This was a game created as part of the Ringling Game Design Club’s game jams. It was based on a world we created in one of the club’s world jams. In a world where a large island is surrounded by a giant wall of falling water, and a steam geyser dominates the center of the only known mass of land. Steam is both a source of power, and danger, in this harsh terrain. Nomadic societies travel the land in search of steam beds to power their lives, and all vie to control the Mother Geyser.

To this end, a group consisting of myself, Eli Allen, Garrett Stephens, Clay, and Tony Sladky developed a game we simply call “Geyser”, that would be played in this world. And so I present –

Geyser

For 2 to 4 Players

Supplies –

2 6-sided dice
Game Board, or suitable mock-up as illustrated below
Unique tokens for each player’s tribe

Geyser Game Board — Blocked-in game board

At the start of the game, place one of your tokens onto one starting square. Then, each player rolls 1 die. The person with the highest roll starts the game. Play proceeds to left of the starting player.

The goal of the game is to reach the Mother Geyser, and hold it through the end of a round.

A round consists of all players taking one turn.

In each player’s turn they will move one piece one square in any orthogonal direction. Diagonal moves are not allowed.

If a player lands on a geyser, they may place a new token on the board in any permissible square around that geyser. You may not place this new token on a square occupied by another player.

When a player claims a geyser, they must leave at least one piece on that geyser at all times.

Two tokens from the same player may occupy the same square at the same time.

You may “battle” with another player by moving your token into a square they occupy. In this event, each player rolls one 6-sided die and adds the number of geysers they control. Whoever has the highest number wins, and the loser removes that token from the board. The winning player now occupies the contested square.

In the event of a tie, the attacking player has the option to retreat to the square he previously occupied, and his turn is over. The attacking player also has the option to try the attack again until one side loses, or the attacking player chooses to retreat.

At the end of the first round, the player who started the game rolls two 6-sided die. Add the two numbers together, and this determines which “ring” of geysers fires off, destroying any tokens occupying that geyser. For example, if a player occupies a 6/8, and the roll is two 4s, he must remove the token he has placed on that geyser. This is known as the Geyser Firing Phase.

After the geysers have fired off, the player who went first passes the dice to his left and that person will roll for the next Geyser Firing Phase. After he has rolled, he will pass the dice to his left and so on until the game is over.

In order to move into the Mother Geyser, a player must control at least three normal geysers.

If a player has one token occupying the Mother Geyser after the Geyser Firing Phase, that player is declared the winner.

Comments are always appreciated.

This has been cross-posted to the Ringling Game Design Club blog.

Geyser – The Game by Matthew Oztalay, Tony Sladky, Eli Allen, Garrett Stephens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at oztalay.com.

Saratoga Sabotage

Below are the rules to Saratoga Sabotage, the Oregon Trail-themed modification of SiSSYFiGHT3000 developed by Rory Fitz-Gerald, Jon Manning, Leo Cho, Taylor Kalajan, Ryan Milligan, and I as part of the 10th Annual Game Design Workshop at GDC this year.

Players: 4 to 6

Players start with 5 white poker chips, and five blue poker chips
White poker chips denote progress toward the West Coast, or progress points.
Blue poker chips denote supplies/ammo

Goal – Be the first to reach 12 progress points

Each player has a deck with the following cards –

Target Cards
-Red
-Blue
-Green
-Purple
-White
-Black
-Self

Action Cards

Move
- “Head West” – Target = Self – Gain one progress point
- “Convoy” – Target = Another player, and that player targets you with a move action – Both gain 2 progress points, both lose 1 supply point
Bullet
- “Get Supples” – Target = Self – Gain 2 supply chips
- “Sabotage” – Target = Another player – That player loses one progress point, initiating player loses 1 supply point
Raid
- If and only if 2 or more players play “Raid” and target the same player – Target player loses 2 progress points per attacker, attacking players lose 1 supply point each. If only one person raids another player, no damage is dealt and the attacker loses a supply point.
Defend
- “Circle the Wagons” – Target = Self – Divide total number of lost progress points in a round by half, round down. You now lose that many progress points. If no one attacks you, you lose a progress point.
- “Git Of Mah Land” – Target = Bullet – You take no damage from any “Bullet” attacks which target you, and you take the supply points those players lost in attacking you. If no one attacks you, you lose a progress point.
- “Indians!” – Target = Raid – You take no damage from any “raid” attacks which target you, and you take the supply points those players lost in attacking you. If no one attacks you, you lose a progress point. If only one person performs a raid attack against you, you do not lose a progress point.
- “You Scoundrel!” – Target = Another player – You take no damage from that player, and instead the damage is reflected onto that player. You gain the supply point that player lost in attacking you.

All communication must be public.
All communication does not have to be comprehensible to all players, but must be in a mutually agreed-upon language.

At the start of a game players choose their color, and place that color card in front of them on the table.

1 Round = 2 Turns
No cards played in the 1st turn of a round can be played in the 2nd turn of a round.

A Round –

Turn 1 –
Players choose their action, and the target of that action and lay those cards face down in front of them.
Once all players have chosen an action and a target, all players’ actions and targets are revealed simultaneously.
Players resolve the results of their actions.
Players do not pick up the cards in front of them at the end of this turn. The cards played cannot be played again in this round.

Turn 2-
Players choose another action, and another target.
Once all players have chosen an action and a target, all players’ actions and targets are revealed simultaneously.
Players resolve the results of their actions and targets.
Players pick up all the cards they have laid down in that round and begin a new round.

If at end of a round, a player has 12 progress points, he is declared the winner.
For the purposes of action-resolution, attacks are resolved before progress points are awarded.