Na Celtigh(The Celts)

Ludology & Gameplay - Board GameTeam 2- Bernhard RamlFabrizio Velero CovoneMarc O Donoghue

Contents

• Initial Brainstorming

• Theme & Design

• Game Mechanics

• Initial Playtests & Findings

Initial Brainstorming• God / Gods theme / functionality

• Epic scale (God of War, etc.)

• Folklore

• Economy/ Resource management

• Influences:– Age of Empires – From Dust– Celtic Village (mini-game) – Risk– Celtic folklore & art (Tuatha de Danann, knot-work, etc.)– Anno Games

Theme & Design• Celtic Society,

History & Mythology• Art (metalwork,

sculpture, Illumination)

• Buildings• Resources• Societal roles• Events• Warfare• Technology &

advancement

Game Mechanics• 2-6 players

• 5 turns per era, 2 eras

• Players choose a civilization / identity & starting region

– Druid, Sage, Bard

• Each player throws a dice to decide the starting player: highest roll wins. Turn rotation is clock-wise

• Main Goal

– Every 5 rounds, each player has to gather enough resources to progress to the new Era

– At the beginning of each new era all the players have to pay the era’s progression target

– A new era allows placement of more buildings & a refresh of building cards’ hand

– If a player cannot afford to progress, they are out of the game

.

Game MechanicsEach turn is divided into five phases:

• Draw Building Card: The player can draw a card from the Building Deck only by paying 3 Knowledge resources

• Pay Maintenance on Buildings: The player will have to pay the maintenance for all the buildings he/she placed into his/her region.

• Gathering Resources: The player will gather the resources he/she planned to produce by placing buildings into his/her counties.

• Draw Event Card: The player has to draw a card from Event’s Deck and follow the instructions described on it.

• Production Plan: During this phase the player has to plan his/her income by placing and/or changing a building into the available counties. Placing strategy will be based on his/her needs.

Game Mechanics

Buildings

- Farm, - Distillery, - Secluded Monastery,- Offering Altar, - School, - Mystic Circle

Event Cards

- Vintage Year

- Mysticism

- Robbery - Discover

y- Famine - Explosion

- Cataclysm

- Fanaticism

- Great Feast

- Advanced Research

- Peace - War

Game Mechanics

• Civilizations have certain inherent bonuses

– Bard (Distillery and Farm maintenance is free)

– Druid (Offering Altar and Secluded Monastery maintenance is free)

– Sage (School and Mystic Circle maintenance is free)

– Players draw building cards

• Resources (Wealth, Knowledge & Faith)

– Must be spent to maintain buildings and progress to next era

– Each player will start with 5 units of each resource type (i.e.: 5 Wealth, 5 Knowledge and 5 Faith)

– Knowledge: pay 3 to draw another building card

– Wealth: pay 5 to place a building into a county

– Faith: pay 5 to draw another event card

– Resources are useful trading goods, they can be spent to maintain buildings and they will let the player to go forward into the game

Initial Playtests & Findings

• Balancing resource production & cost of era progression

• Finding a meaningful way to integrate the 3 resources

• Finding ways of forcing the player to spend their resources (creating a challenge)

• Designing a challenging but achievable goal within each era

• Weighing up the effects of the event cards on the players’ chances of survival

• Massively cutting the game length (8 eras - 2 eras)

• Reducing number of civilizations/ identities (6 - 3)

• Imagining different board layouts & functions

• Eventually removing the idea of a ‘board’ completely

• Discussing design direction, art style & possible stories