My lovely Alastrina, well, the real life inspiration for her anyway, suggested something I had never thought of. Wives are pretty good that way, even if it is “did you think about how displeased I’ll be when I see that pile of dirty dishes in the sink from this morning, molding by this evening?” This suggestion has a lot less “yes dear I’m doing it dear” energy and more “oh. You’re a genius, I love you!” wholesomeness.

I have a game concept. I don’t have experience as a game programmer. The technical curve on learning how to become one is going to be a lot for me. So why not make a game in a different format? Like a printed one?

I mean, now that its pointed out to me, it is obvious. They sell boxed board games. I’ve never seen one like what I’m hoping to do, which is tell a funny story while letting the players actually play parts of the story. There are even roleplaying games where you battle monsters and collect treasures, as pre-made dungeon slumming PCs. So.. why wouldn’t I be able to do that too?

Spending the weekend retooling what could be in a video game into a cardstock and cardboard box was a lot of fun. I want moves to deal buffs and debuffs; converting that into the idea of tokens had me chewing on digital pencil erasers for hours figuring out how to best do it. Big props to Flaticon for having neat icons that say quickly what I’d need it to do either as video game status icon or as a token.

The next steps are going to be a labor of love. I’d already been working on the move sets for Alastrina and Flonk, where some of their attacks, prayers and dirty tricks also deal status effects. Now that I’m cementing the sorts of moves they’d make (well, kinda sorta), I wanted to work on monsters too. Which turns out to be both a lot of fun and a lot of work, not the least of it being from the “how I make purty” side of things.

Very much work in progress, but Word tables at least get the gist of it. On top are the stats, like, how many base hp they have, if they have any base defense, and their challenge rating. No clue how to balance those in advance, but that’s what having family and friends to force into playtesting to invite to fun novel experiences is for.

The bottom is the move sets available. In an JRPG, this is done by giving them random moves, which may be weighted. In this case, its done with a d6 rolled per monster. On a result of a 1, 2 or 3, it hits you with its sword. Easy enough. On a 4 or 5, it does a life steal attack. On a 6, it buffs itself and its buddies with a 2 turn attack buff. So this isn’t a particularly threatening monster, but it has a bit of self sustain particularly after it self buffs, so, moderately challenging for lowbie adventurers who aren’t very powerful. Which is exactly what I’m shooting for!

Next step is to generate some tables of monsters and attack them with PCs. Oh family, can I borrow you?