I came across this site that automates making Hitler Downfall parodies so decided to have a go. It’s not quite straightforward to know what to put in each box, as the transcript doesn’t quite match up to the one at the Hitler Downfall Parody Wiki (?). So here attached is an eXcel script hitler-downfall-script1 to help you.
Here’s my meta effort to thank Jacek Fedoryński for making this possible.
Update
You can now play GTBM online at Taebl but you will need a copy of the GTBM.taebl file. Note this needs Silverlight, and humans will need to moderate the rules.
My first submission (actually two!) for #1GAM
I intend to computerise the games at some point, but haven’t locked down a decent A.I. algorithm yet, good enough for solo play/learning. You will need a checkers/draughts/chess/othello/reversi board and pieces for “Get thee behind me…” (or GTBM for short), and a GO board or one of The Viking Game variants for “Mynd”. Coloured counters and a drawn paper board will also work; I got 1000 tiddlywinks in 5 colours for £6 off eBay from SuppliesForAll.
“Get thee behind me…”
Credit is due to former games students, Matt and Dave, for inspiring this mechanic several years ago.
GTBM rules
Each player starts with 8 pieces (white or black) on the nearest row of an 8×8 square board. (Optionally, 16 pieces of each colour on a 16×16 sized board is possible.) Black starts.
GTBM Starting set up
Pieces can be moved diagonally forward left or right or straight back.
The bottom left Black piece cannot move forward right or to the rear.
If a diagonal move gets a piece behind an opponent’s piece – i.e. between the piece and its owner – that piece is removed. Taking is not allowed when moving straight backwards (no backstabbing!).
Blue take is legal, but Red isn’t because that piece was not moving from the side.
The game ends when a player cannot make a legal move; if the other player can move they win, but if there is no legitimate move it is a draw. Alternatively, if all a player’s pieces are captured, and the opponent still has a legal move afterwards, then this too is a victory.
One obvious strategy is to build columns of pieces, as these cannot be taken easily. However, the “two steps forward, one back” philosophy may be useful. Below is an example of attrition, where Black is almost certainly going to lose a piece, because White has a partial vertical line protecting the threatened piece.
Black cannot take, but White can
Nothing can prevent Black from being taken, but there is an option to enact tit-for-tat
Defensive play to ensure take and retake
Swap of pieces complete
Please leave feedback on GTBM in the comments below, or over at http://onegameamonth.com/
“Get thee behind me…” and “Mynd” (part 1 above) and “Mynd” (part 2 below) – notes from my #1GAM project book
“Mynd”
This was an attempt at making a “classic abstract” game using a existing board and pieces (in this case, GO and, for the record, “mynd” is Welsh for “go”), rather like Arimaa did with Chess. Also fortuitous was picking up a super cheap, mint copy of Pegity in a charity shop yesterday for £3, which gave me some lovely wooden peg pieces (~200 in four colours 🙂 with a cheap thin card board 🙁 but nothing’s perfect). So, my plan to use Tiddlywinks and a GO board was not needed. Of note, however, is the 16×16 board, rather than 19×19, which is more akin to The Viking Game that has 8×8, 11×11 and larger variants. Basically, the larger the board, the longer and more complex the game, so 11×11 will be best suited to learning the basic tactics, but 16×16 or 19×19 will offer more opportunities. The number of required counters of each colour will depend on the size of the board, but a rule of thumb would be the total number of all the coloured counters should be about two thirds the size of the board – 20 for each player for 11×11, 43 for 16×16, 60 for 19×19. NOTE: These may need adjusting after playtesting. GO has 181 black and 180 White counters, which is sufficient to cover the whole board, even though it is unlikely that players would do so.
Mynd rules
Depending on whether 2, 3 or 4 players are playing, each player starts with one coloured peg in the corner (or, for one of 3 players, the opposite edge) of the board (see sketch above). After that play consists of one of four actions:
The first case allows players to use pieces to grow into new territory or reduce the final score for opponents. The second case is for growing or adding to the defence of their boundary markers, but also allows for a single piece to be slid along a row or column. In the third case, pushing the pieces along a row may upset the balance of connected columns. However, a row/column may not be pushed in a direction where a piece would be pushed off the board; so edges and corners are particularly useful. Finally, the fourth case is for scoring, the area contained by counting unoccupied spaces inside a completed boundary, excluding pieces of other players, will contribute to the final score.
Play continues until players agree there are no moves left that do not result in a cycle of play that results in a board position being repeated. Alternatively, play can stop upon agreement by the players. Then the unoccupied area of each player is calculated. Areas surrounded by one player’s counters, if subsequently surrounded by those of another, will not count towards either player scores.
Please leave feedback on Mynd in the comments below, or over at http://onegameamonth.com/
Journal First Entries.
A “loose” set of rules to follow:
Clearly, #1 and #10 are the most important. To paraphrase Debbie Allen:
“You got big dreams. You want
fgame ? Well,fgame costs. And right here is where you start paying … insweatcode” — Lydia Grant
Brainstorming Game Ideas
As you can see, I’ve already got 12 loose ideas, but it’s not written in stone. It’s likely some will fall by the wayside or other concepts will present shinier alternatives. However, these are the real things I would be upset not to achieve:
“One board/card game taken up by publisher, one game book in Kindle Store, one mobile game in AppStore, enough revenue to pay licences, one person saying something was exceptional. Oh, and World Peace!” — from http://www.onegameamonth.com/DoctorMikeReddy
This post will serve two purposes:
You are the Hero
If this book cover means nothing to you, you are either quite young or very old. It’s by Russ Nicholson and two other guys…
I came across this book in a dusty cupboard that was the Puffin/Penguin book “club”; a sponsored form of school shop that supplied the publisher’s current titles in a ‘sale or return’ arrangement. I’d made many discoveries during the lunch hours Mr. Allen, my first year form teacher and later close friend, gave up running the shop. I think I may have been its only customer in fact. Anyway, he would recommend things he thought I, a voracious reader who had read about 3/4 of the school library by that point, would be interested in. Warlock was a welcome relief from early O-Level revision, as it was waiting for me at the start of the fifth form school year (September 1982). It didn’t do too much harm to my work, thankfully, as I got 5 As 2 Bs a C and a D, but I did ironically fail English, and had to retake that a year later in Sixth Form.
[Kids, O-Levels are not, as you imagine like the Harry Potter OWLs of J.K. Rowling creation, but just like GCSEs really, except you did ALL your assessments in one go – no continuous assessment or coursework! – in a thing called… an exam… while imprisoned in a dusty hall under the watchful eyes of scowling teachers, who’d much rather be drinking tea (or in one case beer or gin) in the lurking smoke-filled staff room. So, actually quite like OWLs, thinking about it…]
For those of us who remember the horrors of Thatcher’s Britain, Miner’s Strikes and the promotion of self-interest over social duty, it may come as a relief to know that
Jonathan Green, who wrote some of these “Fighting Fantasy” books in their heyday, is attempting to celebrate their 30 year legacy.
Many current game designers and writers owe a lot to the green-spined wonders that opened up the idea of non-linear narrative and interactive story telling. Ok, Livingstone and Jackson weren’t the first – there are examples before their first title (shown above), “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain”. Notably Tunnels and Trolls “solo adventures” as well as others – but they stuck somehow. Maybe it was the unique UK writing style, but other brands don’t have the same nostalgia or affectionate appeal as Fighting Fantasy.
Not to say that “Choose you own Adventure”, “Decide your Destiny” and a range of other brands haven’t innovated or done some things better, and (hopefully) Green will cover these, if only to contrast with the FF books as they still compare favourably, in my opinion. However, it is (I believe) timely and topical to consider an official history of this form of literature, especially as tablet computers (iPads, etc) are bringing about something of a resurgence.
You can find out more by clicking the banner below, or Jonathan’s FaceBook Page.
MaZone – A #1GAM #onegameamonth project
When I talked to Ian Livingstone at DragonMeet last month, I asked him if there was any scope for evolution in the game book design. His response was that electronic forms of interactive fiction were probably the best arena for future innovations. I respectfully disagreed at the time, and vowed to try to come up with something that could work in print – still the cheapest and most robust form of distribution – that even he would consider truly revolutionary (or at least different enough to warrant recognition as progress).
So, as part of #1GAM #onegameamonth (See OneGameAMonth for details), I’m planning a multi-player game book that attempt to innovate on the current formula in several respects:
To show MY support for the KickStarter above, I have promised to make the beta of MaZone (a play on Maze and Zone) available for FREE to backers of Jonathan’s book. I am not planning for this to be January’s OneGameAMonth offering, as I am a bit tight for time this month. However, it will be out before Mr. Green’s book is released. I’m sure it will be rough and needing ‘fixing’, and it might just not work or be fun to play/read. However, I am looking forward to trying out something genuinely new in game book design. Fingers crossed.
Now turn to Page 1…
Full Board Shot
Close Up of GO Corner
Kings Cross Modification
Kings Cross and Liverpool Street Card Modifications
Fenchurch and Waterworks Board Modifications
Marylebone and Electric Board Modifications
Hi there…!
If you are attending Dragonmeet 2012 and are on Twitter then why not make meeting people at the event into a game?
Introduction
#dmzee (pronounced Dee Em Zee) is an experimental Social Media Game, which will receive its debut at Dragonmeet this year. It is intended to be light-hearted and relatively hands free (if only to prevent us from being a slave to tweeting instead of enjoying the event itself). Volunteers are welcome to help with logistics, if we get silly numbers.
Players will be in one of these factions (or more, possibly without even knowing!) – the Anarchocats, Ancients or Authority – thus rendering this the very first Triple-A (!) game on Twitter. Further information is provided in the password protected links below; you can choose or be allocated to one of the factions, or be assigned randomly, by following the @TwAdven account (so we can DM you with instructions) and tweeting your request to be involved using the official hash tag #dmzee (and initially #dragontweet so the main organisers know how many are involved). The protagonists of the game are threefold:
More people can be recruited to the game on the day, and may pay a passive role (effectively as your score/victory points) or actively by also following @TwAdven and using the official #dmzee hash tag, for which all concerned will gain double bonuses. Even if they don’t join in the game, you will get credited as explained below.
Instructions
Once you have (pre)registered, you will be given specific instructions, but here’s how it will generally work:
Goals (and the Win Condition)
Each of the above factions will have a unique mechanic in a Rock Paper Scissors style, as well as Geasa that control behaviour/actions. The Win condition for each faction will be described in more detail in the password protected links above. This is intended to be light hearted, but cheating (a.k.a. “intelligent thinking”) is encouraged so long as it means more fun for all. It IS a role-playing opportunity, remember, so keeping in character should be encouraged. In the end, if we all had fun, “We’re ALL winners!” but I will pick particular people to mention in despatches.
Introduction
This is definitely one of those games where the name directed the mechanic. The concept of karma – good and bad, owing or being owed a debt, and both being a responsibility – and a meta game element of card destruction (making every deck unique) and Real World ™ consequences (in the form of a verbal contract to play) sort of came after the pun of Karma and Armageddon.
Strangely, the term has little prior use; mostly when I come up with a cool word I find “it’s been done already”. Great minds think alike, normally, and it’s hard to come up with something truly unique. Hence, I disclose the following existing references to karmageddon:
Hank Williams song, Karmageddon
The Urban Dictionary definition of Karmageddon:
Karmageddon: The Movie
I’ve been bouncing this particular idea around for a few weeks, with a vague notion it should involve Playing Cards; ideally ones that people don’t mind destroying a bit. Those horrible cheap “hobbit” cards you get in Christmas Crackers would be ideal, as ripping and writing on these is no real loss. However, no doubt at some point I’ll do an IndieGoGo/KickStarter for official decks, like Play Test: Legacies did (Sorry I missed THAT one!).
The most important part of this game concept is that players may “help” you, even when you don’t want it, and that this will exact a real consequence to clear the debt. Of course, like a gambling debt, this isn’t enforceable. However, entering into the spirit of the thing is the whole point. Why cheat? You’re only robbing yourself…
Set up
There are two elements to this game:
To play (the first time) a Sharpie or permanent marker and a standard deck of cards (with jokers) is necessary for 2-4 players. For more than 4 players an extra deck of cards is added for each additional player up to 8 maximum; ideally this should have a different back design or be different size to allow separation for future 2-4 player games. These cards will be torn, ripped and marked, so will likely not be useful for other games afterwards.
NOTE: a deck where cards are missing (otherwise useless!) is fine as a starting deck. Subsequent play will likely not have all the cards anyway, so one or two missing now won’t matter. Reuse/Recycling!!! I feel better already!
Set up for the Meta-Game (the redemption of favours) is merely the agreement of all players that they will commit to an hour of time helping one another for each “Debt Card” they end up with. Where this occurs in game, the card will be ripped in two and both parts signed by helper and helpee; its recommended that a phone number or email address for each is also written down, unless players are well acquainted. The helpee then uses their half in play (for that game only) and later as a reminder that they owe a favour. The helper keeps their half to call in the debt.
NOTE: The hour of time and the task are to be mutually agreed between helper and helpee. It could be anything crom mowing a lawn, babysitting, fixing a computer, whatever is acceptable and doable.
NOTE 2: Debts do NOT cancel out. If Mike owes Paco a debt and vice versa, they don’t call it quits. They both do an hour for the other. This is a matter of honour!
Once a debt is paid, “Done” is written on the helpers half and “Paid” is written on the helpees half. Cards can be kept as a memento, burned ceremoniously or binned.
Game play
The deck is shuffled (half cards are not to be kept from previous games). Players cut for who should go first, lowest first – Aces low – then the deck reshuffled. Play will simply consist of turning over cards until a task is achieved, when the player will keep those cards, or the task fails and the cards are returned to the bottom of the deck; there is no discard. Play then passes to the next player (in the order determined by the previous draw).
NOTE: over time decks may be added of a variety of different sizes. One option is to put them all in a box with a hand sized opening and have cards pulled out without looking, like drawing a raffle ticket.
Before turning over any cards each player states whether they are aiming for 1 to N cards to complete a task, where N is the greater of number of players or 4. Players may NOT choose a number for which they currently already have a successful trick displayed in front of them. Then cards are turned over up to a maximum of the determined number. If ALL of these cards are Ace-Ten (i.e. Not court cards, Jack, Queen, King) then the task is successfully completed, the set of cards is displayed in front of the player, and play passes to the next. If a court card is turned over before N normal cards, the task is “at risk”. If the court card was the first card, play continues as normal, except that the player is now attempting to get a full set of court cards to achieve the task. If a normal card (i.e. Ace-Ten) then appears before completion, again the task is “at risk”.
NOTE: if a Joker or other non-playable card is turned over, the current player should mark its face (not back) as either Normal or Court. This will be a permanent change. These cards can never be used or exchanged in “at risk” situations. If they come up again at the wrong time the task automatically fails.
At this stage, any other player can agree to substitute the offending card for one that would allow the task to be completed. Where only one offer of help is made, the player MUST accept. If more than one offers, the player can choose who helps them.
NOTE: this help can only come when another player already has cards laid in front of them from earlier successful tasks.
Once help is agreed, the “at risk” card is placed in front of the person offering help and one of their cards (normal or court, depending) is placed in front of the current player. Then the task continues. If successful – N normal or court cards are turned over – the swapped card is ripped, signed and half used with the rest of the cards for that task and displayed in front of the player. The other “at risk” card is added to the helper’s hand in any legal way (see later).
If the task is put “at risk” again by the wrong type of card showing up, another opportunity for help is available. if no offers of help are forthcoming, all the cards are returned to the bottom of the deck. This includes ones placed in front of helpers and helpees; they’ve lost a card to you for no gain by either party.
When a helper receives a card from the current player, if and only if the task is successful, they can add their new card to a current trick, or make a new single card trick. However, there should never be two tricks of the same size (court or normal). Tricks of greater than N in size are allowed, and will count as N for end game purposes, but can only be constructed through helping others; these can act as banks for future help, but do not count for more than N for victory point purposes.
NOTE: There can still only be one trick of N or greater size!
Play continues until a player has tricks of 1 to N (1,2,3,4, etc) of either normal or court cards; this is the Good Karma ending. Removing a card to help another player may not leave a player with two tricks of the same size. Alternatively, play ends when there is in front of any player tricks 1 to N of court cards; this is the Bad Karma ending.
Victory points are allocated on the basis of total index cards – total court cards in a player’s hand. If (IF!) a player has tricks 1 to N of court cards only these count as positives. N Wrongs DO make a Right! These are purely for fun, to encourage strategic play. The biggest victory is in being owed or owing no debt. If this is the case, a player’s victory points are doubled. Of course, the most important victory is honourably redeeming debts owed.
Enjoy!
Final NOTE: After a few times playing, the deck is likely to start getting a “bit thin” when that happens, add a single suit – Ace-King – from another incomplete or hated cheap deck. There should always be a minimum of 10 cards per player, with an approximate ratio of 10:3 normal to court cards.
Final FINAL NOTE: If you think this SHOUKD be KickStarted, comment here. I have ideas for expansions 🙂
