Re-examining an old idea

[vulpinoid]

Remember when we had the Cyberpunk Revival Project...

...I had a game idea that I abandoned about halfway through.

It was about shadowy manipulators who control the world through a series of puppets. Those puppets might live and gain experience, or might die in a blaze of glory.

The game was about telling the stories you'd usually see in a cyberpunk or shadowrun game, but from the perspective of the corporations, the criminal underworlds, the "Mr. Johnsons", and the other conspiracies inherent within the world.

It was one part strategy, one part storytelling, and used a funky game mechanism where the missions undertaken by the puppets were played out through a game of dominoes.

It's been sitting in the back of my mind as something that needs to be re-examined.

Jump to 2012

I've been watching Wil Wheaton's Tabletop.

Great Show.

It's been making me think that this game would work better as a storytelling board game.

Perhaps akin to "Munchkin", with a bit of "Small World" thrown in, and a sprinkle of "Gloom"...(if you've been watching the show, this will make more sense).

I think this might be next years project (much like this year I've been focusing on Walkabout and Ho8W), I'm just putting the idea out there at this stage.

[Evil Scientist]

[Onix]

Sounds interesting. I imagine something almost like Paranoia but with different individual puppets. Are you the kind of player that kills off all his puppets to win? Or do you take a longer term approach and nurture your puppets, develop them into strong agents?

Are the players the ones being puppetted or are they the puppeteers? What if (and I have no idea how you'd do this in a board game) the players thought they were the top tier but find out that they're all the puppets of someone else and have to overcome their master? On second thought, that might weaken the premise, but it could be a twist ending . . ?

[vulpinoid]

If you look up "Bunraku" for your search (a form of Japanese Puppeteer), you'll see the threads were I worked through the idea.

Otherwise, I think the original pdf can be found at (It's my old website, so I'm not sure how reliable it will be).

The premise of the new idea works on the following...

There are five types of cards.

Two different card halves describe complimentary templates. The card on the left describes a character trait ("vicious", "careful", "drug addled"), while the card on the right describes a character occupation ("biker", "cyborg", "businessman"). These halves combine to provide a range of attributes, and give a pair of quirky abilities. There are a dozen of each.

The top three cards of each type are paired up into characters (in a similar manner to small world), a player chooses one of these three characters as their "puppet". Once a character is drawn, another pair are combined into a new available puppet.

The next two card types are missions (20 cards) and modifiers (there are about 60 of these). Players randomly draw a hand of five cards, and five are laid out face up on the table.

If a player has a mission in their hand, they may play it...then Munchkin-style, they may play modifiers from their hand for a better chance to pass the mission, or any other player may play a card to modify the difficulty of the mission up or down. Different modifier cards have different effects depending on what traits are in play due to the puppet, the mission or the location of the action.

It's the twists involved in these modifiers that make things a bit like Gloom. One modifier might force you to discard your hand if you play it, one might bounce to a random player after use...quirky things that change up play.

Each mission has a specific attribute trait that must be beaten by the puppet's equivalent attribute. If a mission is passed, the player may draw one or more treasure cards (the final card type), the number drawn and the number kept depend on the mission and the modifier cards played while it is engaged.

It works out in my head...but I have to consolidate the rules on paper and playtest it to ensure it works in the real world.

[Onix]

Sounds interesting, although cards are notoriously hard to get printed. I know you've worked with them in the past so maybe that's not so much an issue with you?

I was thinking about it and maybe the threat is staying on top of your enemies or you become a puppet yourself. It would fit into the classic boardgame rule of if you loose the player that beat you gets your cards. Then I was thinking, maybe becoming a puppet of another player is a temporary thing, like you've been weakened but if you bide your time, you can try to break free of the other player's control or maybe even take them down from the inside. That would have to be a strategy that is really hard to accomplish but might be the only way to beat a player that's in the lead.