Homemade board game ideas?

Question

I'm designing a board game for a college graphic design class. Here is the basic concept of the game:

- A board game based around a "road trip" theme. The board will be a map with a single starting and and end point. Basically, all players start from the same spot and compete to get to the end. By rolling dice, they can move across the map. By drawing cards, good and bad things happen to them, like "flat tire" and "traffic ticket".

I'm looking to make the game more fun and have a bit more strategy to it. The game shouldn't just be a game of chance. What fun ideas do you guys have?

Thank you!

Andrew

Answer 1

This reminds me of one of my favorite childhood games called "The Star of Africa" (it's a finnish game... see the link below).

The board has a map of Africa, and you travel around the continent looking for jewels. Each jewel you find makes you money, until you find the Star of Africa-- a giant diamond. Once you get it, it's a race for home base.

Along the way, there are robbers who steal all the money you've got. You need the money to travel by ship, or to travel by air. Also, opening each little piece costs money. Some pieces are blank, though, so it's a gamble.

Have fun!

Answer 2

Take the dice out of the game and make it a game where the decisions a player makes determines how much progress they make toward their goal.  Keep the card deck and the "events" in the deck, but supplement it with travel goal cards.  Perhaps each travel goal card has a certain number of "miles" on it and it takes a preset number of card "miles" in order to traverse across a particular region of the board (each region has its own characteristics as far as mileage required to cross it and inherent "hazards" of the region).  The first player to "claim" a region closes it out for the other players, so they have to find a different route to take.  "Miles" may also be used to offset bad events or to "purchase" good events.  Make sure that there is some mechanism that allows players to delay the leader so the game can be kept close.

Answer 3

Sounds like you have the basic idea down.

Check out the card game Milne Bornes (sp?) for additional ideas along this line.

As for your idea, don't make it entirely linear, that is, following the same path every single game.

Make it based on a real driving map, say the USA, simplified of course. You could start on the east coast on work to the west, or vice versa.

You could add some 'sight seeing' cards, that the drivers have to go to before they reach their desitination.

You could have the players (drivers?) pick a starting location card and an ending location card, plus X number of sight seeing stops.

Each roll of the dice would allow them to move 'X' number spots, or towns, along the map.

Throw in your hazard cards, such as tickets, weather, road hazards, falling rock if in a canyon area, or twisters if in the plains...

Have a season card to determine the time of year the trip is happening, so that weather could play on the game better. (ex:Stuck in blizzard, lose two turns--of course this would be contingent on where the player is, such as michigan versus southern florida)

Possibly even a sabotage/battle/fight/squabble option if two players occupy the same spot.

As in real driving situations, some roads have faster traveling speeds than others, so add in a bonus for Interstates or a penalty for dirt roads.

Whew. Hope these work.

Answer 4

Internet Monopoly... The "Trip" Around the web

Google=Boardwalk........

That would be really easy

Utilities could be like imageshack.us / tinyurl

Jail could be anti p****y related

Free parking = Warez site

my site could be your baltic avenue (source).... lol

Answer 5

The piece you move should be in shapes of different car types like a MPV, a SUV, a sports car, a RV, a trailer, a motorcycle, a truck.....  and you can earn "money" along the way. The map should be big and there are 3-dimensional buildings and places where you stay and you can earn "money". When you stay at the places, you will earn some "money" according to turns you miss.