“Have I got some swampland for you. Investing in Florida real estate represents the opportunity of a lifetime.”

The core concept for my strategy board game—which I’ll call “Everglades”—is that the players are speculative real estate investors trying to amass the greatest wealth and power during the early development of South Florida.

Some of the other historical events and facts that may inspire game elements include:

• Devastating hurricanes could hit the state with no warning (use to encourage speculative behavior).
• The September 1928 hurricane (storms were not named at the time) did most of its damage (1,836 people killed) through flooding after the levees around Lake Okeechobee were breached. In game terms, hurricane events affect land value or destroy assets on certain properties.
• The state-operated Internal Improvement Fund financed development projects and distributed land grants. Implementing this in the game, land is available outside of the market and funds from the bank are available to support development. Perhaps fund money is disbursed based on group decisions of the players.
• A major natural resource exploited in early Florida history was bird plumage (feathers were sent north for fashionable hats). One of the historical tradeoffs represented by the could be exploitation of natural resources versus environmental protection.
• To support development many canals were constructed to both drain the swamp and carry people and goods. However, while canals did drain swamp to create land for development, and were at the center of much corruption, they did not accomplish much in the way of transportation. In game terms, players dig canals as a method of acquiring cash and real estate.
• Railroads were successful at bringing people to Florida and delivering goods to markets in the North. In contrast to the game’s treatment of canals, railroads built by players enhance the value of assets built on land to which they connect.

A tough few weeks at my job has kept me from posting for a while. Just as I began this blog, a huge project hit at work. Worse yet, the project has not gone smoothly, so I’ve been putting in long hours and have just not felt like sitting down at the computer to write more when I got home. I have continued to give the game ideas a lot of thought, though. Hopefully I can get things moving again.

The Name of the Game

One of the things I’ve been thinking about is a name for the science fiction roleplaying game. I think it would be a little awkward to keep calling it “that sci-fi game.” But a good name is not so easy to come up with. First, it should sound cool. But an ideal name should also convey a feel for the game’s theme, setting, or style. Read the rest of this entry »

Mission: Design a science fiction roleplaying game that my friends and I would enjoy playing.

This statement probably seems obvious, unoriginal, and of little value. Nevertheless, it needs to be the first and most important point of reference for every design decision, both large and small, because it is exactly what I’m trying to do. After years uninvolved in this part of the gaming hobby, I am interested in getting back into roleplaying but recognize that there are many hurdles to organizing a game among my friends. With a game custom designed for our interests, strengths, play styles, and outside lives, I’m hoping to maximize the odds of generating interest. I welcome the input of others and invite anyone else who might read these pages to make use of my work. But when it comes to final design decisions, I will always choose what will work best for my existing group. This philosophy leads to several design principles: Read the rest of this entry »

The three game ideas I’ve been thinking about recently are:

1. A science fiction roleplaying game.
2. A regional history-themed strategy board game.
3. A campaign world for a fantasy roleplaying game.

But first some background that will help explain my interests and some of my design choices… Read the rest of this entry »

So this is my new blog. In fact, it’s my first blog, and thus, currently my only blog. My primary purpose for starting it is simple. Like many other gamers (table-top games, including board games, strategy games, Euro games, war games, and roleplaying games), I’ve had some ideas for new games swimming around inside my head for a while. But other than a few pages of handwritten notes on paper, I’ve not done anything concrete about them. I’m hoping that a design journal in the form of a blog will give me both structure and incentive for further developing these ideas. It’s not that I expect to publish any of the games, or certainly to make any money off of them. It’s just that I’d like to move some of these ideas from daydreams to reality.

Read the rest of this entry »