Introductory Note
Vulpinoid
interested observers,
Welcome to the Games for Goblins Project.
The aim of this project is to have a bit of fun designing some quick
games using a standard set of components and a communal series of
inspiration images.
The images are provided in the first of the group's files, the Games
for Goblins booklet.
The components available for the game are:
* A board divided into rings, looking vaguely like a spiderweb pattern
drawn onto a sandpit [this will be 10" (or 25cm) square].
* A board with a hexagonal grid, also appearing to be drawn onto a
sandpit [and also 10" (or 25cm) square].
* 2 four sided dice
* 2 eight sided dice
* A custom deck of cards including the suits "bugs", "bones", "cogs"
and "tools", with ranks from 1 to 10 and four face ranks; "Page",
"Courtier", "Baron" and "Baroness", it also has a range of additional
cards like a tarot deck: "The King", "The Queen", "The Wanderer", "The
Oracle", "The Labyrinth", "The Dead End", "The Mirror", "The Compass",
"The Clock" and "The Spider".
* An assortment of resin cast counters looking like coins (depicted in
the text).
* Fifty notes of Buddhist "hell money".
* An assortment of coloured glass beads.
Those designing games for the project are free to use other household
implements in their games (pencils, pens, pieces of paper, tools,
kitchen utensils, etc.)
The games produced by this project should be quick to learn, nothing
overly complex. Taking maybe half an hour to understand the basics,
and the details should be uncovered during play. Groups who've already
played a game should be able to play it again with only a few minutes
of preparation time. These are games for goblins, and goblins have
short attention spans; we don't want elaborate roleplaying games with
character generation systems that take an hour to create one
character.
I'm not after any specific games, I'm after people to go wild with
their imagination (as long as their ideas can be linked back to the
pictures, and use the components in creative ways). In general, the
final book will be organised by game types and I'll try to generate a
game for each of these: "Games Goblins use to Tell Stories", "Games
Goblins use to Teach Lessons", "Games Goblins use to Compete Against
One Another Strategically" and "Miscellaneous Goblin Games".
I'm also working on a name generator for Goblins. Player might assume
these roles when they play a goblin boardgame, or these might be the
character's portrayed when playing a goblin roleplaying game. This
generator will appear on the Vulpinoid Studios website shortly.
So if you've had any ideas for games and have been looking for a
setting, please feel free to use those old ideas and link them into
our project. If you're looking for inspiration for a game, then have a
look at the booklet and pick two or three images and base an entire
game on them. Goblin games could be fun, nasty, nonsensical, and often
a combination of all three.
Once all the designs have been submitted, I'll be formatting them into
a book and adding that book to a box containing everything needed to
play them. Participants will be fully credited for their work, and
will be able to purchase the final game box for cost price (roughly
$15-20 Australian), the recommended retail price will be about $10
more than this. Profits from the game will be made publicly available
and will go toward reducing the price, funding the postage cost to
participants, and helping to build resources toward running similar
projects in the future. This isn't an exercise in profit, it's a
project to hone our collective design skills and work together with a
common theme to produce something interesting.
Two participants will be sent a free copy of the final product. These
will go to the designer who uses a range of the components in the most
imaginative way, and the designer who best captures the spirit of the
Goblin imagery in their design.
If you've got any questions abut the project, feel free to ask here,
or contact me directly. It's probably better to ask here though,
because then we can share the answers across the whole group.
Thanks for taking a look at my little project, and if you know anyone
else who might be interested refer them over. I'd love to see a wider
range of games, and a wider imagination input.
Michael.