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Monsters in the Closet

Page history last edited by Aaron 14 years, 9 months ago

Monsters in the Closet by Aaron

 

Monsters in the Closet is a board game developed for the 15 Minute Board Game Challenge and intended for play between two or more people. All you need are two two-sided dice to play.

 

Board

 

Board coming later.

 

Original Rules

 

These are the same rules that I wrote within the time limit, except that they have been cleaned up for readability. More fleshed out rules are further down on the page.

 

Story

Every kid's worst nightmare is the monster in the closet. Now, you've fallen into your closet and have to make your way out before the monster finds you!

 

Gameplay

Role 2 six-sided dice. Assign one die to your piece, and another die to the monster. Move each piece a number of spots equal to the die.

 

Monster

The monster is a game piece controlled by both players. If you ever end up on the same spot as the monster, you go back to the start and lost 2 points. The monster ignores all spots but red and orange.

 

Spots

Black spots are normal.

Red spots mean go back two spaces.

Orange spots mean return the start,

Blue sopts mean +2 points.

Purple spots mean -1 point.

 

Winning

Once someone reaches finish, points are talled and the person with the most points wins. If the monster reaches finish, all players lose.

 

Finished Rules

Here are a more fleshed out version of the rules, written after the time limit was over.

 

MONSTERS IN THE CLOSET

Every kid’s worst nightmare is the monster in the closet...

Now, you’ve fallen into the darkness of your closet, and have to escape before the monster finds you and eats you!

RULES

On your turn, roll two six-sided dice. Assign one of the die to your piece, and the other to the monster. Move each piece the appropriate number of spots.

THE MONSTER

If you ever end up on the same spot as the monster, you go back to the start and lose two points. The monster ignores all spots but red and orange.

SPOTS

Inside the closet, there are a number of different spots. Black spots are normal, and have no effect. Red spots are a little scary, and push you back two spaces. Orange spots are very scary, and send you back to the start. Blue points are clues to get you out of the closet, and are worth two points. Purple points are confusing, and make you lose a point.

WINNING

The first person to reach finish gets five bonus points. After this, points are tallied and the person with the most points wins. If the monster reaches the finish first, nobody wins.

Comments (3)

Leana Galiel said

at 11:47 am on Jun 30, 2009

haha I like this, it would make a really cute childrens game. The idea of having the players roll for movement of the monster is quite interesting. You have a great start, and the rules for each of the colored squares not only would help teach small children their colors, but it makes the game a lot more fun.
The way it is currently set up will cause a few problems though. First, if the win state declares that if the monster finishes first the players lose, then the players would always want to choose the lower roll of the 2 dice during their turn. Having a rule stating they must choose does not actually give them that freedom. What if they were forced to choose the higher roll?
The second issue is in movement of the monster character. Lets say the game is for 2-4 players. If you had 4 players, the monster would get to move 4 times each round, and it skips over half the colored squares. As there is nothing to prevent the monster's movement, slow it down or push it back, it gives the players an almost impossible win state.
What if you took it a bit further? Do specific colors make the monster move? Is there a card deck and at the end of each round a player picks a card which states the monster's movement for that round? Does each player roll a special die (perhaps a less-sided one) and add up the rolls to get the total movement of the monster each round? Is the monster's movement fixed depending on the round, and after a certain amount of rounds the monster moves more spaces at a time (like say to start it moves 5 spaces, round 3 it changes to 7, round 5 it changes to 10 spaces)? I bet you can think of even more variations :D

Alex Frazer said

at 12:13 pm on Jun 30, 2009

I guess there would be situations where you'd want the monster to move using the higher roll, e.g. the monster is 2 spaces ahead, and the player rolls a 3 and a 5. But again, that removes the freedom of choice, aas the player will always choose the dice that stops them getting eaten (or if the monster is close to the end, stops the monster ending the game).

Maybe instead of ending the game, the person who moves the monster to the end square could lose some points, and the moster could reappear at the start? This could add some strategy when one player is ahead of the others on the board, allowing them to force the monster to finish (losing them, for example 5 points), which in turn places the monster behind the other players - ready to eat them on subsequent turns!

This would create a gamble as to whether the points lost by the first player would be fewer than those lost by the other players by the time the game ends. The number of points involved would need some balancing, but it could maintain the freedom of choice as the monster approaches the finish.

Robert Polzin said

at 12:21 pm on Jun 30, 2009

Another way to increase the randomness of the monster could be that you give a player the opportunity to control the monster as his only character and he gets points by eating others.

That or you could make the monster completely random and use two dice to determine his movement and direction. One die for number of spaces and one die for the direction he goes. (using arrows or colors)

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