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Part IVPart IV: Set Up Card (among other things)Right now, warning/sound chits only summon monsters. But they could also summon: - Natives - Visitor/mission chits - Warning chits (on a 6 the ruins begin to howl...) - Site chits (like a special site that has some weaker treasures and summons several monsters from the regular part of the card). - Dwellings - A spell, that is cast on the tile (that howling may actually be a violent storm...) - Belongings (like a magical horse that appears and goes to the player in the clearing who is currently ending their turn). Warning chits could move from clearing to clearing or tile to tile; they could cause a tile to flip when revealed, or cause a monster to appear instantly regardless of monster roll, or create color. Other things that could summon monsters - Native leaders - Visitors - Campaign chit (carrying a chit may make you a target of certain monsters) - Replacement chits (Lost City/Lost castle - perhaps there is also one monster for each that can only be summoned there) - Treasures (like Dragon Essence) - Treasure within Treasure sites - Dwellings (so both natives and monsters could show up) - Special clearings on the map (center of the volcano) - Monsters (lich summons undead, demon summons bats) - Maybe even certain characters (like if they had a special advantage that made them the equivalent of a "howl" chit...that would be strange) I think the Lost City and Lost Castle just have too many chits. I'd take at least one out of each and have a couple of chits that are replaced for two or three. There should be a place on the set up card for each of these "replacement stacks". Things that could be in a stack for replacement chits - Monsters (appear automatically when the chit is revealed) - A treasure counter, which is given to the player who revealed the chit. - A native or native group - A dwelling - A visitor - A mission Things that a visitor could sell - Treasure tokens - A native (pay the visitor to hire him) - A treasure within treasure site (pay the native to take a loot roll on the site), or just roll on the site whenever you trade with the native to see if he deals with you or sics a monster on you or casts a spell on you or what. Some site chits could have associated treasures that are only added to the pile when a certain monster roll comes up. So there is a box containing a special sword, which is summoned by the "hoard" chit on a 5, but instead of going on the map it goes to the bottom of the treasure pile, ready to be plucked. After looting the pile a character may stay around hoping the sword shows up... Some game type examples: The crypt of the knight site chit can summon skeletons like a warning chit. Its box on the set up card contains a wight mixed in with the treasure cards, that comes to the board immediately if it is looted. The box also contains a native, a magic knight with no horse that is hired for 14 days if he is looted. (This might be easier done by just having a TWT type table for this site chit). - The "Fairy Ring" TWT, similarly, contains an enchanted warrior that comes back awake on a 4. But on a 5, the fairies cast "illusion" on you. - The "Fastness" dwelling can be summoned by a ruins C or lost city chit, on a 5. The dwelling summons dwarves on a 3. The dwarves have armor, two large treasures, and a magic shield to sell. They can be hired one at a time. - The "Hut" dwelling can be summoned by "Bones W" or "Ruins W" on a 1. It can summon the witch, a magic using native who can also be summoned by the company HQ. The witch herself acts as a chit that can summon bats. She has two small treasures for sale, as well as one type VIII spell. The hut dwelling may also summon Bashkars and Hobgoblins. Creatures should come in various combinations to various parts of the board. Magic realm is somewhat inventive in this regard. Certain creatures can come to both caves and mountains, others are restricted to one or the other. Some natives appear at fixed dwellings, others at dwellings that must be discovered, some at both. Here are some further variations on creature placement.
Treasure locations would be medium, strong, or very strong, and new treasures would be created for the medium and very strong places. New stronger spells would also be created, that could only be gained from very strong treasure locations. Looting strong locations should cause the guardian creature to be considered prowling, and cause the guardian creature to be able to see the looter even if he/she is hidden. Medium treasure locations: (statue, shrine), maze [minotaur], temple [gargoyle], hive [wasps], graveyard [skeletons/zombies], tunnel [heavy troll] Strong treasure locations: (altar, cairns, pool, vault), obelisk [sphinx], pit [wyvern], aerie [roc], tower [golem] Very strong treasure locations: (lair, hoard), palace [titan], tomb [lich], pinnacle [hydra] In the woods and dales there are some dwellings that function as garrisons. The spring [centaurs, bashkars] is a replacement for trails H. The grove [satyrs, woodfolk] only comes on the board on the proper monster roll (summoned by tracks D or dank W. Since these are dwellings the monsters will deal with you there. Satyrs come out as monsters at trails D and patter (H), while Centaurs come out on Ruins H and Roar (H). If they are on the board then they can't move to the garrison (although perhaps make more than one group?) Or another idea: they stay in their garrison box on the set up card even when their dwelling is put down, so they can still be called away from there and to the set up card. There are two groups of 3-4 so if some are called there may still be enough left to deal. Robbers do not have a garrison-they come out as monsters at Ruins D and Trails H, and as natives at the small fire and the inn. The stump gives the person who Locates it a small treasure and some gold. It has a site monster, a heavy ogre. It also can summon wasps. The well gives a treasure counter to the person who Locates it. It isn't guarded but can summon bats. The Runestone can summon skeletons. It uses a TWT table: 6 A ghost appears, or nothing 5 Learn type II spell 4 Tile flips enchanted side up 3 Get special campaign chit that makes you friendlier with militia 2 Learn type IV spell 1 Choice Trails D Satyrs Tracks D Wolves, Grove [satyrs, woodfolk] Smoke D Outpost [militia garrison, lancers, company] Ruins D Robbers, well Bones D Wasps Trails H Robbers, Spring [centaurs, bashkhars] Tracks H Centaurs Smoke H Hut [witch, crone, bashkars, hobgoblins] Ruins H Goblins, runestone Bones H Skeletons Smoke W S Fire [robbers], stump (non-dwelling clearing) [ogre] Ruins W Wolves, Hut [witch, crone, bashkars, hobgoblins] Bones W Ogres, Centaurs Dank W Vipers, Grove [satyrs, woodfolk] Stink W L Fire [Bashkhars only come at this fire, hobgoblins] Roar (H) Goblins, Ogres Howl (H) Wolves, Bashkars Patter (H) Satyrs Flutter (H) Bats Slither (H) Vipers Hill sites (there are five sounds, if I make 4 sites that's proportional to 10 sounds/8 sites on the regular board. Plus one replacement chit makes 10, so 5 in the multiple chit stack and 5 (including the replacement) on the board. Maybe I should reduce the number of sound chits and have more replacement chits. Take out one copy of howl and one copy of patter, and put in two more replacement chits, one that can be either in the caves or in the mountains, and one extra for the hills. For set up you mix 9 sound chits with 8 site chits, then make stacks of 4, 3, and 3 chits (for the lost city, the lost castle, and the lost temple). Now you have 7 chits left. You mix the lost temple in with them and divide into two stacks of four. Add lost city to one and distribute to caves, add lost castle to another and distribute to mountains. For the hills you take the remaining 4 sound chits (or just 4 out of 5 randomly if you don't set up caves and mountains), and 3 medium site chits. You make one stack of three. Then you add the Lost Keep and distribute one to each Hill. Medium treasure locations: (statue, shrine), maze [minotaur], temple [gargoyle], hive [wasps], graveyard [skeletons/zombies], tunnel [heavy troll], mausoleum [ghouls], monument [griffin] Weak:
Medium
Smoke, stink, ruins, bones, dank Why not have different warning chits for hills and dales: smoke, ruins, bones, trails, tracks Spring grove well, gate, mirror, stones, burrow, trap, nest, pond, bag, box, pouch, Monster generators: these act like warning chits, except they bring in only one type of monster, and may do so on more than one monster roll (the rolls are listed on the counter). When monsters from generators are killed they go back onto the sheet so they never run out. Or, some might have monsters stacked on them; the weaker monsters come out first, then they get stronger and stronger. - types: graveyard, hive, morass, heap (rats) The multiple monster idea might work for conventional sites too. Rather than one big monster, a site could summon a series of monsters, getting stronger and stronger, so with each one it becomes more risky to "press one's luck". Another site idea: sites that automatically summon a monster when they are searched. So if you loot the site four times you'll have four monsters in your clearing when monster summoning time comes. Or maybe the monsters come onto the map immediately, so you must be hidden when searching. (This would be good with the Hive-looting makes the hornets angry!) Site: Tower. Automatically found when you enter its clearing. Maybe harder to loot, though. Some tiles (like the advanced, difficult ones) could have built in warning chits-the volcano, for example, could have a built in Smoke chit so it always summons dragons. The chit would be printed on the tile. Some tiles would have special rules. This would include permanent weather. A high mountain or arctic tile might always be under blizzard conditions, regardless of what the weather is elsewhere in the Realm. Some tiles could be cut off from the rest of the board, and reached by special means. A deep cave could be reached only through a gate counter (or dwelling?) that is summoned like a Monster. Another tile could represent a fairyland or a higher plane, that can only be reached through a particular site (shrine/temple?) by rolling on a special Site table. New types of clearings should be introduced in expansions. Ideas: volcano clearings, glacial or arctic clearings (where blizzard conditions are permanent), swamp clearings, desert clearings, river/lake (or water) clearings. There must be special rules that distinguish them, obviously (like mountains cost two moves to enter). Either it costs more phases to do certain actions, or you get a penalty for doing some actions (like searching, say). "Flavor" chits could be introduced, which represent visitors, missions, campaigns, road conditions, weather, events, non-combat encounters, deities, etc.. (This also contains a bit of musing, some of which is some ideas for either eliminating less useful spells or changing them so they are more useful. I also thought about moving a couple of spells, to spell types/colors that made more sense to me.) |