Bidding Battle

[the_mask]

Game type: Choose and reveal card game.
Player count: 3-6.
In the game you will bid which element you will take, their values changes depending how many players want the same element.


Game components:
(elements are wood, metal, earth, fire and water.)
10 Element tokens. 2 of each. 1 for scoring and 1 for showing who occopies an element.
The deck: 30 cards. (6 of each element)
A scoreboard. (starting from zero)

Setup:
The whole deck is dealt out among the players. (in the 4 player game 2 cards will left out, these two will revealed to all players.)
1 of each element tokens is placed on the 5 place on the scoreboard. (starting value.)

Gameplay:
Everyone choose a card from their card, and those will be revealed simultanous.
These repeats until 1 of three things happens.
-everyone choose the same element. (it wont end the game, but will give a new mechanic before scoring the round which is hidden at the start of the game.)
-one of the elements reach the value zero after scoring the round.
-at least one player does not have any cards left to play after scoring the round.
In the last two cases the game immediatly ends after scoring the round.

Scoring the Round:
After everyone showed their chosen card the scoring happens depending how many players bid the same element, and who have those elements.

Multiple people bid the same element, (does not matter if someone own it or not):
The element will gain 1 value for each bid and no one gain or losing the element.

No one owns it, and no one bid:
the element decrease their value by 1.

No one owns it, and only one player bid:
That player gets the element, and they have to discard one card after taking their bidding card back. (discard) They dont have to discard the same card they played, and they dont have to show to other players which card they discarded.

Someone owns it, but no one bids:
The element will gain the same amount of value that the element their owner bid this round. (if the owner gets a new element, it wont change the value.)

Someone own it, and only one players bids:
The bidding players gets the element, and they have to give one of their card to the player whom they took the element from. (compensation.) They dont have to give the same card they played or show other players which card was given.

Discards and compensations are happening at the same time. (aka you cant discard/compansate the card that you got from compensation(s) this round.)
If no discard or compensation happens during the round, (which means there was no single bidder this round) everyone have to discard the card they played this Round.

At the end of the game:
Players adds up the value of their elements and highest value wins.

Misc:

Spoiler

DISCLAIMER: the game is in its prototype form, and it is only a demo. It might not be balanced well, but I try to improve. If you have any idea, how the game could be better, I am listening to advices or critics.

I will try keep the 24 hour/choosing and 24 hour/scoring, but if I get every input before deadline, I will update as soon as possible. If someone miss the deadline I will randomize which card they play/discard/compensate, you most likely dont want that to happen.

I will give 48 hours for this Signup, (or until it fills full with 6 players) If it does not have the minimum 3 players, I will cancel the game here. (moving to the next forum on my list, probably.)
You are allowed to talk about tactics during the game.

Playerlist:
1.
2.
3.
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4.
5.
6.

 

[alynkio]

To prove this isn't a dead forum, I'd be tentatively interested. But I'm not sure I understand the rules. Walk me through a couple of rounds? Let's say 5 players.

Player 1: 3 water, 1 wood, 1 earth, 1 fire
Player 2: 4 wood, 1 metal, 1 earth
Player 3: 2 metal, 2 fire, 1 earth, 1 water
Player 4: 2 metal, 2 water, 1 earth, 1 fire
Player 5: 2 earth, 2 fire, 1 wood, 1 metal

Round 1: Everyone plays 1 card.

Player 1: water
Player 2: wood
Player 3: metal
Player 4: metal
Player 5: earth

2 players bid metal, 1 wood, 1 earth, 1 water, 0 fire.

So... player 1 'occupies' water, discards 1 water
player 2 'occupies' wood, discards 1 wood
player 5 'occupies' earth, discards 1 fire
Metal increases in value to 7 while fire decreases in value to 4
Everyone gets their card back, but players 1, 2, and 5 have 'sacrificed' a chosen card (not necessarily the one they played) to seize control of the unclaimed element for which they bid?

Round 2: Everyone plays 1 card

Player 1: water
Player 2: earth
Player 3: fire
Player 4: metal
Player 5: earth

2 players bid earth, 1 metal, 1 earth, 1 fire, and 0 wood

Player 1 already owns water, and no one else bid it, so nothing happens?
Player 5 already owns earth, but because 2 players bid it, no change of ownership happens?
Player 3 'occupies' fire. discards metal
Player 4 'occupies metal, discards metal
Earth increases in value to 7, Wood increases in value to 10 (12?) because no one bid it and its owner bid earth which was worth 5 (is now worth 7?)

Seems like the game might never end. Someone would claim every element eventually, preventing any element's price from dropping to 0. After all the elements are claimed, hard to see how anyone could run out of cards. Players have more cards (6) than there are elements to buy (5). Seems like I'm misunderstanding something.

 

[the_mask]

Thanks for the check at least.

1. Its a prototype, and I try to test all over the place for exactly this reason. (to see the flaws of the game.)

2. You are right. Stealing does not result in lowering the number of the cards in play. (I dont know why I thought it is the case.) Checking back the only way the game can end (when every element is owned already), if there is at least one Round where everyone discard their played card. I think stealing should be more punishing. (like giving away a card AND discarding a card, if you can't the game ends, it does not matter that you would gain any card from others, also if you own the element, you still have to discard a card, if you are the only one bidding.) I will bring these changes to my future attempts.

3. Someone owns it, but no one bids:
Uff... My bad. Poor wording on my part.
The element will gain the same value change that the card their owner played.

So in your scenario in Round 2 wood would incrase their value with 2 (the same as earth). So the value of the wood will be 7 at the end of the round.

4. Decreasing to zero. I did not think this could happen in a 5 or 6 player game. Rather in a 3 or 4 player one, where it is more likely that one or two element wont get any attention, or more likely to bid on the same element as the game goes on.

5. As you pointed out, playing the element you own has no backfire. (worst case nothing happens, best case your element gain value.) Of course you wont get a second element, but you dont need to constantly taking back. (There is a slim chance that everyone discards their card, but if you going for this tactic you probably have multiple of this card.) So I will change the "someone own it, and only one players bid", to the following two categories:
"You own it, and you bids only" and "you own it, and someone else bids only."