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Nerd sniping with tabletop games

Title- Astrology: A Koi's Journey .

Synopsis- Your solar system is on a direct course with the edge of the galaxy, but your sun's spirits refuse to be forgotten! Cross the void of space and overcome all 12 Beast Worlds to light the galaxy as a new constellation.

Goal: Collect 12 cards which form a Straight (1-12, 2-13, 3-14… 8-20) from any combination of colors.

Equipment: 1 six-sided die per player, 3 decks of 20 cards, 20 round pawns per player, 5 round pawns per player, and 1 hexagonal playing mat.
For 2 or 3 players age 10 and up.



Rules: The central hexagon cannot be owned by any player or pawn. Neither player can attack on their first turn. Each hexagon may only contain 1 square pawn at a time, regardless of color. Square pawns mark a hexagon as "owned" by the pawn's player. An owned hexagon can contain up to 6 round pawns. A hexagon cannot contain more than 6 round pawns of any color combination. Round pawns are used to attack adjacent hexagons owned by other players. If all 5 of your Square Pawns are in your equipment due to defeats, you may place the Square Pawn you gain at the start of your turn in the central hexagon.

Each turn a player draws 1 card from their face-down deck and places it face-up, visible to all players, next to their equipment.

Afterwards a player must take 1 square pawn of their color, if available in their equipment, and place it adjacent to another square pawn of their color OR place it on top of one of their own visible cards.

Next a player rolls their die twice, keeping track of that Turn's results. Firstly they may distribute a number of round pawns, X, from their pool that equals the sum of their two rolls on any hexagons they own.
Secondly if the two rolls are identical (1 & 1, 4 & 4, etc.), they may chose one of the following:
(A) Discard any 1 face-up card they own to the Shared Discards pile used by all players. If the card has a square pawn on it, they may move said pawn to the playing mat as well onto any unowned hexagon that is adjacent to a hexagon they own to a hexagon with at least one round pawn of your color.
(B) Draw 1 card randomly from the Shared Discards pile and place it face-up next to their other cards.
(C) Move 1 of their square pawns to an adjacent hexagon. which contains at least 1 pawn of the same color.

To Start: A. Each player places 1 Square Pawn of their color in the central purple hexagon, shuffles their 20-card deck, takes 1 die of their color, and takes 20 round pawns of their color. Each player needs a designated area for their equipment and one shared area for the Discard Pile.

B. Each player draws 1 card from their decks and places it face-up. Highest to lowest from this draw determines turn order for the game. In the case of a tie, each player rolls 1 die, with the higher roll designating the "first" person in their order.
The first player draws 1 card from their deck and rolls their die twice as listed above. At the end of a player's turn they may attempt attacks against an adjacent owned square using only one of their own owned hexagons which has at least 1 round pawn of their color.
A round pawn can only attack enemy square pawns if all pawns of the enemy's color are eliminated. When a round pawn attacks an enemy (round or square), each player rolls their die once. The attacking player wins ties. If the attacker wins, their pawn is placed in the enemy hexagon, taking up one of the six slots for round pawns. Defeated pawns, of either type, are returned to their owner's equipment.
When a square pawn is defeated it is not replaced with a round pawn. At this point attacking player steals 1 face-up card from the defending player's equipment, but they cannot steal a card with a square pawn atop it.


Author's note: I have a clear idea of how this would look in practice, but I know it would make a lot more sense with turn-by-turn images. I might just do that, but not right now. The idea is that various sections of the board will be pockmarked with round pawns of every color, square pawns will slowly move to more advantageous positions on the board, and ultimately players have to be careful with how they spend their 20 pawns lest they become stuck, unable to accrue cards for their Straight without dumb luck.

The idea is that your five-or-fewer square pawns and your in-play round pawns will make a constellation by the end on the playmat, strengthened by their twelve victories against the beast planets.
 
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I made some edits to Astrology: A Koi's Journey. I'm working on the images and play-by-play descriptions for each turn. If I'd made it in Google docs/slides I'd be able to share it, but I used Word instead. I'll probably post it as a PDF when I'm done, but I'll take any suggestions.

I'm happy with this version 0.2 I have posted above, but I'll take feedback and questions.


In the meantime, @We Just Write what inspired this thread? Did you make the image in your first post?
 
C: It actually grew out of a combinatorics problem; for a given set of equipment, what is the number of possible tabletop games?

C: And yes we made the image.
 
Link to imgur gallery of turn 0 to turn 3. Oh how I love the Group option with simple shapes, so much time saved from copying and pasting.
Anna is Green and Shelby is Blue.
Turn 0: 2 square pawns in center, 1 full deck next to each player's equipment, 1 die each, one space marked Card Pile. Each player draws 1 card.
Anna draws Green 4 and Shelby draws Blue 20

Turn 1 Shelby: Add Blue 15 to face up cards, note both die results, set X round pawns next to board. Gain 1 square pawn and set it on board or on face-up card. Cannot attack on turn 1.

Turn 1 Anna: Add Green 10 to face up cards, 2 and 2 die results, take Doubles Choice C to move central Square Pawn to an adjacent square. Gain 1 square pawn and set it on board next to center hex.
Moves4 round pawns to Owned spaces, 3 on one hex and 1 on another. Cannot attack on turn 1.

Turn 2 Shelby: Add Blue 18, roll 4 and 4, gain square pawn and place next to central hex. Put 8 round pawns on various owned hexagons. Attack Shelby from 1 owned hex, replacing
Anna's round pawns with green pawns on a victory. Shelby out-rolls Anna four times. Defeated pawns return to equipment. After defeating Anna's square pawn, Shelby takes the face-up Green 10
from Anna for defeating her square pawn.

Turn 2 Anna: Add Green 9, roll 2 and 6, gain square pawn and place adjacent to an owned square. Place 5 round pawns on right hex and 3 left of it, just defending this turn.

Turn 3 Shelby: Add Blue 19, roll 2 and 2, gain square pawn and place it in an orange square, Doubles Choice C to move square pawn in the center to the hex with 4 blue round pawns. Place 4 pawns in new orange hex.
Attack Anna's purple hex 4 times, replace 3 round pawns after victories and lose 1 round pawn to Anna's square pawn. Shelby can no longer attack so she ends her turn.
square.
The final image is a work-in-progress.

I wonder if I should change one of the Doubles options to "You can place 1 square pawn from your equipment on an unowned corner of the playmat. One of those 6 purples.
Or maybe I should cut down the number of cards required for victory (a straight)? As-is, I like how valuable 8 through 12 are, in incentivizes players to stick a Square Pawn on it to guard it. And if you discard that one, you can bet on your luck and hope to get Doubles before your opponent to redraw the one card in the Discard pile. Orrr... I could make a rule that "when only two players are playing, add all cards from the third deck to the discard pile." Making such a significant change between 2 player and 3 player games might not feel great though.

EDIT: This is on hold for now.
 
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