Subject: MN: alternative game types

From: David Kenning <KenningD@w...>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:58:23 -0000

>1. "a bit like Go"

This is a very interesting idea. I've never played Go, but I'm vaguely
familiar with the idea of it, and I think it offers some very interesting
possibilities. Perhaps something along Risk lines would be more feasible --
starting with a small army on an outlying station and building and spreading
towards MC (or any other specified goal). And instead of taking over groups
of countries, you'd take over lines...

>Go can be viewed as a model of the problem of lines of supply in a
>military campaign, where an army can only survive if it has some room
>around it. Could something like this be made to work on the Map? 

I think it could, but (to state the obvious) it would be difficult.

>2. "a bit like chess"

Again, a very interesting idea. You could even have things like pawn
promotion on reaching zone 6 (very tricky when pawns have a maximum LV of
1), while rooks (or their equivalent) would be able to move any number of
places in a single turn, but only on a single line.....

Obviously, the piece types and move options would have to be thought out
very carefully. I think ultimately you'd probably have to treat this as a
chess variant, rather than a MC variant.

>3. leaving a trail

This idea reminds me of that old arcade game (Worms?) where you have to chop
off your opponent's tail by cunning manoeuvering. I suppose instead of
adding their tail to your own, you could get points and their tail would be
destroyed, and of course, a head on collision would be disastrous.

>What do people think? Any other ideas? 

How about Pacman MC? One player is Pacman, the others are ghosts. You'd have
to do away with most position changing actions, and modify stuff about LV
(maybe have fixed LV). The object would be to travel round the board
collecting apples from various points, the final apple being located at MC.
Hmm, maybe a bit complicated.

>Or is this just an example of the kind of thing that any moratorium
>is intended to prevent?

Well, maybe this isn't the time and place to start introducing big new
ideas, but I'm very interested anyway. Another problem is the small number
of active players at the moment, which would probably make these variations
either uninteresting or unplayable (witness game 13), but it's certainly
worth thinking about for the future.

dave

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/l-nomic-d
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com