Creation Of "Death Trap!" board game Idea

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Fri Nov 23, 2012 2:35 am

I was watching the 1997 Canadian sci fi horror movie "Cube" and was struck how this could make a great game concept.

* Players would start in separate rooms in a giant cube maze full of traps and puzzles. Would the players work together, or kill each other to get out alive. They only have the clothes they are wearing and their wits to survive long enough to learn clues to help them get out. They also have a time limit until they are too tired and weak to move.

* The game could be played in teams or every man for himself.
* The game board would changing constantly
* The concept could be a board game with event cards or a card game.
* 3D concepts could be used as the maze is a giant cube of cube shaped rooms that move around.
* The way out would be available after finding a number of clues.
* Also the players all have agendas and skills of their own. i.e. good at math, a doctor, a psycho, ect..

What are your thoughts on this?

I am tempted to throw something together to see how it would work.

-Cyberunner

Post by **heruca** » Fri Nov 23, 2012 11:40 am

I'm not a fan of the movie(s), but as a boardgame idea, it sounds pretty neat. It has dungeon crawl elements and has major screwage and coop potential, plus asymmetrical player roles.

Roll with it, see what you can come up with.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:51 am

I got two concepts so far.

One is as a card based game;

This idea has different deck positions to represent the direction a player can go.
An event deck and some kind of stat block area.
The player will take on the role of one of the prisoners by drawing a card from the inmate pile off to the side. (See concept layout drawing.)

The other idea is more a tile board game with an event and inmate deck.
Each tile will be a multi-object tile that can be randomized when a player is going to move on.
The board would have a number of square room tiles.
I was thinking a 5 by 5 grid that represent the play area.
The players move from room to room within this grid but the area will be wrap around.
This will allow one player to move off the end and back on the board in a line.

That is what I have so far.
-Cyberunner

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:00 am

Oh yes, I was thinking of calling this game 'death trap' touching on all those films involving crazy traps cooked up by some mad man.
I am unsure if I will go more comedic or serious in flavour.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:21 pm

I am thinking that the card deck route would be more geared to solo play, while the board game would allow multi-players easily.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:28 pm

Here is some of the art work for game pieces.
All pieces are neutral themed while the game rules are put together.
I plan to do more specific artwork as the game grows into a fully flushed idea.

-Cyberunner

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sat Dec 01, 2012 10:41 am

Currently these are the player character archetypes:

Student:
¢ Needs 3 clues to find exit.
¢ +2 Spot trap
¢ Can hold 3 event cards
¢ Can only attack when wounded
¢ Has 3 steps in health; light wound, heavy wound, critical wound

Ex-Military:
¢ Can attack any time
¢ Can kill without a weapon
¢ Needs 5 clues to find exit
¢ Can hold 3 event cards
¢ Has 4 steps in health; flesh wound, light wound, heavy wound, critical wound

Escape artist:
¢ Starts with 2 boot cards
¢ Can only attack when attacked
¢ Can hold 3 event cards
¢ Needs 4 clues to find exit
¢ Has 3 steps in health; light wound, heavy wound, critical wound

Psychic:
¢ Can draw two event cards and discard one
¢ +1 to spot trap
¢ Can only attack when wounded
¢ Needs 4 clues to find exit
¢ Has 3 steps in health; light wound, heavy wound, critical wound

Doctor:
¢ Can miss a turn to heal a wound
¢ Can never attack
¢ Can hold 3 event cards
¢ Needs 4 clues to find exit
¢ Has 3 steps in health; light wound, heavy wound, critical wound

Business woman:
¢ Needs 4 clues to find exit
¢ Can hold 4 event cards
¢ Can draw event card from discard
¢ +2 Spot trap
¢ Can only attack when attacked
¢ Has 3 steps in health; light wound, heavy wound, critical wound

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sat Dec 01, 2012 11:35 am

Event cards:

Boot “ Avoid traps on 4, 5, 6, on a D6 and is destroyed on a 6. You can only have one except for the Escape artist.

Make-shift Weapon “ Can now kill and attack if attacked, can only have one.

Cloth strips “ Can heal one wound, discard to use and miss a turn.

Make-shift Rope “ Place the card on a player to make that player miss their turn, after the card is used discard it.

Quick! “ Use to move you full movement at any time, even if it is not your turn. Discard after use.

Steal it! “ Take any one Make-shift Weapon, Boot, Cloth strips, or Make-shift Rope event card from another player.

Shhh! “ Move passed a hostile player without having to fight. The sneaking player cannot attack or be attacked until their next turn.

IT WAS HERE! “ Play to move the exit to another unoccupied room from its current location at any time. Discard after use.

What was that? “ Have any one player miss their turn. Discard after use.

Going Crazy! “ Play on any player to have that player able to attack at any time.

Lost “ Play just before a player moves to move that player as you wish. Discard after use.

Look what I found! “ Take any one card from the event discard pile and place it in your hand. Discard after use.

Sneak attack! “ Attack any adjacent player without penalty and move after. Discard after use.

This is the way! “ Use to slide any two game tiles one tile space over each. Discard after use.

It broke! “ Use to force any one player to discard one event card of your choosing. Discard after use.

It is just a flesh wound. “ Use to heal or ignore any one wound on any one player. Discard after use.

Steal an Idea “ Take any one clue card from any adjacent player. Discard after use.

Sucker Punch “ Wound any one player and have them miss their turn. Discard after use.

Brain Cramp! “ Force any one player to discard a clue. Discard after use.

I got what you need. “ Search the event deck for anyone card and place it in your hand. Reshuffle the deck. Discard after use.

Post by **heruca** » Sat Dec 01, 2012 11:38 am

This is coming along nicely.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sun Dec 02, 2012 12:23 am

Trap Cards:

Spike Trap “ Spot on a 6 of a D6. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Inflict D4 wounds. Bypass by boot card.

Mono Wire Trap - Spot on a 5 or 6 of a D6. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Inflict D6 wounds. Bypass by boot card.

Acid Trap - Spot on a modified 7 of a D6. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Inflict D10 wounds. Cannot be bypass by boot card.

Fire Trap - Spot on a 6 of a D6. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Inflict D3 wounds. Bypass by boot card.

Lock Trap “ Cannot be spotted. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Miss D3 Turns. Bypass by boot card.

Gas Trap - Cannot be spotted. Cannot be avoided. Inflict D2 wounds. Cannot be bypass by boot card.

Cold Trap “ Spot on a 6 of a D6. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Inflict D2 wounds. Bypass by boot card.

Net Trap “ Spot on a 5 or 6 of a D6. Avoid on a 6 of a D6. Miss D3 Turns. Bypass by boot card.

Rage Trap “ Cannot be spotted. Cannot be avoided. Will attack the closest player in sight while in the room. Cannot be bypass by boot card.

Hallucinatory Gas Trap - Cannot be spotted. Cannot be avoided. Will attack the closest player in sight while for the next D6 turns, or move randomly. Cannot be bypass by boot card.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Sun Dec 02, 2012 10:47 am

Setup: Players 2-6 PVP
1. Place the 8 game surface tiles in a o shape on the playing surface in any order.
2. Assign player characters. 2 players get 3 characters each, 3 players get 2 characters each, 4-6 players get one character with any remaining characters placed on the board but left as a hostile NPC.
3. Give 3 life tokens (Ex-Military gets 4) and place them on the appropriate character stat sheet.
4. Each player gets a full set of event cards
5. Place character tokens by rolling the 32 sided die.
6. Next in turn each player place one face down room token card on to an unoccupied room of the same color until all unoccupied rooms has tiles.
7. Roll the 32 sided die to see who goes first, second, third ¦etc. In the event of a tie roll until there is a winner.
8. The game time marker is set to one and the first game round starts.
9. Game play continues until one player is left standing, one team group or player exits the board, or the time marker reaches the 21st round.

Game play:
1. Slide one game tile, along with anything on it the width or height of a game tile into any legal space. Tiles must share a full side with another tile, and cant share just a corner.
2. Players may move up to 6 spaces (The Student may move 7 spaces)
3. Landing on to a new adjacent room with a face down room tile card will flip the card over and trigger the following events;

¢ Clue: add a clue token to your character stat sheet. Add a character marker to the room tile to show you have been there. A character may get a clue from each clue tile once.
(This is to stop players getting clues from the same location.)

¢ Event: Draw an event card up to your legal max. Players may repeatedly visit the same location as long as they do not go over their hand limit.

¢ Exit: A player (or group) may leave the game thus winning by having the minimum clues to use the exit. Only one exit may be in play all others are taken off the board.

¢ Trap: Draw a trap card and place it on the space. A player can detect a trap by spotting it. If the player does not have a boot to set off a trap on a 4, 5 or 6, thus letting a player avoid damage; then the play may get lucky and avoid getting hurt by the trap. Some traps cannot be seen or avoided. A boot is destroyed on rolling a 6 but it still lets you avoid the trap. Traps can kill you, and some can outright. (Special: If you are in real dire straits you can discard a clue to avoid a trap, but if this drops your clue total below your exit minimum you cant win until you get a new clue.)

4. A player may play any number of event cards, but only gain new cards by moving on an event card room tile once a turn.
5. The player whose turn it is may attack any adjacent player if they are legally able to. Combat is resolved by each player rolling a D6 with a tie being a draw and getting the higher role scores a wound on the loser. No player except the ex-military can kill without having a make-shift weapon.
6. All characters start at an unwounded state, but if damaged will take the following penalties:
¢ Flesh Wound or Light wound “ no effect.
¢ Heavy Wound “ movement max of 4.
¢ Critical Wound “ movement max of 2 and a combat dice roll penalty of -1.
¢ Dead “ game over. Remove token from the board.
7. Any player who is legally provoked may from this point on, attack that player character. Mark the offending player on the grudge section of the player sheet.
8. A player may not move on to a non-tiled space.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 9:39 am

These are the contact sheets for the game cast.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Tue Dec 04, 2012 9:21 pm

Well the first play test was completed to reveal a fast paced cut throat game that is fun but needs work. So expanded clear rules are needed with some overall changes. Here is some of the changes:

* Updated character rules and reference sheets
* Clearer rules with example
* Added game components

I will keep up dating this section as game changes occur.

Cyberunner8

Post by **heruca** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:46 am

Having fun?

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:23 am

Oh ya! It is fun tinkering with ideas then having them come to life. Speaking of which, what do you need to create a game file, so they have all the elements sound, dice, cards, game objects and figures?

As to the game I just completed the V2.0 of the characters.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:46 am

I have even further defined the 6 characters of the death trap game.
There is some new elements for quick marking heath and turn order.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:54 am

Will be posting more as the game progresses.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:04 pm

The Doctor stumbles on the spot and avoid rolls but luckily rolls a one.

Post by **heruca** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:09 pm

Looks like you haven't enabled antialiasing on some of your objects. They look bad when zoomed out, making the text impossible to read.

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:35 pm

Thanks, I agree the text needs cleaning up.
The anti-aliasing is enabled but the font is messy on the stat cards and the other text is too fine.
To fix some of the issues I have the portrait pop up to read a card.
Some of the other object also have too much detail and not enough DPI. It is still a work in progress.

Other issues that have come up are:
* The room tiles have an object dragging lag before they start to move.
* The player work area needs to be larger and include a grudge box to track player hostility.
* The play area tiles lack defined walls for line of sight and grid.
* Game objects and tokens need to be "cleaner" for better work ability.

Some themes for game flavor Sci-fi, or Fantasy.

-cyberunner

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:41 am

I have made improvements on the overall size of both of the font and the sheet its self. New art has been added to the take away the sex roles and make it easy to add any player tokens to the game.

Post by **heruca** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:46 am

Typo in label on last pic: "Business Executive"

cyberunner8 · Post by **cyberunner8** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:49 am

Typo in label on last pic: "Business Executive"

Thanks! It is always a bit embarrassing when you miss type something then put it on the net.

Improved size of both the font so it is easy to read and area to place cards and tokens. Now you can track your grudges of those who have attacked you.