PnP Game: Brainstorming

Our Game Design class has an upcoming assignment in which we have to create our own Print and Play game! We're still in the brainstorming stages-- I've included some of my thoughts here.

Instead of trying to invent individual, complete game ideas, I decided to come up with a list of cool game components that could later be mix-and-matched to create the final version of the game. Here's some of what I came up with.

THEMES

• Reptiles / Amphibians
• Tiny magical civilization (fantasy style quest)
• Different types of playable characters with stats/abilities relevant to real-life facts about the species
• Salamander: regenerative abilities, amphibious movement, spiny rib attack
• Toad: camouflage ability, poison attack
• Lizard: increased speed, "drop tail" decoy/distraction ability, shed skin
• Turtle/Tortoise: decreased speed BUT "hide" protection ability
• Snake: "hiss" intimidate ability, quick reflexes, venomous bite attack, play dead (?)

An example of a possible playable species.

• Demons / Hell
• Consume soul power to upgrade your stats/abilities
• Try to become the most powerful demon / ruler of Hell
• Mix and match "parts" to create your monster
• Interesting enemies/traps and visual design for monsters & environment
• Different factions according to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Death, Famine, Pestilence) open different skill trees
• Zombie Survival Game
• Fortress defense style gameplay
• One player plays as Humans, one as Zombies
• Humans try to develop an antidote & cure all Zombies, Zombies try to infect all Humans
• Any unit lost is gained by the opposing faction (Human infected/Zombie cured)
• Paranormal Investigators
• Mystery-style game
• Collect clues to try to figure out what's going on & possibly stop it
• Different equipment grants you abilities
• Cryptid Catchers
• Try to spot/catch different cryptids around the country
• Sell evidence you gather (photos, sighting reports, etc) to buy better equipment

Figuring out the possible "spawn regions" of different cryptids from eyewitness accounts.

• Territory/War Game with Mythical Creatures
• Each faction is a different mythical creature, so your armies and environment have different strengths and weaknesses

MECHANICS

• Cooperative Gameplay (players work together to reach a goal instead of against each other)
• Could still have some amount of competition with end-of-game stats (e.g. players compete to be the MVP of the team)
• Different "player classes" or abilities for each player that complement each other
• Goals that require teamwork but can be achieved with multiple team compositions
• "Scrolling" / Endless World Map
• Use terrain units to build the play area and relocate units to create the path ahead as players move through the world, essentially allowing players to explore forever
•  Some element of chance in order to introduce randomized terrain (this would increase the replayability, as each session would produce a different world map to play in)
• Players could "wrap around" the board to prevent the terrain tiles going off the table (for example if they walk past the upper edge of the map, they appear on the bottom edge?)
• Communication of Sensitive Information
• One player has information the other needs in order to complete a task that benefits both of them, they must relay this to each other under certain parameters
• Time-sensitive Play
• Tasks must be completed in a certain amount of time (or turns)
• Good way to keep playtime low and introduce suspense