10
Nov

Mad Scientist: The Game

   Posted by: Kevin   in Card Game, Game Design

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So now that my brain has been thinking of games, during my drive in to work today I managed to somehow come up with another one I might try to create.

The general premise is a lot like the game Cootie (tm); you roll a standard 6-sided die and try to build a Creature.

Players (Mad Scientists) take turns rolling the die and interpreting the results.

I currently envision the results of a die roll to be as follows:

  1. Add a Creature Head
  2. Add a Creature Body
  3. Add a Creature Right Arm
  4. Add a Creature Left Arm
  5. Add a Creature Leg
  6. Draw an Event Card

The Creature Parts will be cards that should be used to form a monster. Parts will be from classic creatures like

  • Dracula
  • Wolfman
  • Frankenstein
  • A Ghost
  • A Robot
  • A Fish-Man/Swamp Monster
  • etc.

Players don’t have to try to create a Creature with all parts to a single monster type, rather they are allowed to “mix and match.”

There’s a catch though, the game is done with a Timer counting down. When the timer goes off, the Townspeople come calling with Torches and Pitchforks. If you don’t have a completed Creature, all your work is lost and you have to start over. If your Creature is complete, you win the game. But even if you have a completed Creature, you still must continue to roll the die until the Townspeople come calling. As a result, you might encounter an Event Card that changes the outcome of the game.

Event Cards will be things like:

  • Igor has lost your creature’s brain – lose a turn
  • A great big rat has taken a body part away – remove 1 creature piece of your choosing
  • The Townspeople come early! Everyone must start over – even if you have a completed Creature.
  • etc.

I call it Mad Scientist

The cards should be bright and comical as I envision this game being targeted to young players age 3+.

I’ll need to mock-up some Cards for the Creature Parts as well as the Events.

Up to 1d6-1 Related posts:

  1. Mad Scientist: The Game – an update
  2. Mad Scientist: The Game – card versions 2
  3. Mad Scientist: The Game – and now a word from my target demographic
  4. Mad Scientist: The Game – IT’S ALIVE!
  5. Mad Scientist: The Game – Fleshing out the Event Deck

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Card Game, Game Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 comments so far

Chris Tregenza
 1 

Instead of rolling a dice to decide which body part they get, why not have the body part cards mixed in with the event cards?

Maybe allow players to trade body part cards or there could be an advantage to getting all of one monster type, e.g. all the vampire body parts.

Event cards could include sending Igor to rob an opponent, giving you the change to steal someone else’s body part.

November 11th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Kevin
 2 

Those are some great ideas Chris. Thanks for the input.

Re mixing the “parts” cards in with the event cards: I’m not sure how that would play out with the d6 mechanic… care to elaborate?

However, having some “bonus” body parts (like a brain or fangs) in with the event cards might be interesting and easy to add. They wouldn’t add anything to the completion of the monster, but would be some added bling for the monster. (Of course, now I have to come up with some of those cards… but they would help fill out the event deck.)

Re allowing trading/giving an advantage for all the body parts: I like that.

Re adding a “Send Igor to rob an opponent of a body part” card: BRILLIANT! And exactly in line with the game thoughts.

November 11th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Mark
 3 

How about a “Troll Card” that grows a body part? Maybe one card per body part type. If you already have that part, the card does nothing.

As Chris suggested, I love the stealing of a body part idea. Along those same lines, perhaps Igor or the evil equivalent eats a body part from an opponent, chosen by the player.

A couple of super cards might be good too. “Everyone gains a body part!” “Everyone loses 1 body part.”

Add in a few Mystical event cards with some obvious results. Speed: Gain an extra turn, roll again. Slow Other: Select one opponent to lose a turn. Decay Beast: Remove one body part from each opponent.

Perhaps some creature specific cards too. If you have part X of creature Y, gain part Z. That might be more complicated than the age target but would add in some logic education.

Just some thoughts.

November 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Kevin
 4 

Wow, more great ideas. Thanks Mark.

Re Troll Cards: excellent idea! And it helps bridge the gap for rolling the dice (my initial idea) as well as having the parts in the deck (per Chris’ suggestion.)

Re Super Events: I hadn’t thought of those kinds of events. Interesting… and both helpful as well as evil… I like it.

Re The “Mystical” take on bonuses in event cards is a nice touch… I’ll have to incorporate that too. Mysticism falls in well with the genre of the game, good addition.

I’d like to keep the complications to a minimum for younger players, but have been pondering a possible way to add complexity without worrying about over-taxing young minds. Namely the elimination of the Event Deck until all players can handle the complexity. It’s not a huge issue to overcome, since I already figured I’d be writing the rules to eliminate the “Angry Townspeople” timer for younger players and just end the game when one player has all their parts. (Which would make it nearly identical to a monster version of Cootie.)

My only problem with removing the events completely is that once I do so, I’m not sure how to interpret a “6″… Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

November 11th, 2009 at 9:43 pm

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