Intro

Last night I woke up from a dream where I was among the characters of a boardgame I have never actually heard of before. And I think that's because it doesn't exist, so I'm going to discuss the idea behind the game here, an idea that matured between the dream and some lucid thoughts when I was just awake (and which I jotted down in this Mastodon thread.)

(Incidentally, it's actually unusual for me to wake up remembering anything about what I was dreaming right before, and I'm actually quite glad it happened this time.)

Basic idea

The (yet unnamed) game is a 1 vs 1 vs many competitive/cooperative tile-placement game. The setting is “rescue the princess”: a group of adventurers is sent to a fortress/dungeon to rescue the princess imprisoned within, but unbeknownst to them the princess is already attempting a daring escape; the Evil Lord (or Lady) who kidnapped and imprisoned the princess is aware of both the escape attempt and the adventurer invasion, and makes all efforts to try and prevent the rescue/escape.

The general idea ends up being a mix between Sub Terra II, particularly with the Typhaon Wakes expansion, (for the adventurers side) and Night Cage (for the princess side), with some inspiration from Bang! for the competitive/cooperative multi-party system.

On each turn, the adventurers try to advance inwards, the princess tries to advance outwards, both facing traps and dangers, while the EL plays interference, trying to make things harder for them (the “how” is a detail yet to develop, but at the very least the EL, rather than the adventurers/princess, will have control on the placement choices as the other players explore the fortress/dungeon).

The adventurers and princess may be “downed” during play.

If the princess is downed, she is dragged back to her cell and has to start again.

If some of the adventurers are downed, they can still help each other recover and continue, but if they are all downed they are out of the game.

Winning condition for the EL is that all adventurers and the princess are downed (the princess must be back in her cell when all adventurers are down).

Winning condition for the princess is that The Princess Saves Herself In This One.

Winning condition for the adventurers is that they rescue the princess.

The princess is considered “safe” when she either meets with the adventurers, or she manages to get out of the fortress/dungeon on her own. If the adventurers find the princess in “their” side of the board, it counts as a princess win (to win, the adventurers must find the princess while she is still on her side of the board).

Alternatively (hard mode?) the princess is not safe until she is out of the fortress (joining up with the adventurers is not sufficient), although it's not clear how the win conditions would be handled in this mode. A possibility could be that it's a shared win for the adventurers and the princess if at least some of the adventurers manage to get out as well (rather than sacrificing themselves to let the princess escape).

With a cooler mind

These are the ideas I jotted down this morning just as I had woken up. Over the course of the day, with a cooler mind, there's a few more clarifications that have emerged.

The game setup is probably a combined fortress and dungeon, with different rules. The fortress is the “adventurers” side, and the dungeon is the “princess” side of the board. In this sense, the adventurers win (in easy mode) if they meet with the princess while she is still in the dungeon, while the princess wins if she meets with the adventurers in the fortress side (or she gets out of the fortress altogether on her own).

There is some kind of door between the fortress and dungeon, and players on either side have to find the key needed to open it before moving to the other side. The adventurers may need to prevent the door from closing behind them when they enter the dungeon.

It may actually be possible to play prototypes of this game combining a Sub Terra II and a Night Cage set, with the Sub Terra II temple playing the role of the fortress and the Night Cage the role of the dungeon: opening the temple sanctum corresponds to finding the entrance of the dungeon, and on the other side the princess can exit the dungeon (into the fortress) if she reaches a Door after finding a Key (or three, to match the other side; some playtesting and balancing will have to be done here, and to clarify where the sanctum door appears on the fortress side if opened by the princess).

The game has either complete or partial information: the adventurers have knowledge of what the princess is doing (her moves are not hidden), the princess has knowledge of what the adventurers are doing (their moves are not hidden), and the EL has knowledge of both. Each party can use this to their advantage.

If the princess manages to get to the fortress before the adventurers find the door, they face an interesting conundrum: the princess has all interests in meeting up with the adventurers (this marks her victory), while the adventurers may actually prefer if she gets downed and goes back to the dungeon, as this gives them a possibility to be the rescuers (thus marking their victory). On the other hand, if they don't meet with her and she still manages to exit the fortress, it's her victory anyway.

Maybe rather than just a win/lose condition it would be better to have rankings? Needs more thinking.