are 6 resources--one corresponding to every number. Phase 1: Everyone rolls their dice in standard Yahtzee/To Court The King style. After all your rolling, you get to "harvest" any one resource; for example, if you have four 5's, ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/269 Here were the parameters in my head when I started trying to hash out the design for Solo Dice Quest: Like in To Court The King, you start with 3 dice and gain both dice-adding and dice-modifying abilities. Both dice-adding and dice-modifying abilities should be necessary. Unlike in To Court the King, in ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/268 The exile has returned... I haven't even been away from boardgaming; I've been largely posting my thoughts at the 'Geek, in many ways a better place to write because the audience is larger and individual writings can be smaller. But I don't want to let Rule 0 die! After some thought, ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/267 I'm not dead! In fact, I have a new toy. A staple from my childhood that's actually even more fun than I remember. Pattern blocks are little wooden blocks (about 1 cm thick) that come in the following shapes: Equilateral triangle, side length 1 unit (green) Rhombus, angles 60-120-60-120, side length 1 unit (blue) Hexagon, ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/266  1960: Making of the President: One of the designers is Jason Matthews of Twilight Struggle fame. This game is obviously mechanically inspired by Twilight Struggle but looks to have some potentially important advantages: 90-minute playtime (vs. 180) Cards have a secondary value, putting a number of "rest cubes" into a Shogun-esque bag, ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/265 To decide who goes first: Pick a spot on the board Grab a marker from every player and drop them all on the board Closest marker to the designated spot goes first Mini-Reviews: Vikings: Lots of fascinating, quirky, novel mechanics. The trouble is I think they have all been added together to come up with ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/263 Here are the design goals I have for Invasion. Hopefully, my intuition and playing-in-my-head has taken taken the game most of the way and playtesting and brainstorming can finish this into a great, enjoyable design. Summary: Area-control game with emphasis on risk management and bidding for opportunities. Weight: Light, just north of ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/262 Here you go. First, most of the components (not pictured: the Move/Deploy deck and the smaller size of scoring tokens) A close-up of the game board, showing off my sketchy photographic skills as well as my sketchy graphic design skills: In my defense, I deliberately put as little effort as possible into ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/258 Just in case you were interested. Luckily: I have a day job Buying fiddly things makes me happy Many of them aren't used up and can be applied to another prototype And the list: $3.50: 9"x12" foam board $5.50: 20"x30" blue foam board (cut up, only about 1/3 used) $2: printing $17: plastic centimeter cubes (I got 1000--they're ... http://www.rule0.com/archives/256