Damn these loopholes!

Okay, so the playtests today (thanks Ryan and Lily for running those!) revealed a pretty big loophole: a player can place a piece in the past, move it in the same turn (based on the turn order), and then propogate on their next turn onto a city. Then, in that same second turn, the player can move another piece in the past onto a city, thus setting up the win condition. What this boils down to is, a clever player could win the game in 2-3 turns and BREAKS THE GAME.

We don't want a broken game. So, the solution is to reorder the turn breakdown. Players must move pieces on the board BEFORE they can put new ones down. This keeps a brand new piece from being immediately mobile (and shifting it's propogation pattern closer to the win).

Also, after much convoluted discussion about the relative probabilities of the Camouflage card, we've decided to not change it, but reword it slightly on the card so that its use is more clear.

Rules v 6.0

Premise: Ra, the almighty Sun God, has proposed a contest: decide which is better, plants or animals. You, as either Bastet (on behalf of the animals) or Osiris (on behalf of the plants) must establish populations of your subject species (both in the past and in the present), evolve those species, control territory, and be the first to gain control of 1 of Ra’s cities in both the past and the present.

Time Travel: In a given turn players can choose to act in the past or present. Playing in the past will create a ripple effect on the board creating more of the species in the present based on that species reproduction pattern (pictured on each species card). This reproduction will occur only once on the following turn after a player initially plays a species card in the past. If the reproduction pattern causes you to place pieces in the present where you have pieces already, then the reproduction takes priority and you must place the resulting species from reproduction.

Figure 1. Reproduction Effect: The player’s piece in the past is transferred to the present and the past piece overrides any piece already in the present. After placing a piece in the same spot in the present, the rest of the reproduction pattern can sprout in any direction with the piece already placed being any of the spots on the pattern the player desires.

The reproduction patterns also work as a death pattern for when a species is defeated in the past – all game pieces of the species killed within the pattern are defeated.

Figure 2. Death Effect: The death of the player’s piece in the past is transferred to the present. After killing the piece in the same spot in the present (if existing), the rest of the death (same as reproduction) pattern can sprout in any direction with the piece already killed being any of the spots on the pattern the player desires.

Movement: Pieces can be moved based on the “move” number on a species’ card. This number acts as a maximum movement number – the player may choose to move a piece less than its movement ability. For example: a hawk (with movement of 2) can move up to 2 spaces. At no time may two pieces be on the same space unless they are battling.

Battle: There will often be cases wherein you and your opponent will be competing for the same space on the board. In these cases, your disagreement will be settled via a dice roll. Both players will roll a dice to battle. Players will add the resulting dice roll to the species strength number and the player with the highest combined number wins. In the case of a tie, the defending player wins the battle.

For example, say a battle occurs between a Hawk and a Palm Tree. After both players roll their dies, the Hawk rolls a 4 and the Palm Tree rolls a 2. Players would then add the rolled dice numbers to their species strength to determine who won. In this case the Hawk wins (rolled 4 + strength 2 > rolled 2 + strength 3). Keep in mind certain evolutionary traits enhance the strength and movement abilities of species.

Card types: In each player’s deck there are two types of cards, species and evolution.

• Species: These cards are one of the three species available to the player. Playing one of these cards allows the player to put another piece on the board for that species in the past or present.
• Evolution: From time to time, you will draw evolution cards, which can add new abilities to your base species. Each evolution card may only be played once, and on one species. It is important to note that evolution cards are not permanent; players may have the option to steal your evolution abilities.

Game Pieces:

Species: Species are represented on the board by pushpins. Animals are represented by the solid colored pushpins; plants by the transparent pushpins. Each species is color-coded representing its relative strength – from white (weakest) to red (strongest).

Mat: Each player has a placemat that acts as a quick reference to the rules of the game. To the left of each species is a graphic representing each species’ strength value. As evolution cards alter a species’ strength, the player must update the graphic to indicate the current strength of species.

Figure 3. Strength tacks: Use thumb tacks to represent what the strength of your species are to the left of their card picture on the avatar mat. Species start on the graphic at the initial strength noted on the card and can become stronger (and change the slider) based on evolution cards placed.

Cards: Each player has a deck containing the species and evolution cards.

How to play:

Initial setup: After shuffling the deck, each player draws five cards and is given one of each of their three species. Players roll to see who goes first, and take turns alternating placing pieces on the green spots on the board only until each player has three. Initially pieces may only be placed in the present.

Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate):
1. Draw cards until there are 5 in your hand.
2. Place an evolution card on a species if so desired or possible. Player may only play one evolution card per turn. You may only have two evolution cards per species.
3. Place one species on the board (past or present)

4. Move one species on the board (past or present)

5. If an opposing species exists on a piece you are moving to, you will roll the dice to settle the conflict. Your roll must be equal to or greater than the health score of the enemy you are attacking.

End Condition: When one player controls one of Ra’s key cities in the present and one in the past and holds these cities for two turns, the player wins.

Rules v5.0

Premise: Ra, the almighty Sun God, has proposed a contest: decide which is better, plants or animals. You, as either Bastet (on behalf of the animals) or Osiris (on behalf of the plants) must establish populations of your subject species (both in the past and in the present), evolve those species, control territory, and be the first to gain control of 1 of Ra’s cities in both the past and the present.

Time Travel: In a given turn players can choose to act in the past or present. Playing in the past will create a ripple effect on the board creating more of the species in the present based on that species reproduction pattern (pictured on each species card). This reproduction will occur only once on the following turn after a player initially plays a species card in the past. If the reproduction pattern causes you to place pieces in the present where you have pieces already, then the reproduction takes priority and you must place the resulting species from reproduction. The reproduction patterns also work as a death pattern for when a species is defeated in the past – all game pieces of the species killed within the pattern are defeated.

INSERT IMAGE HERE.

Card types:

• Evolution: From time to time, you will draw evolution cards, which can add new abilities to your base species. Each evolution card may only be played once, and on one species. If that entire species dies on both boards, all current evolution cards are permanently removed.
• Species: These cards are one of the four species available to the type of life form that you have chosen. Playing one of these cards allows the player to put another piece on the board for that species in the past or present.

Movement: Pieces can be moved based on the “move” number on a species’ card. This number acts as a maximum movement number – the player may choose to move a piece less than its movement ability. For example: a hawk (with movement of 2) can move up to 2 spaces. At no time may two pieces be on the same board space unless they are battling.

Battle: There will often be cases wherein you and your opponent will be competing for the same space on the board. In these cases, your disagreement will be settled via a dice roll. Both players will roll a dice to battle. Players will add the resulting dice roll to the species strength number and the player with the highest combined number wins. In the case of a tie, the defending player wins the battle.

For example, say a battle occurs between a Hawk and a Palm Tree. After both players roll their dies, the Hawk rolls a 4 and the Palm Tree rolls a 2. Players would then add the rolled dice numbers to their species strength to determine who won. In this case the Hawk wins (rolled 4 + strength 2 > rolled 2 + strength 3). Certain evolutionary traits enhance the strength and movement abilities of species.

How to play:

Initial setup: Each player draws five cards, and is given one of each of their three species. Players roll to see who goes first, and take turns alternating placing pieces on the green spots on the board only until each player has three. Initially pieces may only be placed in the present.

Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate):
1. Draw cards until there are 5 in your hand.
2. Place an evolution card on a species if so desired or possible. Player may only play one evolution card per turn.
3. Do one of the following (in the past or present):
- Play a species card and place a piece on the board. Pieces must always be initially placed on a green space.
- Move a piece on the board.

End Condition: When one player controls one of Ra’s key cities in the present and one in the past and holds these cities for two turns, the player wins.

Thoughts on Card Balance

Hey everyone, sorry for not being able to make the Monday meeting. However, after reading through the new posts, here's some thoughts I have on the new card balance. First off, the new base scores for all the cards:

Lion/Palm - Move 1, Value 4
Snake/Iris - Move 2, Value 3
Hawk/Wheat - Move 2, Value 2, Can move over pieces without starting conflicts.

I'm still a bit concerned about how there really is only a very slight difference between the tier 2 and 3 creatures. Snake/Iris and Hawk/Wheat. As I'm not sure most playtesters have realized or utilized the "fly" function, and without that, Hawk/Wheat is the weakest piece without any redeeming qualities. So, I'm thinking on how to switch that, but unless we have a bigger game board, bumping up the movement to 3 will overbalance the movement rate. So, very last minute, but something important that Dan Arey pointed out:

Differences in abilities and creatures in the Past vs the Present? Why would I want to play a certain creature or card in the past as compared to the present?

As for the evolution cards, I'm not exactly sure if we should cut down the variety that much, however, I do agree we have to simplify it and make it easier at a glance for the players. We have already cut out Stench, Vines I am hesitant to take out, since the -1 movement range was tweaked to work well as a lock down measure once we put it down to a one hex range. But more importantly, it is a counter to the +1 movement wings mechanic card, but we can also put wings cards in the plant deck too. However, it would be nice to have a little bit of variety between the players to allow them a little more gameplay difference between the two gods. For venom, what I'm worried about is something else that Dan Arey had said:

Are there any cards that would decrease your opponents abilities, or just ones that would increase your own?

So in essence, we have no debuffs, only buff cards. And the closest one to this was the venom card, which was a inverse buff for your creatures, which I really think we should keep. I am proposing to not add any new cards, but at least keep the one debuff card and change the vines card to the same thing, an inverse buff for your opponent. So these two cards would be:

Venom/Poison - Reduce the Base Value of all creatures attacking this evolved creature by one.

Vines - Reduce the Base Movement Speed of animal type by one. This cannot reduce movement to zero.

I'm a little worried about vines, since it is vastly underpowered as compared to wings. I will print this up anyway just in case, but please test this and go from there and see how it affects gameplay. The positive, is that it will be useful on the two faster creatures, but can be used as a counter if used on the 1 movement Lion.

Here are the current balances for each of the decks, I like the balances that Ryan has placed for the cards, and by adding the Venom and Vines card, and then factoring in each of the characters minus the old "power" one, the new decks should look something like:

10 Wheat/Hawk
8 Iris/Snake
6 Palm/Lion

1 Camoflauge
1 Wings/Vines
2 Parasite
2 Spines
2 Venom

This brings it up to: 24 creature cards and 8 evolution cards. It's a little annoying to have to tier the creatures by 2, but with the "Golden" 3:1 ratio that MTG uses, I think it would be a pretty safe bet. And by factoring in the draw one card a turn and discard down to five, it'll be simple to keep in card rotation.

Dollars, bitches!

At our meeting Monday morning, we'll need to chat briefly about who's spent what, so we can figure out who owes what. Shouldn't be real drastic; I can't imagine that we'll go over $10 a person, and even that is probably a high estimate.

Meeting on Monday!

Let's meet on Monday to do all the construction-y stuff that we usually end up doing five minutes before lab on Tuesdays. 10am, in the IML.

To Do:

1. Construct new board (we printed new images, we just need to afix them to a new piece of foam board)
2. Assemble new decks. Diana will be printing the new cards (in color! gasp!) and will bring these to the meeting. This means Al needs to get the changed evolution cards to her by Sunday night (or forward the PSD's to Ryan so that Ryan can get them done by Sunday night).
3. Finalize the illustrated rules, based on Diana's/Lily's revisions. Diana will print in ZML.
4. Playtest. Because we never get tired of playing this friggin game.

After this meeting, Ryan will take all the materials home for additional playtesting with his compatriots of the fraternal variety. If he finds that we still have changes that need to be made, we will reconvene in the IML on Monday night, time TBA.

Discussion: Evolution Cards

So as we have done a whole heck of a lot of changes, another thing we now need to consider is the balance of the evolution cards.

Before the evolution cards would add or subtract from different attributes of each species. As we discovered in the second playtest session this was too much for the players to handle. We noticed that the players would end up with situations where a player would perform multiple calculations (i.e. 4-2+1+2) to even determine if they won or lost a battle. Though this worked for us when we were playtesting it because of our familiarity with the system it was not something a player new to the game could handle with ease.

To solve this, we think it would be best to have only four types of evolution cards. These would be:

• Camouflage (Must have total strength of 4 or higher to beat card)
  
• Wings (+1 Movement)
  
• Parasite (Steal an opponents evolution card)
  
• Spines (+1 Strength)

The main change is that we have combined all the logisitics of evolution (attack, health) into the one attribute of strength. Now the issue is we need to think about balancing the deck with respect to these evolution cards. My personal thoughts on the matter are to have the following setup:

• 1 Camouflage card
• 1 Wings Card
• 2 Parasite Cards
• 3 Spines Cards

Wings and Camouflage are the strongest cards and should be minimized because we don't players creating invincible characters or winning the game too fast. The parasite cards add the nice "gotcha" factor and the spines cards are just a good base to have since the battles are now settled by the nice balance of strategic chance (or "str-ance" if you will :-P).

Thoughts?

-Ryan

Oh, the changes.

Okay, so. Notes based on playtests, our chat with Dan, and our discussions of how to fix problems that came up.

-As mentioned in a previous post, there is too much math! See that post for changes to the combat system, cards, and board.

-Animals need to be color-coded (weakest to strongest, same color system for both players) so that they're easier to keep track of.

-Avatar mats need to be standardized using the new color system, so that you can tell at a glance what the state of your and your opponent's species is.

-Minor thing, but change the board to read "Past" and "Present", rather than all that Fertile Crescent stuff

-The rules are straight up confusing. Best solution? Illustrations. Most of the time, our written rules confuse players, but as soon as we demonstrate to the players what to do, it's really easy. Let's see if pictures will be enough to take us out of the explaining process.

So, now some pictures:

New Osiris mat (note the updated plant species):

New Bastet mat (note the updated animal species):

New battle system again!

Okay, so we've determined that our biggest problem is juggling all the math created by modifiers (evolution cards, negative numbers designed to weaken/balance species, etc). Our goal, therefore, is to remove as much math as possible, while still allowing for balance between species and modification using evolution cards.

So, each species has a number assigned to it (a positive number, 0-3 or something). When a battle occurs, each person rolls a dice and then adds the species' number to their dice roll. The one with the largest total wins the fight.

To keep track of species' numbers, the board will include a slider next to each species. That way, the number can easily be changed by evolution cards, and it's easy for the player and their opponent to keep track of how strong each species is.

So, to implement this new system, we need to do these things:
1. Assign each species their base number (1 for white species, 2 for green species, 3 for red species), and change the cards such that each animal has a "Strength" attribute, rather than Health or Attack or whatever.
2. Construct sliders on the board
3. Modify evolution cards such that they don't talk about changing health/attack/whatever. All evolution cards should only have modifiers to the "Strength" attribute.

Al, if this is confusing for you, give me a call. Also, if there are too many changes to the cards for you to handle (being out of town and all), just send me your existing PSD's and I'll take care of making the changes.

Okay, I think that covers it. Ready? BREAK!

--Diana

Rules v. 4_0

Premise: Ra, the almighty Sun God, has proposed a contest: decide which is better, plants or animals. You, as either Bast (on behalf of the animals) or Osiris (on behalf of the plants) must establish populations of your subject species (both in the past and in the present), evolve those species, control territory, and be the first to gain control of 1 of Ra’s cities in both the past and the present.

Initial setup: Each player draws five cards, and is given one each of their three species. Players roll to see who goes first, and take turns alternating placing pieces on the green spots on the board only until each player has three. Initially pieces may only be placed in the present.

Time Travel: In a given turn players can choose to act in the past or present. Playing in the past will create a ripple effect on the board creating more of the species in the present based on that species reproduction pattern (pictured on each species card). This reproduction will occur only once on the following turn after a player initially plays a species card in the past. If the reproduction pattern causes you to place pieces in the present where you have pieces already, then the reproduction takes priority and you must place the resulting species from reproduction. The reproduction patterns also work as a death pattern for when a species is defeated in the past – all game pieces of the species killed within the pattern are defeated.

Battle: There will often be cases wherein you and your opponent will be competing for the same space on the board. In these cases, your disagreement will be settled via a dice roll. The player who initiates the challenge must roll a number that is higher than or equal to the defender’s species’ health number (2 for a hawk, 4 for a palm tree, etc). Certain evolutionary traits enhance the defense and attack abilities of species.

Card types:
Evolution: From time to time, you will draw evolution cards, which can permanently add new abilities to your base species. Each evolution card may only be played once, and on one species. If all of that species dies on both boards, all current evolution cards are permanently removed.
Species: These cards are one of the four species available to the type of life form that you have chosen. Playing one of these cards allows the player to put another piece on the board for that species in the past or present.

Movement: Pieces can be moved based on the “move” number on a species’ card. This number acts as a maximum movement number – the player may choose to move a piece less than its movement ability. For example: a hawk (with movement of 2) can move up to 2 spaces. At no time may two pieces be on the same board space unless they are battling.

Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate):
1. Draw cards until there are 5 in your hand.
2. Place an evolution card on a species if so desired or possible. Player may only play one evolution card per turn.
3. Do one of the following (in the past or present):
- Play a species card and place a piece on the board. Pieces must always be initially placed on a green space.
- Move a piece on the board.

End Condition: When one player controls one of Ra’s key cities in the present and one in the past and holds these cities for two turns, the player wins.

Meeting on Saturday at 2, in IML.

Lily's observations and everyone's suggested rule changes from Tuesday

- The game is too slow and people tend to want to flood the board isntead of moving
+ suggestion(s): force all placement of cards into one action and all movement into another
- Hard for players to tell where to put evolution cards on the templates (as there are whole cards they want to see)
+ suggestion(s): make the height of the template longer and add a spot that explicitly says "put evolution cards here"
+ suggestion(s): leave a spot on the template for a discard pile
- Placement of propogated pieces in present is not obvious (nor is death pattern)
+ suggestion(s): illustrations or actual physical demo before game starts
- battle isn't clear enough
+ suggsetion(s): Avoid hardcore RTS players, I kid I kid! Add some form of flanking or influence for surrounding pieces
- players want to play multiple pieces or attack in masses or take more actions
+ suggsetion(s): You can't make everyone happy? Most solutions would increase complexity unfortunately
- too many evolution cards
+ suggestion(s): only one evolution card per species
- which leads straight into: can't tell what your and the other person's stats is
+ suggestion(s): visible pegs or a wheel that allows both players to see all the numbers. Or, make the game digital. Sigh. Also, line up the template better both color and placement wise so that its easier to see whats going on when both players have the same thing going on initially.
- It's Egyptian myth not Fertile Crescent
+ Suggestion(s): Find people who know less about history, no really, I kid!
- Too many things going on!
+ Suggestion(s): Play again? It doesn't hurt as much the second time! No, the serious change here is removing the mandrake and cattle.

Rule sheet changes
- Fix end condition on premise section of rules to 1 city each in past and present
- Only place pieces in the present on first turn
- Have to place new pieces in green zones only (always)
- Only one evolution card per turn
- Each piece only propogates once ever
- Only one piece per spot
- Battle happens at the intersection of speicies from different sides on one spot
- What happens when you propogate onto a piece you already own (override)

-Lily

Evolve Cards

Animal Evolve Cards
Plant Evolve Cards

Rules v. 3_0

Premise: Ra, the almighty Sun God, has proposed a contest: decide which is better, plants or animals. You, as either Bast (on behalf of the animals) or Osiris (on behalf of the plants) must establish populations of your subject species (both in the past and in the present), evolve those species, control territory, and be the first to gain control of 2 of Ra’s 3 designated cities.

Initial setup: Each player draws five cards, and is given one each of their three species. Players roll to see who goes first, and take turns alternating placing pieces on the board on green spots only until each player has three.

Time Travel: In a given turn players can choose to act in the past or present. Playing in the past will create a ripple effect on the board creating more of the species in the present based on that species reproduction pattern (pictured on each species card). This reproduction will occur on the following turn after a player initially plays a species card in the past. The reproduction patterns also work as a death pattern for when a species is defeated in the past – all game pieces of the species killed within the pattern are defeated.

Battle: There will often be cases wherein you and your opponent will be competing for the same space on the board. In these cases, your disagreement will be settled via a dice roll. The player who initiates the challenge must roll a number that is higher than or equal to the defender’s species’ health number (2 for a hawk, 4 for a palm tree, etc). Certain evolutionary traits enhance the defense and attack abilities of species.

Card types:
Evolution: From time to time, you will draw evolution cards, which can permanently add new abilities to your base species. Each evolution card may only be played once, and on one species. If all of that species dies on both boards, all current evolution cards are permanently removed.
Species: These cards are one of the four species available to the type of life form that you have chosen. Playing one of these cards allows the player to put another piece on the board for that species in the past or present.

Movement: Pieces can be moved based on the “move” number on a species’ card. This number acts as a maximum movement number – the player may choose to move a piece less than its movement ability. For example: a hawk (with movement of 2) can move up to 2 spaces.

Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate):
1. Draw cards until there are 5 in your hand.
2. Place an evolution card on a species if so desired or possible.
3. Do one of the following (in the past or present):
- Play a species card and place a piece on the board.
- Move a piece on the board.

End Condition: When one player controls one of Ra’s key cities in the present and one in the past and holds these cities for two turns, the player wins.

Card Templates

Here is the basic template for what they should all look like. I am emailing Diana the set for now, if you guys need any copies, let me know too. After talking with Ryan and working on the cards, I've decided against the tiny symbols for the propagation, mainly because the cards are so small, it will be more clear if they are just marked with black and white spaces.

Color Schemes for Player Pieces

For Animals:

Yellow-Lion
Blue-Hawk
White-Snake, Give me all your love baby!
Cattle-Red

For Plants:

Green-Palm
Blue-Wheat
White-Iris
Mandragora-Red

These are the colors of the push pins that correspond to each, and each side is clearly marked by transparent colors and solid colors, for less confusion on the game board.

If possible, we can color code just the area on each game board where cards are supposed to be placed for now to make it even easier for people to identify each unit.

Some Hieroglyphics Templates

Big Trouble in Little China

EDIT: For some strange reason, the playtesting notes from Saturday were posted, but only showed up in the side bar as an external link. Weird. Well, they've been reposted and should now show up on normally. Here is a breakdown of some of the stuff that was important to change in the rules:

In the case of a tie, the attacker wins. This is done otherwise there is too slim a chance to defeat some cards, especially with buffs on them.

We are ramping down the cities to two in both the past and the present and centralizing them closer to each other in the center of the board. This is a result of looking at all three games and determining that the play time was far too long for one round. While game three with one city in the past and two in the present was close, it still took about 34 min to finish one game. This creates more space around the gameboard, or the illusion of it, as there will be more empty space that players can move, but will probably not place creatures there for strategy.

We need to distinguish if something has evolved or not based on some sort of marker on the board.

Animal and Plant cards on the template will be colorized at this moment depending on the color of the push pins that will represent them, this will be the easiest solution to color coding at this moment.

Attack will be resolved for intersecting pieces, not adjacent.

The Stench card is useless and needs to be reworked with the current rules.

The Vines card wil be powered down to an area of effect of 1 hex instead of two.

The Mandragora and Cattle Cards will have their power reduced to +1 instead of +2

Viper will be changed to Snake to avoid confusion in the field.

The Wheat and Hawk Cards will have their move reduced to 2, effectively making them the middle of the road -2/2 card. However, this slighlty unbalances the Iris and Snake, which has a -1 to attack and 3 defense, effectively making it take up the same niche as the Lion and Palm cards.

Logo!

The title logo would be for the game board, and the single butterfly would be for the backs of the cards (maybe do a green butterfly for plants, red for animals). The blue single butterfly would also be used on the avatar cards, the rules, whatever else we would want the logo on. Let me know what you guys think. Also, HEY AL. SEND ME THE FRIGGIN CARD DESIGNS ALREADY! Gonna need those so I can update the avatar cards :-P

Rules v3.0

Butterfly Effect

Premise: Ra, the almighty Sun God, has proposed a contest: decide which is better, plants or animals. You, as either Bast (on behalf of the animals) or Osiris (on behalf of the plants) must establish populations of your subject species (both in the past and in the present), evolve those species, control territory, and be the first to gain control of 2 of Ra’s 3 designated cities.

Initial setup: Each player draws five cards, and is given one each of their three species. Players roll to see who goes first, and take turns alternating placing pieces on the board on green spots only until each player has three.

Time Travel: In a given turn players can choose to act in the past or present. Playing in the past will create a ripple effect on the board creating more of the species in the present based on that species reproduction pattern (pictured on each species card). This reproduction will occur on the following turn after a player initially plays a species card in the past. The reproduction patterns also work as a death pattern for when a species is defeated in the past – all game pieces of the species killed within the pattern are defeated.

Battle: There will often be cases wherein you and your opponent will be competing for the same space on the board. In these cases, your disagreement will be settled via a dice roll. The player who initiates the challenge must roll a number that is higher than or equal to the defender’s species’ health number (2 for a hawk, 4 for a palm tree, etc). Certain evolutionary traits enhance the defense and attack abilities of species.

Card types:
Evolution: From time to time, you will draw evolution cards, which can permanently add new abilities to your base species. Each evolution card may only be played once, and on one species. If all of that species dies on both boards, all current evolution cards are permanently removed.
Species: These cards are one of the four species available to the type of life form that you have chosen. Playing one of these cards allows the player to put another piece on the board for that species in the past or present.

Movement: Pieces can be moved based on the “move” number on a species’ card. This number acts as a maximum movement number – the player may choose to move a piece less than its movement ability. For example: a hawk (with movement of 2) can move up to 2 spaces.

Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate):
1. Draw cards until there are 5 in your hand.
2. Place an evolution card on a species if so desired or possible.
3. Do one of the following (in the past or present):
- Play a species card and place a piece on the board.
- Move a piece on the board.

End Condition: When one player controls one of Ra’s key cities in the present and one in the past and holds these cities for two turns, the player wins.

Round 1
Rules being tested: one action per turn, no cost for going through time, automatic reproduction, player-chosen setup, win condition is 2 cities in the present (held for two turns)

SNAKE IN A BOX. INTRODUCE YOU TO MY COOOBRA.

Ryan evolves Hawk using Thick Hide; moves Hawk to capture one city.

Al evolves Wheat with Camouflage; moves Wheat to capture one city.

Ryan answers his cell phone, discreetly.

Ryan places one Hawk on the board.

Al places one Wheat on the board.

Ryan confronts a Hawk with Wheat; does not succeed, removes Hawk from board.

Al moves Wheat to capture a second city. Automatic win because Ryan can't get there next time.

Conclusions: Evolution cards and fast species are very attractive. No incentive to play in the past. Gameplay is moving much more quickly, so the rate is much improved. Hawk and wheat move too quickly (can get to a city in one turn).

Round 2
Rules being tested: one action per turn, no cost for going through time, automatic reproduction (but pieces in Past do not disappear), player-chosen setup, win condition is 2 cities in the present (held for two turns), win condition = two cities in both Past and Present, Hawk and Wheat knocked down to 2 spaces per move.

Present: Ryan evolves Hawk using Giantism (we all approve of this card). Moves Hawk 2 in the Present.

Present: Al evolves Palm Tree using Vines. PROBLEM: vines reduces movement of any animal by 1, but Lion's move is already 1, so effectively the Lion is stuck in that scenario. Al attacks Hawk with an Iris: Al is not victorious.

Past: Ryan plays a Cattle card, such that it will reproduce (at the beginning of his next turn).

Past: Al places a Palm Tree.

Present: Ryan's cattle spreads. Cannot move them, because of the vines of Al's Palm Tree. Ryan takes one city using a Hawk.

Present: Al's Palm Tree reproduces. Much confusion ensues about the Palm's reproduction pattern.
Past: Al places a Palm tree on the board.

Past: Ryan places a Lion on the board.

Present: Al's Palm Tree reproduces. Reproduction causes fight with a Viper: Al wins, Viper leaves the board.
Present: Al evolves Wheat using Camouflage. Moves Wheat on the board.

Suggestion: If you kill every member of a species in any time period (past or present), all evolution applied to the species is nullified.

Present: Ryan's Lion reproduces. His name is Simba. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID. Ryan evolves Lion using Wings. Takes one city using Lion.

Possible win conditions to test in later rounds: one city in the past, two in the present; three in any time period

Past: Al places Wheat on the board.

Past: Ryan decides to use Cattle, realizes that it is still tied down by Palm (vines). Places a Hawk on the board.

Present: Al's Wheat reproduces, causes automatic conflict with Lion: Wheat loses. Al Evolves Iris using Bark.
Past: Al places Iris on the board.

Ryan plays Parasite, takes Camouflage (formerly on Wheat), places it on Hawks.
Present: Hawk reproduces.
Past: Ryan moves Hawk across board.

Al is boned.

Present: Iris reproduces. Causes automatic conflict with Hawk: Iris loses.
Past: Moves Iris, fights Hawk: Iris loses. No reproduction will result (also no future destruction).

Ryan is a cheater face. He also has shifty eyes.

Past: Ryan moves Hawk to capture one city.

Past: Al places Iris on the board.

Past: Ryan places Hawk on the board.

Diana and Lily are ravenous.

Present: Al's Iris reproduces. Al evolves Iris with Thorns.
Past: Al places Iris on the board.

Present: Ryan's Hawk reproduces. Ryan now has a Hawk Hoard. A Hawk Herd. A freaking lot of Hawks.
Past: Ryan moves Hawk across the board.

Present: Al's Iris reproduces, causes automatic conflict with Hawk: Iris loses.
Past: Al attacks Hawk with Iris: Iris wins. Al rejoices (quietly)

Past: Ryan places a Hawk on the board.

Past: Al moves Iris across the board.

Present: Ryan's Hawk reproduces. Note: flying ability of Hawk and Wheat has not come into play yet.
Past: Ryan moves Hawk across the board.

Current standing: Ryan has two Present cities, one Past, and is poised to fight Al for another Past city. If he succeeds, none of Al's pieces are close enough to retake the Past city. Therefore, Al should try to take a Present city.

Present: Al attacks Hawk in city with Iris: Iris loses.

Past: Ryan's Hawk challenges Iris for control of a city: Hawk wins.

Present: Al attacks Lion with Iris: Iris loses.

Ryan is the winner!

Conclusions: Tooooooo long (40 minutes, yikes!). Need to reduce win condition. Change placement of cities, such that there are two in the past, three in the present. Win condition would be taking two in the present, one in the past. Would like to see a round where players start in the past, to see if this increases influence of evolution.


Round 3
Rules being tested: one action per turn, no cost for going through time, automatic reproduction (but pieces in Past do not disappear), player-chosen setup, win condition is 2 cities in the present, one in the past, there are only 2 cities in the past

Present: Ryan, Evolve Spines on Snake. Attack Palm, lose.

Lily evolve Iris, Poison. Place palm tree in the past.

Ryan places Hawk in the past.

Lily's Palm Trees Reproduce, Evolve Palm with Vines. Places Mandrake in the past.

Ryan's hawk reproduces. Attacking (due to propagation) Hawk with Wheat. Hawk Wins, Hawk attacks Palm, Hawk Wins. Moving hawk in past.

NOTE: TIES WILL ALWAYS RESULT IN THE WIN OF THE ATTACKER.

Lily's Mandrake propagates and attacks Hawk, Mandrake wins, Propagating on another hawk, Mandrake Wins. Moved Mandrake in present onto hawk, mandrake wins.

Ryan places Cattle in the past. Parasite card, takes vines and places on cattle.

Lily places Giantism on wheat. Places wheat in the past.

Ryan propagates cattle. Cattle onto Mandrake, Cattle Wins. Cattle in past attacks Mandrake.

Lily propagates wheat onto hawk, wheat loses, Lily propagates onto Cattle, wheat wins. Places Iris in the past.

Ryan evolves venom on hawk. Places a Lion in the past.

NOTE: CHANGE VIPER TO SNAKE

Lily moves Palm to city in present.

NOTE: Rearrange cities in the past to allow for more flexibility of movement.

Ryan's Lion Propagates and attacks Palm, Palm wins. Ryan moves cattle in the present and attacks wheat, cattle wins.

Lily propagates Iris, places wheat in the past.

NOTE: Get something to represent, not propagated yet.

NOTE: Get a board with two cities in the past and the present.

NOTE: Reduce power of vines to 1 hex.

Ryan attacks Iris with Cattle, Iris wins, destruction of Iris pattern in present.

Lily propagates Wheat, moved wheat in past.

Ryan moves Cattle to attack wheat in the present.

Lily moves Wheat onto past city.

30 Minute Mark

Ryan moves Cattle onto present City.

Lily moves wheat onto present city, declares win state.

Lily Wins.

Card Prototype

Rule tweaking

• ACTIONS (Need to determine from the following)
  
• 1 action per turn - in either the past or present.
• 2 actions in the present OR 1 action in the past.
  
• ATTACK (Need to determine from the following
  
• Attack occurs at intersection of two pieces.
• Attack from one away and get the spot if you win
• PAST CONSEQUENCES (Need to determine from the following)
• Unit reproduction occurs immediately when you place the piece in the past
• Unit reproduction occurs at the next turn after placing a piece in the past
• Player chooses when to reproduce from the past
• WIN CONDITION (Need to determine from the following)
• Player takes control of two cities in the present
• Player takes control of two cities in the present, one in the past.
• Player takes control of any combination of two cities, past or present.
• Each spot can only have at maximum one piece
• Movement described on the card acts is the maximum number of moves the player can make.
• If in the past and place a piece in the same spot as the present, the one in the past automatically wins.

Those are the main things that I believe we discussed. Feel free to add more as you see fit.

Avatar cards

These will need tweaking. In particular, I know we wanted images of each of the possible cards, but since I didn't have those images handy, they'll have to go in later. These are 10x7...that size can probably be reduced, but we'll see how it looks printed. Thoughts on the layout so far? Any other information we want to include?

Playtest #1 Notes ver. Ryan

So I figure it's best if we each write what we got out of today's play session.

Without any delay here I go:

• I feel we had too much dialogue at the beginning to make the player's understand the basic premise of our game. At this stage in the game it's fine but we will definitely have to solidify our rule-set so that next round we can ideally sit back and watch the magic happen. Some rules that the players found confusing included:
• only one unit can occupy any given space.
• definition of the win condition
• the retaliation rule (after a player gets the two cities...)
• The set-up of our game is confusing. We need to find a way to simplify this. We have discussed many different ways to do this so it's not that big of an issue.
• Next iteration needs to contain color-coding for the different species so that at any given glance at the board anyone can assess the current state of the game (i.e. are the animals dominating?)
• Maybe we can find a way to simplify our game so that it moves faster - maybe only doing one action per turn so that actions is continually transitioning between the players
• The number of moves stated on a card should be the maximum number of spaces that figure can move. Do we want the player to have the option to only move one space?
• We need to come up with a clear template (much like the base species card sheet). One idea I had was to have a single template form that both players share. As the players play evolution cards they are placed on this global template.
• It would be ideal to come up with an easy grid that allows for easy piece transiation from past to present (maybe a labeling system i.e. hex spot A-1, B-2, C-5, etc.)

That's all I have for now. Any thoughts?

- Ryan

Rules used in today's playtest

Also, remember that we're meeting tomorrow at 4 in the IML. See you kids then!

Premise: Ra, the almighty Sun God, has proposed a contest: decide which is better, plants or animals. You, as either Bast (on behalf of the animals) or Osiris (on behalf of the plants) must establish populations of your subject species (both in the past and in the present), evolve those species, control territory, and be the first to gain control of 2 of Ra’s 3 designated cities.

Initial setup: Each player draws five cards, and is given one each of their three species. Players roll to see who goes first, and take turns placing pieces on the board until each player has three in place. Pieces may be placed anywhere on the board, so long as they are at least three spaces away from any of Ra’s cities.

Time Travel: Although Ra’s contest takes place in the present, you are a god, and can therefore manipulate time. It may be to your advantage to travel back in time, establish a population, and return to the present to see how it’s grown.

Territory Conflict: There will often be cases wherein you and your opponent will be competing for the same space on the board. In these cases, your disagreement will be settled via a dice roll. The player who initiates the challenge must roll a number that is higher than the defender’s species’ health number (2 for a hawk, 4 for a palm tree, etc). Keep in mind that certain evolutionary traits enhance the defense and attack abilities of species.

Evolution: From time to time, you will draw evolution cards, which can permanently add new abilities to your base species. Each evolution card may only be played once, and on one species.

Movement: Pieces can be moved based on the “move” number on a species’ card. Thus, a hawk can move 2 spaces, wheat can move 3, etc.


Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate):
1. If you are in the present, draw cards until there are 5 in your hand.
2. Move back in time (doing so ends your turn).
3. If you are in the present, make a total of three moves. These might include placing pieces on the board, moving pieces across the board, or confronting your opponent to acquire territory. If you are in the past, you will only make one move. Again, remember that any piece placed on the board must be at least three spaces from Ra’s cities.

End Condition: When one player controls two of Ra’s key cities, the opposing player has one turn to attempt to gain control of one of those territories. If the challenger is successful, play continues as normal. If they are unsuccessful, the player with two cities is the winner and the game is over.

-Diana

In Class Playtest

Eduardo and Brittany, overseen by Lord Swain.

Initial questions with rules?

-Get a creature and rules template.
-Matching?
-Change order of
-Color Code the areas you can't start or place things in, especially in the past.
-Change the order of the setup, place pieces before drawing.
-Color Coded Tokens
-Place Rules on the Board for each time period.
-Change initial placement of game pieces, set starting areas.
-Clarify Expansion pattern.
-Emphasize Win Condition in strategy.
-No stacking elements.
-Tie in battles go to the attacker.
-In the past, when placing, you can attack too.
-+2 attack is too strong, make it plus 1.

Original Idea Backlog

CTIN 488-Team Brainstorm

Lily Chang
Andre Clark
Ryan Dumouchelle
Diana Hughes
Al Yang
lilycheng.usc@gmail.com
dumouche@usc.edu

Title: Butterfly Effect
Logline: Evolve your present
Target Audience: Anyone with a junior high education
Platform: Personal Computer/Online

What does the player do?:

*Placement and management of resources
-Control Resources
-time (magic)
-territory
-natural resources: water, sunlight, minerals
-humans as a chaos factor
-water
-sunlight
-minerals

*Plant seeds, control population, sabotage, manipulate
*Travel through time-magic
-Amount of time-magic available is based on health of
your species in the present.

Who is the player character: Sprite, Dryad, Nature Spirit, etc.

Constantly changing world, character actions accrue ever 2-3 weeks.
GM's keep track of human balance.

Experience and wins add points to further evolution, able to take
evolution in fantastic directions. i.e metal plants, animals with
photosynthesis.

Board Game Ideas
2 Boards, 1 Past 1 Present (for now)
Control territory and gain resources
-establishing bases
-resources aquired via card draw/implementation
-character stat, evolve cards/chaos cards
Win Conditions?
time conditions?
resource conditions?
Resources?

Evolutionary cards, different species, attach attribute cards.

4 boards, ripple effects from one board to another.
Updating system that is simple and updates from
concurrent time periods.

D6 Combat System:

Random Chance System: When Engaged in Combat: Roll 1 D6 (Six sided Die) and compare total scores after modifiers are taken off. ie +1 due to ability
modifiers.

Strategy System: Each card has an associated number (ie Armor Class)
and when engaging with that card, you must outroll the number printed
on there, adding or subtracting any modifiers. ie Aardvark, AC 4, when
defending, add +1 to this cards AC score.

We are settling with the Strategy system, one number defense at this point in time.

The random chance system could be implemented as a wholly
different aspect of the game, such as a roll off when poisonous plants
are present to see how many animals succumb to it's effects, etc.

Base Aspects that can be modified through the system:

1. Movement
2. Toughness
3. Attack

Evolution Card:

1. Wings - You incur no penalties from terrain
2. Thorns - You lower your opponents die roll by 1
3. Camoflauge - opponent must roll off d6 against you before even attempting
an attack. (when attacked)
4. Poison - reduce the toughness of all afflicted organisms by 2
5. Stench - Stop an attack within one hex, can be used once/turn
6. Spines - Increase your attack by 1
7. Speed - Increase hex movement by 1
8. Claws - Increase attack by 1
9. Scales - Increase defense by 1
10. Burrowing - opponent suffers 2x terrain penalties/bonus
11. Agility - opponent must roll a 3 before even attacking you
12. Gills - you incur no penalties from water terrain
13. Thick Hide - increase your toughness by 2, but decrease movement by 1
14. Fur - increase defense against plants by 1
15. Smell -
16. Thick Bark - increase defense against animals by 1
17. Unpleasant Taste - reduces attack of animals by 1
18. Intelligence/Tactics/Sentience -
19. Movement - allows plants to move without reproducing
20. Horns - increase attack by 2, but toughness by 1

Fantasy Evolution:

1. Metallic - Add + 2 to your toughness rating
2. Photosynthesis - Not affected by poison/?
3. Phasing/Blinking/Teleporting - You are able to move directly without
incurring penalties from terrain.
4. Fire Breath - You can engage in combat from one hex away.
5. Changeling - Able to copy one characteristic of any plant/animal in play

Animals:
Venom - Attack of opponent -1, Plant counterpart is Poison.
Wings-Movement + 1, Animals only
Thorns-Add +1 to the attack of any Plant, animal counterpart is Spines.
Camoflauge-Must roll a 4 or higher to defeat this opponent, regardless of base toughness, plants and animals.
Thick Hide-+1 to toughness rating, Plant counterpart is Bark.
Stench-This character can only be attacked once per turn. Plants and animals.
Vines-Reduce movement of any animal within 2 hexes by -1, Plants only.
Size-Add +1 to the attack and toughness of this creature, plants and animals.
Parasite-Copy an existing ability of your opponent's on the board and apply it to
this organism. Plants and animals.

To Add In:
All cards are buffs for your characters, but there are no ones that you can set them in as detrimental debuffs for your opponent's characters.

Play Test # 1

Notes:

-Start with one of each species
-3 Actions per turn
-Placement is up to the player, but must be 3 hexes away from any win spot.
-Modifying is a move

Counterattack: Allows a return attack when attacked.

Roll off to see who gets to place their first piece.
Can only place pieces in the present.
If the character is defeated, remove from board.
Can only stay 1 turn the past, automatically booted back.
Overlaps incur battles.
Ripple effect happens during the players next turn.
If the ripple effect occurs on a border or a friendly creature, the pieces can still be placed in the
area of the ripple pattern.

Diana places Lion first corner
L-Wheat
D-Viper
L-Palm
D-Hawk
L-Mandrake

Diana:
Moves to teh Past

Lilly:
Modify Wheat-Bark
Placed Iris
Attack Hawk with Wheat
Hawk 2 Health-Rolled 1, Wheat Loses

Diana:
Places Hawk in the Past.
Places Hawk in the Past.
Places Lion in the Past.

Lilly:
Iris attacks Lion, roll 5
Places Iris
Attack Hawk, roll 6
Defeats Lion
Defeats Hawk

Diana:
Past Hawk Multiplies
Past Hawk Multiplies
Lion Multiplies

Diana Takes over 2 strongholds.

What we learned:
Past is too strong, ripple effect is very overpowered.
Reduce actions in the past to 1.
You have to hold the cities for one turn before minimum.
No difference in attack power.

Lily V. Al

A - Places Lion
L - Places Palm Tree
A - Places Viper
L - Places Iris
A - Places Hawk
L - Places Wheat

Al:
Puts Spines (+1 attack) to Viper
Moves Lion one space
Attacks Wheat with Viper
Viper beats Wheat

Lily:
Goes back to the past

Al:
Draws two cards
Places Viper
Moves Hawk three spaces
Attacks Iris with Viper
Viper loses to Iris

Lily:
Places Palm tree in the past

Al:
Plays poision (opp. attack - 1)
Plays Viper
Moves Hawk

Lily:
Palm trees trickle to present
[LEARNED: pieces trickling from the past that intersect with your own piece must be moved in that turn]
Moves palm tree
Plays Palm tree
Moves palm tree

Al:
Draws two cards
Places bark (+ 1 toughness) on Hawk
Moves Lion two spaces

Lily:
Plays parasite (steals ability from opp - steals bark from Hawk) on Palm Tree
Attacks Hawk with Palm Tree
Rolls 4, beats the Hawk
[LEARNED: Move and attack each count as a seperate action]

Al:
Draws two cards
Plays Hawk
Plays 2 Snakes

Lily:
Plays palm tree
[LEARNED: all specices of the same type evolve - not unique to each unit]
Moved palm tree twice

Had to stop due to time restriction.

Osiris vs. Bast and other epic conflicts

So here's a fun game: Blogger has now moved completely to being driven by Google accounts. What this means for us is that I had to associate our account with one of my existing Google accounts in order to get to it. Check your email for info about the new login and password.

In other news, I've done some research, and it appears that Bast and Osiris NEVER interact in Egyptian legend. There's one version where Bast is Osiris's daughter, but it turns out that was an error by some Greek guy back in the day. Apparently, in that misty place in the godly plane of existence where all the Egyptian deities hang out, Bast and Osiris do NOT bump into one another.

What this means for our mythos is...well, we have nothing in real mythology to base it on, so we can essentially make it up. I would suggest we put this down to some kind of contest. Like, Ra or one of the other creation gods tells Osiris and Bast that only one form of life can be maintained, and so they must compete to decide whose life form will be the one to keep. Or, I don't know, Ra said "prove which one is better and I will give you cookies and rainbows" or something. In this scenario, we at least have the premise of a "game" or "contest" built-in...thus, the idea of having to control two out of three hot spots, or a certain number of hexes, or whatever, has some sort of basis in the mythos, instead of being an obvious game convention.

Does anyone have any other ideas on this? I'm certainly open to suggestions, since we're pretty much wide open to make up whatever we want.

-Diana

Deities, plants, etc.

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking for our Egyptian gods:

Animals: Bast (also Bastet and Bubastis. She's a well-known goddess associated with cats, often depicted as being a lioness or a housecat. We can probably just expand her mythos a bit and make her a protector of all animals.



Plants: Osiris He's the famous god who died and posthumously fathered a child. Before he was killed, he was the god of vegetation and fertility.



For animal species I would suggest lions, vipers, and some form of bird (probably a hawk). These are all animals that are native to Africa, and particularly the Egyptian region. They're also all carnivores. Our herbivore (for the special card) should be a cow, as cows were sacred and the primary livestock of the Egyptians.

For plant species, let's do wheat (one of the first plants to be farmed, and something that our chaos factor, humanity, would be attracted to), either palm or fig trees, and mandrake (a flowering plant with medicinal properties...handily enough, there is a mandrake flower on Osiris' crown). I haven't found any poisonous species...we may have to invent one or something.

We can chat about attributes for all these at our meeting this afternoon. I've some thoughts, but I haven't had chance to sit down with the board yet, so assigning things like growth patterns would have been tricky.

-Diana

Game board

Okay guys, here's the blog/playtest journal for Butterfly Effect. This is where we'll post notes after meetings, game art, rule sets, and anything else we want to keep in a central repository. I'm going to do the notes from our meeting today (Thursday, Feb. 1) in the next entry.

Now, some ground rules for this thing:

* If you've got notes from a meeting, add them as an entry. If an entry for that meeting already exists, edit the existing entry and just specify which section is yours.

* As you get things done between meetings, post them as their own entries.

* When you have thoughts about something that's been posted, do those as comments on the appropriate entry.

* SIGN YOUR ENTRIES. We're all logging in under the same username, so make sure you put your name on your stuff or we won't know who to direct comments to.


Hopefully, this will help us keep our info organized. When it comes time to assemble playtest journals, rule sets, etc., we should be able to really quickly grab the info we need.

All right, introductions aside. Post away!

-Diana

Meeting Notes: 2/1

Okay, so Al, Ryan and I met at Burger King (excellent idea...three dollar double cheeseburger meal = WOO!) and here's what we came up with. Sorry if this seems to go a little out of order...I'm basically putting things in as I remember them/find them in my notes:

• Our basic premise is that you are one of the Egyptian gods. The life force under your protection is either plants or animals. Your goal is to control the Fertile Crescent by placing your species on the board, traveling through time to affect the evolution of the present, and working to sabotage your opponent.
  
• We'll be using a two board system (one is the past, one is the present). The layout is a hex system that represents the territory of our map.
  
• Our location is Africa, specifically Mesopotamia (the Nile River valley). Time periods are based around humanity's development: in the past, they're tribal Neadertal types, in the present, they're early Egyptians. The present is where the win condition occurs; the past is a means of changing the present, but is not in itself used for "scoring".
  
• Humanity is our chaos factor. Our chaos cards are basically events in human development, something like "humans discover fire: lose all trees within x area" or "humans invent the spear: lose all lions within x area" or "humans start farming: clear all plants/animals within x area"
  
• If you play as animals, your species will all be carnivores. If you play as plants, your plants are all harmless (trees, fruit, etc).
  
• Interrupt cards come in the form of species. Meaning, if you're playing as plants, you may periodically draw a "poisonous plant" card, at which point you can place a poisonous plant on the board and wipe out the animal species within a certain radius. If you're playing as animals, you'll draw a herbivore card, and that species will eat all the plants within a certain radius.
  
• There are two time periods in which you can play: the past and the present. Getting to the past takes one turn (see turn breakdown) and you may only stay there for two turns. Anything you do in the past will be multiplied and reflected in the present (so if you plant one tree in the past, you will have a copse of trees in the present). The patterns in which various species expand over time will be particular to each species. (see Diana's future entry on this).
  
• Turn breakdown (go through these steps in order, skipping 1 and 2 where appropriate): 1. If you are in the present, draw cards. If you draw a humanity card, it is played immediately. 2. Move back or forward in time (doing so ends your turn). 3. Play cards in your hand (put resources on the board, or evolve species). 4. Move pieces. Battle where conflicts arise (see Al's future entry on the battle system.
  
• Because the game is taking place in Africa (and effectively, Egypt) we'll use an Egyptian theme. Your player avatar is an Egyptian god, the people you encounter are Egyptians (or proto-Egyptians), the graphics all follow an Egyptian motif, etc.
  
• There are two decks: one for plants, one for animals. Each deck contains resource cards (units of plant or animal), interrupt cards (poison or herbivores), chaos cards (humans), and evolution cards (see evolution system).
  
• Evolution System: as we discussed in class on Tuesday, we want a system whereby existing species can be upgraded, or "evolved", by giving them new traits and abilities. These traits and abilities are dictated by cards drawn from the deck, and can be added to any species at the player's discretion.

Things to work on for next meeting (Sunday at 2p in IML):

• Diana: Decide which Egyptian gods to use as avatars for the plant and animal sides. Choose three plant and three animal types, and lay out their basic attributes (expansion patterns, base abilities, etc).
  
• Al: Obtain "pieces" (tokens, Legos, etc) that can be used to represent elements on the board. Work out a simple combat system (likely D6). Email the hex pattern file to Ryan.
  
• Ryan and Lily: Design the board(s). They should have the exact same grid, but the art can vary slightly (for example, if you put a settlement of humans on as decoration, in the past they would be primitive huts and in the "present" they would be pyramids).
  
• We need a win condition! Obviously, "control all the territory" comes to mind, but if we don't want this game to last forever, we might want to consider coming up with some win conditions that would happen sooner (ie. you have twice as much territory as your opponent).

Goals for Sunday:

• Solidify the first set of rules.
  
• Create cards.
  
• First round of playtesting.

Things to consider for future versions:

• A three-board system. The earliest time period contains no humans, but has the most opportunity for your strategy to be disrupted later in history. The second time period has primitive humans, is affected by what happened in the previous time period, and changes what happens in the third time period. The third time period has somewhat sophisticated humans (early Egyptians), is affected by both previous time periods, and is the basis for winning or losing.
  
• Change how chaos cards happen. For the first round, we'll mix them into the deck and they will occur randomly. For another round, we separate them as their own deck, and one humanity card is played per turn cycle (ie. after each player takes a turn, a humanity card is drawn and played).

Whew! That should keep us plenty busy over the next few days. Al, Ryan, feel free to add anything I've forgotten. Everyone, as you get things done, go ahead and post them here (this includes images) so we can just pull this up on Sunday and get going. Looking forward to what everyone comes up with; see you Sunday!

-Diana