Ye Olde Inn

I want to design a thematic dungeon-crawling board-game with modular rooms. I want it to be similar to HeroQuest, only hilariously violent. Grimtooth's-violent. Part of the fun would be all the hilarious ways to get killed. Something instance-based, so there's no want to turn play into a campaign. Something full of traps and monsters and with very little use of fair-play.

The best way to do this kind of design is to examine what motivated similar games, and to take those inspirations down a different-yet-similar path.

List your favorite play elements from various games, and why you favor them.

This is a list ideas.

chaoticprime wrote:I want to design a thematic dungeon-crawling board-game with modular rooms. I want it to be similar to HeroQuest, only hilariously violent. Grimtooth's-violent. Part of the fun would be all the hilarious ways to get killed. Something instance-based, so there's no want to turn play into a campaign. Something full of traps and monsters and with very little use of fair-play.

I've never heard of Grimtooth before, but the idea of a game such as what you describe intrigues me.

Collapsing ground is always a good one This sounds like a game you would be very happy to play

Yes, I'm familiar with Grimtooth's Trap — A series of nasty mutilating and/or painful-death traps for evil bastard DMs. Good choice!

You could always make the violence cartoonishly over-the-top like with Korgoth of Barbaria or God of War. I mean, you could do things serious like SAW, or funny like Korgoth, but with the later, players would have a fun time with the descriptions.

HeroQuest is enjoyable for its simple combat mechanics and system for exploration. It is also a game that rewards exploration and punishes carelessness. Any good dungeon-crawl should follow this. If you cant quickly resolve an attack while drunk, things are too complicated!

The use of multiple descriptions for the same effect could help to keep the flavor text from being too repetitive. As the characters gain combat experience, they could learn special actions like "If you are unarmed, then you ripped your enemies arm off and then smacked it around with it like it was your prison-bitch!" or "If you chopped you enemy's head off, then you can grab it and instantly throw it at another enemy to stun it!" They could be "Once per game" effects, to keep the players form overusing them (otherwise, the novelty would wear-out fast).

Gold, better gear, helpful consumables (scrolls & potions), and magic items are all standard motivations for any dungeon-crawl. To keep things form being like Warhammer Quest, were you find and throwaway powerful magic items like so much modern items, you could make the items trapped or tricky in some way. It could be like a sword that could compel its holder to attack allies, a ring of protection that make the wearer thinks he'll turn invisible if he gets naked (that is, to get the added protection, the character most remove all his armor). Players might even have to do a tongue twisters or say something embarrassing to activate it's magic effects. Basically, party-game elements.

I once had a crazy idea of using sexy slave girls in place of healing potions after playing God of War. That is, they would heal you up by having sex with them, but you are limited by a score called "Dump Stat" — a common term for Charisma in D&D. The idea was for a type of tongue-in-cheek misogynistic parody game in the vain of Duke Nukem andKorgoth of Barbaria.

These are just some things that floating in my head... Take them as you wish, if at all.

Malcadon wrote: If you cant quickly resolve an attack while drunk, things are too complicated!

Mission statement.

What I had in mind was not necessarily gore, nor even descriptions of gore. Just a lot of different ways to die. You play to see how far you get, and to find out how much crap you get entombed with. I very much like the idea of gore-drenched graphics on cards or w/e, too. Also, spells that cause hearts to erupt or turn a left arm into maggots.

I don't like keeping track of things like status effects with a token for a reminder. Issuing a player four tokens and instructing him to discard one each turn is more like it. If he forgets to discard--he continues to suffer.

I also like the idea of having multi-level dungeons tiles--they'd have integrable supports to differentiate between elevations. There could be three levels--you'd start in the middle. You could go down a level or up a level. There would need to be at least six inches between levels.

Another idea I had was to have more than one type of area tile. There'd be your standard ones that detail a basic geoform, and then maybe a partially-transparent layover that adds on to it.

That may be too complicated, but its worth considering.

If you're familiar with it, I highly suggest checking out Gary Gygax's Tomb of Horrors. It's chock full of "How long can you last before you die?" inspirations. Plus, it's one of the most popular D&D modules of ever, so it's been converted to many different editions, so you're sure to find a way of dying that suits your tastes. Just as an example, here's a small sampling off the top of my head:

Err, spoiler warning if you haven't played this yet!

1. A portal that drops you off in a room with no exit.
2. A hallway that gradually tilts downward, revealing a pit of lava at the end. The kicker: the hallway is completely smooth with no breaks anywhere.
3. A false entrance corridor where a ten foot thick stone block slides into place, completely blocking off anyone trapped inside.
4. A giant devil's face with about a 3 foot opening for a mouth that sucks in and instantly destroys anyone who gets within 3 feet of the face.
5. A spear-trapped door that opens to a brick wall. Except it fires the trap every time the door is reopened.
6. A no-exit room accessible through a one-way door which closes after you enter. The room has three levers that either drops you down a 100' deep pit or (I can't remember exactly) walls close shut on you like the trash compactor room from Star Wars Ep. IV.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. This is one of my favorite modules to run through.. even though I've only gone through it once (and lived long enough to come to the Big Bad at the end!).

I built a 3D model of the ToH using Hirst Arts bricks.

I played on it at a convention. I say next to Shane Hensley, and not only did he get like six other players killed, he pushed me through the gender-bender archway.

chaoticprime wrote:I built a 3D model of the ToH using Hirst Arts bricks.

I played on it at a convention. I say next to Shane Hensley, and not only did he get like six other players killed, he pushed me through the gender-bender archway.

Holy *lemony goodness* man, I would have given a year's pay to have had that experience.
/jealous

Teldurn wrote:

chaoticprime wrote:I built a 3D model of the ToH using Hirst Arts bricks.

I played on it at a convention. I say next to Shane Hensley, and not only did he get like six other players killed, he pushed me through the gender-bender archway.

Holy *lemony goodness* man, I would have given a year's pay to have had that experience.
/jealous

Send me a year of your pay and I'll send you the model.

Pictures!!!