introducing Traveller to little ones....

[Akeel]

hi there

My kids want me to design a board game for them and i thought about doing a simplified version of traveller, they're 11, 8 and 5, so i don't want it to be too complicated and certainly not the full-blown rpg at this stage

what i've got in my head is something that involves buying and selling cargo and going from world to world, using dice to move from one world to the next but does anyone have any other ideas?

 

[sabredog]

pirates!

Once in a while a roll needs to have pirates come up. The players can then try to run away (if their ship is faster (which opens the door to being able to buy a faster ship later or engines), or they shoot it out with the pirates.

If the kids win the pirates are adrift in space and the the kids get a reward from the locals. If the pirates win the kids lose their cargo.

To keep it simple and visual make a deck of ship cards with 3 or 4 basic size ships for the players, and a card for each kind of "upgrade" with a value in size for each to see if that upgrade can fit in the ship or not. Each size ship comes with a basic layout (1G, J-1, Cargo 10, 1 Passenger Stateroom) and a number of slots leftover for extras to be added later as the players earn them.

Things like faster M-drives to get away from pirates. A laser to shoot pirates with if they can't get away. A better J-Drive so they go to planets on the board they couldn't before. Passenger Staterooms so they can carry passengers and make more money than just cargo hauling.

For cargo there can be animals, food, medicine, whatever. Just make them with fun pictures and a number of spaces each cargo type takes up in the cargo hold. Players pick at random and if they fit then great, if not, then maybe they need to look for passengers (if they have the room), or they can always haul mail ("Aw, Dad! Mail again?!).

Throw in some unexplored planets out there for them to go to and have those add some new cards to the deck with new animals and artifacts for them to get rich with and and have using against the pirates.

Just a few thoughts, anyway.

Or you could have the whole board unexplored and each player gets a scout to start with. Then, with all the mechanics above the game ends when all the planets are "discovered" and the captain with the most credits wins.

 

[Akeel]

pirates!

To keep it simple and visual make a deck of ship cards with 3 or 4 basic size ships for the players....
For cargo there can be animals, food, medicine, whatever.....

....unexplored planets out there....

Just a few thoughts, anyway.

that great, sabredog, thanks for that, good stuff there

 

[snapshotbygdw]

What a great idea!

Board: six systems in a ring movement can be from one system to any one of the other five each turn.

Each player has a ship token on the board and a ship deckplan off it. Deckplans have ten boxes representing 10 cargo spaces.

Four types of cargo: robots, food, furry aliens and gems. Each unit of each type of cargo takes up a different number of spaces eg 1 unit gems 1 space, 1 unit furry aliens 4 spaces etc

One deck of cards giving lists of buy/sell prices for all four cargo types. Randomised.

One pile of play money.

Each turn move to a system turn a card over to see what goods are worth buy and sell goods and cargo.

Two modes of play: card drawn for each system at start of game and doesn't change but face down till you move into system: memory challenge or draw fresh card each time you enter a system luck

Players free to buy, sell or hold onto cargo at each system but idea to make money winner either first to reach a set goal or one with most cash/least cargo after set number of turns.

 

[fiat_knox]

I could say something, but I got ripped for attempting to sell an unlicensed product before, and I really would not want to give somebody the outline for an idea that they could just go out and get a license for it and end up with their name on the product instead of mine.

I've done this before - done all the sweat work, and some other guy got all the glory, so ... no.

 

[Frankymole]

Sounds great but the money might be a bit complex for a 5 year old. I suppose the Credits can be fairly simple coins of the same value like "pirate gold" so you can just judge success based on how big your pile is. I'm in favour of using commodities rather than credits. Needing fuel and so on should be easy to grasp, exchanging cargo for more fuel, weapons/upgrades, better drives, crewmen and cool computer programs (maybe).

Lasers to zap the baddies are a must!

You could have occasional mission cards (patrons) like Elite. Event cards. Having some pictorial event (disaster) board squares or cards might be good. Turning over planets to discover them (and their pros and cons, ... animal encounters?) would be good.

 

[Icosahedron]

The game 'Star Smuggler' is interesting. Probably over-complex for your needs, but you could probably lift a few ideas from it:

http://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_starsmuggler.html

Alternatively, and much simpler, a game I played as a kid was 'Aviation'. I recall it as a cross between Draughts and Battleships. It could be updated to space combat:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10782/aviation-the-aerial-tactics-game-of-attack-and-def

There's a rules download if you scroll down the page.

Fiat: I don't think the OP was planning to sell this, just knocking together a special game for his kids to play.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Great idea!

 

[Mithras]

I had an asteroid field, represented by screwed up bits of paper. As they investigated, they unravelled the paper, to read 'iron ore 60 tons' or 'crashed ships boat' or 'rare radioactives 3 tons', or more often 'wothless rock' etc. Treasure hunt!

 

[far-trader]

I had an asteroid field, represented by screwed up bits of paper. As they investigated, they unravelled the paper, to read 'iron ore 60 tons' or 'crashed ships boat' or 'rare radioactives 3 tons', or more often 'wothless rock' etc. Treasure hunt!

Pure genius!

 

[jawillroy]

Merchant of Venus might be a good place to start.

 

[Mithras]

Pure genius!

I can't take credit, someone on these boards gave me the idea 2-3 years ago. I'm just passing it on!

 

[ravells]

I had an asteroid field, represented by screwed up bits of paper. As they investigated, they unravelled the paper, to read 'iron ore 60 tons' or 'crashed ships boat' or 'rare radioactives 3 tons', or more often 'wothless rock' etc. Treasure hunt!

That is so clever!!!