BIBLIOTHEKE photos

Here are just a few photos of the prototype of the game Bibliotheke:

GAMING SESSION: Light & Serious

Holiday gaming at its finest. The Family Friends edition found the Great Dalmuti (one of the better group card games) to be the hit. We also like to go full out with this game: We wear hats according to rank: The Dalmuitis (greater & lesser) are royalty, the Peons (greater & lesser) are fools, and the rest are Middle working class. Seating also includes a padded chair for the Great Dalmuti, and a bucket for the Greater Peon. The Peons also serve the rest of the group - it's good to be the king! We had quite a few work their way up in the ranks, while some experienced a serious fall in the social strata.

Turbo-Scrabble worked also well in the larger groups and got multiple plays.

When it got serious we broke out Puerto Rico and Bibliotheke. PR is a brain-burner with the many decisions and options at your disposal, and I was locked more than once in some serious AP (analysis paralysis). Considered a gamer's game and one of the highest ever ranked, PR groups many mechanics and innovative game ideas into one. Early quarries and a late surge in production and buying the Guild Hall sneaked out a close victory here.

With Bibliotheke we discovered some more good feedback and areas to slightly improve, especially in how the Black Market works and action point balance. It depends on the group of players, but I am considering putting in more direct attack opportunities. Victory points in the Event stack, using the Black Market and going for higher point books was the key in this session.

Competition Opportunities

The LaMont Group will attempt to send its first developed prototype to a competition. Great game design and development is being done in Utah (see the Board Game Designers Guild of Utah: http://www.bgdg.info/ ). The SaltCon gaming convention is Feb 26-28, 2010, and there will be a game design competition called the Ion Award. Our Group will send Bibliotheke as an entry and see how it goes. Thanks again to all those who have helped develop this game over the past year.

Bibliotheke: UPDATE

Bibliotheke has come quite a ways, thanks to the evaluations and feedback (especially Randy and Caleb). Here are just a few notes to look forward to when we play it next:

Instead of one large board we have gone to 5 modular ones that fit together based upon the regions. Because the number of boards/regions used is based upon the number of players, you only need to now play with the board space you will use. Here is an updated snapshot of the boards:

Library book stacks will now be placed at the edge of the board by the corresponding library. The 5 regions are: 1-Mesopotamia, 2-Egypt/Levant, 3-Asia Minor, 4-Aegean, 5-Italy/N. Africa.

I have also been reved up about the fun of great replayability, and here is how I incoporate that in Biblioitheke. Each game played can select different combination of regions, as long as they are continuous. Each region has different spacing which effects gameplay. Each region has 5 libraries, and one is randomly deactivated in each region in each game, which can greatly alter strategies based upon distance and how many collection spaces are being battled over. Variety is still intact as there are endless combinations to create a collection based upon 3 different categories of Subject, Region and Period, with 5 variants within each category. Variation and flexibility cotinues in ordering each collection alphabetically or chronologically.

To fight the problem of library "camping" and lack of movement I have done the following: Each library stack begins only with 5 books, making it more feasible to go to another library rather than taking time to research finding a new book. A nice mechanic was created with many of the event cards pertaining to libraries. Each library begins with two tiles for collections. As collections are created, those tiles are removed from a bag, making the selection of a library for events more likely to happen to libraries with no collections (thus no player) and creating more movement.

Most of the other variations and interaction come through the event cards, and I made those more inticing by placing victory points in them and reducing their action point cost to 1. Within victory points I removed the points for first one to 3 collections so that finishing first does not ensure victory, while adding some different combinations by which one can pick up extra victory points. This helps to create multiple paths and opportunities to win.

I have also finalized after consuming research the 125 books to be used in the game. They all fit very accurately into the 3 categories and the variations within for balance. Their point values have also been accurately assessed on a grid so that not a single variation has a point advantage over another variation as a whole. Here are some samples with updated artwork:

This is the most complete prototype of the group, and the game can be fully played.

Games, Requests and Updates

A few games that the LaMont Group has not played in awhile (or at all) to be considered:

Torres
Shadows of Camelot
Tigris & Euphrates
Pandemic: On the Brink
Master of Rules
Oasis
Vikings
Vineta

Let me know if there are other requests for the table. We would also like to consider the hosting of tournaments for certain games, and/or a good point system or rankings for our participation. We would also like to keep our own database on how we have ranked and evaluated published games.

Some updates on other developments:
Diamond Dynasty has been on the back burner for awhile, with the consideration of moving it from a purely card venture to a full board game with a card component. Stadiums would be the boards, with pegs/markers to track the various economic and revenue systems. Player rosters, events and actions would remain on cards.
City-States has taken its invest/return mechanic back to the drawing board so that it is more logical.
Bibliotheke has some great fixes to it based upon evaluations and feedback. It is starting to take shape.

Bibliotheke

The Bibliotheke (libraries) game has developed into a full prototype over the summer for playtesting. 25 libraries were finally chosen, five from each of five regions, all historically accurate in different time periods set in the ancient world. The different roles of pawns were abandoned for two pawns per player (head and assistant librarians) that do multiple things. Each turn a player has four action points to spend on a variety of actions for his pawns. Each library has a stack of books that can be aquired, and placed in collections that are established at different libraries. Here's the mapboard:

A collection consists of five books that must match by either subject (literature/science/history, etc), by region (Aegean/Egypt/Mesopotamia, etc.) or by period of time. They must also be placed in a collection in "order" on the shelf, either chronologically or alphabetically. This provides endless combinations and ways to shift strategies if you cannot acquire the books you want. For playtesting I do not have finalized the 125 ancient books I need, so I made mock ones to just test the mechanics:

This book has the fake title of "Wade" written in 1740 BC. The subject is Government/Politics/Law, it comes from the Egypt/Levant region, was written in the Early-Middle period, and has a value of 2 (on a 1-5 scale) that pertains to end of game scoring.

Event cards can also be purchased with action points that bring into play such things as Thieves, Disasters, Research, Transportation, Forgeries, Guards and the Black Market. There is not as much interaction as I would like aside from the event cards and competing for the same books. Maybe have another pawn who does "bad" things to other players. There is also a tendency to "camp" at board locations in playtesting and not traveling to other libraries. How long can they "mine" a single library? Who of the two pawns carries what books of a player?There is also a question of correct point cost assignments to the actions, and the balance of the victory points.
It has been fun to play as strategies change, and there is the constant challenge of figuring out what collection will be made and how it will be ordered on the shelf. The fun and puzzle factor is there.

GAMING SESSION: Game ideas for group to develop

At our last couple of game development sessions in March, four game ideas in various stages were presented for review and prototypes played. Here is the review of that session:

City-States - A resource development game that mirrors many computer "empire-building" games, but in a simpler format. The main mechanic is the allocation of resources simultaneously by chips on 4 of 8 possible actions. Gains/losses are based upon how many players selected the same actions. Raw in structure, but great player interaction. GEC- 3.1

Diamond Dynasty - A franchise baseball card game that covers most aspects of running a baseball team: economics, players, facilities and the season itself. Great concept with many player choices, but needs reworking of math formulas and flow. GEC - 1.8

Bibliotheke - A game about ancient libraries and famous writings collected. Lots of variety and ways to assemble collections in a race, with good mechanics for collecting. Structure of game is solid with some details to be worked out. GEC - 4.2

Road Trip - Simple card/tile laying game of sight seeing and souvenir collecting. Has great potential for a wide audience once the idea has more clarity. GEC - 3.0

Bibliotheke is clearly ahead in design and overall concept and will be the top game for the group to help develop. Looking forward to more designs and playtest opportunities.

GAME DEVELOPMENT

We have a couple of new games that have been introduced for the LaMont Group to playtest. Neither is in an advanced enough stage to playtest as a full game, but some mechanics are in place:

1. Bibliotheke - this game is based upon ancient libraries around the mediterranean and mesopotamia, and the ancient writings that have been found therein. Originally to just center on the library at Alexandria, it has expanded on a board to locations your pawns can travel to. In the library the goal is to collect and then organize great literary works. The main mechanics are set collection, and a variety of different roles played by your pawns to guard, research, acquire, and as a librarian to create the collections. Each of the books have different subjects and regions that are used as "suits" to match the cards/books.

2. A baseball game (yet unnamed) that plays more as runnung a franchise than just the games. It is also based upon collecting and drafting cards of players, and collecting cards of actions that can effect the franchise, rosters and seasons of the team. Economics will play a role as funds need to be used not only for contracts, but for the facilities, advertising, merchandising, etc. Mainly a card game using multiple sets of cards.