Organ War: The Game!

The Print & Play version of my game is finally done!  Enjoy "Organ Wars"!

Download the game here:

Here, right here!

Playtesting

We're entering the play-testing phase of our game development, which is rather nerve-wracking.  There's a lot at stake: is my game playable?  Is it fun?  Most importantly, is it broken and does it need to be fixed?

I started play testing in my Game Design class, where it became apparent that some drastic rule changes needed to occur.  Someone won in the first round!  That was no good.  There was also the matter of a trading mechanic I included in the first iteration that was rather spotty.  Fixing all this was easy: to keep play from ending prematurely, I changed it so that, instead of starting with a hand of cards, players started by drawing from the full deck.  I got rid of the trading mechanic and combined a shoddy battle mechanic with another card, the Operational Spy card.

The next opportunity for play testing was Game Design club, where there would be a lot of upperclassmen and people from other sections.  Here, feedback was generally positive; aside from the odd overpowered card, the only main criticism was that gameplay took too long.  This was due to not having enough of certain needed cards.  I fixed this by adding in more organs, and fixing the overpowered card by making it half as effective.

In Game Design class, though, I got a shocking awakening: the game was based too much on chance; dice rolls, random card picking, etc.  It was fun, though that was like saying the cake was awful but the store-bought icing pretty good. In order to have more strategy, I needed to change the game once more.

I brought back trading, but made it a main focus of the game, adding a bluffing mechanic and dividing up event cards in a good and bad deck.  I also added in roles and a variety of win states, and introduced the idea of undesirable cards.

This new iteration's been play tested once, and there was definitely things to fix, but I'm not going to call it quits.  There's still a lot of play testing to be done before my game is ready to be released onto the world.

Initial Rules: Organ Grinder

This game needs a new name.

"Organ Grinder"

"The game where all is fair in war and organ trading."

A card game by Lizzie Smith

15-30 minutes, 3-4 Players

Players assume the guise of black market organ traders attempting to crush their competition and crawl their way to the top.

Game Components

2 six-sided dice

Deck of 36 cards

16 Organ cards

·8 kidney

·4 liver

·2 lung

·2 heart

20 Special cards

·2 Horrible Doctor

·1 Healthcare Takeover

·5 Power Struggle

·6 Operational Spy

·2 Organ Socialists

·2 Lucky Lungfall

·2 Double the Odds

Setting up the game

Begin by shuffling the deck evenly and dealing each player 6 cards.

Each player then rolls a dice to determine play order.  Lowest roll goes first.

Turn Order

Draw

Execute Orders

Barter & Battle

Check for victory

End of turn

Draw

The player draws the first card on the top of the deck and adds it to their hand.

Execute Orders

Player plays a special card.

Barter & Battle

After the Execute Orders stage, the player may open up discussion for trading of cards.  If the player so chooses, they may challenge another player for a card in their hand, but only if no bartered trades are made.

The disputed card is set face up between the two players, and each player takes a die.  The player with the highest combined score after three throws is the victor and takes the card.

Check for Victory

The player has achieved win state if they possess one of each organ card and a Horrible Doctor card at the end of their turn.

End of turn

If win state is not achieved, or player passes for the round, game-play passes to player on the right.

Glossary

·        Horrible Doctor: required card to win the game.

·        Healthcare Takeover: when played, the target of this card must discard their entire hand and redraw.

·        Operational Spy: Player can see the hand of the target player.

·        Power Struggle: Player picks a random card from the target's hand and places it in discard.

·        Organ Socialists: Target must divide up half their hand among other players.

·        Lucky Lungfall: Player is allowed to draw an extra card on their next turn.

·        Double the Odds: Player can roll an extra time during their next battle.

Strategy tips and design notes

·         Battles are best fought only if an Operational Spy card is played on the intended target, so the attacking player knows what they are likely to get.

·         Save the Healthcare Takeover card for an endgame situation where an opponent seems to have the upper hand.

·         For an extra challenge, players may consider placing disputed cards during the Battle phase face down, so the true identity of the card is unknown. With the added element of bluffing, players can use this twist to protect their hands if need be.

Brainstorming: Theme

"Sell or be sold."

Now that I've gotten initial ideas out of the way, it's time to focus on the general theme and concept of what I want in my game.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and in order to survive, you have to be able to take out your competition.  In this not yet named game, players assume the guises of black market organ traders attempting to reach the top of their trade, either by upgrading their "services," stealing from the competition, or both.    To extend the above theme:

"The black market organ game where players struggle their way to supremacy."

or

"The game where all is fair in war and organ trading." 

If you haven't guessed by now, there really isn't a lot of entertainment material out about the organ trade (and for good reason--it's bad and shouldn't be made fun of.  Except by me.)  The only examples I can find are references for tone and how I want my game to feel--which, for me, is just as important.

What?  Uno?  What does that have to do with a game about organ trading?

Uno, as well as games like Capitalism (President, Scum, etc.) and Fluxx are fast-paced and highly competitive.  They can be over in a flash and provide players with ample opportunities to screw each other over.  A lot of games (Uno especially) end up with multiple players ganging up on one player to mess up their end game, then turn on each other until a winner finally emerges.  I feel like this kind of strategy is what I want in my game, and reflects the overall theme.


Humour-wise, I'm looking at this game:

Or, it's more 18+ variety:

The humour in these games is sharp and to the point.  You feel bad for laughing (more so in Cards Against Humanity, in my experience), but you laugh anyway.  I'm not going to pretend like I'm not making fun of a serious situation.  My hope is to make you laugh anyway.

Colour-wise, I'm looking for a general tetrad scheme for the organ cards, with the coolest colour worth the lowest amount of points and the warmest the highest (this is so the player can differentiate at a glance).  

For special achievements and event cards, my plan is to go with a simple black + white scheme, to keep them separate from the ranking point cards.

Brainstorming

As we're designing tabletop games in Game Design, I've been tasked with coming up with some brainstorming ideas for mechanics and other things.

The idea I've been toying with most is a humorous board/card game.  I wanted something that had the feel of games that I would play with my best friend, and irreverent things like that is right up our alley.  Some mechanics/themes I thought of were:

• A card game where players know each other's cards but not their own.
• A mechanic where one player is the cop and has to figure out identity of another player
• A dice mechanic where players roll to keep their cards from being repossessed 
• A board game where players are racing to accumulate enough cards to open a shop
• A mechanic where one card belonging to someone else is constantly in circulation and can  be bought/sold
• A mechanic where players pay fake money to buy cards
• Two people roll dice for possession of a single card
• Humorous theme about cats building armor for rat wars
• Fantasy theme about building armies
• Mechanic of buying more cards giving more reputation points
• One player is traitor and the other players have to figure out who
• Mechanic where cheating is okay but only if not caught
• victory condition of the most cards
• victory condition of the least cards
• Victory condition of last one standing with original amount of cards intact
• Losing all cards results in player elimination
• Dice rolling mechanic to see who starts with most cards
• Handicap mechanic--player with most cards has to wait a turn to start playing
• Humorous/horror theme of vampires collecting bottles of blood
• Humorous theme about black market organ trading.

Theme:

As far as the themes I brainstormed, the one I'm most interested in is the black market organ trading.  I think it has the most potential for off colour humour, which is something I enjoy in games, and the idea of keeping and trading organs provides an incentive for the player to do well (especially if they're hypothetically your organs).

Mechanics:

One mechanic I thought was interesting was the idea of handicaps, one player starting with more cards but having to wait a turn to start playing.  It fits the theme well--one player is a more accomplished trader, and the others are up-and-coming.  I haven't play-tested it, however, but I can imagine that it wouldn't go over well.  It would require a lot of balancing in order to be fair to all players.

Another mechanic I especially like is two players rolling dice for a card.  This could work two ways: one player draws a card, and another player rolls because he wants it as well, or one player attempts to steal a card from another by rolling higher than him.  There would have to be a limit on how many steal attempts can be made for drawn cards (maybe even only once).