Apokalyptica Mod For Doom: The Board Game

It looks like my contribution to this year's Apokalyptica will be to try ang work out a "mod" for Doom: The Board Game. Doom TBG was featured heavily in last year's celebration ... in fact it turned into a nearly two day operation.

That was part of the problem. It was fun but grueling. It's hard to convince people to camp out at your place for a game they haven't played. Now - you don't have to play the game this way. For one thing, it was our first time so we spent a good deal of time reading rules and setting up and then we kinda kept playing to get the hang of rules as we went on.

What I'd like to do is find a way to streamline the game down a little. Make it easier to have a pick-up game rather than plan out a whole war campaign. It's not that I don't love my RPG roots - it's just that I don't have time to plan out new scenarios for a game that's hard to plan time around.

The basic rules (many details to be flushed out):

- The game will take place in rounds. The game will be over when either a set number of rounds has been played or a set time limit hit. Winner will be the player with the most points.

- Marines each get one skill cards. Cards may be traded. To draw new cards, all Marines must agree to discard their cards.

- Rounds begin with a construction phase. Players take turns adding sections. Once the sections are in, they can add obstacles, and then equipment. (restrictions/rules on this are a big TBD - perhaps predefined equipment sets)

- Marines and Invaders follow Evil Dead rules. Marines can select an unbreakable shotgun or chainsaw at the beginning of the game. Invader does not have to spend points to bring zombies into the game. Marines Killed by zombies will be Zombie Marines - zombie monsters but armed with a shotgun.

- Weapons follow "loaded" rule and come with an ammo token.

- Rounds will continue until either a) the Marines find a keycard and escape, b) the Invader manges to kill each Marine three times or c) or predefined time limit is hit. (optional objectives might be entertaining - like "save the scientist").

- In between rounds, Players can spend points to buy new armor, cards, health, ammo and weapons (similar to campaign rules). The Invader can spend points at any time to bring in new monsters. Equipment can also be traded at this time. Cards cannot be traded anymore.


Considerations:

- Score balancing. Invader might have to start with a "pool". Likewise, Marines may need better starting supplies.
- Optional goals. Like having Marines "save" scientists by spending a health pack.

Update: Google keeps hitting this page. A rough draft now exists.


tagged: boardgame, doom, gaming