Resurrecting the Analogue Goblin-Tribe Simulator (It's ALIVE!!!)

It's been a while since I talked about the Analogue Goblin-Tribe Simulator (single player edition) and I left some things undone. Things I need to leave undone for this post. But I had been way ahead in my development of the single-player board game So many ideas, in fact, that I'll be able to give at least a somewhat comprehensive overview about how this game will work.

I'd like to point out that y'all wouldn't read this right now if it wasn't for +The Gorgonmilk (of the rather fantastic blog of The Same Name) who was kind enough to be still interested close to six months later. It's not often that I get a request like this and it made me happy.

To be or not to be ... well, the Goblin-Tribe Simulator is to be, I'd say.
And the rather fitting illustration was made by Steve Cox [source]

Remembering ...

So what was this about again? The Analogue Goblin-Tribe Simulator (single player edition) was an idea of mine to build a board game around the evolution (or decline) of a goblin-tribe somewhere in Fantasy Land (TM) based on some of the design principles known from the early editions of D&D.

Those goblins would breed, build and explore their hostile surroundings to gather food and equipment and breed some more. If they manage to reach a population of 100 (winning conditions) the tribe dissolves to create many new tribes in the area (they are a pest, after all).

In the single player edition, the dice do all the talking beyond the decisions the player is making. But I already mentioned a 2 player version, where one player would play the environment and the other the goblin-tribe opposing it, which I imagine a bit to be like playing battleship. Both players would have an open chronic for their moves, but the developments would be secret until they are discovered by exploration. A version with a DM and a group is a distinct possibility, but as of now not further developed.

The single and the 2 player version of the game should produce (as a side effect, so to say) compatible gaming data for most D&D games (and friends). So it's a game AND preparation for The Game.

The sheet I had in the works for this looked like this:

Some of you might remember it ... this is where the magic happens.

When I stopped following this idea any further, I had already established a way to create not only a tribe of goblins and the general lay of their lair, but also some ideas how the game might work (please follow the first link above for further enlightenment or just read this one as an introduction). This post will give another impression of how the A.G.S. (s.p.e.) will work.

So how is this supposed to work

(Phases, Turns and Cycles)

One phase is the smallest unit of time in the game, three phases constitute a turn and five turns are a cycle. Phases are where the tribe comes to live and the player decides what they do and the risks they take to get there. In the 3 phases that make a turn, the player has to make three decisions:

• Phase 1: Will the tribe Steal something (high risk, but also high rewards and xp) OR will he Explore his environment (dangerous, but lots of intel, new options and xp) OR will he have a Low Opposition instead (opposition rating increases slowly).

• Phase 2: Will the tribe go Hunting (less dangerous, but food and xp) OR  will he Build something (also less dangerous, but achievements) OR will he have Middle Opposition (as in, a middle increase of the opposition rating):

• Phase 3: Will the tribe go Gathering (not really dangerous, less food and no xp) OR will he Procrastinate (nothing much and lots of fornication) OR will there be a High Opposition (you get it, the opposition rating increases more than with the other options).

Opposition has to be chosen at least once, the rest is up to the player and the dice decide about success, partial success or failing (so if a player wants to steal and build something, he'll have to take the high opposition, too). This sort of risk/reward managing is what will let a tribe strive or die. All those actions will influence the development of certain aspects of a tribe. With time some actions might become necessary (like stealing and hunting) to ensure the survival of the tribe. Hard choices will makes the goblins angry, though, which in turn might make it necessary to allow some fornication procrastination and give more food to the population.

If done right, the tribe will strive, get his own heroes and stories to tell and collects achievements (like traps, tools, tamed wolves or cold storage) to be better and better protected against the bad world out there.

Some achievements and breeding will take more time. Those things will take turns of time and will most likely be completed within a circle. Cycles will be the measurement how successful a tribe is or if they are dying of hunger (if a deficit is not solved at the end of a cycle, the weak a tribe has gathered will die, etc.).

If they are aggressive, they'll kill each other, if they are too hungry they'll eat each other. All this will be part of A.G.S. (s.p.e.). And then there is the action ...

This is where the action is

(triggering the opposition)

So the opposition is rising every turn, but it's also checked on every turn. The opposition is a number between 1 and 20 and starts with either a 1 (low opposition, see above), a 2 (middle opposition, see above) or a 3 (high opposition, see above). After declaring what will be done in phases 1, 2 and 3, the player rolls a d20 to see if the opposition is triggered. If the result is above the opposition rating, nothing happens and the player resolves the rest of his declared actions.

If there is an opposition, it's a reckoning for what the goblins where doing that turn. If they where hunting, the prey turned against them, if they where stealing, they might get caught, if the explore stuff, they might find something unpleasant. But the worst case scenario will be a group of adventurers entering those caves the tribe calls his home.

If the trigger is resolved, the tribe cuts his losses (also gets xp) and moves on (if they are not destroyed ...).

So yeah, the goblins are still going somewhere

I'll keep working on this and writing about it. Those tables need to be written, the mechanics need to be tested, but I'm on it. I hope this managed to rekindle some interest and give those already convinced that this might be a good idea some more food for thought.

This is not dead, it's still happening!

Talking about an Analogue Goblin-Tribe Simulator 2.5: Putting a Map on the Tribe-Sheet (pre-beta single-player version)

There was more meet on the menu in Part 2 than I did deliver: I totally hand-waved how the dice on the sheet also are the beginning of a map! Well, the main idea of posting about the process of building this game is to see which parts need more exploration. Alright, what information could be gathered from 4 dice lying on a piece of paper:

Random distribution, but, as of yet,
meaningless for the dungeon!

The numbers shown by the dice are already used to establish the tribe to some extent. To load them any more impact would be overdoing it, in my opinion. What might work, though, is using the numbers on the side of the dice for our purpose here. It is maybe an unusual choice, but I believe it has some merit. Let's see ...

1. Passages leading to the lair

One corner per die indicates a passage leading away from the lair, the numbers on the sides closing to that corner are the points a player might use to buy features of that passage:

So we have  4 passages with 4, 6, 8 and 11
points to distribute ...

Problem and solution

The only problem I'm aware of, so far, is that the dice may land in a way that makes it hard to decide which corners are pointing away from the lair. One solution might be to allow a player to move each die 2 cm in one cardinal direction until the result is satisfactory, or he decides arbitrarily which corners should lead (which would give him more flexibility in creating a final form).

What are those points for?

This is were I'm about to chicken out again. The basic idea here is to assign costs to several features a cave could and should have (it needs at least one exit to the surroundings, for instance). Yesterdays post gave some indications what exactly I had in mind with this. Beneficial features (like high ceilings with alcoves or very low ceilings, water might be interesting, too) will cost a lot, additional but not rudimentary features (intersections, holes in the ground) will have medium costs and the most basic features will be quite cheap (long passages with normal height, etc.). Here is an (for now) incomplete and unsorted list:

• An exit costs 1 point (needs to be bought at least once).
• 10 yards of passage (length) cost 1 point and is called a section (with a base height of 3 yards and a base width of 3 yards, if you chose 20 yards of passage, you have 2 sections ...).
• Manipulating height and width per section costs 2 points per yard .
• Alcoves cost 1 point each (better for the defense).
• Steep slopes (up or down) cost 1 point per yard (will influence the AC).
• Slopes (up or down) cost 1 point per 3 yards.
• Break slope (up or down) cost 1 point per yard (will influence AC).
• Boulders or stalagmites cost 1 point per section (will influence the AC).
• A branch-off costs 2 points (will get important for further exploration).
• Small body of water costs 2 points (will help with the Nosh).
• Medium body of water (fills half a section) costs 4 points (will help with the Nosh).
• Big body of water (blocks passage) costs 6 points (will help with Nosh, further exploration is somewhat difficult).
• Flowstones, bedding plain flake or fissures would be 1 point (will make mining easier later on?).
• Natural hole in the ground costs 4 points (makes for a good trap later on ...).
• Twists and turns cost 2 points per section (may be taken more than once per section, will influence visibility for defense).

That's it so far. Maybe it's a bit too much. I don't know. But with this it is more or less possible to make some useful decisions when distributing the points. In the end, every decision should influence something on the tribe-sheet one way or another (it's still a bit vague, but I believe it'll connect quite well to the rest) and should transfer quite easy into any role playing game.

2. The Lair

Measurements for this is in 10 foot cubes (for now, but either way, should translate easy enough between yards and feet). The number of Goblins a die indicates is the lowest possible number that needs to be spend on the cave, the sides not yet used will be added and used as the points available per cave (for room-size, features and connections):

The distribution would be: 10 (at least 5 for the room);
8 (at least 4 for the room); 6 (at least 4 for the room) and
6 points (at least 1 point needs to be spend for the room)

Distribution

This is all in 10 ft. cubes. One cube stands for a more or less even surface, but that doesn't mean that the whole surface of a cavern/room is flat! On the contrary, even without spending further points, these cubes may share the same room, but don't connect to one flat surface. Add features like above to it, and you'll have a unique complex of caverns:

• A cube costs 1 point and should be used to build connection between rooms (at least one cube needs to be spend to connect rooms) and to manipulate a rooms height or depth (one goblin per cube, so planning a little for the future might help).
• To manipulate connecting passages on a smaller scale, use the rules above (10 = 3 yards, costs two points per change).
• Alcoves cost 1 point each (better for the defense).
• Steep slopes (up or down) cost 1 point per yard (will influence the AC).
• Slopes (up or down) cost 1 point per 3 yards.
• Break slope (up or down) cost 1 point per yard (will influence AC).
• Boulders or stalagmites cost 1 point per section (will influence the AC).
• Flowstones, bedding plain flake or fissures would be 1 point (will make mining easier later on?).
• Natural hole in the ground costs 4 points (makes for a good trap later on ...).

This needs to be a bit more structured and streamlined to allow faster access, but so far it shows what direction this is going.

Final Thoughts and Preview

Next up is an example how a set-up could turn out (with the symbols needed to get the map started!). I just don't have that time today or the next 7 days (we'll go trekking for the next couple of days ...).

All in all I believe this is a lot of raw data taken from only one roll of 4D6. You get a complete tribe (including warriors, women, children and some weak) and a lair with some features, an exit and some passages to go deeper into a cavern. As it is, it could be used in every fantasy game with almost no preparation. That's where I wanted to end up for now.

Talking about an Analogue Goblin-Tribe Simulator Part 2: The Set-Up (pre-beta Single-Player Version)

Let's put some meat to those potatoes (vegetables and sauce will be discussed in later posts ...). The bits and pieces of this thing are still all over the place, but some of it already works together (well, enough to talk about, anyway). The set-up is one of those parts that may help illustrating how this should work.

Setting the game up

1. Roll 4D6 on the map area of your tribe-sheet:

Still not using the final version of the tribe-sheet,
but you get my drift ...

2. The sum of the numbers rolled is the total of your tribe (in this case: 5 + 4 + 4 + 1 = 14 Goblins). The highest die shows the number of males in a tribe, the highest after that the number of females, the die after that is the number of children and the lowest is the number of "weak" (this means everything: injured, sick, starved and, is added to the number of children*). Now we have 5 Goblin males, 4 females and 5 weak (4 of them being young Goblins).

3. The number of males in a tribe is the maximum number of specialists (called Toughs from here on) a tribe can have ("imports" of other creatures being the exception). Two of those rolled dice (step 1) will represent up to two Toughs a tribe may have in the beginning (one die is one level, so a player may have either 2 Level 1 Toughs or 1 Level 2 Tough ...), the remaining two have to be assigned to a tribes achievements (to be distributed between Mining and/or Crafting and/or Discoveries, which means one achievement will have no die at all)**. The first decisions a player has to make, are in what areas his tribe should be good in (high values, in which bad (low values) and which area is the weakest (not chosen at all). Let's have some details ...

3.a. Toughs

They are a tribes Jokers, so to say. Everything that could go wrong might be solved by sacrificing a Toughs Levels***, their specialization (class, so to say) gives bonuses to different actions. There are 6 classes to choose from:

• Grunts (Strength) - the fighters, are Joker for exploration and help damaging the Opposition.
• Hunters (Dexterity) - the explorers, are Joker against starvation and help defending the Dungeon (active).
• Scavengers (Constitution) - the gatherers, are Joker against destruction (active) and help with the gathering of food.
• Saboteurs (Intelligence) - the tinkerers, are Jokers against Destruction (passive) and help defending the dungeon (passive).
• Shamans (Wisdom) - the witch-doctors, are Jokers against Destruction (active) and help with the tribes health.
• Leaders (Charisma) - the popular ones, are Jokers against Angry Goblins and help with the reproduction.

So the ability score a players chooses to fill will define the class of a Tough. When they Level up, an additional d6 is rolled and added to the ability score (up to 3 times). High level Toughs will have values in other ability scores, but none is allowed to be higher than the class-defining ability score****.

3.b. Achievements

Those will be the other core elements of the game, working like skills, with skill-trees that grow with a tribes level (low level Mining, for instance, will be something like changing a rooms size, higher levels will result in cooling chambers, etc.).

For now I'd go for as easy as possible as far as the mechanics are concerned, which means I'd say that there is one value for Mining and one for Crafting (working like skills, with an option to add Ability scores to special tasks, like add a Saboteurs INT to the Mining Skill when building a trap, etc.). "Discoveries" will work like the Opposition (which means, it will grow steadily, with better (as far as Achievements go, high values in the opposition will mean trouble for the tribe ...) results for high values). It's the Discoveries that produce food and everything else that might be discovered and brought back to the tribe.

3.c. Example

For this example I'd go for growth before exploration. This means I choose a Level 1 Shaman (choosing a 4 for  WIS) and a Level 1 Leader (choosing the other 4 for CHA) as my starting Toughs to keep them healthy and in line. Then I have to choose two of the 3 Achievements. More Goblins means more room, so I put the 5 on Mining to make them good at expanding their caves. The 1 I'll put into Discoveries to give them at least a small head start in gathering Nosh. With it's zero in Crafts it will be a quite primitive tribe, lacking even the simplest of tools (other than those they could steal, that is). 

4. The position of the dice on the map is circled. It's the beginning of the dungeon (the lowest rolled number indicates the exit to the surrounding Wilderness (doubles, triplets, etc. just mean more exits ...).

This is still under construction in that the numbers and the positions of the dice should do more than what I'm implying above.

Summary

The way it's shaping up right now, the single-player version will be set up with one roll of the dice, with the numbers resulting in the size and segmentation of the tribe plus the beginning of a map. There are also five important decisions a player has to make where the strengths and frailties of his tribe are, before the game can start.

It's also my take on a very light D&D variant: Classes are defined by the ability score you choose, Level is the number of dice distributed. The number of dice per ability scores is restricted (could be by race, too, something like: Giants would be allowed to put 5 dice into STR, etc.), with the leading ability score giving the highest possible value a character is allowed to have in the other ability scores and a simple system of Ability Scores are always D20 + A.S. vs. Difficulty (15 = easy; etc.) to make it all tick. The rest is D&D (combat, hp, saves, etc.).

Anyway, I hope this was able to give you all some ideas how this is supposed to work.

That's the set-up so far

Next up is some talk about Phases, Turns and Cycles and some ideas what the Opposition is and how Combat will work.

* The game will be structured in Phases, Turns and Cycles (3 Phases are one Turn, 5 Turns are a Cycle). Some weak will die with the end of every cycle, some will get active tribe-members again (roll of 2D6, highest is death toll, lowest (+ Shaman-Level) is who get's active again. The rest stay weak.

**Achievements will be a bit like skills and resources. So there will be several crafting and mining skills (the number associated with the kill show how good a tribe is in getting stuff related to a skill done), while Discoveries will show resources like water, food, etc.).

***This is about the outcome of a phase. If it turns sour, levels might be sacrificed to turn the tide. This could mean the death of all the Toughs a tribe has, but it could safe the tribe ... In a game with more players, the Toughs would be the player characters for the goblin side.

****Checks against Ability Scores are always D20 + A.S. vs. Difficulty (15 = easy; etc.).

Talking about an Analogue Goblin-Tribe Simulator Pre-Beta Single-Player Version Part 1 (Basics)

What is this?

With all my talk about what a gaming system is and how it's different parts should work (here), I'd be hard pressed not to think about building something of my own design. What direction this might go was discussed in passing when I wrote about my love for the Goblin as a playable race here. It took me some time, but I collected enough ideas now to give this little board game about the rise and fall of some random goblin-tribe (because that is what it's going to be) some shape.

The basic idea behind this was to build a little game where some players manage a tribe of goblins and try to survive against a hostile environment (played by a DM). This is still the final goal, I guess, but it evolved somewhat beyond that basic premise. The second variant was a game for two players, one player is the environment, the other a tribe of goblins living in that environment. This, also, is a part of the game I want to see done. But after thinking about ways to make something like this work, I had to decide what I wanted to be possible in a game like this. So the question "How do those Goblins advance?" lead to the outlines of the little single-player against-the-board-variant of the game I want to talk about today.

You could call this a show-case for some of the ideas I've been writing about in the last two years ...

What should it do?

In an ideal world, a game like this is fun on it's own. That design goal shouldn't leave line of sight, like, ever. But the whole premise being about role-playing games in general and D&D in particular, it would be very nice (and advisable, I guess) to have some synergy effects that make it easy to use the results in The Game. So what could a DM need in a game? A Dungeon with traps and some ecology, that's a given. Some idea of the surroundings, like food sources, dangerous areas, settlements of non-goblins or other tribes would be nice, too. And of course you'd have the tribe itself, with all the necessary variants (the warriors, the women, the sick and the children, etc.) and their possessions in names and numbers that evolve randomly and in a fun way.

Easy to build, easy to access, fun on it's own and easy to convert should be high priorities.

How could it be done?

The main game will be played on a hybrid between a board and a character sheet that collects all data in an easy-to-access way, but is flexible enough to leave room for the game and advancements:

This might give you an idea for the structure I had in mind, not necessarily for the look.

Some explanations (clockwise, starting in the upper left corner):

• Ye olde Tribe Name - Exactly that.

• Phase 1 to Phase 3 - Core Actions of the game in which a player decides what needs to be done and what priority is given to a task (basically: gathering/creating/opposition).

• Breeding - Will give indications how many goblins are "in the works", how many children there are, etc..

• Mining - Building/Expanding Tunnels, Traps and Rooms, Features, etc. (based on "Noggin", which means tribe experience).

• Crafting - Weapons, clothes, carpentry, etc. (also based on "Noggin").

• Aggressive <-> Happy-scale - Indicator how well of your tribe is, both extremes will have implications (to happy will mean lots and lots of fornication, with nothing else getting done, too aggressive might mean they get rebellious and do stupid things ...).

• Noggin - The tribe's experience.

• Nosh - Indicates the amount of food with a distinction between available food and stored food (hungry Goblins are a bad thing ...).

• Toughs - Champions of the Goblin Tribe, with a class, level and hp (there are all kinds of toughs, from goblin shamans to ogres).

• Population - Number of Goblins in the tribe (will give indications of territory and space they need and a threshold before another goblin tribe splits off ...).

• Discoveries - Features and gathered intelligence of their surroundings (villages/creatures/places/etc.).

• Tribe chronicles - Important events in the tribe's history.

• Map (center) - Opposition Countdown shows how the environment reacts to the goblins, Legend gives explanations for the map, AC and Saves are a tribes defenses.

That's the basics as far as I deem them necessary to get a grasp of what I'm aiming for here. How all this is supposed to interact and work, where I am right now in getting there and what is still missing will be in Part 2 (I hope I'll get this done this week ...). I hope I'll be able to put a beta-version up until end of September (the latest ...). Sorry for the lack of art and fluff ...

Any opinions so far?