DESIGNING A BATTLE
Creating a fun experience with on a battle map with a series of rules and multiple cards that can bend the rules makes for a very frustrating experience as a designer. Everything has to be put together just right as to not break the game or make a few key assets mandatory to bring to battle. I am not entirely sure on the layout of the map just yet but thats mainly because ample playtesting has not been done to really give me an idea of what to do. Only time will tell so for now I will show what I got and hopefully it catches your attention!
MUTANT MUTILATIONS BATTLE MAP
The map as it stands now is a series of adjacent circles with a large circle that surrounds them. Each set of 4 spaces is whats called a zone with players and minions occupying the smaller spaces and bosses the larger ones. Each zone is associated with a number which can be found on the left and top sides of the map. This is used for various random events that would happen. For instnce if an enemy would move to a random space, the players would roll 2d6 and see where the coordinates would diverge and then place the character piece there. I’m not totally sold on this circle system but what I do like is that I have not see this style in another boss battler before so it makes me want to use it to stand out from the various games that have come before it. You can see on the map the enemies are facing different directions. This game is all about positioning so it’s very important to keep note of their direction as some abilities and cards can really change the flow of battle, more on this below.
Each character has a turn card that is added if they are present on the map, this makes up the turn order. At the beginning of every round these cards are shuffled and revealed in order. This card reveal not only tells the players when to take their turn but also helps with targeting. If an enemy were to target the closest player and there is a tie between to of them, you simply look to the right of that enemies turn card and this becomes your target tie breaker. This also leaves room for some other shenanigans like an artifact that allows a player to swap their turn card with one on the left or right of it, giving them the desired window of action.
GENE CARDS
Genes give minions and bosses a little boost in battle. Depending on the level you are fighting you will draw genes and apply them at the star of battle. Armor All beef up every minion so bringing a weapon or magical spell with pierce would be greatly beneficial. Other Genes like Tuck and Roll are used only when fighting Blesheen and are always included. Tuck and Roll adds a type of cards called Weakness once Blesheen gets low on HP, creating a second wind for the enemy of sorts. So far there are 20 different Genes that are randomly selected when starting a battle so it is yet another way to make for a randomly generated and unique battle from the last. Artifacts will also effect genes like what some Aura artifacts can do. When randomly drawing genes an artifact may allow you to discard one, or replace with a new one to better suit your gear build. It will be a fun way to go about a battle and keep you on your toes, or make you sweat bullets as the cards are stacked against you. Stuff like this make a battle all the more exciting when you can win when things seem grim and impossible!
WEAKNESS CARDS
Weakness cards are one of the major draws to having good positioning in Mutant Mutilation. These cards only affect the boss and are a thematic way of showing a spot on their body that has been left open for attack as they are preparing an attack or recovering from one. Each boss has 4 sides and so does the card to represent this, along with some colors. Red, Blue, and Yellow represent the players characters and when they attack the boss in a matching color they can roll +1 attack dice. attacking from a Black weak spot will make you roll -1 attack dice and white is neutral. The shiled symbol will also give the boss some temorary armor that will last for that round only.
There are 3 seperate types of weakness cards, Standard, Defense and Aggression. There is a standard amount of each that are shuffled into a deck and one is drawn at the beginning of every round. Some Genes or events may have you add or remove some of these also. Some equipped Artifacts can help you stay in control of what is put in, removed or drawn that round, but that is something we can get into when I post about character builds!
Everything i’ve shown off today is still in pretty early development so anything is still subject to change, be expanded on or just deleted all together.