/r/tabletopgamedesign

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All things related to designing Board Games, Card Games, RPGs & more!

All things related to designing board games, card games, RPGs, and Wargames.

Discuss, brainstorm, post links to your prototypes and finished products. Be sure to read the posting guidelines page.

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1

Interesting player interactions for a card game ?

0 Comments
2024/12/17
12:49 UTC

4

Please tear aprt my layout concept

Been trying to figure out layout and all that please tear it apart all opinions are asked for. the wording will likely be adjusted but comments on that are welcome too. This is only a small fragment of the system

google drive link

the current artwork is just placeholders to help visualize what it might look like

it is intended for a spread on 2 sheets of 8.5x11

4 Comments
2024/12/16
23:22 UTC

2

Friend made an incredibly engaging short strategy game (think tic tac toe, checkers, etc,.) how do we get some mock ups made?

Basically title. I'd like to get a board and official pieces made in a small run to help them out. Just played a game and it's super fun and easy to learn but still takes skill. How can I go about getting this done for them? I can do the art my self but I'd like to get them a box and everything for showing off and potentially for investments?

4 Comments
2024/12/16
19:13 UTC

0

Jujutsu kaisen game anyone?

Have a few concepts and rethemes.. having trouble pushing it along . Def would be just a personal project but let me know if anyone wants to take a run at it in their free time

1 Comment
2024/12/16
15:48 UTC

16

Looking for some feedback on this Equipment card. Characters in Regulus High-Fantasy Arena-Sports may bring up to three equipment cards to alter the way the play. Each card comes with : A once per game action (top) and a passive ability (Bottom). Is the passive ability visibly strong like this?

5 Comments
2024/12/16
11:42 UTC

5

I seriously need someone to smack me and tell me to stop overthinking. May I please get feedback for our current concept of our Horror Exploration game?

I know it is okay to have many cards or pieces or ideas as long as they make sense but I am fighting my mind between Simplicity vs Strategy so may I get some feedback to help me clear my head?

CONCEPT

A cult has started a ritual to bring about the end of days. Players take the role of investigators to explore the map, investigate locations, gather supplies, and find relics.

During their investigations, they must face off against lesser monsters that can ambush them or Demons that can stalk them. Find enough relics to open the final portal and face off against the Big Bad before it breaks free into our world.

EXECUTION:

The Board is a 5x5/6x6 (Still deciding) forest grid. Like the NIGHT CAGE, players draw tiles to build pathways throughout the grid.

Players can take 3 actions per turn. An action includes - Adding a tile to the pathway, moving, or Investigating.

Example: I add 2 tiles to my path for 2 actions. Then move forward 1 space on the path for my 3rd action.

[May increase this to 4 actions but we'll have to see]

Some paths can have a magnifying glass that indicates an Investigation Site. Players may explore an Investigation Site once per turn.

Some Paths can have an Altar/Shrine. Players may explore an Altar/Shrine once per turn.

Throughout the game, players may get Ambushed by lesser monsters - getting ambushed results in players having to fight the creature. They take turns attacking until one or the other is dead. Killing a lesser monster can help lower Corruption.

Demons can also appear on the board via Curses. When a player is cursed, a Demon appears on their spawn. After that player's turn, the Demon will move through the exposed pathways. Their movements have varied effects which will be listed below.

INVESTIGATIONS:

Investigations let you draw from the Investigation Deck. The Investigation Deck is the primary source of items or events.

An Investigation can result in finding:

  • Weapons

  • Items

  • Ambushes

  • Nothing

The other location players can explore is the Altar/Shrine. These are riskier locations that can provide the items needed to beat the game.

Altar/Shrines can result in the following:

  • Corruption -> World Corruption increases

  • Cursed Relic -> Summon a Demon onto the board. You are now cursed. Defeat the Demon in order to remove the curse and retrieve the relic.

  • Nothing

  • Relic Found

DEMONS:

Curses can occur throughout the game and it summons a larger monster that spawns on the actual board. They start on the spawn point of the cursed player and will focus on hunting down that specific player until one or the other is killed.

Demons move across open pathways towards the player and some Demons have abilities that can screw up the map.

  • Destroy - Destroys investigation sites. Requires an item to make them workable again.

  • Flip - Flips over pathways as it passes through them - forcing players to waste turns to flip them back over.

  • Lure - Places an Ambush Token on an Investigation Site it passes. Players must kill the Ambush lesser monster before being able to use the Investigation Site again.

Killing a Demon results in immediately drawing a relic.

DEATH:

If a player dies, their body remains on their space. If they were cursed, the curse is moved to the next player.

To resurrect a player, you must take their body back to the spawn point to respawn them at full health or use an item like a Deliberator to bring them back at half health.

Dying results in a massive increase of the World Corruption which can be a win condition for the Demonic Entity End Boss.

END GAME:

At the start of the game, you draw a Demonic Entity to act as the end boss. Entities have their own win conditions.

For example: If there are 4 or more demons on the board at once.

If World Corruption hits X.

If there have been X or more player deaths (players can resurrect through items or other means).

If the demon's conditions are met, it breaks through the gateway, enters our world and the game ends.

To win, players must find enough Relics to open a gateway into the Other Realm. Then players must make their way to the gateway to face off against the Entity. Players can face the Entity by themselves but it advised to tackle it as a group as these things are very powerful.

If the players succeed in killing the Entity, they win! If all the players die during the face off, the game ends and the world is destroyed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

TLDR:

Players build pathways through a forest to discover Altars and Investigation sites to gather relics and supplies in order to stop a demonic entity. They have to face off against Demons that can chase them on the board or lesser monsters that can ambush them during an investigation. Once they find enough relics, must face off against the Entity to stop it once and for all.

Concerns:

I am just wanting the game to be easy to figure out. I worry that I have too many elements to draw in terms of cards. Having 2 separate sites (Alters and Investigation Sites), the 2 decks to draw from, and the Path Tiles to build upon.

Writing this all down makes it seem rather straight forward but I just cannot help but think I am making it insanely complicated. Can I get some real feedback and thoughts of the concept so far?

13 Comments
2024/12/16
05:24 UTC

2

Started working on a football-themed card game. The first few playtest sessions have been encouraging!

2 Comments
2024/12/16
01:57 UTC

10

I'm working on a card game that features some puzzles and I'd love to know how long it takes you to solve this puzzle (if at all). I've scratched out the bits that aren't relevant to this puzzle.

33 Comments
2024/12/15
20:26 UTC

11

Is roll to move a death sentence?

I've had a ton both making and playing my own game this past year, but something I've noticed after putting the rulebook on board game geek is that at least the hard core gaming community seems to not look at it too closely due to their hatred of one specific mechanic: Roll to Move.

For context, my game has roll to move as one of the two primary actions you can do, but when saying that people assume the game lacks choice. Let's break it down though:

  • You have 3 dice, each 4-sided, each representing a separate action. * (this means that if you roll a 1, 2, and 3 you get to land first 1 space away, then land again 2 spaces further, then land 3 spaces past that all in one turn. You also don't have to do that in that order)

    • So far there's already 6 ways you can distribute your dice in a turn.
  • You also have 2 ships you can move! so we can double the amount of actions to 12

    • Except it's actually more than that because you have to account for the fact that you can distribute 2 dice on one ship 1 on the other and all of that. Correct me if I'm wrong but with those distributions accounted for it goes up to 24?
  • Here's the kicker though, you don't move in a straight line in this game, It's actually grid based as seen in the image below, which comes to mean that rolls of 1 and 2 can move you 4 spaces each and rolls of 3 and 4 ca move you 12 spaces each! The math from here on out get's kinda tricky but I think at this point you get the idea. Here is a roll to move mechanic that gives you a ton of choice and possibility.

  • Let's not forget the fact that if dice represent actions in game, you can also add mechanics and items (in my game these are called crewmates) that require dice to be used. Suddenly the playing feel between a supposedly 'good' dice roll and a 'bad' one gets balanced out as players recruit crewmates to account for the future.

Some of you might understand that point but still ask, why not just use a different movement mechanic that allows choice? Why not just tell players they can decide to move up to X amount of spaces? I have 2 reasons for this.

  1. Ease of learning: As someone who has played this game largely outside of the super nerdy board game community, people appreciate how easy it is to learn the game and I think a large part of this is the roll to move. They can pick up the game quickly and the challenge comes later as they figure out how to maximize their rolls and what they pick up, and position themselves carefully to avoid or chase down enemy players. I think it's nice when a Board Game's challenge doesn't come from just learning it.

  2. Chance isn't that bad: It's bad when you feel like you have no control over victory of course, like a snakes and ladders game. However I find it quite interesting when you don't know exactly what's going to happen over the course of a round but you do have the ability to shift the odds in your favor. If you are 2 spaces away from a given thing, you will have a 100% chance of being able to land on it the next turn. Ships can attack each other when they get too close too, so if a player ever gets too close to an enemy, they are risking being captured. For players with more experience, one can visualize a region of soft power that any given ship has throguhout the board.

Hopefully I made my case at least somewhat effectively, but what does the community think? Is roll to move always a dead on arrival example of bad game design?

https://preview.redd.it/fli6qry3h07e1.jpg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e072ba2f5e6e2135d2d695fd173514b8ba475381

48 Comments
2024/12/15
13:27 UTC

3

Need opinions on how to have players find items on the board. Any thoughts would really help me out. Been over thinking this for a while now.,

Trying to rack my brain on how to do this and can really use outside thoughts.

Purpose: players must find 3 unholy relics in order to unlock the final battle. As they explore the map, they can get ambused by monsters or stalked by a bigger r badder monsters

So the board has a 5x5 grid. Players start in the corners.

On their turn, they gst 3 actions. Move. Draw tile. Investigate.

Drawing tiles let them fill the grid with pathways. Use those paths to move across the board.

Some paths will have a magnifying glass icon. Those spaces allow players to investigate the site.

Investigating can lead to finding a Weapon, an Item, or a Relic (3 relics must be found to end the game).

But I would also like Investigating to have a chance at Nothing being found or an ambush by a monster.

I am trying to determine the best way to do this.

Do I:

  1. Color code investigation sites? So a red glass would be draw from weapon deck. Yellow from item deck. Black from relic deck.

In this instance, Nothing and Ambush cards would be mixed in all 3 decks.

I just feel like having 3 colors mean i need to balance how many of each color is in the tile pile and also feel this could lead to finding needed tiles more random.

  1. Have an actual Investigation deck that tells you what card to draw? Like "weapons cache found. Draw 1 weapon"

"ambush! Battle 1 jump scare monster."

"relic discovered!"

"nothing here!"

This may be simplier on the tile setup but would players be discouraged or feel its slow if they must draw 2x? Once to see what the investigation shows and once to get their item?

  1. Something else I am not considering?

Assistance is really appreciated here.

5 Comments
2024/12/15
12:21 UTC

13

Need Honest feedback! Is this awful? Do I need to trash this concept/art style?

39 Comments
2024/12/15
11:33 UTC

7

Clone vs Homage

The recent Powerboats / Joyride kerfuffle has again raised the issue of being inspired by another game vs copying it. The growth in gaming has been powered by designers building and iterating on the work of others, but what do we owe those who came before us? I put my thoughts down here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/gametek/p/copy-paste

Curious about others’ thoughts, or examples I may not be aware of.

2 Comments
2024/12/15
07:41 UTC

8

How Important Is Card Art Style Consistency?

I am working on creating a card game, it will be ~100 unique cards total for the base game, and I'm wondering what people would think if the art is not completely consistent in it's style? I have a card frame template which is being used across the board, but I am trying to get quality art for each card (each is a unique character with background) and that has been taking a bit of time. The artists I'm currently using are taking a few weeks per illustration on average, which is fine as we're trying to get it right, but I think I'm going to need to find a few more artists to get the set done timely and with that the overall art style is going to not be super consistent.

It is a card battler (think YuGiOh) just not a TCG. What would you think if the character/card art style looks different between cards? Would the card game be less appealing as it's not visually coherent?

12 Comments
2024/12/15
01:51 UTC

5

Question re color blind players. are the card suits easily recognizable?

These card designs are for an rpg character battle card set. The card suits are red, blue & green, but for people who are colorblind, are my icons obvious and in the best position to know the suit? And is the placement of the light blue icon flag at the top center the best spot?

https://preview.redd.it/jnjxsv7mlv6e1.png?width=1466&format=png&auto=webp&s=aed9227b58e0234cabf261d2b245667972641e0f

9 Comments
2024/12/14
20:48 UTC

5

Let's Make a Wargame! Episode 1: Foundations

In what I hope is the beginning of a longer series, I set down some foundations for a Wargame of my own creation. Let me know what you think.

0 Comments
2024/12/14
17:45 UTC

13

Introducing Bombshell: A New card based Skirmish Game!

Hey everyone!
I’m excited to share Bombshell, a fast-paced, card-based skirmish game where gangs battle it out for dominance on a 5x4 grid. Players control teams of three fighters, customizing them with powerful drugs, cybernetic mods, and unique abilities to outmaneuver and defeat their opponents.

The game is still in development, and I’m working hard to refine the rules to ensure everything is balanced, fun, and full of strategic depth. That’s where you come in! I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas as I continue fine-tuning the mechanics.

🎮 Screentop Playtesting Coming Soon!
To make it easy to dive in, I’ll be uploading the game to Screentop in the near future, so everyone can try it out and share feedback. Stay tuned—I’ll post an update as soon as it’s ready to playtest.

⚠️ Placeholder Art in Use
Heads up: the current art is just placeholder material while we refine the gameplay. The final visuals will better capture the gritty, post-apocalyptic vibe of the Bombshell universe.

I’d love to hear your initial impressions! What catches your attention? What questions do you have? And if you’ve got wild ideas for mechanics or themes, let’s hear them!

Let’s shape Bombshell together—looking forward to hearing your thoughts! 🎮🧨
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1090OLis7ABjp-R6TkftefIOJVSr3Cdmw/view?usp=sharing

7 Comments
2024/12/14
10:20 UTC

2

Catopomp | How to Play | Learn to Play in 6 Minutes!

0 Comments
2024/12/13
21:56 UTC

0

New project idea

Trying to generate some interest and feedback for a new project.

Game Concept: Strategic Card Combat

In this intense tactical card game, players build powerful decks and engage in head-to-head battles, strategically deploying unique units with devastating abilities. Each card represents a specialized combatant with distinct strengths, weaknesses, and game-changing special skills.

Key Features:

  • Deep Strategic Gameplay: Carefully choose your unit composition and plan your attacks
  • Diverse Unit Types: From elite snipers to heavy artillery, each unit brings unique tactical advantages
  • Active supply Management: Precise resource allocation determines battle outcomes
  • Dynamic Ability System: Special skills can turn the tide of battle in an instant

Game Mechanics:

  • Players construct decks of specialized combat units
  • Each unit has distinct stats: Health, Attack, Defense, and Action Point cost
  • Special abilities provide strategic depth and unexpected combat twists
  • Battles are won through intelligent unit deployment and tactical decision-making

Target Audience:

  • Tactical card game enthusiasts
  • Strategy game lovers
  • Competitive players seeking deep, skill-based gameplay
  • Fans of military and combat-themed strategy games

Core Appeal: Combine strategic deck building, precise unit management, and high-stakes combat in a thrilling card battle experience where every decision could mean victory or defeat. Oh and all the units are cats. Who’s ready for TACTICATS?!

18 Comments
2024/12/13
18:16 UTC

2

Resource Collection

I'm looking for inspiration because I'm trying to reform the resource collection in a game I'm currently working on. I wanted to know what are some cool ways board games have had you collect resources, or just ways you prefer.

Examples of what I mean are like:

• place worker on worker placement spot, gain that resource

• play card, gain resources on that card

•roll dice, gain resources on that dice

14 Comments
2024/12/13
02:36 UTC

4

Table top game Graphic Design

I am making a borad game for the first time. I am a graphic designer and I have my mechanics ready.

I have no experience designing a borad, any Tips, Tricks and Ideas?

5 Comments
2024/12/13
00:56 UTC

3

WW1 Naval Board game brainstorming

Hi all,

I’ve been roughly prototyping a WWI naval Board game for a few months. I keep coming up with new versions, different ideas, and rough drafts, but I’m still struggling to find something that sticks. So I decided to throw a line in here and see if there are any ideas you all have for what you’d want to see in a WWI naval board game. There are no bad ideas here; I'm looking into new ways of combat, boat movement, and just about any other ideas.

I've prototyped this game mainly as a wargame with hexagonal movement and different types of boats, but I'm open to exploring other ideas.

8 Comments
2024/12/12
23:39 UTC

4

Is a Cricut a wise investment?

I do a LOT of prototyping, sometime with well over a few hundred cards. For these instances, I tend to do a quick print(between my handwriting and the sheer volume of cards, printing saves more time)and cut the cards. I don’t necessarily mind cutting cards myself, but it does eat up a ton of time. Are Cricuts reliable enough for the price tag? I know I’d get a lot of use out of it, but I want to make sure I can get the precision they seem to promise. I also want to know if anyone knows of or has had success with any alternatives. Thanks!

24 Comments
2024/12/12
21:42 UTC

20

Please join me for a round of Multiplayer Chess

5 Comments
2024/12/12
21:30 UTC

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