Idea: The name of the game is Seeds players play as helicopter seeds that have fallen from a large maple tree. The board is a grid of squares, and each seed starts in the upper left hand corner. On the far right bottom part of the grid is a section of good growing land. The goal of the players is to have their seed land on the good land furthest from the tree itself.
Number of players: 2-4, although solo play is possible.
Game Bits:
- A wide board, 30 squares wide and 6 squares tall. The bottom row has various kinds of land on them, from gravel, dry, asphalt and good growing.
- Several Helicopter seed tokens in various colors, to server as markers. They are shaped with a sead part, and a "wing" which will be used for pointing
- A single six-sided die, for the wind
Basic Play: Each turn the players can decide the orientation of their seed. It can be normal, catch wind, or avoid wind. The wind die is rolled, and the players are moved to the right and down based on their position and the wind. When a player's seed hits the ground or is pushed by the wind off the board, his game is over. Once all the seeds have hit the ground (or left the board), the winner is determined.
Turn Order
- The players, in turn or at the same time, orient their seeds by rotating them.
- Normal The seed sits horizonatally. It will move right the number of spaces shown on the wind die, and drop by one space.
- Catch Wind The seed sits with wing "up". It will move right the number of spaces shown on the wind die plus 2, and won't fall at all.
- Avoid WInd The seed sits with wing "down". It will move right the number of spaces shown on the wind die minus 2, and drop by two spaces.
- One of the players rolls the Wind die, and all the players move their seeds according to the rules above.
- If the movement pushes a seed off the board, or causes it to land on the ground, that player's game is over.
- Repeat turns until everyone has landed, or been pushed off the map.
End of the Game
- If a seed is pushed beyond the edge of the map without landing, it falls into the highway, and never becomes a seedling.
- If a seed lands in the same square as another seed, even if it is good growing land, the seedlings choak each other out, and neither wins.
- The seedling thatl ands in the good growing land furthest from the mother tree wins.
Comments (4)
ryan.kinal@gmail.com said
at 10:06 am on Jul 1, 2009
Very Zen. I like the concept, and the objective. The interaction seems a little lacking, in that it only happens at the end of the game. But it seems to be a very quick game, so that might not be a problem. If you want to add a little more interaction, you might consider adding a mechanic for "blocking" wind. Perhaps the die roll is halved if there is a token immediately to your token's left.
JoeTortuga said
at 11:18 am on Jul 1, 2009
I agree about the interaction. I talked a bit about it on my blog, although I guess it could go here just as well. I think I should play it first, though, and see what happens. I hadn't thought of "blocking" the wind though. I'd thought about the wind's direction possibly.
jason@greenodesign.com said
at 11:47 am on Jul 1, 2009
You could incorporate a Rocket Launcher for more interaction, but that may be heavy handed. Seriously though, well thought-out, intriguing idea.
Mike Haverty (SiddGames) said
at 12:32 pm on Jul 1, 2009
Interesting game, but at first glance it seems like the dominant strategy would be to drop to an altitude of 1 or 2, then Catch Wind until you were close to the good soil, since you can Catch Wind to indefinitely prolong dropping. Maybe do not allow the same orientation in consecutive turns? Or make it double the wind speed rather than just +2, so there is a wider range and greater chance of blowing off the map on a high roll.
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